Backing up Performa 460 - Need help.

[Poff]

A friend of mine is trying to back up the stuff on his Performa 460/LC III+, OS 7. We're trying to figure out a way to just put it all onto a CD, without spending too much money on it. Therefore our initial approach is to network it with my 10.2.8 equipped 700MHz G4 iMac.

My initial thought was to use the modem ports on both computers, and just call from my house to his house to transfer the files. But are there any programs that could be used for this?

Is there any other way to network the two computers? He does not have the ethernet extension, allthough for $60 it's not the worst investment one can do...

 

[Mechcozmo]

Floppies and a USB floppy drive for your iMac?

It you found a SCSI DB-25 to something modern connector then you could start up the Performa in SCSI target disk mode (a la FireWire target disk mode) and do it that way. Linkety to a site that may help, it was a Google result...

 

[Poff]

Floppies and a USB floppy drive for your iMac?

It you found a SCSI DB-25 to something modern connector then you could start up the Performa in SCSI target disk mode (a la FireWire target disk mode) and do it that way. Linkety to a site that may help, it was a Google result...

Thanks for your help.

I thought target disk mode could only be done w/Firewire? Am I wrong, or could they actually do the same stuff on these old computers? I guess this would incorporate quite a bit of programming aswell, if noone has made drivers supporting this allready..

A USB floppy will cost half that of the ethernet card, so I don't think we'll try that if we don't have to. If I can just get the two machines to connect to each other somehow, then both have appletalk and can speak together.

I guess this is the first time I've felt something was easier on a Windows PC. Using the modem and two phone lines wouldn't have been any problem, but I cannot seem to find any programs supporting those things on Mac.

 

[ITASOR]

How many MB's of files is he backing up? If he can get on the internet with the modem, he could just send them as e-mail attachments or FTP them to a server and then you could burn them for him.

 

[Poff]

How many MB's of files is he backing up? If he can get on the internet with the modem, he could just send them as e-mail attachments or FTP them to a server and then you could burn them for him.

Good idea. It's about 90megs, so it should take a couple of hours.. But still.. Seems there is no other, "rational" way to do this.

 

[spinne1]

I've never heard of networking by dialing each other via modem ports, but that does not mean it can't be done.

This computer is so old, that if the target mode does not work, nor if you want to upload 90 mb of data (not that much to do really, so it is your best option), then you could get an external SCSI drive off ebay (old 50 pin Centronics type) with about 1-9 GB for almost nothing.

Oops, I just noticed you are in Norway. That changes things a bit. I don't what the ebay situation is like there.

 

[Mechcozmo]

I thought target disk mode could only be done w/Firewire? Am I wrong, or could they actually do the same stuff on these old computers? I guess this would incorporate quite a bit of programming aswell, if noone has made drivers supporting this allready.

Where do you think FireWire Target Disk mode came from? SCSI Target Disk mode! Press and hold "T" on startup, IIRC. You can do some crazy things with SCSI Target Disk Mode, like start your Mac up from another Mac that was already running. Or daisy-chain things together so that your PowerBook 3400 was just another hard drive.

You just need some way to make the SCSI port on that Performa become a port your Mac can use...

The FTP server idea is a good one. You can use Stuffit and make .SIT files of all the data you need, then let them upload. It will take awhile but can be done. You can even upload directly to your iMac... but that takes a bit of extra work (setting up your iMac as an AppleTalk server, FTP server, etc.)