• Updated 2023-07-12: Hello, Guest! Welcome back, and be sure to check out this follow-up post about our outage a week or so ago.

SCSI2SD and Floppy Emu

yamaha94

Member
Hi Everyone!

Long time reader first time poster:

For me I have had my Macintosh SE for almost 25 years and the hard drive was getting to a point where it was not spinning up most of the time (usually took 2-3 reboots to get it going) so i did some research about the SCSI2SD converter. From what I read it is a great unit but there was very little information about how to actually set it up for the Macintosh SE. I have a short and quick guide that allowed me to get it to work correctly. There are probably many ways to do it but this worked for me perfectly! links and images below. 

What I purchased:

1 - SCSI2SD converter w/ 2 Gig Micro SD Card http://www.codesrc.com/mediawiki/index.php?title=SCSI2SD

1 - Floppy Emu Device from BMOW  - Model A http://www.bigmessowires.com/

1 - Floppy Hard Drive SCSI Tools Floppy from BMOW https://www.bigmessowires.com/shop/product/macintosh-system-floppy-disks/

I had a 3D printer available to me so I made this bracket: https://68kmla.org/forums/index.php?/topic/24466-scsi2sd-mounting-bracket-for-se30/

4 - small cable ties

The task:

Step 1: I removed the original hard drive, cleaned the hard disk tray and fastened the SCSI2SD to the 3D printer brackets with two cable ties and then fastened the entire device to the opposite end of the hard drive tray. What is difficult is balancing the distance of the ribbon cable and the HDD indicator light. It turned out quite well as you see in the image attachment. After hooking up the 4 pin power and SCSI ribbon cable we were good to go. 

Step 2: With the case open I hooked up the micro usb cable (I could of did this before hand but i was too lazy to remove it) I setup the drive by using the SCSI utility. These are the specs I used for a 2gig "seagate" drive: (it is not formatted just yet) https://68kmla.org/forums/index.php?/topic/24810-questions-about-scsi2sd-setup-in-mac-lc-iii/?p=260540 

Step 3: With my floppy emu attached to the exterior SCSI port; I previously installed both the System 7.0 boot disk and System 7.0 install disks. Boot with the System 7.0 boot disk. 

Step 4: Insert the SCSI Tools floppy disk from BMOW and load Lido. The SCSI2SD will load under "0 address". This program is straight forward and I formatted, partitioned and enabled the disk. It will show up in the desktop menu. 

Step 5: Remove the SCSI Tool disk, and reset the floppy Emu and load the system 7 install disks. When completed turn off the macintosh and disconnect the floppy emu and reboot! thats it!

My mac runs smooth now and eventhough System 7 is a bit more bloated than system 6.0.8 it runs way better than it could with the old mechanical drive. With the floppy emu I could now transfer the long lost driver for my cabletron eithernet adaptor and can connect to the internet with the macweb browser. 

Regards

Yamaha94

IMG_0482.JPG

 
Last edited by a moderator:

BadGoldEagle

Well-known member
Great Job and welcome to the community!

You should also backup your old hard drive, just in case. The Floppy EMU can be used in HD20 mode allowing you to use an emulated hard drive up to 2GB! It will be slower than the scsi2sd but for a backup that'll do.

Just download a blank 20, 40, 80,  or 160mb "blank" image from here and put it on your Floppy EMU. Then boot with the old hard drive and attach the floppy EMU to your SE. Drag and drop and you're done (you can also use bespoke backup software but that should do the trick).

After 25 long years, your hard drive must have some precious stuff on it. And because it will inevitably go bad (rather soon in your case), you should do it now before it's too late.  ;)

 

olePigeon

Well-known member
Very cool.  Speaking of which, I need to update the SCSI2SD bracket.  It's designed for the full-size card.  It'll work with the newer, small version, but I think I can make a better one.

 

yamaha94

Member
Thanks BadGoldEagle! I think the floppy Emu can only do 20MB disks at a time if I put it into "Disk Mode". When it is in Disk mode it searches for the name "HD20" as the disk. I'm curious if I take a 80mb or 160mb disk image and call it HD20 if it will work. I will try that soon enough. Yeah there are some important files on that drive I will put those off eventually lol! I have a high scores in some games that have to be preserved.

olePigeon - Your 3D design worked great - It took a couple of tries on my 3D printer to get it perfectly but the end result its solid. There are small differences from with the older full sized card and the newer model, but the holes do line up fine. I think the sides could be a bit longer so the vertical holes will line up with the holes for the original drive. I made it work and its holding right now. No screws all cable ties. If you are designing a new model maybe what could be done is add feet to the bracket. then regardless of the hard drive carriage or location you want to mount it you can just screw through openings of the vents that run along the bottom.

 

Paralel

Well-known member
Despite the name, its not limited to 20 MB in size, HD20 is just a name, that's all.

 

BadGoldEagle

Well-known member
From BMOW's website: 

[SIZE=10pt]Hard disk emulation mode is compatible with the Mac 512K (requires HD20 Init), Mac 512Ke, Plus, SE, Classic, Classic II, Portable, IIci, IIsi, LC-I. The Mac 128K is also compatible if it has a 512K RAM expansion. Other Macintosh models are not compatible with this mode. In hard disk mode, the Floppy Emu emulates an HD20-compatible external hard drive [/SIZE][SIZE=10pt]– [/SIZE][SIZE=10pt]an Apple-brand hard drive from 1985 that predated SCSI and connected to the external floppy disk port.[/SIZE]


[SIZE=10pt]To choose between 3.5 inch floppy and HD20 hard disk emulation modes, press the SELECT button while the Emu's version info is displayed on the LCD screen. See the previous sections on Firmware and Emulation Modes for details. [/SIZE]

[SIZE=10pt]Hard disk emulation supports Macintosh disk image files up to 2 GB. In hard disk mode, the Floppy Emu automatically loads a disk image file named [/SIZE][SIZE=10pt]HD20.dsk [/SIZE][SIZE=10pt]from the SD card. For a suitable HD20.dsk file, rename an existing hard disk image file from a software-based Mac emulator, or create an empty disk image by using a tool like [/SIZE][SIZE=10pt]dd [/SIZE][SIZE=10pt]to generate a large file full of zeroes. [/SIZE]
So just use one image from the blanks folder (link in last post), rename it "HD20.dsk" and put it on your Floppy EMU. Follow the instructions above (in bold letters)

 
Last edited by a moderator:

bigmessowires

Well-known member
With the latest Floppy Emu firmware, the file no longer needs to be named HD20.dsk. Instead, you can choose the file from a menu, similarly to how floppy emulation works. And yes, disk sizes up to 2 GB are supported. HD20 is just the name of the I/O protocol.

 
Top