Thread
512k Hyperdrive Gamble on eBay
I'm sure some of you have gambled before on purchases not knowing exactly what you had until you opened up a computer. This is one of them and is either going to be very cool or a complete bust and a waste of money. It's a Macintosh 512k with Hyperdrive stickers. That is a certainty. Does it actually contain a Hyperdrive? Who knows. If it does, will the hard drive work? Not likely. Will it even power up? That's anyone's guess. Is it a complete gamble? Absolutely 
Luckily, the seller didn't mention the Hyperdrive at all in the ad and it was at $30 until the last minute. There was only one other bidder. Was it one of you guys?
It's still on it's way and probably won't be here for another week so wish me luck. I think it's a treasure if it contains a Hyperdrive and works. Although the sticker on top is killing me but ce la vie. Anyone else have a Hyperdrive theses days?
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http://www.ebay.com/itm/131271513216?orig_cvip=true
Luckily, the seller didn't mention the Hyperdrive at all in the ad and it was at $30 until the last minute. There was only one other bidder. Was it one of you guys?
It's still on it's way and probably won't be here for another week so wish me luck. I think it's a treasure if it contains a Hyperdrive and works. Although the sticker on top is killing me but ce la vie. Anyone else have a Hyperdrive theses days?
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http://www.ebay.com/itm/131271513216?orig_cvip=true
I bought a 512k with a Hyperdrive label on it that turned out not to have it inside. I didn't pay a lot for it, not even as much as a barebones 512k normally sells for so it wasn't a big loss. I sometimes think people find those labels and slap them on any old machine just to ensure they get higher bids from people hoping to get a rare part.
Oh, I like how the seller says he doesn't know if it powers up. LoL. There's no excuse for not knowing whether it powers up or not since the entire computer is right there. All you have to do is plug it in and flip a switch. The only way you wouldn't know was if the power cord was missing, but any 3 pin computer cord will work. If they have another computer with which to post the ebay listing, then they obviously have the means to test whether the Mac boots or not. Doh!
Oh, I like how the seller says he doesn't know if it powers up. LoL. There's no excuse for not knowing whether it powers up or not since the entire computer is right there. All you have to do is plug it in and flip a switch. The only way you wouldn't know was if the power cord was missing, but any 3 pin computer cord will work. If they have another computer with which to post the ebay listing, then they obviously have the means to test whether the Mac boots or not. Doh!
Hi Quadraman,
I did read about your acquisition and disappointment (and a few others) when doing some research. I think JDW and TheNixer are the only two with working Hyperdrives? JDW's posts have been great in documenting his.
I hear you on the "adding stickers" part but those stickers are not easy to find and they are placed as they would have been coming out of the GCC factory when the upgrade was put in. I do get nervous when someone says they haven't powered it up because they don't have the cord but I've looked at their history and the person doesn't sell computers. I think they've sold one other in the past and it was a laptop. In any case, a 512k board or even a Mac Plus board is usually pretty reliable. We'll see how it goes.
I did read about your acquisition and disappointment (and a few others) when doing some research. I think JDW and TheNixer are the only two with working Hyperdrives? JDW's posts have been great in documenting his.
I hear you on the "adding stickers" part but those stickers are not easy to find and they are placed as they would have been coming out of the GCC factory when the upgrade was put in. I do get nervous when someone says they haven't powered it up because they don't have the cord but I've looked at their history and the person doesn't sell computers. I think they've sold one other in the past and it was a laptop. In any case, a 512k board or even a Mac Plus board is usually pretty reliable. We'll see how it goes.
I have since acquired the main board of the Hyperdrive upgrade, but none of the other parts. I'm still looking for the brackets and a suitable drive to test it with. It also has a 10mhz 68000 chip on it so you get a small performance increase with these, too. It clips on over the 68000 on the motherboard.
Yours is a Hyperdrive 2000, I believe, This one looks like it's a Hyperdrive 20 (guessing at the blurry label). The Hyperdrive 20 was just the drive or, if put into a Mac 128k, an increase in memory to 512k plus the drive. The Hyperdrive 2000 had a CPU upgrade along with the drive. It would be cool to find the whole line along with the Hyperdrive external FX/20 drive.
The Hyperdrive 20 used MFM style drives. Chances are the drive is toast as they weren't all that reliable. I don't recall it being a common model like the Seagate ST-225 either. Than again, if it was a ST-225, it likely would have still worked!
