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Anybody Got A Portable?

So can the Portable (5120 or 5125) use SCSI Disk mode or not? According to this Wiki entry it can "through a 3rd party kit." Sadly, they offer no details about such a kit. But this article mentions the so-called "kit" a "utility from Traveling Software" (Laplink?). But again, that's all the detail that is given.

 
SCSI Disk Mode was conceived by the Outbound developers. The implementation differed from Apple's, but it was the same idea. At about the time the Portable was launched, Outbound had settled with Apple for a legal supply of ROMs (yes, that made them a clone manufacturer) in an intellectual property swap.

A small French company offered a SCSI disk modification around 1990 for non-disk mode Macs. The information is around here somewhere...

 
Thanks, Mac128. The relevant section on the ADC note you link to above states:

LapLink Macintosh III from Traveling Software. It works only on the Macintosh Portable since the SCSI ID of the Macintosh Portable can be changed from 7 to 6, avoiding the ID conflicts. Traveling Software also provides a special SCSI-SCSI cable, which is required for this connection. (This setup cannot connect two desktop Macintosh systems unless the drive ID can be changed. This is not possible with Apple's internal drives but you may be able to do it with other internals. In any case, this is unsupported, so if you attempt this you do so at your own risk. You probably will void your warranty.)
LapLink Macintosh III

Traveling Software, Inc.

18702 North Creek Parkwaybr

Bothell, WA 98011

206-483-8088
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I'm a bit off topic, but it's possible to "do" SCSI disk mode on just about any 68k Mac.

Take the hard drive out and change the SCSI ID to something other than ID 0 (some drives can do this in software).

Connect the two Macs with a 25 pin to 25 pin SCSI cable. Turn on the "disk mode" Mac and press the "programmers" interrupt button while the RAM test is running (you'll see the gray checkerboard pattern on screen). The Mac will crash with a "sad Mac" error on screen (if it's a Mac LC, this will be accompanied by a loud sound of screeching tyres and a car crash! Nice easter egg there). At this point, the "external disk" Mac has not yet initialised its SCSI controller, so it is not using SCSI ID 7 and you've changed the SCSI ID of its internal HD, so there are no SCSI ID conflicts.

Boot the second Mac... and voila, it has an external hard drive. I used this technique on many, many 68k Macs over a period of years to move data when customers upgraded to a new Mac. It's *much* faster than using the LocalTalk network, or backing up data to an external drive, then restoring to the new computer.

 
That's a very cool trick/hack, but if you have to remove the internal hard disk to change the SCSI ID, wouldn't it have been easier to temporarily transplant into an external case?

 
By the time you take the drive out of the Mac (unscrew from carrier etc), dismantle external case... put drive in case, assemble case... do the file copy... reverse all of the above... no. Usually quicker to do in the Mac. Particularly with LCs (volume selling machines in the day), you could usually just unclip the hard drive, swing it up with cables still connected and access the SCSI ID jumpers without unbolting the drive from its carrier.

 
That's a very cool trick/hack, but if you have to remove the internal hard disk to change the SCSI ID, wouldn't it have been easier to temporarily transplant into an external case?
Click to expand...
Host: the controller Mac, the one running Mac OS, the one that needs its SCSI ID changing.

Guest: Mac with the content that needs to be recovered, interrupted boot cycle, not running Mac OS, no need to change SCSI ID.

 
Ok... sorry for bumping this post, but I haven't gotten any success w/ finding a PB100 ROM in my thread in the Software section, so...

Anyone got a Portable or PB100 ROM that they could send me?

 
You might want to message the original poster...
Click to expand...
I did. Apperently the disk it was on died or something.
Click to expand...
If you read the thread, you'll note I did not have them in the first place and was also looking for the ROMs and it took me over two months to get them – the PowerBook 100 through a purchase off eBay and the Portable eventually donated. I have since acquired an original Portable to extract the ROM from myself, but am still waiting for a Portable with the backlight upgraded ROM for comparison. None of this is vital stuff and I shall wait as long as it takes. As they say, good things come to those ... The thread also discusses the analysis of those ROMs, which seems to be the reason you are seeking them. Nevertheless, I have to recover them from a crashed disk which I posted about on this forum, or retrieve them again from my stored Macs. Considering that the only purpose for these ROMs at present is research, and that goal accomplished and presented here for everyone, it may be a while before I go to the trouble.

 
Does the disk crash mean you need to get another copy of the ROMs for a later model backlit Portable (the factory fitted backlight, not the upgrade for the orginal Portable)?

 
Does the disk crash mean you need to get another copy of the ROMs for a later model backlit Portable (the factory fitted backlight, not the upgrade for the orginal Portable)?
Click to expand...
Yup. Unless I can recover it. Though I've no need for it now, other than posterity since it served its research purpose and there is absolutely nothing else that can be done with it at present.

 
I have only seen a Portable once.

It was at the Spring Branch ISD auctions. I went there to preview the lots, one of which was a bunch of laptops.

On first glance they all looked like PC laptops, but I noticed two G3s on top, a 180 in there, and then what looked like a 1400.

Then I opened the black bag, and there it was.

https://www.lemonsauctioneers.com/item.cgi?show_item=0000016023

You can see the bag underneath two crap laptops.

Unfortunately, I could not justify paying $800 for a bunch of laptops that were probably broken, even if I did get a Portable out of the deal.

 
I have only seen a Portable once....Unfortunately, I could not justify paying $800 for a bunch of laptops that were probably broken, even if I did get a Portable out of the deal.
Click to expand...
They turn up on eBay all the time. I sit and wait patiently for things I see routinely on eBay until I can get them for a price. I paid all of $11 for my Portable (and I think about $16 shipping). Mom always said patience was a virtue. :beige:

 
I've also seen one exactly once. Back in 1998 my parents and I were down in Brisbane for a few days. One day Dad and I went into the city to check out some computer shops. We went to an AASP called "Macs Place", where they had a sort of a mini Apple museum in a corner. Anyway, it was a quiet day, and the sales guy there was telling me all about the machines they had there (a 512k, a IIsi, and a Portable), and let me have a play with them. The Portable I used was a backlit Portable running System 7.0.1, and from memory was quite a nice machine, if a bit big. That day was also the day when I first used a G3, a Beige G3/233 which was also the very first time I got to use a Mac on the Internet. Ahh, memories. :)

 
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