Machead swaps mini casing with Apple floppy disk drive, achieves one heck of a hack

Feb 18, 2009 09:03 GMT  ·  By

This superb hack from the RetroMacCast forum is a Mac mini computer placed inside the super-retro-looking case of a Disk II drive, Apple's 5¼-inch floppy disk drive designed by Steve Wozniak and manufactured by Apple Computer.

Basically, forum contributor Charles Mangin created a new body for a Mac mini. Everything is functional, including the drive door, which lets the user open it up to slide in a DVD. In order to preserve the front of the Disk II drive intact, Charles mounted the power switch at the rear of the unit. Naturally, the hacker gave the "IN USE" light a working purpose, too – the light flashes when the mini is... well, in use.

The Disk II drive was first introduced in 1978 at a retail price of US$495 for pre-order. Later sold for $595 with the controller card and cable, the Disk II was designed specifically for use with the Apple II personal computers as an alternative to slower cassette tape storage. Apple's first Disk II units sold were built from Shugart Drive parts. However, to reduce costs, Apple switched to Alps Electric Co. of Japan, who built them for half the cost. At one point, Apple assigned two people to assemble some thirty drives per day.

Initially, normal storage capacity per disk side was 113.75KB with DOS 3.2.1 and earlier (13 256-byte sectors per track, 35 tracks per side), or 140KB with DOS 3.3 and the accompanying firmware update for the controller card (16 sectors per track). Also manufactured by Apple was a Bell & Howell version of the Disk II. It had a black case which matched the color of the Bell & Howell version of the Apple II Plus that Apple was actively working on.

Apple later (1978) intended to create its own FileWare drive mechanism for use in the new Apple /// and Lisa business computers that the company was developing. They quickly ran into difficulties that precluded them from being incorporated in the Apple ///, which continued to use the earlier Shugart design.

Much later, Apple announced the 860K FileWare drives as a replacement for the Disk II & Disk III. However, due to the notorious unreliability of the "Twiggy" drives in the Lisa (as they were nicknamed), the company never got around to shipping them.

Photo Gallery (2 Images)

Disk II Mac with DVD picture #1
Disk II Mac with DVD picture #2
Open gallery