Hi, I have a few generations of Mac computers. The performa 450 that I have given to my 9 y.o. girl has appeared to have died...no video happening...Not a big deal, but my daughter has some data and programs (like Triazzle) that she wouild like to have. Anyone know someone who can help me do this...I could send the hard drive or the whole unit out (maybe consider trade for the retrieving or pay for the service) to get contents put on cds...Any referrals or anyone here that can do? I don't think there is any way I can retrieve easily...but am open have a mac mini. Thanks.
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get data on old mac hard drive
- Thread starter rickame
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rickame said:
First step to check if a "Classic" mac fails to display video on booting, or chokes before completing the chime, is the motherboard PRAM battery. These need replacing about every 3 - 5 years depending on the usage. I think yours is a 1/2AA 3.6V Lithium cell available from Radio Shack and similar. With corrupted PRAM, or not enough juice to detect the soft power on, these machines often don't start or don't activate video.
If that doesnt work... The Performa 450 (LC III) used an internal SCSI hard drive. There is no practical way to connect this to a Mini, which uses USB 2 or Firewire, or any modern Mac, which use ATA or SATA internal drives.
Also, the programs on your daughter's machine are OS 7.x - they almost certainly will not run on any G4 or G5 Mac made this century.
I wouldn't hold out hope of trading it for services, these machines regularly go unbid at eBay at $10, in working condition. Around here, the tipping fee for disposing of it would be higher than that.
The thing to do would be to find a newer but used Mac that can use SCSI drives, and hook up the internal drive to the newer machine. A Beige G3 machine is just about ideal, because it has SCSI, ATA and slots you can install Firewire and USB cards into. You may be able to coax some of the older programs to run under OS8.1 or OS9 on the G3. You should be able to find a good used G3 for about $50, maybe a bit more for a 300 MHz one or a REV B 266, which are preferable. You might be able to use the same monitor, depending what you have.
I'm in a similar situation, having some data on older SCSI devices I'd like to look at. These are external devices, not internal. The problem is that I can't connect them to my modern Mac. I've seen some Firewire to SCSI adapters out there from doing a Google search. Does anyone know if it's worth getting one of these (they cost about $100), and if so, where to get one from?