N00b Mac Classic question.

[SkyBell]

I was looking up Macs on wikipedia, when I came across the Mac Classic Article. I have a Mac Classic, and I'm just wondering which model I have. The $1500 (Hard drive included) model, or the $999 model (no hard drive)

Does "Macintosh HD" Show up on the desktop if it's the low-end model? (I would think not, but just making sure.)

EDIT: also noticed my website is at the bottom of the article.

 

[LimeiBook86]

If there is no hard drive in the system a hard drive will not appear on the desktop. If you boot up from a floppy disk there will be a floppy disk on the desktop. So basically if there's nothing in the system, there will be nothing on the desktop. Although if there is no hard drive you'll have to boot up via a floppy disk so that'll appear on the desktop.

 

[SkyBell]

If there is no hard drive in the system a hard drive will not appear on the desktop. If you boot up from a floppy disk there will be a floppy disk on the desktop. So basically if there's nothing in the system, there will be nothing on the desktop. Although if there is no hard drive you'll have to boot up via a floppy disk so that'll appear on the desktop.

That's what I thought: just making sure. I'm not too familier with the old OS's. (Familer with the computers the OS's ran on..)

 

[RacerX]

I have a Mac Classic, and I'm just wondering which model I have. The $1500 (Hard drive included) model, or the $999 model (no hard drive)

Well, if you aren't booting and running the system off a floppy... then odds are you have a hard drive (there isn't anything else that could serve that purpose in a Classic).

As to figuring out which model you have... I doubt you'll ever know. Most Classics that came without drives eventually got one. Infact it was more likely that a Classic would be upgraded to having a drive than, say a Mac SE (the version of that system without a hard drive came with two floppy drives, one for the system floppy and the other for either apps or data storage).

Does "Macintosh HD" Show up on the desktop if it's the low-end model? (I would think not, but just making sure.)

First, Macintosh HD is just some name... it is not the default name for hard drives ("untitled" is the default). You could name it anything you want (and most Mac users gave the name of their system to the main hard drive).

Second, the boot volume is always the upper right most icon on the desktop of any pre-Mac OS X system. All volumes are always present on the desktop unless they have been unmounted.

Actually, this was one of the first things that scared Mac users about Mac OS X when it was first shown... the early demos didn't have the hard drive (or other mounted volumes) on the desktop. This actually scared a number of people as it was sort of a touch stone for them. Because of this, Apple eventually returned the option of having them on the desktop again (though I have gone out of my way to teach users not to have it there as the root level of the boot volume should never be used for storing files as there are many important parts of the OS, both visible and hidden, there).

Further, you can change the icon of the hard drive to something else if you want. On my first Mac (a Mac SE with 4 MB of RAM and a 40 MB hard drive) I used to make icons in MacDraw. I'd create something, select it, copy, go to the Finder, do a "Get Info" on the hard drive, click the icon in the window and paste.

Oddly enough, I still have many of the drive and folder icons I made between 1990 and 1995. Some were variations on other icons I had seen and liked (like the puppy from Sound Edit). Back then I didn't know how to build them using ResEdit.


... all of which is off topic.

 

[Sly]

Well, if you aren't booting and running the system off a floppy... then odds are you have a hard drive (there isn't anything else that could serve that purpose in a Classic).

I'm pretty sure the Classic can boot off its own internal ROM?

 

[dpaanlka]

I'm pretty sure the Classic can boot off its own internal ROM?

Only with a key-combo.

 

[Anonymous Freak]

Considering that the $999 Mac Classic could be upgraded to have the exact same specs as the $1500 after-market, there is no way to *REALLY* tell which one you have.

For example, I have a Classic that was originally the $999 model, but I upgraded it to the full 4 MB of RAM, and threw in a 540 MB hard drive, making it even better than the $1500 model as shipped. Other than the memory and hard drive, there is no fundamental difference between the two. (Although the Classic requires a custom 'memory expansion card' that did not come with the $999 model, and those can be hard to find now.)

If you have more than 1 MB of RAM, you have the expansion card, guaranteed. If you have 1 MB of RAM, then you might or might not have it, the only way to tell is to open it up and look.

If you don't need to put a floppy disk in to boot, (and aren't holding down the key combination,) they you have a hard drive.

If you have more than 1 MB of RAM and a hard drive, then you have at least the equivalent of the $1500 model.

 

[FullmetalZ26]

The expansion card has 1mb of ram soldered onto it, with 2 additional SIMM slots, so you wouldn't have the expansion card unless you had 2mb or more of memory showing in the About this Mac... window.