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Color Classic Can't Boot From Hard Drive Anymore?
Posted by: EvieSigma on 2018-08-29 20:01:21
I have a Color Classic with a Performa 550 motherboard and a SCSI2SD v5. I installed System 7.1 on it ages ago, used it for a demonstration of AppleTalk at college almost a year ago, and it's sat unused since (I didn't have a keyboard and mouse to spare). Tonight I got another keyboard and decided to use the CC to test it since it's the only compact I have upstairs and now it's giving me a ? floppy like there's no hard drive installed. What did I do wrong? Where should I start with troubleshooting this?
Posted by: IIfx on 2018-08-29 22:22:25
Has the motherboard been recaped? 

A problem I ran into on my CC is the little metal shielding feet on the underside of the logic board getting dislodged and causing a short. I had one of those feet cause SCSI to not work until I placed it in the right position. Check the position of the metal feet.
Posted by: bibilit on 2018-08-29 23:00:35
Stuck Hard drive probably, those don't like to remain unused for too long
Posted by: EvieSigma on 2018-08-30 07:46:13
Stuck Hard drive probably, those don't like to remain unused for too long
It's a SCSI2SD I just put in like a year and a half ago...

I'll have to take a look inside and see if anything's amiss.
Posted by: techknight on 2018-08-30 15:57:14
SD cards can corrupt themselves, especially when used with an OS that isnt solid state aware. 

Check that. 
Posted by: EvieSigma on 2018-08-30 16:33:42
Hmm, I never considered that as a possibility. But how would I find out if its corrupt?
Posted by: techknight on 2018-08-31 06:45:27
re-image it. You could also boot from floppy or CD and use a disk utility on it, like norton or disk warrior or whatever. 

I keep a base SD card for booting machines and I have an image of it using win32diskimager. 

So I make a new one and off and running. 
Posted by: EvieSigma on 2018-08-31 07:46:36
Alright, so is there a way I can set up the SD card with a complete functional install of 7.1 (which is what I have on there) using another computer?
Posted by: techknight on 2018-08-31 14:58:20
My thought is again, boot the machine up with a disk tools disk and figure out if the SD card can be seen/mounted. 

Or if it pops up asking you to initialize the disk again. I would start there. 
Posted by: Realitystorm on 2018-08-31 19:08:31
Alright, so is there a way I can set up the SD card with a complete functional install of 7.1 (which is what I have on there) using another computer?
You should be able to create a image file from you SD card and then mount that file in Basilisk II.  http://www.savagetaylor.com/2018/05/28/setting-up-your-vintage-classic-68k-macintosh-creating-your-own-boot-able-disk-image/
Posted by: EvieSigma on 2018-08-31 20:52:13
My thought is again, boot the machine up with a disk tools disk and figure out if the SD card can be seen/mounted. 

Or if it pops up asking you to initialize the disk again. I would start there. 


I forgot to mention that the floppy drive is funky and probably needs cleaning. Such a pain you have to pull the analog board just to get the floppy drive out...probably why I didn't clean it before.

I'll try the Basilisk thing first.
Posted by: EvieSigma on 2018-09-05 11:42:08
I couldn't get emulators to work so I ended up formatting the SD card and writing a pre-made 7.5.5 disk image to it. Of course, that still doesn't boot, so I don't really know what to do at this point. The SD card is clearly formatted in HFS because Windows 10 can't recognize it but the Color Classic can't boot from it, and since the CC has a bad floppy drive I can't boot it off a floppy and fix the 7.5.5 install that way. The image I used works just fine as the hard drive in an emulator so why doesn't it work to boot my Color Classic?
Posted by: razo on 2018-09-05 13:30:13
Just my 2 cents:

1) unplug/replug scsi cable on both sides

2) perhaps SD card is defect. Try another.
Posted by: EvieSigma on 2018-09-05 13:42:17
The SD card is fine, once it's reformatted as something Windows can recognize it shows up quickly and easily. SCSI cable connection is fine too.

I just can't seem to write the image in such a way that makes it bootable.
Posted by: EvieSigma on 2018-09-06 08:26:28
I had to scrap the 7.5.5 plan and just reinstall the 7.1 installation I originally had on there (that I copied off an external HD). It took a bunch of fiddling around and a good two hour(!!) wait for the HD to initialize but I'm running 7.1 again and I can just upgrade later if I so desire.
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