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Using Zip drive as HDD for Macintosh Plus

Thanks a lot to all for your feedbacks and istruction.

I bought a Iomega 100 plus with all accessories (including original cable which i suppose will be ok to do what i need).

This approach should be a temporary solution to familiarize with the old mac (me and my son), the next steps are :

HARDWARE Project:
1. Increase RAM to 4 MB > I need to know what type of RAM is available today, on Ebay for example, I can purchase and install and if there are any points of attention or preliminary checks
2. BLUESCSI installation > In this case, from the manufacturer's website you understand "quite well" what to buy but I still have doubts about what I need and whether I can install it. Internal version? External version? Recommended type of SD card to use?
3. RECAP!?! > TBD
4. Replacing or repairing drives > I follow the online guides, it doesn't scare me :)

SOFTWARE Project:
1. Installation and configuration of the operating system on bluescsi > do you recommend OS6 or OS7? os7 need at least 2 mb of ram (i understood)
2. Installing software and games on MAC > are there any collections available online?
3. creating 800k compatible floppy disks for Mac using a Powermac with OS9 > do I need a quick tip or a guideline. How do I identify the "suitable" floppy disk type for this activity ?
 
Recap is not mandatory, except for the RIFA ones.

The drives often only need cleaning the head, new lube and replacing the plastic gear of the eject motor.

To use a scsi device, a diode should be added to the logic board.

For a 4 Mb Plus, a resistor should be removed from the LB as well, sticks are plentifull.
 
What does it mean "To use a scsi device, a diode should be added to the logic board."

Can't I plug the SCSI Iomega zip plus as plug and play device?

I'm confused !! 🥴🥴
 
You can, but it probably won’t work.

The logic board is not providing termination as is, a location is present in the board next to the scsi connector for a diode.

So one one should be added first.
 
neropt said:
Thanks a lot to all for your feedbacks and istruction.

I bought a Iomega 100 plus with all accessories (including original cable which i suppose will be ok to do what i need).

This approach should be a temporary solution to familiarize with the old mac (me and my son), the next steps are :

HARDWARE Project:
1. Increase RAM to 4 MB > I need to know what type of RAM is available today, on Ebay for example, I can purchase and install and if there are any points of attention or preliminary checks
Click to expand...
Obviously you'll need 30-pin SIMMs. You can use parity or non-parity, the Mac will ignore it. You need them in pairs, one on the left and one on the right, and need to be 150ns or faster (if you can see the chips, they'll have "-15" at the end, or a lower number for faster chips). The options are:
  1. The 1MB you already have in 4x256kB SIMMs.
  2. A 2MB option, where you remove all the 256kB SIMMs and add 2x1MB SIMMs.
  3. A 2.5MB option, consisting of 2x256kB SIMMs + 2x 1MB SIMMs.
  4. The 4MB you want = 4x 1MB SIMMs.

neropt said:
2. BLUESCSI installation > In this case, from the manufacturer's website you understand "quite well" what to buy but I still have doubts about what I need and whether I can install it. Internal version? External version? Recommended type of SD card to use?
Click to expand...
Any SD card will be faster than the Mac, whose SCSI was limited to 5MB/s, and in practice much slower due to the CPU speed of the Mac.

neropt said:
3. RECAP!?! > TBD
Click to expand...
If your Mac SE powers on and generates a display with a blinking disk, then do you need to yet? Do the cylindrical capacitors look like they're bulging? Do the Tantalum caps look like they're cracked? Can you see leakage eating way the tracks? As an aside, I have a Mac SE I plan to restore, once I get around to replacing the flyback transformer. I don't plan to recap it yet. I'm UK based.
neropt said:
4. Replacing or repairing drives > I follow the online guides, it doesn't scare me :)
Click to expand...
Cool!
neropt said:
SOFTWARE Project:
1. Installation and configuration of the operating system on bluescsi > do you recommend OS6 or OS7? os7 need at least 2 mb of ram (i understood)
Click to expand...
I think many or most people would advocate System 6 (as it was called then) for 8MHz Macs and if I had 1MB I'd do that. Also, System 7 won't fit on an 800kB disk. There was a whole massive debate at Apple when developing System 7, about supporting 1MB Macs and the workarounds that would be needed to get the operating system + Hypercard into 1MB. They gave up.

