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CrissCross14

macrumors newbie
Original poster
Oct 2, 2022
5
1
Hi,

I have recently acquired an external SCSI bay where you can insert internal SCSI hard drives, floppy drives, zip drives etc.

I wanted to know if the Macintosh se FDHD supports external floppy drives via the SCSI port. It would be a generic pc floppy drive of course, so I was wondering maybe the SE only supports apple's own external floppy drives via the db19 port

The floppy drive on the SE is currently out of order, and before I attempt to fix it I'd like a way to transfer programs and files onto it.
 

za9ra22

macrumors 65816
Sep 25, 2003
1,441
1,932
This isn't specifically what you are asking for, but have you considered something like the Floppy EMU from Big Mess o' Wires? https://www.bigmessowires.com/floppy-emu/

It isn't cheap, but is an excellent way of providing classic Macs with external drive support for system and software installations.
 

CrissCross14

macrumors newbie
Original poster
Oct 2, 2022
5
1
This isn't specifically what you are asking for, but have you considered something like the Floppy EMU from Big Mess o' Wires? https://www.bigmessowires.com/floppy-emu/

It isn't cheap, but is an excellent way of providing classic Macs with external drive support for system and software installations.
I have considered this, and almost talked about this in the post, but it's a bit expensive, and I'd only be willing to shell out 100$ if it was my only other option. Plus, I feel like it takes the fun and novelty away from having a mechanical floppy drive
 

za9ra22

macrumors 65816
Sep 25, 2003
1,441
1,932
I have considered this, and almost talked about this in the post, but it's a bit expensive, and I'd only be willing to shell out 100$ if it was my only other option. Plus, I feel like it takes the fun and novelty away from having a mechanical floppy drive
I understand that totally. I use one on my Classic II, but actually use the floppy drive too. The Floppy EMU is the source for system software to install, and applications too, and the floppy drive for moving files around.

There are other methods too, such as a BlueSCSI external https://androda.work/product/bluescsi-v2-db25/ which is great for that too, and is rather cheaper. It uses the SCSI port however, so can be problematic with ID and termination - that said, I haven't had any issues with mine.

Anyway, apologies, I'm dragging your thread a bit off-topic!
 

velocityg4

macrumors 604
Dec 19, 2004
7,340
4,727
Georgia
I couldn't say for certain. But given that any old SCSI hard drive needs a third party or modified Apple utility to be made usable. That something like a Zip drive needs an extension added. Also that back in the 90s I couldn't get a SCSI Toshiba CD-ROM not made for Macs to work. I'm going to say that I don't think a SCSI floppy drive made for PC will work without an Extension.
 
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