Is there a way to tell from looking at one if it has an FDHD or not? Thanks!
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How to tell if a Macintosh SE has an FDHD?
- Thread starter Guybrush3pwood
- Start date
The obvious answer is that the SE would have "FDHD" or Superdrive" on the bezel under the Disk Drive slot where is it says Macintosh SE.
But some SEs were upgraded to FDHD and have no label in the front. If it was done by Apple, it would have a sticker on the back noting the upgraded model label.
But some SEs were upgraded to FDHD and do not have such a sticker on the their back because it was done by a third party other than Apple, or it was repaired with a logic board and floppy drive swap for what ever reason. WITHOUT opening the machine, one quick way is to get a flashlight an shine it inside the disk drive slot. Very close to the inside of the bezel on the drive you will have 2 or 3 tiny bumps or "sticks", they are small but they are there. They can be white, yellow, orange or some other bright color. These are the Micro-Switches that sense the disk inside the drive.
If you only see 2 on left side, then it is a 800K drive and chances are it is a regular Mac SE.
If you only see 3, 2 on the left side and 1 on the right, then it is a 1.4M drive and the Mac SE is a FDHD SE.
Do note, that the logic board could have been replaced or the ROM and IWM upgraded and still have an 800K drive. You would not know this without opening the case and pulling out the logic board and compare ROM and S/IWM ID numbers. I'm not getting into that detail because I don't have that information on me right now and if you find a Mac SE at a Flea Market or Garage Sale, they are not going to let you open it up then and there to satisfy you curiosity as to what it is.
Long ago, I had a Mac SE but it ran faster than the other SEs in my community computer lab though it had 2 megs of RAM in it. During a RAM upgrade I did to several machines, it turned out to be a Mac SE\30 inside a Mac SE Case and still had the 800K disk inside it. I wish I still had that machine.
But some SEs were upgraded to FDHD and have no label in the front. If it was done by Apple, it would have a sticker on the back noting the upgraded model label.
But some SEs were upgraded to FDHD and do not have such a sticker on the their back because it was done by a third party other than Apple, or it was repaired with a logic board and floppy drive swap for what ever reason. WITHOUT opening the machine, one quick way is to get a flashlight an shine it inside the disk drive slot. Very close to the inside of the bezel on the drive you will have 2 or 3 tiny bumps or "sticks", they are small but they are there. They can be white, yellow, orange or some other bright color. These are the Micro-Switches that sense the disk inside the drive.
If you only see 2 on left side, then it is a 800K drive and chances are it is a regular Mac SE.
If you only see 3, 2 on the left side and 1 on the right, then it is a 1.4M drive and the Mac SE is a FDHD SE.
Do note, that the logic board could have been replaced or the ROM and IWM upgraded and still have an 800K drive. You would not know this without opening the case and pulling out the logic board and compare ROM and S/IWM ID numbers. I'm not getting into that detail because I don't have that information on me right now and if you find a Mac SE at a Flea Market or Garage Sale, they are not going to let you open it up then and there to satisfy you curiosity as to what it is.
Long ago, I had a Mac SE but it ran faster than the other SEs in my community computer lab though it had 2 megs of RAM in it. During a RAM upgrade I did to several machines, it turned out to be a Mac SE\30 inside a Mac SE Case and still had the 800K disk inside it. I wish I still had that machine.
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