Macintosh plus SCSI generic drive

[mindingulove]

Hello everyone, I recently bought my first Macintosh plus but it has no external HDD.

Is it possible to add a generic hard disk drive to the back port and format it?

Ive seen theres a patch for apple HD HC setups that handles generic drivers.

Has anyone tried using it?

which hard drive is recommended ?

thank you

 

[bibilit]

The Plus is picky with SCSI, many won't work with a Hard drive.

Your best solution will be the Apple 20 SC (if you can find a working unit) another solution will be SCSi Iomega ZIP.

 

[Dog Cow]

There are three versions of the 128K ROM used in the Mac Plus. Earlier ones have a bug in the SCSI Manager that can effectively render it useless.

Don't forget that the Mac Plus has no internal terminator on its SCSI bus so you will need a pass-thru terminator block between the Plus and your first SCSI device. 

 

[mindingulove]

There are three versions of the 128K ROM used in the Mac Plus. Earlier ones have a bug in the SCSI Manager that can effectively render it useless.

Don't forget that the Mac Plus has no internal terminator on its SCSI bus so you will need a pass-thru terminator block between the Plus and your first SCSI device. 

My Macintosh is from 1987, guess is not the bugged one

The Plus is picky with SCSI, many won't work with a Hard drive.

Your best solution will be the Apple 20 SC (if you can find a working unit) another solution will be SCSi Iomega ZIP.

so basically theres no way of using a generic SCSI?

I\ve heard theres a way of formatting disks with basilisk II, it can be pathed to an external drive. 

This guy here claims he has used an ultra wide 30gb scsi. The Mac won't recognise all of it of course, but maybe its partitioned. 

 

[mindingulove]

I was thinking, I have an old powerbook 180 hd dropped in my shelf with system in it. Is  it possible to adapt the hard drive and connect it to Macintosh plus? 

 

[olePigeon]

If you have a generic SCSI hard drive laying around, I'd say give it a try.  Format it and connect it.  There're other utilities to try such as Lido and FWB that might make it work.  Lido is free.  FWB will have to be downloaded from the usual places.

The PowerBook 180 drive can be adapted with a 2.5" adapter such as this one:

https://www.ebay.com/itm/CablesOnline-2-5-Laptop-50-Pin-w-Molex-Power-Cable-to-SCSI-Hard-Drive-Adapter/270840619638

Since it isn't keyed, just remember that the Red wire on the SCSI ribbon is Pin 1 (look on the adapter for Pin 1 and make sure the Red side of the cable goes there.)

 

[Trash80toHP_Mini]

Sweet! Hadn't seen that adapter, very handy that. THX, oP!

 

[olePigeon]

I use it on my LC.  I have a 240MB 2.5" SCSI drive installed in it so I can use both floppy drives & HDD.

 

[mindingulove]

If you have a generic SCSI hard drive laying around, I'd say give it a try.  Format it and connect it.  There're other utilities to try such as Lido and FWB that might make it work.  Lido is free.  FWB will have to be downloaded from the usual places.

The PowerBook 180 drive can be adapted with a 2.5" adapter such as this one:

https://www.ebay.com/itm/CablesOnline-2-5-Laptop-50-Pin-w-Molex-Power-Cable-to-SCSI-Hard-Drive-Adapter/270840619638

Since it isn't keyed, just remember that the Red wire on the SCSI ribbon is Pin 1 (look on the adapter for Pin 1 and make sure the Red side of the cable goes there.)

Unfortunately the adaptor won't ship to my country, but ill give a try on the SCSI HDD. thank you!

 

[Dog Cow]

so basically theres no way of using a generic SCSI?

I have a 3rd-party external SCSI HD for my Mac Plus that works just fine. Inside it is a full-size, old-fashioned Seagate ST mechanism. The driver is 3rd-party also. Can't remember the name of it now. Starts with an N I think, and gives the drive a custom icon on the desktop.

 

[bibilit]

Seagate ST225N (20 Mb Hard drive) probably, one of the usual HD found in the 20 SC enclosure.

 

[Dog Cow]

Yes, that's what it is. 20 MB.