Powerbook 5300cs Hard Drive with OSX 10.4.7 Finder

I have been asked to look at a non working Powerbook 5300cs to see what if anything can be done with it. I have removed the 500MB HD and connected it to a G5 iMac using a IDE to USB adapter. The drive powers up and mounts, however it hangs when any of the folders are selected.

My question is should this work like any other USB drive in Finder or is there a better way? I would like to be able to grab a few files off of it, then securely erase it. However when I try to copy a file or open a folder, Finder hangs.

I think it has system 7 installed from 95-96, but I'm not sure, see pic.

Thanks

trainguy77 said:

There should be no problem. Go into disk Utility and do a disk verify. See what it turns up.

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I get an error when I try to verify the disk with Disk Utility, says the disk can not be unmounted, somethings not right.

trainguy77 said:

hmmmm......thats stange. Well see if it can repair it.

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Thanks for the replies and confirming that OSX Finder should be able to interact with an HD pulled from a System 7 machine via the IDE to USB cable.

I get the same "could not unmount the disk" error when I try to repair or verify the drive.

As the files are not too important, I'm thinking about trying to erase the drive, but I don't have the software restore disks to reload if the HD starts to act normal. Even if I did, the old powerbook will turn on, but that's about it. The screen is dark and the system is silent, so either the display is broken or the logic board is dead or who knows.

Looked around and found that System 7.0.1 and 7.5.3 are available for download from Apple for free!

trainguy77 said:

Trying clicking on the root drive and doing a repair. If that does not work, make sure you have nothing open from the drive, then try unmount it manually.

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Tried to repair the root drive with the same results. When I try to eject the drive in finder it hangs and I just get the spinning beachball until I unplug the drive. With Disk Utility, unmounting and ejecting both result in:

"Unmount failed, the disk could not be unmounted, Make sure that all applications and files are closed on this disk"

This is right after plugging in the drive, so I would assume nothing is trying to access this drive.

If anyone can suggest another option (Windows or Mac) to try and gain access to this disk, it would be appreciated.

MonksMac said:

Really odd. I tried to help anyway!

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Thanks, seemed like it was going to be easy at first

The name looked odd to me too, but this is the first time I have used anything pre-OSX.

Tried to erase it with Disk Utility, but it just hangs and gives the same error.

Ended up reformatting it to FAT32 with Windows, works great transferring back and forth large files under Windows.

Plug it back into the iMac to reformat it Mac OS Standard, but it hangs just like before. I have used this cable with 3.5" drives, so I don't think it's the cable.

I can see the files I put there under Windows in finder and was able to start transferring them, but then it just starts to hang again, weird.