Mac-Compatible Hard and CD-ROM Drives, Cases - tech info

Directions

This page last updated Sept 14 2003, minor additions since then to 2006. Added SCSI technical page Jan 8 2006 This Web page provides a lot more detail about SCSI versus IDE, descriptions of hard drives and CD-ROM features. If you just want prices, go to this page. Some very old Apple products like the HD20 and HD20 SC and others are described and priced on my collectables page. Sorry if you have to jump around between pages. It's hard to help everyone, some people need more information.

When ordering, please follow this link for ordering information, terms and conditions, and info about orders outside the USA. We will also provide brief instructions when you order.

Introduction

We sell several kinds of hard drives and CD-ROM drives for your Mac. Our sales page is at this link. On this page, we provide some technical descriptions and discussions. Go to our sales page see our inventory and to get prices for specific items. (We also have a few customers with older music synthesizers or samplers: check this section for details.

We sell drives, but we don't offer "how to install" instructions or technical assistance beyond the notes on our Web site. You can check our brief tech notes if you need a bit of technical explanation. But we also suggest you check the Web: the major drive manufacturers have Web sites with a LOT of info, including some "how to" information. A Web search for "SCSI drive install how to" will be informative. Also a Web search on the drive by manufacturer and model name and number will likely find all the tech info on that drive.

If all these selections, terms and features are confusing to you, just explain to me via email and please tell me what drives you are using or plan to connect to your Mac, and what model Mac you have, and what operating system version. I can describe what I have. Please note: all offers are subject to availability; ask what we have in stock but it helps if you can specify your drive needs by price, capacity and/or type of drive.

When ordering, please follow this link for ordering information, terms and conditions, and info about orders outside the USA. We will also provide brief instructions when you order.

• technical details section
• floppy drives & diskettes are on another page..
• Internal hard drives
  • Internal SCSI hard drives
  • Internal IDE hard drives
• CD-ROM drives and comments
  • internal CD-ROM drives
  • external CD-ROM drives
• Iomega ZIP drives
• External SCSI hard drives
• External SCSI-1 cases
• External drives 25 pin SCSI
• SCSI controllers
• SCSI cables and terminators
• CD-ROM caddy or caddies
• drive sleds, rails, carriers, mounting hardware
• Music samplers, synthesizers
• Apple brand HD20 and HD20 SC drives
• External SCSI hard drives, other brands

Mac HARD DRIVES and CD-ROM drives - mostly prices
terms and conditions section: ordering, payment, etc.
...and back to the Mac stuff Home page.

Internal Mac-formatted hard drives

I have internal hard drives available for the Mac, from 80Mb to a few Gigabytes. They fit inside your Mac and hold files and folders and programs; don't confuse hard drives with memory. The older Macs use SCSI internal hard drives, the more recent Macs use IDE or EIDE hard drives: know what YOUR Mac uses before you order. If you need some explanation about "SCSI" or "IDE", please check my brief Tech notes. All SCSI drives have a 50-pin flat cable connectorl the IDE drives use 40 pins.) These hard drives measure 4 inches wide, about 6 inches long, and about an inch tall (unless noted) and are generally called "3.5 inch drives". Laptops use smaller "2.5 inch" drives, check my Mac laptop section for stocks of those.

Internal Mac-formatted SCSI hard drives

Shipping weight 2 lbs for one drive, add one pound per additional drive. "1.5 inch tall" drives are a little taller physically; some Macs don't have the extra space needed but most do. We price them a little lower but they can perform well. All drives are tested and formatted on Mac equipment, we may be able to test them on YOUR model if you inform us. Some older Macs may not work with more recent SCSI drives above about 500MB, because newer drives use "SCSI active termination"; ask for details. All drives subject to availability but we have good stocks of drives below 1GB.

Some Macs require a sled or bracket to attach the hard drive to the Mac cabinet. Specify your Mac model and we can generally identify what you may need to attach and connect the drive. Check my sled and caddy section for prices and descriptions. But if you are replacing an internal drive, you can reuse that hardware and cabling.

