Also known as | Macintosh SE FDHD Macintosh SE SuperDrive |
---|---|
Manufacturer | Apple Computer, Inc. |
Product family | Compact Macintosh |
Type | All-in-one |
Release date | March 2, 1987; 33 years ago |
Introductory price | US$2900 (dual floppy) US$3900 (with 20 MB hard drive) |
Discontinued | October 15, 1990 |
Operating system | System 4.0 - System 7.5.5 |
CPU | Motorola 68000 @ 7.8 MHz |
Memory | 1-4 MB RAM (4x 150ns 30-pin SIMM) |
Display | 9 inches (23 cm) monochrome, 512 × 342 |
Dimensions | Height: 13.6 inches (35 cm) Width: 9.69 inches (24.6 cm) Depth: 10.9 inches (28 cm) |
Mass | 17 pounds (7.7 kg) |
Predecessor | Macintosh 512Ke Macintosh Plus |
Successor | Macintosh SE/30 Macintosh Classic Macintosh Portable |
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The Macintosh SE is a personal computer designed, manufactured, and sold by Apple Computer, Inc. from March 1987[1] to October 1990. It marked a significant improvement on the Macintosh Plus design and was introduced by Apple at the same time as the Macintosh II.
The SE retains the same Compact Macintosh form factor as the original Macintosh computer introduced three years earlier and uses the same design language used by the Macintosh II. An enhanced model, the SE/30 was introduced in January 1989; sales of the original SE continued. The Macintosh SE was updated in August 1989 to include a SuperDrive, with this updated version being called the 'Macintosh SE FDHD' and later the 'Macintosh SE SuperDrive'. The Macintosh SE was replaced with the Macintosh Classic, a very similar model which retained the same central processing unit and form factor, but at a lower price point.
Overview[edit]
The Macintosh SE was introduced at the AppleWorld conference in Los Angeles on March 2, 1987. The 'SE' is an acronym for 'System Expansion'.[2] Its notable new features, compared to its similar predecessor, the Macintosh Plus, were:
- First compact Macintosh with an internal drive bay for a hard disk (originally 20 MB or 40 MB) or a second floppy drive.
- First compact Macintosh that featured an expansion slot.
- First Macintosh to support the Apple Desktop Bus (ADB), previously only available on the Apple IIGS, for keyboard and mouse connections.
- Improved SCSI support with faster data throughput and a standard 50-pin internal SCSI connector.
- Better reliability and longer life expectancy (15 years of continuous use)[3] due to the addition of a cooling fan.
- Upgraded video circuitry that results in a lower percentage of CPU time being spent drawing the screen. In practice this results in a 10-20 percent performance improvement.[4]
- Additional fonts and kerning routines in the Toolbox ROM[3]
- Disk First Aid is included on the system disk
The SE and Macintosh II were the first Apple computers since the Apple I to be sold without a keyboard. Instead the customer was offered the choice of the new ADB Apple Keyboard or the Apple Extended Keyboard.
Apple produced ten SEs with transparent cases as prototypes for promotional shots and employees. They are extremely rare and command a premium price for collectors.[5]
Operating system[edit]
The Macintosh SE shipped with System 4.0 and Finder 5.4; this version is specific to this computer.[6] (The Macintosh II, which was announced at the same time but shipped a month later, includes System 4.1 and Finder 5.5.) The README file included with the installation disks for the SE and II is the first place Apple ever used the term 'Macintosh System Software', and after 1998 these two versions were retroactively given the name 'Macintosh System Software 2.0.1'.[7]
Hardware[edit]
Processor: Motorola 68000, 8 MHz, with an 8 MHz system bus and a 16-bit data path
RAM: The SE came with 1 MB of RAM as standard, and is expandable to 4 MB. The logic board has four 30-pin SIMM slots; memory must be installed in pairs and must be 150 ns or faster.
Video: The built-in 512 × 342 monochrome screen uses 21,888 bytes of main memory as video memory.
Storage: The SE can accommodate either one or two floppy drives, or a floppy drive and a hard drive. After-market brackets were designed to allow the SE to accommodate two floppy drives as well as a hard drive, however it was not a configuration supported by Apple. In addition an external floppy disk drive may also be connected, making the SE the only Macintosh besides the Macintosh Portable which could support three floppy drives, though its increased storage, RAM capacity and optional internal hard drive rendered the external drives less of a necessity than for its predecessors. Single-floppy SE models also featured a drive-access light in the spot where the second floppy drive would be. Hard-drive equipped models came with a 20 MB SCSI hard disk.
Battery: Soldered into the logic board is a 3.6 V 1/2AA lithium battery, which must be present in order for basic settings to persist between power cycles. Macintosh SE machines which have sat for a long time have experienced battery corrosion and leakage, resulting in a damaged case and logic board.
