anybody know how to load system 6 onto an SE?

Can you borrow an 800k floppy bootable game or something to test the floppy drive? Also, how did you transfer to the 800k's? Were these preformatted blank 800k's, or did you have to format them on a floppy drive with the powerbook? It could be a formatting issue. I believe that has an external scsi 25 pin connector on the back. You could go with a scsi zip drive, transfer the files to the zip and try to boot off that.

If you don't get anywhere, drop me a message and I'll see if I can dig up original disks. I've got a couple 512's sitting in my shed. (gotta love that molded signed case...)

Did the SE spit the disk back out at you, or just sit there as if you never even inserted it? If it just sat there, it might be the floppy drive. You can get external drives on eBay for cheap. Or if you're feeling adventurous, you can open the case, check the connections, or replace the internal drive.

Failing SE floppy drives

I just so happened to be fiddling with a couple of SEs this week so I can make some disks for someone. I found that some of the floppies I had would work intermittently because of what I suspect are drives starting to go. Assuming the floppy head is at least spinning up, you might try them a half dozen or so times and you might get lucky.

External drives can be had but it might be tough to find a reliable one unless the seller has overhauled and tested it.

If you really want to get some good use of your SE, I agree with the SCSI Zip drive route. Zip disks had many detractors in their day, but to an old SE, it is quite capable.

compudude86 said:

hi all,
I recently got a Mac SE as a new addition to my collection. unfortunately, it has a HD, but i get the question mark (i dont think its busted, honestly think the HD was wiped) and an 800K floppy drive. i have 800k floppies of system 6.0.3 i got from apples old software site, decompressed on my powerbook, disk-copied onto 800k floppies, and i still get the question mark. is there some other disk, or other trick, to getting this to work?

Click to expand...

Do you know that the HD is spinning up? If it's an original Apple HDD (twenty whole Megabytes...), it's entirely possible the platter assembly is sticking and not spinning up. I had this issue, um, 12-14 years back working with SE/30s at my job. In many cases, the drive could be "started" by switching on the SE/30, picking it up by the handle, and giving it a quick twist with the wrist! (I'm NOT kidding!) That let the platters get loose enough that the motor could then start it.

The OTHER issue: The floppy drive in the SE. IIRC, early SEs had the 800k floppy drive. They can only read 800k and 400k floppies. Later Macs had the SuperDrive, which read 1.4MB Apple-format floppies, and could read the 1.4M & 720k floppies PCs used. To add to the confusion, I seem to recall that at some time shortly before the iMac put the whole Macs & Floppies thing out to pasture, some Macs could read 800k disks, but only write 720K & 1.4M...

Check the floppies you made. If you have access to a PC, insert the disk. If the PC can read it, it's a 720k, not an 800k, and that could be your problem...

Good luck with it!

just buy the floppies

operator headgap systems sells 800k floppies with system 6 on it