Prices and sizes of SCSI internal drives are on another page.

Internal Mac-formatted IDE drives

Shipping weight 2 lbs for one drive, add one pound per additional drive. All drives are tested and formatted on Mac equipment, we may be able to test them on YOUR model if you inform us. Some Macs require a sled or bracket to attach the hard drive to the Mac cabinet. Specify your Mac model and we can generally identify what you may need to attach and connect the drive. Check my sled and caddy section for prices and descriptions. But if you are replacing an internal drive, you can reuse that hardware and cabling and sled. If you want a specific brand and model number of drive, we charge an additional $5, of course assuming we have that particular drive in stock.

Prices and sizes of IDE internal drives are on another page.

Sleds, rails, brackets for internal drives

Prices and types of sleds, rails, etc. are on another page. Check there and specify your Mac model when you order. Check the info below if you are not sure what these are.

Most CD-ROM drives and internal hard drives require a sled or rails which attach the drive to the Mac cabinet. Sleds are typically plastic devices which screw underneath a drive. Rails are a pair of plastic bars which attach to either side of a CD-ROM, for Macs like the 7100 which have drives that slide in and out. Brackets are typically pieces of sheet metal which form a cage around the drive; these are more common to older, pre-PowerMac systems. Specify your Mac model and we can generally identify what you may need to attach and connect a drive.
PLEASE SPECIFY a Mac computer model when ordering these, not an Apple part number.

When ordering, please follow this link for ordering information, terms and conditions, and info about orders outside the USA.

The CD-ROM drives I sell are used, tested, and pulled from other Macs. The internal drives are intended to be replacement drives and do not include cables, mechanical parts, and additional OS system CD-ROM extensions - I sell some of those seperately. External CD-ROM drives will need a SCSI cable and generally a SCSI terminator, which we can provide at additional cost. Prices for CD-ROM drives, caddy or caddies, and trays to hold the drives are listed on my drives Web page.

Some of the older CD-ROM drives require a caddy, which is a plastic box that you insert the CD-ROM disk into, then the caddy goes into the drive. "Caddyless" drives have a tray that pops out of the drive, you lay the CD disk onto the tray and it retracts into the drive.

CD-ROM caddies are priced on another page. You do not need these with tray-type CD-ROM drives.

The speed of a CD-ROM drive is described as a multiple of the speed of an audio CD: "2x" means twice as fast, "8X" eight times as fast, etc. For many older Macs, an older or slower CD-ROM drive is adequate; many of these Macs do not have the performance or features to take advantage of faster CD-ROM drives. Note: the Apple CD150 external drives (1X speed) may not provide audio via the SCSI connector to your Mac; these drives are probably best used with Compact Macs and other older Macs without extensive audio capabilities.

Apple used the following CD-ROM drives:
for the CDSC: Sony CDU-8001
for the CD SC+: Sony CDU-8002
for the CD150 (1x): Sony CDU 8002, Sony CDU-541-25
For the CD300 or 300i (2X): Matshita CR-8004; Sony CR-503C, Sony CR-503K; Sony 561-25; for the CD600 or 600i (4X): Sony CDU-75S

If you are upgrading a Mac with a faster CD-ROM drive, please note that System 7 only recognizes a limited number of Apple drive models. CD-ROM drives such as the 8X or 12X drives were sold AFTER System 7, and so these drives may not be recognized as "Apple" drives by System 7. There are some "aftermarket" or "third party" software programs which allow Macs to use non-Apple drives, including packages which were sold with drives by other companies. Those software packages MAY, or MAY NOT, recognize the later Apple drives. There was an article about Apple's CD-ROM support in "C't Magazine" years ago; as of Sept 2005 a copy of that article is on this Web site. The article is by Andreas Beier, "The MacOS & third-party CD- and DVD-ROM drives".

Prices and sizes of internal CD-ROM drives are on another page.

Prices and sizes of external CD-ROM drives are on another page.

CD-ROM caddies are priced on another page. You do not need these with tray-type CD-ROM drives.

Here's an older Apple product: AppleCD SC model M2850 is apparently an early Apple external CD drive. It uses the Sony CDU-8001 or 8002 drive. It requires a caddy but is older and larger than the CD150 above. I have a few of these: check our Mac collectables section for details.

Follow this link for SCSI cables.

When ordering, please follow this link for ordering information, terms and conditions, and info about orders outside the USA.

Apple brand external hard drives

The HD20 Apple hard drive (HD20) connects to a Mac 128K, 512K, or later Mac via the 19-pin DB-19 floppy connector. It is not SCSI. For more technical discussion of the HD20, see our HD20 Tech Section. Prices and conditions for the HD20 and HD20 SC are all listed in my collectables section.
The Apple Hard Disk 20 SC (HD20 SC) is a SCSI drive, which connects to the Mac Plus and later Macs via the 25-pin DB-25 SCSI connector. They use a DB-25 to SCSI-1 cable and the external drive has a pair of SCSI-1 connectors. Prices and conditions for the Apple HD20 SC, HD40 SC, and similar later models are all listed in my collectables section.

Additional information and discussion about external hard drives is my hard drive sales page.

When ordering, please follow this link for ordering information, terms and conditions, and info about orders outside the USA.

External SCSI-1 hard drives: non-Apple brands

When ordering, please follow this link for ordering information, terms and conditions, and info about orders outside the USA.

These cases are described and priced on another page.

When ordering, please follow this link for ordering information, terms and conditions, and info about orders outside the USA.

SCSI-2 cabinets, drives

note: my SCSI-2 cabinet list has been moved to my SGI/Sun/DEC Web page.

SCSI controllers

Check my Mac NuBus section for Apple and other brands of NuBus and PCI SCSI controller cards: these are used pulls from Mac computers.

SCSI cables and terminators

When ordering, please follow this link for ordering information, terms and conditions, and info about orders outside the USA.

Music samplers, synthesizers

Note for Roland music sampler customers: some people buy these drives, cases and cables for their digital music sampler equipment. Roland is one manufacturer of synthesizers and samplers. Please do a Web search for your sampler versus Mac/Apple drives to confirm compatibility. When ordering from me, tell me what kind of SCSI connector is on your sampler so I can possibly offer a matching cable. I don't have your sampler so I can't guarantee results. But I do have a file of some information you may find informative.

Please note We can only provide a limited amount of information here to assist our customers, It is up to you, the customer to determine your hard drive needs. We try to answer some common questions here, but we can't be responsible if it is incomplete or in error. We would appreciate any corrections.

Brief Tech Summary

Most older Macs used SCSI hard drives until the G3 and later Macs wich used IDE or ATA hard drives. Apple also used IDE internal hard drives in some Quadras and Performas. External hard drives are almost all SCSI, not IDE (until the much later FireWire or USB external drives.) A simple way to determine if a drive is SCSI or IDE is to count the pins on the connector to the large flat cable; SCSI drives have 50 pins, two rows of 25, IDE drives have 40 pins, two rows of 20. Here's a picture of a SCSI hard drive and its connector. Note that all older Macs with CD-ROMS used SCSI CD-ROM drives, even the Macs which also use IDE hard drives.

Most older Macs use a DB-25 connector to external SCSI devices (primarily hard drives): it is on the back of the computer. Many older external SCSI devices use a SCSI-1 connector, also called a Centronic 50-pin connector. Here is a typical cable used to connect the two.

Our internal SCSI drives are compatible with most older Macs, and tested for proper startup, good operation on a Mac, and are Mac initialized (formatted). Most of our external SCSI cabinets are generally low, flat cabinets about ten inches by ten inches and a few inches tall. Larger cabinets are available. Most of our external drive cabinets have extra AC outlets, so the external drive's AC power switch can also switch other AC devices.

Please note: the cabinet is just a box for the drive or CD-ROM; Many of our external SCSI cabinets are not made by Apple but it is the SCSI drive inside which must be compatible with your Mac.

