Mac128
Well-known member
So I just picked up this MacBottom serial hard drive for the 128K/512K. It's a pretty cool thing, but nearly useless without a driver. Anybody got any idea where I might find one? Otherwise, could I use some other generic drive formatting software from the era that looks for drives on the serial port, where Apple told developers to implement hard drive interfaces?
This MacBottom oddly has a MiniScribe drive (model 8425) from 1987 in it. Not sure if it is a replacement or MacBottom was still making serial drives for the 512K as prices made them more affordable. Either way it's a loud mother! I have no idea the capacity, but it's a half-height, 3.5". It appears to have a 54-pin connector on it, but assuming there's any data on it still (probably the blessed driver I need!), I'm not gonna be able to read it even if it's SCSI compatible anyway.
Interestingly it has a gold-plated 68008 processor onboard. It also uses the exact same square-shaped & coloured connector as the original Mac mouse and appears to have a serial pass-through port, along with a couple of internal dip-switches. The most amazing thing is it has NO power switch. It is designed to come on automatically when the Mac turns on. And it does all of this perfectly well. However, a standard boot disk will not mount it via normal startup (which is to be expected). Unlike the HD-2o it's only about 2-inches tall and only has vents on the bottom and top. I really should post some pictures when I have a chance to take a few.
So, anybody got any ideas how I can access this ancient beast?
UPDATE: Found this: http://www.redhill.net.au/d/d-a.html indicating a 20MB MFM drive and the specs: http://www.alyon.org/InfosTechniques/informatique/drives/miniscribe/mfm/8425.txt
This MacBottom oddly has a MiniScribe drive (model 8425) from 1987 in it. Not sure if it is a replacement or MacBottom was still making serial drives for the 512K as prices made them more affordable. Either way it's a loud mother! I have no idea the capacity, but it's a half-height, 3.5". It appears to have a 54-pin connector on it, but assuming there's any data on it still (probably the blessed driver I need!), I'm not gonna be able to read it even if it's SCSI compatible anyway.
Interestingly it has a gold-plated 68008 processor onboard. It also uses the exact same square-shaped & coloured connector as the original Mac mouse and appears to have a serial pass-through port, along with a couple of internal dip-switches. The most amazing thing is it has NO power switch. It is designed to come on automatically when the Mac turns on. And it does all of this perfectly well. However, a standard boot disk will not mount it via normal startup (which is to be expected). Unlike the HD-2o it's only about 2-inches tall and only has vents on the bottom and top. I really should post some pictures when I have a chance to take a few.
So, anybody got any ideas how I can access this ancient beast?
UPDATE: Found this: http://www.redhill.net.au/d/d-a.html indicating a 20MB MFM drive and the specs: http://www.alyon.org/InfosTechniques/informatique/drives/miniscribe/mfm/8425.txt