Okay, to break things down:
I got the SimasiMac when I first powered the SE/30 on. By turning it off and back on, I got 'normal' screen with the floppy icon with blinking question mark.
The Simasimac symptom will NOT get any better as time marches on. As it gets worse, you will experience low volume or no sound at all, thicker zebra stripes or static stripes with no startup tone all the time, eventually to the point where anything you do to fix it refuses to cure the ailment. Your best bet would be to replace the capacitors (C1 through C13) on top of the logic board (aka motherboard). It's a fairly simple procedure, but if you're not comfortable or don't know how to use a soldering iron, you'll want to arrange for someone on this forum to do the recapping job. (I can do it, since I'm equipped for the job. Send me a PM (private message) if interested.)
I downloaded System 6.0.8 disk image and created 4 floppy disks. The system just kept rejecting the floppy disk. Thinking it was floppy drive issue; I replaced the floppy drive with working one (from a SE). I was able to boot the machine but I did not see anything on the screen to allow me to install the 'OS' on the hard disk. I turned it off and started it again. Now it just rejected the floppy (the same one I was able to boot before; I tried other 3 floppy disks as well and the result was the same)
I installed the floppy drive to back the SE but it seems something went wrong on the floppy drive. The system asked me whether I want to repair the disk. When I clicked OK, it just rejected the floppy.
Questions:
1) How do I diagnoise whether the floppy on SE/30 is working or not? Can I swap the floppy drive from SE/30 to SE to check?
2) I read in the forum about 'blessed the folder'; what does it mean? How do I do that?
3) Since the SE (not the SE/30) keeps rejecting the floppy, how can I reformat the disk on the SE?
I would like to make my SE/30 work and the floppy drive work on the SE again. Please help...
Thank you in advance.
Apparently, there is either something wrong/gone bad with the floppy drive or floppy disks.
As far as the drive goes, these have a tendency to get dirty, the read/write heads misaligned and the grease/lubrication applied to the metal mechanical parts dries out. You can try cleaning, re-lubricating and realigning the drive or you can replace it with a known working drive, as you have already tried doing.
One thing to note: Depending on the model of Mac SE, make sure you know the drive capacity before using it. The first versions of SEs were dual 800 K (kilobyte) floppy drives or 1 hard drive and 1 800 K floppy. In 1988, Apple released an updated version with a 1.44 MB (megabyte) floppy; the same standard capacity used on DOS and Windows machines. Now, some owners of the first version SEs took advantage of the hardware upgrade option: swap out the ROM and IWM (Instant Woz Machine) chips with new versions that support 1.44 MB floppy disks.
The SE/30 can handle both 800 K and 1.44 MB disks, so there's no damage by placing an 800 K drive in an SE/30 and it will handle 800 K disks fine, but not read or write 1.44 MB disks. The same thought goes with using the SE/30's floppy drive on an SE, unless it has been upgraded or is of the 1988 model.
As far as the disks go, they can go bad; enough said. The only thing you can do is replace with a known good or new floppy disk. That means you'll probably need to recreate the SSW 6.0.8 floppies again.
If you still get the floppy disk icon with a blinking question mark inside and the SE/30 ejects the disks after making a set, chances are the System Folder in the first disk needs to be "blessed". To do this, you'll need another Mac with a floppy drive already booted into System 6, 7, Mac OS 8 or 9. Insert the floppy and open up the disk's icon. Inside, you'll see the System Folder. Simply open and close the folder. You should then see the System Folder have a smiley Mac face pasted in front of it. Eject the floppy disk and try booting the SE/30.
Again, keep in mind that you need to match floppy disks with the correct size drive. For example, use 800K disks on 800 K and 1.44 MB drives, since they both support that capacity. Don't use 1.44 MB disks on an 800 K drive. (There is an exception to this latter rule. If you are going to treat a 1.44 MB floppy disk as an 800 K floppy. Simply placing a piece of masking tape over the correct hole will trick the drive into thinking the disk is 800 K capacity.)
Give these ideas a try and report back with your results.
73s de Phreakout. :rambo:
