Mac Plus Boot Options

[el_jeffe]

Equipment:

Mac Plus - dead floppy drive

Mac SE Superdrive - working floppy drive

800k boot floppies from BMOW that work on the SE

Apple CD 300 - no discs

Is there any configuration I can use to test the plus? I just want to see if it boots so I know if it's just the floppy drive or other things I need to put on my list to get. I thought I read on here you could connect the superdrive floppy to the plus but you'd only get the 800k function. For the apple CD I'm having a hard time finding if the plus can natively boot from CD/SCSI and if so would I be able to use a modern PC with burner to make a bootable CD for it? Unfortunately a floppy emu or drive for the plus is not in the budget at the moment, but if that's what it takes I'll just have to wait. Appreciate any advice.

 

[Dog Cow]

You can take the SuperDrive out of the SE and put it in the Plus, where it will function OK as a 800K drive. And then will go back to being a 1.4MB HD drive in the SE.

Plus can boot from a SCSI hard drive. Less likely that it will boot a CD. But there are so many caveats here, I'll leave it to someone else to explain more if desired.

 

[BadGoldEagle]

But does that Superdrive need the 800k cable in order to work as an 800k drive?

 

[Dog Cow]

Unknown, but let's assume in this scenario that el_jeffe's Mac Plus has the 800K cable.  Maybe he can try both and report his results.

 

[el_jeffe]

I do have the cable that came with the drive that's in the mac plus. Is there a way to verify it's an 800k cable? I would like to assume the plus came with the correct drive and cable but you never know these days.

 

[Dog Cow]

Just assume it is. ;-)  But to be double-sure, check the color of the last wire. Usually it is all gray, except the last wire is either yellow or red.

Best solution for you is to try and see. Can't harm anything.

 

[BadGoldEagle]

The cable with the yellow stripe is for 800k drives, the one with the red stripe's for 1440K FDDs.