I have the Hyperdrive 2000 macintosh plus, problem is of course the drive is gone. but the card and everything is there. Kicks the plus to an 030 though 
Don't know where your 030 came from, but it shouldn't be on a Hyperdrive board. According to this article:I have the Hyperdrive 2000 macintosh plus, problem is of course the drive is gone. but the card and everything is there. Kicks the plus to an 030 though
http://books.google.com/books?id=nC8EAAAAMBAJ&pg=PA8&lpg=PA8&dq=hyperdrive+2000+macintosh&source=bl&ots=cCVrzRnWLn&sig=4zsxh2yxkYP4OTyhYTR9Mhit2dE&hl=en&sa=X&ei=iAUAVPT9EZLLggSm2oDICQ&ved=0CEIQ6AEwAw#v=onepage&q=hyperdrive%202000%20macintosh&f=false
The Hyperdrive 2000 has a 12mhz 68000 and a 68881 FPU on the board.
Dunno. but its got an 030 accelerator board with FPU killy clipped to the processor. Other than that, I have no idea. Ill have to see if I can dig back through my pictures.
Techknight,
That board looks like a beast for a Mac Plus. What does the 64 pin socket hook up to?
That board looks like a beast for a Mac Plus. What does the 64 pin socket hook up to?
I dont know, I think thats the 030PDS.
There isnt a marking or any indication of a manufacturer, And the date codes on that accelerator board corroborate the date code of the fan mounted in the machine, etc.. So there is no reason to believe this wasnt installed by General Computer.
The machine does have an issue with or without the accelerator installed. the blinking ? icon isnt blinking. it says solid. Itll boot from floppy, but not from SCSI. my other mac plus board does the same thing. strange.
But I digress, I derailed this thread enough. lol.
The machine does have an issue with or without the accelerator installed. the blinking ? icon isnt blinking. it says solid. Itll boot from floppy, but not from SCSI. my other mac plus board does the same thing. strange.
But I digress, I derailed this thread enough. lol.
Still waiting but the more I read, the smaller the chances become that the 512k actually has any part of a Hyperdrive in it; let alone, a working one. This kinda makes sense. If someone were to put out the money to upgrade the stock Macintosh 512k to a Hyperdrive unit, they would be prime candidates for further upgrades that were to come. I read one thread about a 512k that had the GCC Hyperdrive stickers and it was further upgraded to a Mac Plus class computer with SCSI and even video output. Those computers would be upgraded and upgraded until they couldn't be upgraded anymore.
Hence what may have happened to yours, Techknight. The Hyperdrive boards I saw in pictures (and there are very few) had HyperDrive and GCC wrtten on them. Your Hyperdrive may have ben upgraded further because I have looked and not seen anything beyond the 12 mhz 68000 upgrade for the Hyperdrive 2000.
At least with all my reading I found out I do have one GCC product. I have a GCC WriteMove portable printer for the Macintosh Portable. I'll probably end up with that and two stickers and maybe an abandoned fan
Hence what may have happened to yours, Techknight. The Hyperdrive boards I saw in pictures (and there are very few) had HyperDrive and GCC wrtten on them. Your Hyperdrive may have ben upgraded further because I have looked and not seen anything beyond the 12 mhz 68000 upgrade for the Hyperdrive 2000.
At least with all my reading I found out I do have one GCC product. I have a GCC WriteMove portable printer for the Macintosh Portable. I'll probably end up with that and two stickers and maybe an abandoned fan
I was looking to get that one on ebay, goodluck man
Thanks westcoastech. We'll see how this pans out. I haven't figured out if a working 512k Hyperdrive is collectible (the purists would say that this butchers a 512k) but I think it's collectible because it is something done to the 512k that Apple didn't want to happen. They ended up eating crow and supporting it in the long run. Sadly, the compatibility with later OSes was a problem for the Hyperdrive (as the original owners complained) but for vintage collectors, that's not a problem
The Hyperdrive 20 enabled 512k I had was just a plain old 512k otherwise. The disk controller interfaced with the computer by clipping directly onto the 68000.
Well, I got some good news and some bad news.
The good news is it's a HyperDrive 20 with the drive in it. The bad news is that the rear battery leaked and had rusted some of the metal and I'm not sure what else. This will be a fun restoration so that's good. I'll have to determine if the analog board has been messed up at all and if the motherboard is affected but it's densely packed in there.
