SE/30 won't boot, disk not detected by PC either

[LittleJackal]

Hey guys,

I have a feeling I already know the disk is dead, but my SE/30, freshly recapped, isn't booting. Just getting the ? icon. Disk spins up and light flashes, but nothing. 

Took the disk out and connected it to a PC with an Adaptec 2940. The SCSI BIOS disk scan doesn't see the drive at all (it will see another SCSI drive if plugged in). There's nothing special about the Apple disk that would render it undetectable to an Adaptec SCSI bios, right? If that's the case then I think the disk is thoroughly pooched, which is a shame since I didn't get a chance to get data off it.

Just wanted to pick your brains to see if there was anything else I could do before binning it.

Time to invest in an HD2SD

 

[techknight]

The drive geometry and model information along with the G-list and P-list is stored in an area called the negative cylinders. a block of tracks just behind track 0. If the drive cant read this block, it wont be able to report the drives information correctly. 

You could use SCSI2SD, or you can go with the IBM/Seagate 2.5" U320 method which is still a physical spinning disk but it would give you 36 or 72GB of usable space which you can divide up into multiple partitions. 

 

[carguyty]

Have you tried opening the case to view the armature on startup? It might be stuck from age and deteriorating bump-stops. Easy, though messy, fix if you have data you really need to recover.

 

[K55]

Old drives have a bad habit of running up once and then never spinning up again.

2 things you can try. Take the drive apart and clean the gunk out of the spindle.

Or give it a few hard taps with a mallet/screwdriver (also might have to stick it in the freezer for a hour).

Drives dead anyway so switch to a SCSI2SD or a CF adapter.

 

[LittleJackal]

There's nothing super critical on the drive. Most of it is software I can get online. I have nothing left to lose so I'll crack the case tomorrow. Just wanted to run it past you guys and gals first

Thanks again!