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Author Topic: Odd ProFile  (Read 10829 times)

blusnowkitty

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Odd ProFile
« on: February 09, 2021, 10:54:12 am »
https://www.ebay.com/itm/Apple-Macintosh-Lisa-Profile-External-Hard-Disk-Drive-READ-POWER-ONLY-SOLD-AS-IS/203273361249

Anyone ever seen anything like this before? It's a near-completely gutted Profile, just has the power supply and a hard drive of some description... Top of the case is stamped with "SHIPPING FIXTURE;" there's another ProFile that pops up from time to time on eBay stamped similarly but it appears to be a complete drive. The drive inside doesn't look like a 506, Widget, or even the prototype Nisha, but what is it? It's all one massive IDC pin connector that terminates in a male DB-25.

Very strange whatever this thing is...

ETA I also just noticed the seller has a YouTube video up of this drive. Since eBay likes to nuke YouTube links, here it is directly: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aYTKsoFYg8c

Anyone recognize this sound?
« Last Edit: February 09, 2021, 10:57:40 am by blusnowkitty »
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You haven't lived until you've heard the sound of a Sony 400k drive.

Lisa2

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Re: Odd ProFile
« Reply #1 on: February 09, 2021, 11:15:29 am »
My guess is that this is just SCSI drive ( looks like a Seagate ST-225N), that was stuffed in a profile case.  To complete the hack, the cable is a homemade Macintosh SCSI cable, most likely for connection to a Macintosh Plus.  I don't think the "SHIPPING FIXTURE "markings are relevant to the conversion. 

I am guilty of doing things like this back in the day, I hacked up a dead HD-20 in a similar way and put in a SCSI drive, used for years.  External hard drives were very expensive at the time, this was a way to save some money. 

Rick
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stepleton

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Re: Odd ProFile
« Reply #2 on: February 09, 2021, 11:18:12 am »
Lisa2 beat me to the punch. I counted the number of pins on the header end of the cable: you guessed it, 50.
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patrick

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Re: Odd ProFile
« Reply #3 on: February 10, 2021, 10:06:18 am »
"Shipping fixtures" are the enclosures that were used by Apple dealers when a drive needed to be sent in for repair. Customer brings in drive, enclosure is replaced at the dealer, drive is sent to the repair center, gets returned, customer's enclosure is reinstalled.

For a while it was easier to get a shipping fixture on ebay than a regular drive in good condition. Here it looks like someone just needed a decent box for their Seagate ST225N SCSI drive. And now it's a collector's item ;-)

Reminds me of a compact Mac I fixed 20 years ago. The owner broke the CRT neck trying to replace the hard drive. I couldn't find a suitable replacement CRT at the time, so we used a green one from a cash register. The guy was happy with his green screen Mac. And a few years later, I was told this thing showed up on ebay, "Rare Prototype: ..."
« Last Edit: February 10, 2021, 10:13:00 am by patrick »
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mactjaap

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Re: Odd ProFile
« Reply #4 on: February 12, 2021, 08:19:58 am »
Would be nice to see some pictures from the inside. I will ask the seller.
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