18 May
2013
18 May
'13
1:02 p.m.
Hi, All,
I'm cleaning up some older stuff and I have a couple of external Mac
drives back from when I used to use them on a regular basis. I have a
400K M0130 shell (the drive died long ago and the external cable
disappeared after loaning it out nearly as long ago) and I have a few
of "beige" and "platinum" drives.
Right here and now, I have an M0131 in front of me. Google tells me
that it's 800K drive for Mac only (not Apple II), and that if I want
to use it with an old Mac, it has to be one with either the newer ROMs
(i.e., not a 128K or 512K) _or_ I have to run the ancient HD20 HFS
background task (which only works with the 512K, presumably due to
memory usage). I get why I'd need a ROM extension to use it to
read/write an HFS disk, but why would this drive not work with an
unexpanded 128K or 512K Mac as a single-sided 400K MFS drive? I know
Amigas have an "IDENT" feature so that the machine can wiggle some of
the control lines and get back if the drive is 3.5" or 5.25". Did
Apple do something like that?
Ultimately, I just want to have an external drive on the 128K Mac I
have sitting right here. I'd _love_ to have an original working M0130
but I don't need to buy one if I can use something already have here.
Does anyone know technical reasons why the M0131 is different from the
M0130 besides the different mech (slim-line 2 heads vs full-height 1
head)?
I have a memory that the external cable is different by one pin (head
select? head data?) but it's a fuzzy memory. Might it be possible to
"cut" the pin (via an adapter, not with clippers!) to make an 800K
drive appear and act like a 400K drive to a Original-ROM Mac?
Thanks for any input and pointers. All I've turned up is that they
are different and that the M0131 works with a 512K (with software) or
512Ke (new ROMs) natively.
If anyone happens to have cheap guts for an M0130, I have a shell I
wouldn't mine repopulating. The aluminum RF shield is also long gone,
but that can be approximated.
Thanks,
-ethan