mac SE FDHD hard drive — #8

Post #8 by Dog Cow

Source Forum	68kMLA
Category	68k
Post Date	Mon, 29 Sep 2008 - 17:46
Original URL	https://68kmla.org/bb/threads/mac-se-fdhd-hard-drive.15003/

Post

Can I just put any old scsi hard drive in here? the 20Mb one is dead and I am forced to boot from floppies.

Are you absolutely sure it's dead? There are tricks to getting 10+ year old disks spinning again. One is to remove the drive from the Mac, put it on the floor (or you can do this in mid-air), and forcefully rotate it from 0 degrees to about 45 degrees. What you'd be doing here is trying to get the spindle unstuck. Most of the time, that is what the problem is.

I'd try this if you have lost data on that hard drive and want to see if you can recover it. Otherwise, don't bother.

I seem to remembrer something about a 2GB limit. Could I format the drive in os 9?

Yes, but makes sure you choose Mac OS Standard/HFS and not the Extended/HFS+ format!

It's not quite as constrained as that. There is a 2GB limit, but on partition size, not disk size. So, as long as you subdivide a big drive into partitions no larger than 2GB, you'll be good to go.

Right. Here's Apples Doc on Macintosh: File System Specifications and Terms

The maximum volume size under System 6 and System 7 is 2 GB. System 7.5 increased that limit to 4 GB and System 7.5.2 (and later) increases that limit to 2 TB on some computers.