Mac SE w/dual floppies - where is the System stored?

[indigo_k]

Hey gang, this is going to be a kind of elementary question I'm sure, but I'm working on getting a Mac SE with dual floppy drives up and running, and I'm trying to understand whether I'm going to need a System disk every time I boot it up, or if the system gets installed on the internal startup ROM. Eventually I plan on running it with a PiSCSI, but that's not working yet either.

 

[JdM74]

Hi there. You'd need a system disk each time you start up. There is no storage in ROM. Once you have your SD card solution in place, no more need for a system disk, since you'd have a System Folder there.

 

[indigo_k]

Ah, okay, I was worried about that. It's okay, I did pick up a System 6 floppy not long ago, but it appears the floppy drive isn't reading anything right now. SO that's my next step I guess!

Explains why so many of the .dsk images I've found include a System folder on them.

 

[JdM74]

Good that you have system disks...those can be gotten from multiple sources online [for multiple versions].

If you're going inside your SE...clean, lubricate, change the cheese gear and recap the drives. You'll save a lot of headaches later on. For a good reference on how to do all of that, check out this video produced by JDW -

.

 

[indigo_k]

Good that you have system disks...those can be gotten from multiple sources online [for multiple versions].

If you're going inside your SE...clean, lubricate, change the cheese gear and recap the drives. You'll save a lot of headaches later on. For a good reference on how to do all of that, check out this video produced by JDW -

.

Absolutely! One of my goals is to clean these up and make them as like-new as I can, and JDWs floppy drive videos have been a great guide.

 

[indigo_k]

And actually watching that specific video, I think I might take a couple of these drives and use them as my first recapping project!

 

[nottomhanks]

Hey there, I also have the dual floppy SE, there is an internal SCSI port on the logic board, so it’s easy to toss a BlueSCSI in there and mount it on top of the floppy drives. You could also get a BlueSCSI caddy that installs on tbe rear bracket for easy switching of SD cards!

 

[indigo_k]

I do have a PiSCSI running now and it's working great through the external SCSI ports. I'm not sure I'm going to be keeping any of these SEs, so i didn't want to go with an internal solution. But I will definitely recommend it when I do decide to pass these on to new homes.