Thread

Adding a second hard drive to an SE 30

68kMLA · Hardware · 9 posts · Sep 15, 2009 — Sep 16, 2009 View original thread ↗

#1 Tue, 15 Sep 2009 - 19:30 68kMLA

I have a hard drive from a dead LC that I wants to add to my SE 30. I have seen people adding a CD drive but I haven't heard about adding a second hard drive. Has anyone done this?

#2 Tue, 15 Sep 2009 - 20:32 68kMLA

I'll have to look but because of the space in the cases i don't think that its possible.

#3 Tue, 15 Sep 2009 - 21:22 68kMLA

I'm sure it's possible. People have managed to cram two floppy drives and a hard drive into those cases (with a custom mounting bracket, of coarse). It all depends on the size of the hard drive and if your SE/30 can handle the extra power load.

#4 Tue, 15 Sep 2009 - 21:22 68kMLA

I haven't seen 2 hard drives, but I have seen some extended brackets that were for adding a hard disk to a 2-floppy SE / SE 30. I expect with one of those and a bit of creative wiring, you could get 2 HDs in. You'd want both drives to be low power so you don't fry the power supply.

Errr... you did mean add internally? If an external HD is what you're asking about, any ol' SCSI drive enclosure will do. You just have to set the SCSI ID to something different than your internal HD.

#5 Tue, 15 Sep 2009 - 23:05 68kMLA

Apparently no one has seen what I have crammed into an SE/30, which illustrates very clearly what is "possible":

Think "hand made bracket." The possibilities truly are endless.

#6 Tue, 15 Sep 2009 - 23:08 68kMLA

I did this, over 5 years ago. I might have some old pictures somewhere, even. It was no professional job...I used electrical tape for traction and pencil eraser bits as spacers. But it worked!

Apparently no one has seen what I have crammed into an SE/30, which illustrates very clearly what is "possible":

8-o

That's amazing!

#7 Wed, 16 Sep 2009 - 09:57 68kMLA

It is most certainly possible - 9 years ago I was running dual hard drives inside my LCII, if you can do it with an LCII you can definitely do it with an SE/30, or indeed any other Mac with internal SCSI and enough internal space, given that you have a spare 3 connector 50 pin internal SCSI ribbon, and a molex power splitter. My only real concern is that the SE/30, like all other 68ks, is getting old, and I personally would be wary of running dual hard drives or anything else with high power consumption unless you have an auxuillary power supply setup similar to JDW's.

#8 Wed, 16 Sep 2009 - 10:19 68kMLA

I purchased that PSU from Jameco by the way. It wasn't anything special. I bought it specifically to drive my internal 7200rpm hard drive, lessening the load on the stock SE/30 PSU. This was important because at the time I had a 40MHz Turbo 040 in there, among other upgrades. I now have the HD in a HD20SC case sitting beneath the SE/30. That eliminated my need for the secondary PSU and it reduced heat as well.

As you can see, I spent a lot of time getting that PSU to fit just the way I wanted it. But perhaps what took me the longest was opening up the SONY PSU so I could tap the main AC line off the switch. That way the secondary PSU powers on at the same time as the SE/30 does -- all with the flip of the same switch you are accustomed to, on the back of the SE/30.

#9 Wed, 16 Sep 2009 - 19:43 68kMLA

That way the secondary PSU powers on at the same time as the SE/30 does -- all with the flip of the same switch you are accustomed to, on the back of the SE/30.

That's sweet.