--- Eric Damien Berna <eric@thiel.com> wrote:
> 
> >I've got a question for all the Mac hardware gurus
> >here.  What are my options as far as putting in a
> >larger hard drive?  I've heard that some mac models
> >will only work with specific apple sanctioned
> drives.
> >Is this true and if so was the Classic II such a
> >system?  Also if I were to buy a current SCSI drive
> >with the 80 pin high density connector and use a 50
> >pin adapter on it, is it likely to work in this
> >system?
> 
> You have a lot of options for replacement hard
> drives.  I've never 
> heard of any Mac model needing specific Apple
> sanctioned drives, and 
> I've been managing Macs since before they supported
> SCSI drives.  The 
> only thing that required Apple sanctioned drives was
> Apple's 
> formatting software, and lately they've even dropped
> that 
> restriction.
> 

That is good to know.  The formatting software is
probably what the guy was talking about

> I'm not sure if you can use a drive with an 80 pin
> connector and use 
> an adaptor.  I think the drives with the 80 pin
> connectors are wide 
> devices, that is they have twice the data lines that
> allows faster 
> data throughput.  If the drive can sense that it is
> connected to a 
> narrow cable, maybe it will work correctly.  I
> suggest trying to find 
> a 50 pin hard drive.
>

When I said 80 pin I was making a guesstimate of the
number of pins on newer drives.  The one's I've seen
have the new high density connectors which I now think
I remember as having 68 pins.  I've set up these
drives on PC's using 50 pin adapters in the past.  I
was just curious as to whether apple had done
something silly or malicious to keep you from using
drives you didn't buy from them.
 
> One other consideration is physical size.  It's been
> a long time 
> since I've seen the inside of a Classic II, but I
> remember that it 
> was somewhat cramped.  There may only be room for a
> third height 
> drive in that space.
>

The drive that is in there now is a standard size 3.5
inch half height drive.  Same size as a PC floppy
drive.  

> Having said that, I must caution you that some
> drives won't work with 
> NetBSD even though they work fine under Mac OS. 
> I've run across a 
> few that just refuse to work with NetBSD, such as a
> Micropolis 4110 
> that refuses to work under NetBSD on both the macppc
> and the mac68k 
> ports.  I'd suggest buying a drive that offers a
> money back return 
> policy, just in case.
>

Good to know, thanks :)

Lee Reynolds
 

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