I'll have to investigate further before I even consider turning it on or even plugging it in.
The good news is it's a HyperDrive 20 with the drive in it. The bad news is that the rear battery leaked and had rusted some of the metal and I'm not sure what else. This will be a fun restoration so that's good. I'll have to determine if the analog board has been messed up at all and if the motherboard is affected but it's densely packed in there.
I'll have to investigate further before I even consider turning it on or even plugging it in.
i'd be very interested to know what hdd the hyperdrive used, i have a 512k board with a hyperdrive 20 controller and i think it would be intresting to get it running
Hopefully the battery won't have damaged the analog board, It looks pretty good otherwise
Hopefully the battery won't have damaged the analog board, It looks pretty good otherwise
The drive is Miniscribe. Haven't cracked the enclosure open yet but I will.
Got the 512k motherboard out (that was no small feat). Other than some rust dust that I have to clean up, it looks pretty good.
Got the 512k motherboard out (that was no small feat). Other than some rust dust that I have to clean up, it looks pretty good.
Here's a couple of pictures of the drive. It's a Miniscribe 8425:
Sadly, I just tried it and this one is dead. The analogue board looks okay but no luck. I'll have to take a good look at it and see what's up.
Luckily, a second package came today, completely by coincidence on the same day.
Luckily, a second package came today, completely by coincidence on the same day.
Okay, turns out this was a bad power cable. It does boot up but I got a sad mac. The problem is that I also have a very dim screen which could be caused by the brightness knob being in line with the battery damage. There's also some noise that comes out of the speaker. Hard drive spins up at least. I think I'll have to work on this a little more.
The other package that came in was... another HyperDrive. This one I bought on Craigslist prior to the eBay one. I actually messaged JDW about this because it looked earlier from the "less than stellar" pictures posted. More info to come.
The other package that came in was... another HyperDrive. This one I bought on Craigslist prior to the eBay one. I actually messaged JDW about this because it looked earlier from the "less than stellar" pictures posted. More info to come.
Sweet. Well worth the gamble. Good luck finding a working Miniscribe, though.
Just an update on this one. Now I get a checkerboard pattern.
So, here's Macintosh 512k HyperDrive 10 (unit #2). This one is in fantastic shape internally. I only needed to open up to check it and didn't take it apart. It is one of the early ones like JDW has except mine has both front and rear stickers.
Front Nameplate:
Rear Nameplate:
Back bucket removed:
Booted from hard drive (floppy was stuck and went to ? then booted from Hard drive)
I could confirm that the drawer that was open was a HyperDrive drawer and not the floppy.
Doing a "Shutdown" just boots it again so at some point you just have to turn the switch off while at the desktop. The floppy did boot once and the HyperDrive was not there because the driver did not load.
Needless to say, I'm happy with unit#2 and have a project with unit#1.
Front Nameplate:
Rear Nameplate:
Back bucket removed:
Booted from hard drive (floppy was stuck and went to ? then booted from Hard drive)
I could confirm that the drawer that was open was a HyperDrive drawer and not the floppy.
Doing a "Shutdown" just boots it again so at some point you just have to turn the switch off while at the desktop. The floppy did boot once and the HyperDrive was not there because the driver did not load.
Needless to say, I'm happy with unit#2 and have a project with unit#1.
Re: the Miniscribe; it seems to use the very-common-for-20MB-MFM-drives 615/17/4 geometry. (It's sad that I still remember that was PC/AT BIOS drive type #2.) The most common drive with those specs is the Seagate ST-225 but obviously an actual ST-225 won't fit in the case, being a 5 1/4 inch drive; however it would seem in theory at least you could substitute a few other drives, like the Segate ST-124 or ST-4026, without having to modify the driver/formatting software.
Granted, it's not like *any* MFM drives, let alone specific 3.5 inch ones, are exactly easy to find in working order anymore, but the fact that it's a common geometry makes it slightly less hopeless.
Granted, it's not like *any* MFM drives, let alone specific 3.5 inch ones, are exactly easy to find in working order anymore, but the fact that it's a common geometry makes it slightly less hopeless.
Hadn't seen that Hyperdrive logo yet. I'll add it to the collection.
Westcoastech, Thanks for pointing that out. I won't comment on price but the pictures look interesting. Newer labels but older mechanism in that auction.