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reviving a mac performa

H

human life form

macrumors newbie
Original poster
Oct 11, 2008
15
0
Hello, english is not my main language so sorry for my errors...

I found an old macintosh performa 5200 in the attic, and when i started it up it showed a floppy with a flashing question mark.

I heard that means that computer went to hell. Also i don't have any floppy/cd's or so (my grandpa didn't gave them along with the mac in the past).

So now i want to download os 8 and burn it on a cd to install it at the performa.
But i don't know how to do that...

Could you guy's please advice me?
Thanks :eek:
 
Madd the Sane

Madd the Sane

macrumors 6502a
Nov 8, 2010
534
73
Utah
Wirelessly posted (Mozilla/5.0 (iPod; U; CPU iPhone OS 4_1 like Mac OS X; en-us) AppleWebKit/532.9 (KHTML, like Gecko) Version/4.0.5 Mobile/8B117 Safari/6531.22.7)

Try eBay. You should be able to find OS 8 easily there.
 
H

human life form

macrumors newbie
Original poster
Oct 11, 2008
15
0
ok, so i download all the "8.1" files, burn it straight to a plain 700mb cd.
Put it in de performa, start up, hold "alt" and then i am able to choose install os 8?
 
C

chrismacguy

macrumors 68000
Feb 13, 2009
1,979
2
United Kingdom
human life form said:
ok, so i download all the "8.1" files, burn it straight to a plain 700mb cd.
Put it in de performa, start up, hold "alt" and then i am able to choose install os 8?
Click to expand...

The person who directed you there is very mistaken. Mac OS 8 has never, and isnt avaliable from Apple as a Download. The files you downloaded are floppy disk images to allow you to upgrade from an existing Mac OS 8 install to Mac OS 8.1. Those files are not useable to install Mac OS 8.1 on your performa. The only way of obtaining Mac OS 8 is via ebay/an internet site - it isnt avaliable as a download. Instead Id suggest using Macintosh System 7.5.3 which is fully avaliable on that site as a free download - copy the images to floppy disks and your performa should at least boot from them and allow you to install - Im not sure if a CD Image exists for free for System 7.5.3 (and then grab the free 7.5.5 update).
 
H

human life form

macrumors newbie
Original poster
Oct 11, 2008
15
0
So i download these files, put them on floppys and put the first one in the performa with "alt" pressed?
then second third etc....?

Macintosh/System/Older_System/System_7.5_Version_7.5.3/System_7.5.3_01of19.smi.bin
Macintosh/System/Older_System/System_7.5_Version_7.5.3/System_7.5.3_02of19.part.bin
Macintosh/System/Older_System/System_7.5_Version_7.5.3/System_7.5.3_03of19.part.bin
Macintosh/System/Older_System/System_7.5_Version_7.5.3/System_7.5.3_04of19.part.bin
Macintosh/System/Older_System/System_7.5_Version_7.5.3/System_7.5.3_05of19.part.bin
Macintosh/System/Older_System/System_7.5_Version_7.5.3/System_7.5.3_06of19.part.bin
Macintosh/System/Older_System/System_7.5_Version_7.5.3/System_7.5.3_07of19.part.bin
Macintosh/System/Older_System/System_7.5_Version_7.5.3/System_7.5.3_08of19.part.bin
Macintosh/System/Older_System/System_7.5_Version_7.5.3/System_7.5.3_09of19.part.bin
Macintosh/System/Older_System/System_7.5_Version_7.5.3/System_7.5.3_10of19.part.bin
Macintosh/System/Older_System/System_7.5_Version_7.5.3/System_7.5.3_11of19.part.bin
Macintosh/System/Older_System/System_7.5_Version_7.5.3/System_7.5.3_12of19.part.bin
Macintosh/System/Older_System/System_7.5_Version_7.5.3/System_7.5.3_13of19.part.bin
Macintosh/System/Older_System/System_7.5_Version_7.5.3/System_7.5.3_14of19.part.bin
Macintosh/System/Older_System/System_7.5_Version_7.5.3/System_7.5.3_15of19.part.bin
Macintosh/System/Older_System/System_7.5_Version_7.5.3/System_7.5.3_16of19.part.bin
Macintosh/System/Older_System/System_7.5_Version_7.5.3/System_7.5.3_17of19.part.bin
Macintosh/System/Older_System/System_7.5_Version_7.5.3/System_7.5.3_18of19.part.bin
Macintosh/System/Older_System/System_7.5_Version_7.5.3/System_7.5.3_19of19.part.bin
Macintosh/System/Older_System/System_7.5_Version_7.5.3/System_7.5.3_Info.txt
 
C

chrismacguy

macrumors 68000
Feb 13, 2009
1,979
2
United Kingdom
1) bumping isnt technically allowed...
2) It may work, however Id try the good old fashioned image the floppy (using RaWrite or some other Imaging utility) and then using that to boot the performa. An alternative if you just want to use a single floppy is to find a "Network Test Disk" as I believe it was called that would boot 7.5.3 or so on a single disk, just to check the hardware works (or is at least salvageable) - Or just burn Disk 1, which I think does a similar job as far as booting your ol' Performa up :)
 
H

human life form

macrumors newbie
Original poster
Oct 11, 2008
15
0
ok, thanks + sorry for the "bumping".
now, i burned: "apple hd sc setup", "disc first aid", system folder. (1,2 mb) to a 700mb cdrom under osx, and putted it in the perfprma with holding C...

nothing happened.:mad:
i'm very near giving up, and that would be a waste.

any suggestions?

Thanks in advance!

PS: i've an old ppc with os 8 there as well, with a floppy drive but when i tried to put os 7.5.3 part 1/19 on a diskette it was too big (1,4 mb disc) and a 1.3mb file.:confused: (i had already initialized that floppy). I actually don't trust that drive anymore because sometimes it won't even react to a diskette so i have to get it out with the emergency button.
 
Last edited:
H

human life form

macrumors newbie
Original poster
Oct 11, 2008
15
0
i may like stupid for the flood of posts but i want to check if i am doing something wrong.

i did the following: that cd-rom were i wrote about, i putted him in the other ppc and copied it to a floppy, the powerpc totally recognizes the disc tools (the content) so thats not the problem of the performa SPITTING OUT ANY floppy i put in it! And then shows a blinking "X" in stead of a "?" for a while...
:eek:
 
H

human life form

macrumors newbie
Original poster
Oct 11, 2008
15
0
Now this is a huge up but i went back and putted my os9 retail disc in, te performa booted!

The only problem is that on de desktop there is no hard drive icon.

When i start the installer it says there is no drive!

Now what?
 
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