Mac SE 1/20 is the same as Mac Classic?

[juanjavier]

First: Is the floppy drive in a SE 1/20 capable of read/write 1,44 MB disks?

Second: What software do I need in order it can read/write ms-dos disks?

Third: What does the «Verifying format.......wrong format» when trying to initialize 1,44 MB disks? Is the SE 1/20 floppy drive **REALLY** capable of 1,44 MB disks? (Note: the disks I tried to format in the mac were ok, previously tested in a Windows XP machine with no hassle).

Thanks a lot for a quick response. Regards.

 

[porter]

1. If it has a 1.44mb drive and appropriate swim, eg the FDHD did.

2. "PC Exchange", later versions of System 7.5 had this built in.

3. When you try and format a disk what capacity does it say? 400kb, 800kb or 1.44mb, or does it just say single-sided/double-sided?

The Classic has more surface mount components, 32 bit clean ROM, smaller motherboard, insane memory expansion.

The SE has a slot that can be most usefully filled with an ethernet card.

I recommend putting 4Mb in the beast.

 

[MultiFinder]

First: Is the floppy drive in a SE 1/20 capable of read/write 1,44 MB disks?
Second: What software do I need in order it can read/write ms-dos disks?

Third: What does the «Verifying format.......wrong format» when trying to initialize 1,44 MB disks? Is the SE 1/20 floppy drive **REALLY** capable of 1,44 MB disks? (Note: the disks I tried to format in the mac were ok, previously tested in a Windows XP machine with no hassle).

Thanks a lot for a quick response. Regards.

First: Does the front of the machine say "Macintosh SE" or "Macintosh SE FDHD"? If it's just SE, then no. If it's SE FDHD, then yes.

FIGURE 1: Macintosh SE

FIGURE 2: Macintosh SE FDHD

Second: As was stated above, it's called PC Exchange. Only the 1.44 floppy drives can read/write PC disks.

Third: Hmmmm, never seen that. Hopefully someone else knows a bit more.

As for the thread title; they're not the same as the Classic. While the SE does run the same 8MHz 68000, it has a larger logic board, more sane memory expansion, and an internal expansion slot. Plus, it looks nicer IMHO

Enjoy your SE! They're great little machines.

 

[Scott Baret]

An SE with a 1.4MB drive can also read "Macintosh SE SuperDrive" (it seems the latest models said this).

 

[tomlee59]

I've come across several SE FDHD Macs that only had 800K drives, thanks to some scavenging. So, the general rule might be: If it doesn't say Superdrive or FDHD, it's almost certainly an 800K Mac. If it does say Superdrive or FDHD, it may have a Superdrive.

 

[Scott Baret]

And along the same line, even if it just says "Macintosh SE" it may have a SuperDrive due to an upgrade.

A surefire way to test is to insert a high-density Mac disk that is known to be good (such as a program disk). If it reads, you have a high density drive.

Also, keep in mind there is a very small chance that you actually have an SE/30 if your Mac just says "Macintosh SE". My cousin has one like this (I stuck an SE/30 logic board in an SE case when I built it for her, mostly because I wanted her to have a Mac with a nice un-yellowed case). These are very rare to find but do exist in small numbers.

 

[Dog Cow]

Also, keep in mind there is a very small chance that you actually have an SE/30 if your Mac just says "Macintosh SE". My cousin has one like this (I stuck an SE/30 logic board in an SE case when I built it for her, mostly because I wanted her to have a Mac with a nice un-yellowed case). These are very rare to find but do exist in small numbers.

I had one when I was a child. It was an SE which was upgraded to the SE/30 using an Apple Upgrade kit. At some point, I took a pen and wrote /30 after the SE name on the front! I doubt I'd do that today.

 

[Mac128]

I had one when I was a child. It was an SE which was upgraded to the SE/30 using an Apple Upgrade kit. At some point, I took a pen and wrote /30 after the SE name on the front! I doubt I'd do that today.

That's odd. The Apple Upgrade kit came with a new case front to accommodate the new chassis required for clearance.

Also until JuanJavier weighs in again with some answers, he may be talking about an actual SE 1/20 which came with 1 MB RAM and a 20 MB HD. I do believe that all of those models were IWM 800K only. Once they switched to 1.44MB I think they were marked only SEFD and Superdrive and the 1/20 was the standard configuration. That does not preclude a SWIM upgrade or a logicboard swap, the later models of the original SE had the revised chassis, so no need for the front case upgrade.

 

[Dog Cow]

I had one when I was a child. It was an SE which was upgraded to the SE/30 using an Apple Upgrade kit. At some point, I took a pen and wrote /30 after the SE name on the front! I doubt I'd do that today.

That's odd. The Apple Upgrade kit came with a new case front to accommodate the new chassis required for clearance.

I don't know all the details. This was over a decade ago, and that Mac is long gone now. I think the back was an SE/30, because it had the slot you could open, but the front was clearly an SE front. I've completely taken apart my Classic before, and it's definitely a job to get everything to the point where you can take the front off. I think whomever did the upgrade didn't want to bother, and just did the easier job of putting the SE/30's back on.

 

[Scott Baret]

The back is the important part of an SE/30 upgrade because of the new back. The same also goes true for Classic --> Classic II upgrades and any upgrade involving a II/IIx, IIcx/IIci, or LC/LCII/LCIII.

The only difference in the front of an SE/30 is that an SE/30 front does not accommodate a second floppy drive. Finding a slot cover for an SE whose second floppy was removed during upgrade (necessary since the SE/30 only supports one on its logic board) is much easier since the CRT doesn't have to be removed.

 

[porter]

any upgrade involving a II/IIx

I have a II with a IIx motherboard, I wasn't aware of any case changes made. Both have 6 nubus slots and a floppy port.

 

[Dog Cow]

I finally have the story of my SE - SE/30. This is from my grandfather, to whom I sent an email a few hours ago:

The original SE/30 was dropped and the monitor was broken. A SE had

a bad mother board so the simplest was to just replace the mother

board with a SE/30. Anything else, I might have added a DSDD drive

and memory. I don't really recall the exact conditions. For sure,

there wasn't any "upgrade" to the process.