See the notes below for more discussion of SCSI and IDE drives, termination, the HD 20 series, and other features. Also, most of the images on this page are linked to larger images, click on them to see more details. If these selections and features are confusing to you, just explain to me via email what drives you are using or planning to connect to your Mac, what model Mac you have, and I can describe what I have. Please check our terms and conditions section for our terms of sale.

SCSI drives

IDE drives

CD-ROM SCSI drives

SCSI Termination

Newer hard drives have what is called "active termination". The termination is NOT a set of resistors, it is circuitry on the drive which must be "disabled" or "enabled" via a jumper block. There is typically a jumper position on the drive labled "term enable": leave the jumper ON to enable termination, OFF to disable it.

If you use the drive as the ONLY drive on a SCSI cable (internal or external), or at the END of that cable, then the terminator on the drive must be enabled or installed. If you use this drive with other drives on a cable and it is NOT at the end of the cable, the terminator must be disabled or removed.

More info about drive jumpers can generally be found by a Web search for that brand and model drive: most manufacturers provide data sheets online.

Hard drive sounds

Hard drive SCSI addressing

Apple HD 20 (floppy connected) hard drive

SUMMARY: The Mac HD20 is NOT a SCSI-connected drive. It has a 19-pin connector that connects to the Mac *FLOPPY PORT*. It is also the only hard drive that will work with an unmodified Mac 512K. It has its own cable too. But you may need a system extension to operate the HD20. Check our operating system section of our software page for old system software for the HD20 and the 128k & 512K.

Most people who are interested in the HD20 want to use a hard drive with their Mac 128K, Mac 512K or Mac 512KE. Those Macs, if unmodified, DO NOT HAVE (normally) a SCSI drive connector (DB-25) or SCSI controller inside. The Mac SCSI connector on later systems is a 25-pin connector, the DB-25. The normal 512K or 128K Mac has only a 19-pin connector for the external floppy. So Apple designed the HD20, which uses the external FLOPPY connector (DB-19) and a special external hard drive designed to use that floppy connector; and additional software to run that drive on those Macs. That Apple external hard drive is an Apple HD20, which has an internal 20MB hard drive which is special to that product - not a standard SCSI hard drive which is internal to later Macs and to later external SCSI hard drives from Apple and other companies.

But it is possible a Mac 128K or 512K may have a product in it which HAS a dB-25 SCSI connector, and so allows the use of external SCSI drives. Or it's possible a 512K or 128K was upgraded to a Mac PLUS, which has a DB-25 SCSI connector. Examine your Mac and confirm if it has a SCSI connector and a SCSI controller inside.

I've accumulated some notes from the Web about the HD20. Check this file for some of them. For general information, here is something from Paul "neon" Gooch:

The Mac 128 and 512k will need [the HD20 INIT] extension to use the HD20.
The Mac 512ke and Plus do not. Basically the 64k ROM, 400k drive Macs need the
extension and 128k ROM, 800k drive Macs don't. The 128k ROM as well as the
HD20 INIT give the required HFS instead of MFS of the 64k ROM. In fact your
Mac512k can also use an external 800k disk drive with the HD20 INIT (and
this works out well, 400k internal, HD20 hard drive, 800k external floppy).
The early Macs can support up to 3 floppy devices (including the one
inside)."

Paul "neon" Gooch (neong@gte.net) [quoted with permission]

More Apple HD 20 and related info (by permission)

To: "Classic Posts" 
From: [Paul "neon" Gooch]
Subject: Macintosh 128K answers
Date: Sun, 12 Jul 1998 08:38:01 -0500

After testing I have come up with the following:

[Removed- note about how 128K "can't" run an HD20, which is not correct.]

