Why Apple Superdrive part number is important ?

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Roarke
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Why Apple Superdrive part number is important ?

Post by Roarke »

If Superdrives are the same, why part numbers are different ? 24bit helped me in the link below, but i want to know why it is important.
viewtopic.php?f=7&t=9996
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Re: Why Apple Superdrive part number is important ?

Post by 24bit »

The name Superdrive was used by Apple for totally different types of drives.
Other manufacturers used the term too, which did not better things either.
For example:
MF355F-2592MA is a floppy drive with 20 pin flat ribbon connector.
MD564ZM/A is a USB optical drive.
MC309LL/A is a iMac DVD writer made by LG,
there will be many more Superdrives, I suppose.

Off topic:
Is your HP dc7600 already up and running some Mac emulator?
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Re: Why Apple Superdrive part number is important ?

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I expect the pc next week.
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Re: Why Apple Superdrive part number is important ?

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Roarke wrote:If Superdrives are the same, why part numbers are different ? 24bit helped me in the link below, but i want to know why it is important.
viewtopic.php?f=7&t=9996
I got a email after a week telling me that the sff pc needs a microcode update with a diskete is needed, but in their site they write that the all of the products are tested already, but now, after a week, they tell me about the code.

I remember the Shining quote :
Dick Hallorann : They turned out to be completely unreliable assholes.
I should had payed attention that there, there is no stock avaible for any products avaible, but as ussual, many sellers in my country are only for the customer money, and i will choose to buy from other places, a similar HP system.
Now i can choose from this systems :
- LENOVO M52 Desktop, Intel Pentium 4 2.53GHz, 2GB DDR2, 40GB SATA, DVD-ROM
- Lenovo ThinkCentre M55 Core2Duo E6400 2.13GHz 2GB 80GB
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Re: Why Apple Superdrive part number is important ?

Post by 24bit »

Much will depend on the OS and software you plan to use.
M52 does run Windows 2000, one of my all time favourites (the last MS OS to work without registration.)
Also the M52 sports the GMA 950 iGPU, compatible with Snow Leopard.
On the minus side is the P4 cpu which you should avoid, unless you can upgrade to a E2022 or similar.
(If you plan to use Windows 98SE with Fusion_PC a Pentium III rig will be preferable.)

M55 will run Windows XP or better, a 64bit Windows 7 / 10 should work too.
The GMA 3000 iGPU is not compatible with OSX, but a cheap PCIe like the ATI 5450 will cure that.

Both PCs will run Basilisk II build 142 for writing Mac HD floppies.
For CD-ROM support you may want to choose a 32bit Windows, as the CD system file for Build 142 is 32bit only.
Again, much depends on the software you plan to use.
I would go for the Lenovo M55 or the quite similar Dell Optiplex 745 or 755 if you can find an affordable one.

As I had some small form factor PCs, I tend to prefer mini tower cases.
More ports, better air flow, easier upgrading, less noise…
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Re: Why Apple Superdrive part number is important ?

Post by Roarke »

Thank you, but before i read what you said, i bought a HP DC7900 SFF, Intel Dual Core E5500 2.8GHz, 4GB DDR2, 80GB, DVD. It has a Intel GMA 4500 533 MHz, but i intend to add a dedicated video card. You said that a powerbook 150 uses HFS, not HFS+
In wikipedia it is written that starting with, Mac OS X (thus with Snow Leopard too), an HFS volume cannot be used for booting (so i won't be able to boot from my 2.5 Toshiba hdd i plan on putting on my PB 150).
But you said that i should install Snow Leopard. Is wikipedia wrong than ? Another way i can try in a windows enviroment, is MacDrive.
HFS is still supported by current versions of Mac OS, but starting with Mac OS X, an HFS volume cannot be used for booting, and beginning with Mac OS X 10.6 (Snow Leopard), HFS volumes are read-only and cannot be created or updated.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hierarchical_File_System
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Re: Why Apple Superdrive part number is important ?

Post by 24bit »

All true. :)
As of Mac OSX 10.6 writing HFS Standard volumes from user land is not possible.
The PB 150 may run MacOS 7.6 as the latest IIRC, HFS+ was introduced with MacOS 8.1.

There will be some obstacles to resolve for you, obviously.
It is however possible to write HFS from Terminal with the dd command in Snow Leopard.
You may also run Leopard Server in a VM which will write HFS floppies on an external USB floppy drive.
Virtual machines will need some RAM assigned to them, 4GB may be a bit low.
Writing to a pATA device is another problem, as your DC7900 lacks a pATA connector.

If you could exchange the PB150 floppy for a working one, booting from floppy and installing MacOS 7.5 looks like the most promising solution to me.

It is possible to install Snow Leopard (and later) on Core2Duo rigs like yours, given there is a OSX compatible GPU in your PC.
If thats the way to go for you, I can´t tell.
Some Windows OS with Basilisk II Build 142 will let you write the needed floppies for your PB150 more easily probably.

Either way, congrats for your "new" HP!
Have fun with it, Hackintosh or not. ;)
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Re: Why Apple Superdrive part number is important ?

Post by Roarke »

Ok, i forgot to tell you that i bought in the past a converter, which will help.
https://68kmla.org/forums/index.php?/to ... ent-595690
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Re: Why Apple Superdrive part number is important ?

Post by 24bit »

I see, a sATA to ATA 44pin adapter may come in handy.
From your other postings it seems that you could already access the Toshiba 2.5 pATA drive and partition it FAT32?

Next will be initialising your Toshiba pATA with an Apple Partition Map (APM) and HFS.
OSX Tiger and Leopard should be capable of doing so, but I never needed the procedure myself.
Maybe Qemu is the way to go, as it does run MacOS 9 and can access real ATA drives.
Apple introduced a special utility to initialise ATA devices with the PB150.
Later HD Setup utilities from the iMac MacOS 9 days do initialise pATA drives too.

As your Toshiba HFS drive is mounted by MacOS you may copy over a bootable System 7.5 folder.
To set up a bootable System 7.5 you will best use Basilisk II and install from CD.
You may also use the pre-built System here: http://macintoshgarden.org/apps/macos-753-emulators
When both the 7.5 disk image and your HFS formatted Toshiba are mounted in Qemu you may copy over the System files.

There is no guarantee that your PB150 will consider the Toshiba drive bootable finally.
As written before, replacing the PB150 floppy drive should be your best bet.

Best start a new thread about preparing a pATA HDD for System 7.5 with Qemu MacOS 9.
Macintoshgarden and 68kmla may be worth considering to ask for help too.
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