Mac Os X Floppy Drive Support
Expansion: A Processor Direct Slot on the logic board allows for expansion cards, such as accelerators, to be installed. The SE can be upgraded to 50 MHz and more than 5 MB with the MicroMac accelerators. In the past other accelerators were also available such as the Sonnet Allegro. Since installing a card required opening the computer's case and exposing the user to high voltages from the internal CRT, Apple recommended that only authorized Apple dealers install the cards; the case was sealed with then-uncommon Torx screws.
Upgrades: After Apple introduced the Macintosh SE/30 in January, 1989, a logic board upgrade was sold by Apple dealers as a high-cost upgrade for the SE, consisting of a new SE/30 motherboard, case front and internal chassis to accommodate the upgrade components.
Easter egg: The Macintosh SE ROM size increased from 64 KB in the original Mac and 128 KB in the Mac Plus to 256 KB, which allowed the development team to include an Easter Egg hidden in the ROMs. By jumping to address 0x41D89A or reading from the ROM chips it is possible to display the four images of the engineering team.[8][9]
Inside the Macintosh SE
The main PCB from a 1988 Macintosh SE
Models[edit]
Introduced March 2, 1987:
- Macintosh SE[10]
Introduced August 1, 1989:
- Macintosh SE FDHD: Includes the new SuperDrive, a floppy disk drive that can handle 1.4 MB High Density (HD) floppy disks. FDHD is an acronym for 'Floppy Disk High Density'; later some Macintosh SE FDHDs were labeled Macintosh SE Superdrive, to conform to Apple's marketing change with respect to their new drive. High-density floppies would become the de facto standard on both the Macintosh and PC computers from then on. An upgrade kit was sold for the original Macintosh SE which included new ROM chips and a new disk controller chip, to replace the originals.[11]
- Macintosh SE 1/20: The name of the Macintosh SE FDHD with a 20 MB HDD when sold in Europe.
- Macintosh SE 1/40: The name of the Macintosh SE FDHD with a 40 MB HDD when sold in Europe.
Timeline of compact Macintosh models
See also[edit]
References[edit]
- ^Joel West (March 2, 1987). 'Macintosh II and Macintosh SE announced'. Newsgroup: comp.sys.mac. Usenet:[email protected]. Retrieved January 26, 2014.
- ^Goodin, Sue; Wilson, Dave (April 1987). 'Programming the New Macs'. Vol. 3 no. 5. MacTech.Cite magazine requires
|magazine=
(help) - ^ ab'How the SE Really Differs'. MacWorld Magazine. May 1987. p. 116.
- ^'Vectronic's Macintosh SE'.
- ^'Transparent Macintosh SE'. Low End Mac. Retrieved February 8, 2007.
- ^'Macintosh hardware releases'. earlymacintosh.org.
- ^'Macintosh: System Software Version History'.
- ^'Macintosh Plus Easter Egg - Image of Designers in ROM'. September 12, 1999. Retrieved January 26, 2014.
- ^Trammell Hudson (August 21, 2012). 'Ghosts in the ROM'. NYC Resistor. Archived from the original on February 17, 2015. Retrieved January 26, 2014.
- ^'Macintosh SE: Technical Specifications'. Apple.
- ^'Macintosh SE FDHD: Technical Specifications'. Apple.
External links[edit]
Wikimedia Commons has media related to Macintosh SE. |
- The Mac SE Support Pages Repair & upgrade advice.
- Mac SE Low End Mac
Retrieved from 'https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Macintosh_SE&oldid=963978329'
Jun 08, 2020 • Filed to: Answer Hard Drive Problems • Proven solutions
While trying to copy my crucial data from one of my floppy disks, I got the message “You need to format the disk, before using it.” Can anyone suggest how to format the floppy disk without losing data?
Floppy disk is a portable storage device that is capable of storing your computer data. As earlier, there were no USB or CD-ROM drives, so it was the only medium to store information. Because of its low capacity, it is not widely used now. But some people use floppy diskettes to store small files.
Like other external storage devices, a floppy disk is also prone to corruption. On developing some faults, it starts displaying error messages to format a disk for making it usable.
Instead of following the message, read this article to recover and read files of your floppy disk. We will guide you with the different ways of formatting disks on Windows and Mac operating systems and how to recover data with the Recoverit data recovery software.
- Part 1: Overview of Formatting Floppy Disk
- Part 2: How to Format Floppy Disk in Windows 10/8/7
- Part 3: How to Format Floppy Disk on Mac
- Part 4: How to Recover Data from Hard Drive after Format?
Part 1- Overview of Formatting Floppy Disk
The primary hardware- floppy disk is used for storing and transferring a small amount of data between different computers. But the disk can encounter problems and lead to data corruption which displays error messages that requires formatting of the drive.
What is a floppy disk?