A Macintosh 128K cannot participate on an AppleTalk network.
- I tried various System/Finder combinations - nothing.
- When you open the Chooser on later System versions it will beep and not
  open.
- What I did get is an error stating the Mac cannot open AppleTalk. I
  suspect a memory issue.
- The AppleShare INIT will give me an error 02 on startup - It works on a
  Macintosh 512K.
- I saw no AppleTalk activity on the LAN at all - I do have some LocalTalk
  connectors with the LED lights telling if there is any traffic.
- AppleShare 1.1 states you need a Macintosh 512K or higher to operate as a
  workstation. I definitely believe this now.

Public Folder
- Works on a Macintosh 512K but not on a Macintosh 128K.
- When the Chooser is opened and Public Folder is selected, it will not list
  any other Public Folders on the LAN.
- I saw no AppleTalk activity on the LAN at all - I do have some LocalTalk
  connectors with the LED lights telling if there is any traffic.

I used System versions 2.0 - 4.2, Finder versions 1.1g - 5.5 and different
Chooser versions (I am not sure about the version numbers).

If anyone has any other suggestions I like to hear them,
G.
The Mac 512
www.athenet.net/~gyounk
(note: check Herb's Mac Web pointers section to find this site)

Notes on 128K and HD20

From: Paul Grammens (grammens ATT svn.net)
Subject: Re: HD20
Newsgroups: comp.sys.apple2
Date: 2002-03-14 10:22:01 PST 

Here's a little info on the HD20. Couldn't find much on the net.
-Paul

It cost over $1000 new in 1986 (although I believe it was introduced
sometime in 1985). Inside is a 3.5" HH Rodime 552 disk, which actually has
an Apple Disk Drive interface right on it. I had expected some sort of
conversion circuitry (like the old Sun ESDI->SCSI boards), but there
isn't.

(400k)
  Average seek: 415 ms
    Rotational: 394, 429, 472, 525, 590 RPM
Burst transfer: 489.6 Kbits/sec (serial)

(HD20)
  Average seek: 85 ms
    Rotational: 2744 RPM
Burst transfer: 500 Kbits/sec (serial)

It looks like the 500kbits/sec is a limitation of the floppy interface and
not of any device on it.

Anyway, since the 512k only knows how to boot from the internal floppy,
and speaks only MFS (the original, flat Mac File System---the folders are
purely ornamental! Stupid trivia bit: folders on MFS disks have one extra
pixel) on a 400k disk drive, Apple got creative with their solution:

The Apple HD20 INIT (introduced with System Software 1.1) patches the ROM
to allow the use of HFS (a 20 meg flat file system would be a horrible
mess), the HD20, and the 800k disk drive.

Insert the boot disk with 1.1 and the HD20 INIT, the Mac boots half-way,
spits out the disk, and continues from the HD20. Kind of neat.

On the Plus (and presumably 512ke), which speaks HFS and 800k disk drive
natively, you can boot right off the HD20. But the Plus has SCSI, so this
is trivial."

------------------------------------------------------------

Re: Apple 20 MB HD w/ Floppy Interface

    * From: Phil Beesley
    * Subject: Re: Apple 20 MB HD w/ Floppy Interface
    * Date: Thu, 12 Jun 2003 14:29:04 -0700 

The most intelligent discussion of the HD20 I've seen can be found at
[article from comp.sys.apple2 as copied above ] It contains a pretty good
description of what is inside the HD20 and some speculation from 
knowledgeable people about how it works.

If you find that an HD20 doesn't work, this snippet (from a net.micro.mac
 usenet posting in the 1980s) about the HD20 test utility may be useful:

"Jeff I tried it and it worked fine. For those curious, if you hit Cmd-D at the
initial dialog box on the HD20 test it then shows two windows: one has boxes
containing Block Count, Iteration, Soft Rate, Hard Rate, Comm Rate, Loops,
Total Blocks, and Failure Code. There is also a radio button labelled Dstrct
which, I believe, will allow you to reformat the hard disk. The program also
creates a document file that has a log of the tests done and the results."

The HD20 test app is on the boot disk originally supplied with the drive. 
Apple allegedly also had a couple of in-house utilities called HD Diag and
 Scavenger Mac for fixing HD20s.

Phil
---