How to transfer files from an OLD mac

[chorb]

So while Im home for the holidays I am going to be purchasing a new MacBook for my Mom who is still using a Mac PerformaMac Performa and there are some files and such which she would like to transfer over. However, this fossil of a computer has no USB, or Ethernet, or any kind of port which I know of that would allow me to transfer files from one computer to another. The specs are located in the link above as to which ports the old Mac has (not much); does anyone have a idea how I could move the files over? Internet is out of the question as it only has a 36 kbps modem which doesnt work most of the time any way. Any suggestions appreciated.

 

[savvy]

It has an IDE hard drive. You can remove it and attach it to another computer, transfer files, then put back the hard drive.

 

[Kadarin]

Originally posted by: savvy
It has an IDE hard drive. You can remove it and attach it to another computer, transfer files, then put back the hard drive.

Another Mac. A PC running Windows won't be able to read the hard drive.

 

[secretanchitman]

http://www.macdisk.com/mden.php3

http://www.mediafour.com/products/macdrive6/

you'll need to rip out that mac's hd though.

 

[Twsmit]

Originally posted by: savvy
It has an IDE hard drive. You can remove it and attach it to another computer, transfer files, then put back the hard drive.

I'm pretty sure those old macs had SCSI drives, not IDE..... My suggestion would be to use floppy disks or email the files, or find an older mac SCSI Zip drive and use that.

 

[cmdrdredd]

it says it has an IDE hard drive... get an external HDD enclosure and put it in there. Plug it unto your new Macbook via USB and it will mount in OSX as a standard removable drive. You can access the files and get what you need that way. Even if it is SCSI (you can verify which by removing the HDD and looking at the jumper, if it says master or slave mode then it's IDE) you can get an enclosure that will work.

something like this

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16817145125

 

[glugglug]

Wow, I never knew there was a PowerPC with no ethernet, and no Geoport! And it was made not only after Apple started reducing costs moving to IDE, that thing even has a standard PC floppy drive rather than the old multi-speed auto-inject superdrives that were on most mac's made before 2000. Was it below $300 when it was new?

Moving the drive as others have said should work.

Or if you don't want to open the thing up, the good news is the printer and modem ports are standard RS-232 serial, and have been capable of 230kbps reliably since the first AV macs (the Geoport which that thing lacks is an RS-232 serial port capable of going above theoretical USB1.1 speeds) but you need a cable to go either between the 2 macs or from mini-din 8 to a PC's DB-9 serial port. Appletalk networking will also work between the 2 mac's serial ports using a serial cable, but the 2 computers must be positioned at the same height (really!) for it to work without an Appletalk adapter due to some very bizarre signaling.

I'm going to wager that they don't have any terminal software on there to download through that port though.

Some of the specs on that link don't make any sense BTW, for example, if it really has 1MB video ram, there should be a lot more video modes allowed. The highest it lists use less than 512KB.

 

[win32asmguy]

Originally posted by: glugglug
Wow, I never knew there was a PowerPC with no ethernet, and no Geoport! And it was made not only after Apple started reducing costs moving to IDE, that thing even has a standard PC floppy drive rather than the old multi-speed auto-inject superdrives that were on most mac's made before 2000. Was it below $300 when it was new?

Actually those machines can take a 10bT ethernet card in their LC III PDS slot. It was just optional to keep costs down. I had my 6200CD all tweaked out with the 10bT ethernet and even the apple TV/Video Tuner card!