Mac SE Hard Drive

I don't see any reason why it wouldn't work. The SE boots fine when the drive isn't installed?

What OS version you running? System 7 can handle up to 2gb, System 6 only 40MB I think.

MacSE series machines had the hard drive mounted upside down (the HD's logic board faces upwards).

If you have the replacement HD mounted logic board down, the SCSI cable from the MacSE's logic board needs to be twisted to be upside down.

The SCSI cable is normally keyed, but there are some that aren't, facilitating the cable to be plugged in reversed.

Also, try only connecting the HD's power cable. If the MacSE powers up successfully (blinking icon on screen) then the drive possibly has an I/O (input/output) problem or the cable is reversed (as above).

If the mac still refuses to startup with only drive power connected, test the drive in another machine to see if it spins up when power is supplied. If it does spin up, your SE's power supply may not be able to handle the extra load. That would be unusual and more indicative of a fault in the power supply's feedback and/or PWM circuits or capacitors on the power supply's output failing and placing excessive load on the ouput.

The last remaining possibility might be the driver that is on the hard disk. If you're getting a sad mac icon on the screen, that would be the case.

Good luck!

clearfire62 said:

Thanks for the replys guys. To connect the hard drive, I tried using the SCSI cable from the Performa and the original cable from the SE. I have not officially added the hard drive since it doesn't boot up so it is not mounted in any specific way. I tested the drive yesterday on the Performa to ensure that it works and it does. It's not an OS thing because I can't even get a screen up so it hasn't attempted to boot with it connected.

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Busted SE? What about with no drive (boot from floppy), or the original SE HDD? Where did you get the SE from?

Sounds like it might just be a dud. Not to take away from your vintage exploration, but you'll find the SE a little lackluster even compared to your old Performa.

clearfire62 said:

I'm not sure if it's a dud exactly, it boots with the original connected(booted off of floppy) without a problem. Of course, it tells me there is something wrong with the drive... After doing a little research, I found that the SE is SCSI-1 and the Performa is Fast SCSI. Do you think that these two are just not compatible? If so, why would they use the same connection (50 Pin) for both versions.

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I can only assume the SCSI-1 and Fast SCSI are incompatible. Unfortunately the SE was my very first Mac which was well before my hardware tinkering days began so I'll only have as much insight as Google does. So best of luck but I haven't a clue what to do.

clearfire62 said:

Well thanks for trying anyways , I hope someday I will find a hard drive that will work for the SE. It's hard to find them on eBay and they are always so expensive due to the rarity.

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I think I still have a couple old SE drivers here somewhere. 100meg if memory serves.

That drive from your Performa should work.

Can you boot off a floppy with the new drive installed?

galarneau said:

That drive from your Performa should work.

Can you boot off a floppy with the new drive installed?

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I concur. There is no reason I can think of that would prevent the drive from being usable in a MacSE.

SCSI-1 and SCSI-2 should be interchangeable. The difference is like ATA33 to ATA66, just a faster maximum transfer rate.

Did you try just the power cable?

clearfire62 said:

No it does not boot with the drive connected to the SCSI. It just sits on a black screen with a buzzing noise from the speakers. When I unplug the hard drive, it will turn right on to the floppy disk symbol unless I put a disk in, of course. As I asked earlier, could it be a size limitation and not an incompatibly problem?

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With an immediate buzzing sound like that when the SCSI interface is connected tells me that the SCSI interface is being shorted. I am still convinced (since it works with only power connected) that the SCSI cable is being plugged in a reversed way (having done this myself way back on MacSEs).

Since the drive works in your other machine, the drive is fine.

Since the drive allows the SE to power on with just the drive's power cable, it's not a power supply load problem.

Since the fault is a totally black screen and buzzing, it is not an incompatibility problem with size or drivers.

I am loathed to mention active vs passive termination, since active termination shouldn't be causing such a drastic fault. What is the make & model of drive?

Check the ends of the SCSI cable. If there is no lump in the middle of one side of EACH end then this allows the cable to be plugged in the wrong way around. See this image:

http://www.embeddedartists.com/sites/default/files/image/product/idc_50_banner.png