However, I run System 7.0 on my Mac Plus (even though it is a bit slower than a Mac SE), because of the added convenience: Aliases; easier to do Personal file sharing; hierarchical menus; easier to do TrueType fonts; Choosing an application from the application menu on the top right (on System 6's MultiFinder you can only cycle to the next app by clicking it). However, System 7 is about 30% to 50% slower because much of it was written in 'C' instead of assembler.
neropt said:
2. Installing software and games on MAC > are there any collections available online?
3. creating 800k compatible floppy disks for Mac using a Powermac with OS9 > do I need a quick tip or a guideline. How do I identify the "suitable" floppy disk type for this activity ?
Click to expand...
All PowerMacs with an internal floppy drive ought to be able to format for 800KB, and this will be one of the Special:Erase.. options. It seems like Mac OS 9 can format, read and write 800kB disks. If the PowerMac has a USB floppy drive, then it might not be able to handle 800kB disks, see:

https://www.reddit.com/r/VintageApple/comments/6i1szp

I hope this reply is less confusing or useless than my last one :) !
 
The diode allows the Mac Plus to provide termination power. A device like the BlueSCSI, when set to use the termination power as its power source, won’t run without the diode.
 
I got your point.

you Mean an external Bluescsi....im italian and a newbie on these stuff so please excuse me for all the silly questions. :)

OK so THANKS for your suggestions, i will receive all stuff i need in few days and i'll update you soon, in order to make to you other questions, of course !!!
 
Dear all,

Just for your information, i finally have a Machintosh SE totally working, 2 floppy disk drives totally working, a zip plus working and a zip disk correctly prepared with LIDO 7.

Now i read into the guide:

"Then you can drag a System folder onto the Zip..."

What should i do ? Which system folder ? can you please explain to me what to do and give me an overview on the final aspect of the folders into the ZIP DISK ?

I found several ZIP DISK images with system folders with 6.0.8 or 7 but i don't know what to do.
 
Virtually any 6.0.8 install will run the SE, it doesn’t matter. Things were much less finicky back then.
 
In order to make the Zip disk bootable it needs a system folder. You can either run the SSW Installer on it or drag an existing system folder from another disk or drive to the Zip disk. You may need to bless the newly copied system folder by opening and closing it. Then use startup disk control panel to change the startup disk to the zip disk and reboot the Mac. I strongly suggest that you do not simply drag a system folder and recommend that you run the SSW installer, unless you already know that the source system folder is for a Mac SE. The installer is smart and knows not to install items that a Mac SE cannot use such as Quicktime or other components.
 
I found a way through Windows 7....
I have a Iomega ATA 100 in my desktop, i just used Raw Copy tool.
I downloaded the Iomega 100 mb image with the OS and other software inside and using the raw copy tool i put the image into the Iomega Disk.
Now i want to try to do the same with a MacOS 9 on my powermac following what Mikes-macs said.
 
Your getting into rough waters by copying a Mac OS 9 system folder to boot your PowerMac, unless you know it is for that Mac. There are all kinds of system components that may not be installed that are need or installed that are not needed. You should download the appropriate Mac OS 9 Installer for your PowerMac. Run it on the PowerMac to install on Zip disk.
 
I am trying to use a zip 100 to boot a plus. It starts to boot but crashes at a sad mac with error 0F0063. Anyone come across this? thanks
 
Fred1212 said:
I am trying to use a zip 100 to boot a plus. It starts to boot but crashes at a sad mac with error 0F0063. Anyone come across this? thanks
Click to expand...
OK, so I think many people will immediately suggest you buy a BlueSCSI or ZuluSCSI and forget the Zip drive, but I'm assuming that you know about those things and actually want to use a Zip drive (which is what I normally do).

Can you be a bit more specific about where in the boot process it crashes? Is it when it's loading extensions or before it's shown any splash screen? I think I had a similar problem last year with my Plus and a Zip drive. I took it to the UK meet-up. I think @joshc or @CircuitBored helped resolve the problem (driver on the boot floppy was 4.3, but 4.2 is better and in fact later ones, such as 5.x are progressively worse for 68K Macs).

Can you boot the Plus via floppy into System 6.0.7 or something? It's possible to fit a minimal System 6 + The Zip drive Guest or Extension (well, INIT) on a single 800kB floppy. I've done that. Then you can at least see whether the ZIP disk will mount OK on the Plus.

It's possible the boot driver doesn't work. You could test this if you had another SCSI drive: boot from there with the driver from the Zip disk in question and if the SCSI drive boots then it's not the Extension, but the boot driver.

Not sure how to update the boot driver - move the System folder out of the Zip disk to the SCSI drive and then move it back in?
 
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