The thin and flexible magnetic storage device that is enclosed in a sealed square plastic case is known as floppy, diskette, or disk. There are three standard sizes of floppy disks. The first invented size was 8-inch, and then it came in 5¼-inch with a storing capacity from 100K to 1.2MB. Later microfloppies were also invented with a size of 3½-inch and have the largest storing capacity from 400K to 1.4MB.
You can read or write data to the removable diskette drive, but they are slower to access. Now it is no longer a familiar storage device because of its less storage capacity in comparison to other storage mediums like USB drives, etc.
What does formatting a floppy disk mean? Does formatting a floppy disk erase data?
Formatting a floppy disk means to prepare it for first-time use. However, mostly the disks come pre-formatted. But with time the initial formatting is lost, and disk can become corrupted. So, it is also required and done at later stages to erase the corrupted data, or to create additional space, etc. The format will provide you the access to an empty and new disk.
Formatting a floppy disk is beneficial in many ways, but the process should be initiated only when it is essential.
Are you wondering if formatting will erase the stored floppy disk information? Well, the answer to your question is absolute, yes! Formatting will surely erase the stored or pre-existing data of your drive or disk. It is necessary to take a backup before you begin to format floppy disk. The backup enables you to restore your files after formatting.
Reasons for Formatting Floppy Disk
Various reasons lead to formatting of the floppy disk. Some of the error messages or formatting reasons are:
- Drive non-accessible
- The device is not ready
- Floppy disk corrupted because of virus attack or bad sectors
- Disk not detected or unrecognized by computer
- Accidental format
- Floppy disk converts to RAW drive
- Capacity: Set it to 3.5', 1.44MB
- File System: Select FAT. It is the supported file system for Windows, Linux, and Mac.
- Allocation unit size: Set this to default allocation size
- Volume Label: Select the name for the disk that appears on insertion; it should not be more than 16 characters.
- Format options: The quick format will delete the data quickly, but the information is not deleted securely in this way. So you can leave it unchecked.
- /fs:filesystem – As per your requirements, write FAT, exFAT, FAT32, NTFS, or UDF in place of the filesystem.
- /v:label - Replace label with the name that you have provided to the disk. But it should be under 16 characters only.
- /q - For quick format.
- /c - It will compress the added files automatically (NTFS only).
- /p:# - Overwrites the disk space with 0s and later with random numbers for each count. Here # is the number of the count.
- When your floppy disk becomes corrupted or develops any fault, don’t let the drive occur any physical damage. Only then you would be able to repair it and retrieve your data.
- Eject the disk safely by following the right disconnection method or turning them off before ejecting. Failing to do it can lead to data corruption.
- Taker backup of the data before performing any repairing solutions.
Part 2- How to Format Floppy Disk in Windows 10/8/7
Whether you work on Windows 10, 8 or 7, you can format the floppy disk with in-built formatting tools or with Command Prompt. But remember formatting will erase all the stored information, so make sure you have backup or data saved at a secure drive. Learn the different ways of how do you erase a floppy disk?
Format by File Explorer
File explorer is the computer program that allows you to manage different folders and files through its user interface. Begin floppy disk formatting with it by below steps.
Step 1- Insert Floppy Disk and Open the Run Dialogue Box
Before looking for the required disk that needs formatting, confirm it is inserted with right-side-up, and the disk should not be in the locked state. Click on Start and type run; it will open the Run dialogue box
Step 2- Open Explorer and Click on My Computer
In the Open: field type explorer and click on OK. You can also open it by pressing ⊞ Win+E to see all the drives, by clicking on my computer.
Step 3- Right-click on the Floppy Disk and then select Format
From the available list of drives, select the floppy disk that is usually represented as A: or B: and then click on the Format from the File menu.
Step 4- Choose the Settings
Once you click on the format, you will come across a window, as shown in the image below. Set the parameters as mentioned below:
Step 5- Click on Start and Then on OK
Begin the format by clicking on the start button. When the confirmation box appears, click on OK to continue formatting of the floppy disk.
When the formatting completes it displays the window showing Format Complete. Click on OK and close the window. Your floppy is ready for use now.
Format by Command Prompt
The command-line interpreter is available in almost all Windows operating systems. You can format the floppy disk with the inbuilt command prompt with the below –mentioned steps.
Step 1- Open Command Prompt
Press ⊞ Win+R from the keyboard and type cmd in the run dialogue box.
Step 2- Insert Floppy Disk
Ensure to insert the disk first before looking for it in the computer, and it should not be in the locked state.
Step 3- Type: format *:
Begin the basic formatting by typing the above command. Here * is the letter that is assigned to the floppy drive by the computer.
Step 4- Confirm the Formatting
When prompted press Y and confirm to start the formatting.
You can modify the format by adding several switches at the end of the format command.
