Macintosh Portable Hard Drive

[khannonnd]

(Tried posting earlier and I don't think it went through.  If it did, oops!)

I have been trying to resurrect a Macintosh Portable I acquired not too long ago.  Uniserver did a great job recapping it and Techknight found and repaired a broken trace and a broken reset button.

When the machine would try to start up previously, the hard drive would spin up, then stop, then spin up, then stop, continually.  It would never get past the smiling mac.

Apparently this is not an uncommon problem and Techknight told me about the gooing gaskets.  I will confirm that the hard drive is dead once I get the board back, but I decided to open up the hard drive and clean it out.  There was some goo on the edges of the hard drive, which I cleaned off, but the platter itself seemed clean.

I was surprised that inside the hard drive was a small bag of something.  It was wet/greasy so I guess it could be lubricant of some kind (see attached picture).

I have been told that there is a 50 pin adapter I can get that would allow me to use a normal SCSI drive inside this machine.  Does anyone have any recommendation where I can get such a drive?  Are there any issues (such as power) with putting a standard SCSI drive in this?

Thanks!

 

[aplmak]

I think Uniserver sells the adapters on ebay… You could also PM him...

 

[techknight]

Yup, that drive is junk! All mine are... 

Notice the filter pad is full of that goo. that means the platter was picking it up and throwing it off. 

Which is what happens.... and it accumulates underneath the platter, and causes a head crash. Once the head crashes, its spins up down up down up down. 

 

[khannonnd]

How weird!  

So where is a good source for a compatible SCSI drive (once I obtain the 50 pin adapter)?

 

[BadGoldEagle]

Uniserver sells some compatible 50-pin HDs

However

I have a Mac Portable too, and it won't even start now.

I'm going to ship it to Uni next week-end.

My Conner doesn't work and I think I have the same problem. It seems to be a plage, all HDs are dying and the Conner 3045 in the Portable is one of the worst.

I will buy a SCSI2SD for mine. Coupled with the 34-pin to 50-pin adapter Uni provides it should work very well AND since it draws less power than a conventional HD, the battery life will be better than it ever was! I personally recommend this solution.

Check this out http://shop.codesrc.com/index.php?route=product/product&product_id=58

It's a bit expensive okay but HDs aren't cheap either!

NOT affiliated with the seller 

 

[khannonnd]

Uniserver sells some compatible 50-pin HDs

However

I have a Mac Portable too, and it won't even start now.

I'm going to ship it to Uni next week-end.

My Conner doesn't work and I think I have the same problem. It seems to be a plage, all HDs are dying and the Conner 3045 in the Portable is one of the worst.

I will buy a SCSI2SD for mine. Coupled with the 34-pin to 50-pin adapter Uni provides it should work very well AND since it draws less power than a conventional HD, the battery life will be better than it ever was! I personally recommend this solution.

Check this out http://shop.codesrc.com/index.php?route=product/product&product_id=58

It's a bit expensive okay but HDs aren't cheap either!

NOT affiliated with the seller 

Those SCSI2SDs look interesting.  How do you plan on mounting it in the Portable?

 

[BadGoldEagle]

That's the difficult part of the installation. The converter and the scsi2sd have no bespoke brackets.

I was thinking of maybe... Velcro ?

ESD aren't that important with a scsi2sd I think. 

I recall seeing velcro on extension cards of some old dells.

And the bottom of the SCSI2SD Rev5 and the bracket from the conner hd are really flat. Velcro would work quite well on those surfaces. 

The only thing bothering me at the moment is heat: does the scsi2sd heat a lot when used a couple of hours? I dunno, never owned one for now.

 

[Canby Fat Mac]

The Conner CP3045 and CP3040 are the same hardware and platter with different controller boards.

In other words, take the board off your broken drive and buy one of these for a OEM looking replacement

http://www.ebay.com/itm/Conner-CP3040A-GLD02-40MB-Apple-50-Pin-SCSI-Hard-Drive-/291619718308?hash=item43e5e3c4a4:g:GzkAAOSwA4dWJZAW

 

[BadGoldEagle]

Yeah that could be an option. I contemplated this method.

The only problem is that the hard drive could potentially get bad soon. Yours dead, mine's dead, all of techknight's are dead.

I know someone tried to swap the controller boards. Don't remember who but it didn't work. Apparently some controller boards can get bad as well?

If you want originality though, this is the best thing for your computer. 

I'm planning to use this Portable as my main System 6 machine. And with a boot time of less than 5 seconds with the SCSI2SD I can't resist 

It all depends on what you want to do with it.

 

[techknight]

The only fix is to permetex a new seal and pull the old one out before it goes bad. If you get a good one...

 

[khannonnd]

Yeah that could be an option. I contemplated this method.

The only problem is that the hard drive could potentially get bad soon. Yours dead, mine's dead, all of techknight's are dead.

I know someone tried to swap the controller boards. Don't remember who but it didn't work. Apparently some controller boards can get bad as well?

If you want originality though, this is the best thing for your computer. 

I'm planning to use this Portable as my main System 6 machine. And with a boot time of less than 5 seconds with the SCSI2SD I can't resist 

It all depends on what you want to do with it.

Mr. BadGoldEagle

Have you found a good description on how to format the SCSI2SD so it will work with a Portable?  I am... technically illiterate so easy instructions would be terrific! 

 

[khannonnd]

The only fix is to permetex a new seal and pull the old one out before it goes bad. If you get a good one...

Where exactly is this troublesome seal?  Under the platter?

 

[techknight]

Nope,  the edge. the part that gooed up. its a big o-ring that seals the lid to the body, before it melts....

 

[uniserver]

pretty sure the sealant melts due to Fumes from the 9v or Lead Acid battery.   because they use those same HD's in Classic and LC, they never goo up like that... only the portable.

 

[khannonnd]

Nope,  the edge. the part that gooed up. its a big o-ring that seals the lid to the body, before it melts....

Does the seal actually need to be replaced with anything, really?  What happens if you just take out the bad seal and close it back up?

 

[khannonnd]

And last question: I removed the platter on my goo-ed up hard drive to take a look at the bottom.  There was a spot of dried goo on the outer part rings of the platter.  Has anyone ever had luck removing the platter, goo, cleaning the platter, and reassembling?

 

[uniserver]

try it

 

[khannonnd]

try it

I did, but that goo seems to have bonded itself to the platter.  When I finally got it off, it looks like it took a layer of the platter with it, so I am sure the drive is still dead as a door post.

 

[Paralel]

pretty sure the sealant melts due to Fumes from the 9v or Lead Acid battery.   because they use those same HD's in Classic and LC, they never goo up like that... only the portable.

That is quite possible. Those old type of batteries had "vents" to release gases if the reaction went bad or they started to get old and started out gassing from inappropriate reactions that take place when they just sit there without being used.