G4 dead after file transfer to Mac Pro

[wkh]

I have an old dual processor G4 desktop, and I transferred the files in the HD of the G4 to a new Mac Pro today. I followed the instructions on the Mac Pro screen. When it was finished, it said to turn the G4 off via the power button, which I did. The problem is, I cannot get it to restart again. It is completely dead. It seems awfully coincidental that it would die immediately upon transfer of the material in the HD to the Mac Pro. I still have three other HDs in the G4, and I want to copy the files on them.

Is there any way to tell why the G4 will not start (also, there is no light on the monitor. It is as if it is not getting power, but I have inserted the plug into a variety of sockets, which work fine, so whatever is wrong must be in the G4).

Can I take the three hard drives out of the G4 and insert them into some sort of housing which will allow me to access the data they hold? If so, is there a site that shows how to do this, and a housing I can buy to hold the drives?

Thanks!

 

[Lord Blackadder]

The simplest way to acess the hard drives is to get some external drive enclosures from OWC. They sell ones that can hold 4 or more hard drives (although that can get a little pricey). Alternately, you could buy one enclosure and swap out the drives as you get your data copied.

The Power Mac may not be dead, although it's hard to say what's wrong with it at this point. Try opening it up and examining every internal connector - poorly seated PCI/AGP cards can make a machine play dead. Swap out the computer's power cord for a known good cord. If the machine continues to be totally unresponsive (i.e. it doesn't even try to boot) my guess would be a malfunctioning power supply - though that isn't always the case. Anyway, good luck.

 

[Keebler]

I have an old dual processor G4 desktop, and I transferred the files in the HD of the G4 to a new Mac Pro today. I followed the instructions on the Mac Pro screen. When it was finished, it said to turn the G4 off via the power button, which I did. The problem is, I cannot get it to restart again. It is completely dead. It seems awfully coincidental that it would die immediately upon transfer of the material in the HD to the Mac Pro. I still have three other HDs in the G4, and I want to copy the files on them.

Is there any way to tell why the G4 will not start (also, there is no light on the monitor. It is as if it is not getting power, but I have inserted the plug into a variety of sockets, which work fine, so whatever is wrong must be in the G4).

Can I take the three hard drives out of the G4 and insert them into some sort of housing which will allow me to access the data they hold? If so, is there a site that shows how to do this, and a housing I can buy to hold the drives?

Thanks!

you did this by firewire right? if so, there is a way to reset the FW. i've heard of this happening after power surges/blackouts. i'm really sorry, but i can't remember what the command is check out the apple boards www.apple.com/support then click on discussions..dig into the G4 section. maybe it's resetting the nvram too?

 

[wkh]

Thanks guys. All I really need to do is recover the files in the other three HDs. So if I cannot get it running again, the external drive enclosure idea should solve the problem.

When I was transferring the data the Mac Pro monitor said two minutes were left - that last about two hours. Then finally it was "less than a minute", which also seems to last forever. Maybe the G4 was failing, and the new computer arrived just in time.