For Vista and later operating systems, it is the best way to erase the sensitive information from the computer completely.
Fix “Windows 10 Unable to Format Floppy Disk”
While formatting the floppy disk are you getting the message “Windows 10 unable to format floppy disk?” If you are receiving the mentioned error message, you can fix it with Windows Disk Management.
Follow these steps to fix the issue.
Step 1- Go to Computer and click on Manage
Right-click on the “My Computer” or “Computer” menu and from the available options, click on Manage.
Step 2- Open Windows Disk Management
In the left pane, you can view Disk Management, click on it.
You can also open disk management by typing “diskmgmt.msc” in the run dialogue box.
Step 3- Right-Click Floppy Disk and Click on Format
Select the floppy disk for which formatting is required. Right-click on it and hit on “Format”
Step 4- Select the Format of File System and click on “OK”
Once you made the selection of file system format, begin formatting by clicking on OK.
If some unallocated space is there in the disk, that doesn’t have any file system, it will be seen here. You need to right-click and select “New Simple Volume.” The wizard will guide you through creating a new partition. Follow the screen instructions and select “next.”
When the process completes, your floppy drive becomes recognizable by the system, after being formatted.
Part 3- How to Format Floppy Disk on Mac
Being a Mac user if you want to format the floppy disk on your system, then these steps will guide you to do it easily and correctly.
Step 1- Insert Floppy Disk
Before initiating with the Recoverit data recovery software, connect your floppy disk with the Mac. Make sure it is visible in the list of drives.
Step 2- Open Disk Utility Program
Reach Disk Utility by following this path:
Menu – Utilities – Disk Utility
Step 3- Select Floppy Disk
From the left pane of Disk Utilities, select your floppy disk.
Step 4- Click on Erase
After selecting the floppy disk, you will be able to view the “Erase” tab in the disk utility window.
Step 5- Select Format
If you are using disc only with Mac then from the Volume Format menu, you can select “Mac OS Standard.” But if you are planning to use a floppy disk with multiple operating systems, then select “FAT.” Label the disk with your preferred name.
Step 6- Start Format
Click on “Erase” to initiate the formatting. You can monitor the progress by viewing at the bar of the Disk Utility window.
Tips
Part 4- How to Recover Data from Hard Drive after Format?
If you find your critical data lost after disk formatting, what should you do to get them back? Recoverit data recovery software can help you in recovering the lost files from your hard drive.
Recoverit Data recovery
Recoverit Mac Data Recovery is the leading data recovery software with a high recovery rate in retrieving lost and deleted data. It supports above 550 file formats and helps you to restore data from the external device, recycle bin, desktop, and even from the crashed computer.
Follow these three easy steps to regain access to your deleted data:
Step 1- Insert Floppy Disk
Before initiating with the Recoverit data recovery software, connect your floppy disk with the computer. Make sure it is visible in the list of drives.
Step 2- Select the Disk
To recover the deleted data, select the floppy disk from where you have lost your data. Select your disc from the available drives that are visible on the computer. Once you have chosen the location, begin the scanning by clicking on the “Start” button.
Step 2- Scan the Floppy Disk
The software starts the scanning with the all-around scan. Depending on the file size, it takes time ranging from a few minutes to hours to complete the scan. You can even pause or stop the running scan anytime for your convenience. Like if you have found your lost data or it might be any other reason.
Step 3- Preview and Recover Data
Before moving on to the recovery step, Recoverit lets you view the files that are found during the scan. You can see by selecting them and clicking on the preview button. Some of the vital information like modified date, file path, size, and name can also be seen here.
After previewing and confirming the files found during the scan, select the targeted ones. Complete the recovery procedure by clicking on the “Recover” button and save the data to your desired path.
It is vital to mention here that you should never save recovered files on the location from where you have lost them originally. Doing so will increase the chances of data overwriting and can even lead to loss of data permanently. So, it is necessary always to select a new location for saving data after recovering it.
If you are thinking about “how do I format a floppy disk in Windows 10 making it unrecoverable” than formatting alone is not enough. As only with formatting the disc, recovery software can make you recover the formatted or deleted data. So if you want to erase the data making it unrecoverable even with Recoverit data recovery software, then you can do it with the disk wiping software.
Closing Words
So if you are using the floppy disk drives to store small-sized files, then while using them you can come across certain errors. When the disk shows some errors and directs you to format it to use the floppy disk you can do it with the detailed steps that are mentioned above. Whether you are a Mac or Windows user, we have discussed for both the scenarios.
It is necessary to take a backup of the drive before beginning the formatting, as when you format the floppy disk, it will delete all the stored data on it. However, if you forgot taking a backup, Recoverit data recovery software would help you to recover your deleted data.
Video Tutorial on How to Recover Data from Formatted Hard Drive
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