Macintosh SE with Two Disk Drives and a HD?

[Tempest]

From what I've read it is possible to put two disk drives and a hard drive into the SE, but it requires a special mounting bracket. Has anyone ever seen one of these before? Is it something that can be hacked together from the normal bracket? Is it safe to cram that much stuff inside the SE?

Tempest

 

[Mars478]

I say a good solution would involve some duct tape.

 

[tyrannis]

I have an SE SuperDrive with two floppies and a HD mounted - bought it here a couple years ago actually. The floppy drives need to be cleaned so I've been meaning to open it up. I'll take a picture of the HD mount when I get into it and post it here. Maybe this weekend, maybe not..

You might be able to fabricate something that would work, but duct tape probably isn't a permanent solution given the heat inside an SE.

 

[Tempest]

Heat is what I'm concerned about since there isn't much room in that case for air to flow normally much less with a third component crammed inside. Sure I can do it with a little ingenuity, but is it safe?

BTW what's the best way to clean a floppy drive? I pulled a Superdrive from a dead SE, but I'm not sure if it works (it looks REALLY dusty).

Tempest

 

[shred]

It used to be quite common to use a special bracket to piggyback the hard drive on top of the second floppy. The bracket moved the hard drive further back inside the computer case than it would sit if it was mounted in place of the top floppy drive.

I'm not aware of any problems - it was a popular setup. I had an SE FDHD configured this way for a number of years. The only downside I ever came across was that the proximity of the hard drive to the neck of the CRT sometimes resulted in very slight movement of the image in one corner of the screen when the hard drive was performing seek operations.

 

[Dog Cow]

BTW what's the best way to clean a floppy drive?

The best way is any way which DOES NOT involve lifting up the top arm head, because that's how one can PERMANENTLY destroy the drive.
For everything else, take it outside and blow air into it (either by lung-power or by can).

 

[Bunsen]

I've seen floppy drive cleaning kits kicking around the dollar stores, still. They seem to consist of a normal 3.5" floppy casing with a "disk" made out of fabric, and a small tube of liquid. You apply the liquid to the "disk" and insert it into the drive. This probably cleans the heads, much like the audio cassette cleaning tapes. I have no experience with using them, so I can't advise whether this is a good idea or not. In any case, it would be a step after removing dust bunnies.