Macintosh SE/30 only reads 2MB Floppy Disks?

[HeartletTullius]

Hey everyone,

I’ve got a weird one for all of you that I couldn’t find an answer to online. I was using my SE/30 last night, and I was using some floppy disks I bought off eBay. However, all of the 1.44MB disks couldn’t be initialised by the Mac. I thought that the drive might be broken, but I decided to try one more disk before I go fiddling around inside the computer. 

I picked out a 2MB disk at random, put it in, initialised it (expecting it to fail), and it worked! I then gathered all the 2MB disks I have and put them in and they worked too. However, when I got all the 1.44MB disks to see if they work, they couldn’t be initialised. 

So, this leads me to believe that my SE/30 can only read/initialise 2MB disks. After some research online, I found out that 2MB is the same as 1.44MB because the 2MB becomes 1.44MB after it’s formatted, so it didn’t really matter at the time.

So, does anyone have any ideas as to why it can only read 2MB disks? If it’s any help, I am running System 6.0.8 on an SE/30.

Thank you!

 

[LaPorta]

You are correct, they are all the same disks. I would venture that the disks you bought are defective. The way to be sure is to use then with another machine and try to format them. If they work, then something funny is going on. If they don't, they are just garbage. There is really no difference between them all other than marketing. What manufacturer made the different lots?

 

[HeartletTullius]

@LaPorta Hey there! Thank you for the reply! There are 7 1.44MB ones, 6 of which are made by Sony (for IBM computers), and the final one made by BT (British Telecom). The 3 2MB ones that are working are made by “InMac Plus 80” and “3M”. I am researching eBay to see if I can get another batch of disks to see if I can test them!

 

[Bolle]

Might be obvious, but is it possible the disks that won't initalize are locked?

 

[SE30_Neal]

Good shout Bolle. They’re not double side double density by any chance.  Yes very weird as mine will only work with 1.44mb and not 2mb