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Classic II: "This startup disk will not work..."

UNA_Lion

UNA_Lion

6502
Hello everyone!

Conducted a search, but was unable to find anything on this. My machine information follows:

Machine: Macintosh Classic II

10 MB RAM

80 MB HD

OS 7.53, Revision 2

Well, a few time that I restarted my machine, it froze. I reset it a few times, and then it seemed to run a bit more smoothly. Still, that wasn't right, so I found and installed Disk First Aid. It found all kinds of problems, "Missing file record for file thread, XXXX,XX" about a dozen times, with the message, "The volume "XXXX" needs to be repaired."

So, I happen to have a Disk Tools floppy. So I popped it in to boot and fix my HD, only it came up with the following message:

"This startup disk will not work on this Macintosh model. Use the latest Installer to update this disk for this model." :disapprove:

The good news is that my Classic II is web-capable through an Asante Desktop EN/SC, internet courtesy of Netscape 2.02. :approve:

So now I'm stuck and could use some advice. How do I make a startup disk for my machine that it will recognize?

 
If I remember correctly, the Mac OS 8.1 Disk Tools 1 disk will boot up an '030 machine no problem. Contains a stripped down System 7.5 install. Another option would be to hunt down a 7.1 Disk Tools disk... I take it, your Disk Tools disk is for System 7.0? For some reason, Apple decided that the 7.0 Disk Tools disk should be System 6.0.7.

-J

 
Thanks for the replies. Will look into the recommendations. Starting to wonder whether or not the drive is going bad, since a few disks now are reading bad after having initialized them on my Classic II.

 
I heard of a virus that says that a volume needs to be repaired. Run Disinfectant-it eradicates the virus.

In any case, don't let the virus do the repair! (It's behaves more like a disk formatter utility :lol: !)

 
Ran Disinfectant 3.7.1, and it found no viruses, but one alert ("There is not enough memory to check this file").

Am finding that I'm ruining perfectly good disks after inserting them - tried to run Disk Copy on three floppies, all of which detected problems during the process. Then inserted them only to find the computer no longer recognized them and wanted to initialize each of them. Prior to trying to use Disk Copy, the disks were readable, so wonder if the drive is going bad.

 
I've never heard that the virus stops floppy drives from working, so I dont' think it's a virus. But just to make sure, did you make sure that you got the latest version of Disinfectant (FYI, I got the one from Macintosh Garden)?

 
Okay, picked up another floppy drive, and I'm still seeing similar activity. I'm running out of floppy disks with which to experiment. The things just aren't as plentiful as they once were. Checked a bunch of older PC disks, and the Mac reads them fine - though I'm afraid to try writing anything on them.

I do have a new USB FDD coming in, so will be checking the now "bad" disks on it once it arrives.

 
Well, a few time that I restarted my machine, it froze. I reset it a few times, and then it seemed to run a bit more smoothly. Still, that wasn't right, so I found and installed Disk First Aid. It found all kinds of problems
Click to expand...
Have you recapped the Analog and logic board of your Classic II ?

I have seen this kind of trouble due to failing capacitors: the voltage swings or is too low and causes the logic board and floppy drive to malfunction and so causing all sorts of weird errors.

The capacitors on the Classic I/II analog boards are of very poor quality. Have you checked the +5 and +12 voltage lines ?

As for the floppy discs: the high density one's are still very easy to find and cheap compared to the DD.

 
Tried the double-density trick. The FDD saw the disk as a DD, but again, no luck initializing.

Here is the error I am always getting:

"Disk initialization failed because the disk is defective!"

My confusion is this: Why does the FDD have no challenge in reading any disk I put in there (other than the ones it failed to initialize - which is all of them - eight and counting), but it cannot initialize them? All of the disks I attempted to initialize were perfectly readable before the failed attempts. It can't be the FDDs themselves, since both demonstrate the exact same symptoms.

I still have a USB FDD in-bound, so all is not lost. I assume I can initialize a disk with that on my Mac Pro that my Classic II will be able to read. Even so, that doesn't answer the mail on my initialization demon.

Okay, did a forum search on recapping, and I discovered what that meant. Sadly, my last attempt to solder something much simpler was an unqualified disaster, ruining that with which I touched the iron. Really don't want to screw up my Classic II on the possibility that capacitors might need to be replaced. I'll study the boards to see if I can spot any leakage though. Can't irreversibly screw up anything that way, right?

Okay, looked very close at (what I think are) the capacitors on the motherboard, and to my very untrained eye there seems to be some slight corrosion around the bottom of them . I counted what looks to be seventeen of the things scattered around - that's a lot of screw-up potential for me. I might try washing the board with alcohol to see if that helps with the FDD issue. If it doesn't, I can see me quickly ruining that which now works on the board if I try to try my pathetic skills at soldering. Guess if I hose it up, I can always pick up another broken Classic II for spare parts.

 
Thanks. Someone did indeed offer to recap the board for me. Apparently, mine isn't the usual Classic II board, but rather a later version with more caps than the first version.

 
Waiting on the caps to arrive, probably late next week. Then I'll send them off with the mainboard to the cat who will replace them. Figure I'll have it ready for battle after Christmas.

Of course, there's no guarantee that replacing the caps will fix my FDD issue. :-/

Do have a PowerMac 3400C coming in from ebay, which will allow me to write floppy disks my Classic II can read, which ironically I cannot do on much newer Macs even with a USB FDD.

 
Okay!

Have a recapped main board, and am still getting the same message with either disk drive (got another to swap out in case the drive was going bad). In fact, once the computer starts up on HD, the disks aren't even readable (wants to initialize them), and think it's ruining perfectly-good disks.

I know they're good disks, because my PowerBook's FDD reads them.

Any other suggestions? :-/

 
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