"Could not find a suitable drive connected to the SCSI Port" message??

[Rhetro]

Hello folks.

I've been trying to get my Mac SE and Mac Classic up and running.

I have a system 6.0.8 disk and when I tried the Hard Disk setup, I got this message:

"Could not find a suitable drive connected to the SCSI Port"

On the Mac SE I replaced the battery on the Classic I didn't.

But they both gave me the same errors.

Does this mean that the computers are not seeing the built in hard drives? If so, how do you fix it?

thanksi in advance!

 

[David Schmidt]

"Could not find a suitable drive connected to the SCSI Port"

Does this mean that the computers are not seeing the built in hard drives? If so, how do you fix it?

Yep -that's exactly what that means. Do you know anything about the status of the drives? Do you hear them spinning (above any fans which the macs may or may not have)? Have you cracked open the cases to make sure the connections are still connected? Any drive-busy lights lit at any point?

 

[Rhetro]

Hey David.

I haven't opened the Mac Classic yet, but it doesn't have a hard drive light that I can see.

On the Mac SE, there is a light that comes on and off. I have opened that one up to replace the battery, and on the logic board I noticed that the upper drive connector was empty (there was nothing hooked up to it) well, the upper drive light is the hard drive and the lower drive is the floppy. I was thinking that the hard drive was linked to the floppy drive, and then the the floppy drive was connected to where it should be.

why would they fail, or go out? On both systems? Now. I has been a while since I turned them on.

 

[David Schmidt]

I was thinking that the hard drive was linked to the floppy drive, and then the the floppy drive was connected to where it should be.

No, the floppy and hard drive controllers are unrelated. But if the hard drives worked before, there are other issues at play.

why would they fail, or go out?

Stiction is the most likely culprit, which is why I asked if you heard them spinning. If the drive motor can't overcome the stiction to get the platters spinning, you'll get the symptoms you describe.

 

[Rhetro]

Hey David!

Stiction. Hm Never heard of that before.

But this is what happened:

When I turned on the Mac Classic the first time, I got the same blinking mac icon. When I tried to do a hd setup, it couldn't find the hd.

I opened it up and made sure that nothing got disconnected. I closed it up and started it up.

It started from the HD!! It's there.

I could even hear it spool up this time. I guess something got loose.

As for the SE. The HD is dead. I made sure that everything was hooked up with it the same way. It get's power but it doesn't spool up (even though the little led blinks on and off which is peculiar).

But the Mac Classic is up and running.

At least it's up and running. But I wasted $6 US on a battery I didn't need for the Mac SE. I may as well pull it back out and use it for the Mac Classic as a spare as the one that's in it seems to be working fine for the moment.

Now back to doing a file transfer from Basilisk II to the PC to the Mac Classic
...

 

[David Schmidt]

Hey David!

Stiction. Hm Never heard of that before.
[...]
As for the SE. The HD is dead. I made sure that everything was hooked up with it the same way. It get's power but it doesn't spool up (even though the little led blinks on and off which is peculiar).

Yep, sounds like stiction took both your drives. You can pull the drive out of the SE and tap it like the Wikipedia article says... or do what I do. Visualize where the shaft of the spindle is; hold the drive and flick your wrists so you rotate the platters along the axis of the shaft back and forth, kinda violently. Unsticks every time.

 

[Rhetro]

Hey David!

I'll give that a shot!

Thanks!