Macintosh Portable

13 posts / 0 new
Last post
Offline
Last seen: 11 years 8 months ago
Joined: Oct 7 2005 - 09:23
Posts: 87
Macintosh Portable

I stumbled onto a Macintosh Portable and have already replaced the floppy drive and the battery.

It runs now but I could REALLY REALLY use a working hard drive for this thing. Its the odd Conner drive, and unfortunately mine wont actually work when needed (spins down when being formatted or read)

If somebody could help me out, I would greatly appreciate it.

Thanks,

Britt

eeun's picture
Offline
Last seen: 1 year 6 months ago
Joined: Dec 19 2003 - 17:34
Posts: 1895
Anyone know if the internal I

Anyone know if the internal IDE is able to boot using a compact flash to IDE adapter?
Google didn't help me here. Closest I could find for non-standard IDE was the Powerbook 150 CF adapter

Just seems like it would be a longer-lasting solution...unless you want to keep the Portable's internals historically accurate.

Offline
Last seen: 11 years 8 months ago
Joined: Oct 7 2005 - 09:23
Posts: 87
unfortunately there are two i

unfortunately there are two issues with this:

*For OS booting and general activity, CF isnt suited for that task. Reason is, each sector on a flash drive can only be written to around 200,000 times before degredation occurs in the SDRAM chips used in CF and flash drives. The alternative, of course, is a IBM MicroDrive.
*The Mac portable isnt standard SCSI, nor is it IDE. Its a 34-pin SCSI connection with most of the redundant grounds omitted. Takes the amount of available drives for use with the Portable down to very few.

eeun's picture
Offline
Last seen: 1 year 6 months ago
Joined: Dec 19 2003 - 17:34
Posts: 1895
Whoops...my bad. Googling for

Whoops...my bad. Googling for the Conner CP-3044 (noted as a potential replacment drive by LEM) comes up with a lot of vendors flogging it as an IDE.

Eudimorphodon's picture
Offline
Last seen: 3 months 3 hours ago
Joined: Dec 21 2003 - 14:14
Posts: 1207
Google is your friend

Break out the cable crimper:

http://antinode.org/mac/port_scsi.html

An outfit called MicroMac "sells" a pre-assembled version:

http://www.micromac.com/products/portable_scsi.html

For $35. However, MicroMac is well known for having a questionable reputation, so buyer beware if you go that route.

--Peace

Jon
Jon's picture
Offline
Last seen: 13 years 4 months ago
Joined: Dec 20 2003 - 10:38
Posts: 2804
Sweet! I hadn't though to ev

Sweet! I hadn't though to even look for something like that. I may give it a go if I ever fix my Portable Sad Mac issue. I'm fairly sure the HD is a goner anyway, and I'm not sure if it's causing the problem, or if it's old caps somewhere.

Offline
Last seen: 11 years 8 months ago
Joined: Oct 7 2005 - 09:23
Posts: 87
I ran into the hex codes and

I ran into the hex codes and what they mean, i have to dig that up again.

you should grab those codes and put them up.

DrBunsen's picture
Offline
Last seen: 10 years 3 months ago
Joined: Dec 20 2003 - 10:38
Posts: 946
Micromac is well known for no

Micromac is well known for not existing

Eudimorphodon's picture
Offline
Last seen: 3 months 3 hours ago
Joined: Dec 21 2003 - 14:14
Posts: 1207
Re: Micromac is well known for no

Micromac is well known for not existing

I wonder who pays their webhosting bills.

The webpage has always given me these strange mental images of a crazy, broken old hermet sitting in a darkened basement surrounded by dusty boxes of worthless electronics, just waiting for the phone to ring just *one more time*...

--Peace

Offline
Last seen: 11 years 8 months ago
Joined: Oct 7 2005 - 09:23
Posts: 87
Well, I seem to believe that

Well, I seem to believe that the site is down too--I emailed support and havent recieved any infomration.

I dont want my credit info going to some email address to sit around for any length of time.

iantm's picture
Offline
Last seen: 3 years 7 months ago
Joined: Apr 2 2005 - 14:01
Posts: 709
Come on ... You've got to adm

Come on ... You've got to admit that you want a 75 mhz 603e logic board upgrade for your Performa 630, and $449 is a very reasonable price for such a cutting edge piece of technology.

Offline
Last seen: 11 years 8 months ago
Joined: Oct 7 2005 - 09:23
Posts: 87
thats the other blatently obv

thats the other blatently obvious hint that the site isnt 'active'

Offline
Last seen: 11 years 8 months ago
Joined: Oct 7 2005 - 09:23
Posts: 87
I bit the bullet and bought a

I bit the bullet and bought an original Conner drive.

Log in or register to post comments