Performa 631CD died...

[Tomtheman70]

My neighbor has an ancient 631CD that finally just died about a week ago. The only thing that he used it for anymore was to play cards and to surf the internet when they still had their 56k internet.

I know its a mechanical error with the hard drive because when we boot the machine it goes to the OS and sit there and just loads. It'll sit there for quite possibly forever, but we turn it off after about 10 minutes. I was wondering if I was to put this hard drive in - ( http://welovemacs.com/ide500mb.html ) would I have to install the operating system on the hard drive again (I don't have the discs). Because of the fact that the hard drive I just showed was not in stock, if I were to put a larger one in, Ex: http://welovemacs.com/ide800mb.html would that work?

Also, what operating system should I put onto this old mac?

I'm a geared very heavily towards fixing PCs and I've never really worked on a mac before so if you could dumb everything down for me that'd be great. Thanks a lot for everyones help here.

 

[disconap]

Ok, first off, what OS was it running before? Based on the model, I'd guess 6 or 7, but I'm not sure.

Second, older macs tend to use SCSI hard drives, so an IDE might not be compatible. Check www.lowendmac.com 's specs section to find the details and see if the drive will work.

Third, you will need to reinstall the OS, as it is stored on the HD. So if you remove it, it is no longer there

Before doing any of that, I would try booting in safe mode (for OSX, which is doubtful on this machine, press Shift when you boot it) or with extensions off (damn, I can't remember that one--is it also Shift on boot?). Does he have the original OS install discs or the hardware test disc? I would run either or both of those--to boot from them, hold down C while starting up (I don't remember how to boot from floppy on those older machines, but there is a way to do that as well if necessary). I highly suggest trying to repair the drive before doing anything else, as matching parts and getting an older machine up and running is harder than fixing a problem.

Earlier versions of Norton Utilities work great for OS 6 and 7 (though I wouldn't suggest letting anything Norton touch OSX).

If you do replace the drive, if he's just using it for web stuff, I suggest putting a build of Linux on there, like an older build of Ubuntu (if it is supported). It will look better and run about as smoothly, if not smoother, and he will be able to do more with it...

 

[Queso]

OS8.1 is the latest that will run on that model. OS8.5 upwards was PowerPC only, and the 631 had a 68040 if memory serves me correctly.

Most likely they had 7.5.5 on it before, as that's the one I had on my 630CD back in the 90s. It would be handy if it was because 7.5.5 is available as a free download at Apple's website, whereas you'll struggle to find a copy of OS8.

Check out the model specs over at www.lowendmac.com for more information.

 

[Tomtheman70]

Thank you for the help, I'll bump this if needed if anything else comes up about it or I actually get this working.


Thanks!

EDIT: He no longer has internet for the mac anymore so I'm going to just make a bootable CD on my PC for OS 7.5.5, will that work? If its anything like making a bootable XP CD then this may take a while.

 

[imacintel]

'bout time Seriously, if u really liked it, go get an iMac G5, take out its HDD and put in your perrrforma's

 

[Queso]

EDIT: He no longer has internet for the mac anymore so I'm going to just make a bootable CD on my PC for OS 7.5.5, will that work? If its anything like making a bootable XP CD then this may take a while.

Not sure about a CD. I remember my copy of 7.5 coming in a folder full of floppy disks. Maybe if you make a bootable floppy of Disk 1, it will allow you to read the rest from a CD (not sure, really. Too long ago).

Here's some download locations you'll find useful:-

http://download.info.apple.com/Appl...System/Older_System/System_7.5_Version_7.5.3/

http://www.info.apple.com/support/oldersoftwarelist.html

 

[IJ Reilly]

I have a CD copy of OS8, if anybody needs it.

Also, I'm pretty sure I still have a Performa 631 logic board around here somewhere, which was left over from when we upgraded our 631 to a 6300.

Just call me Fred Sanford!

 

[disconap]

I'm comin for ya, 'Lizbeth!

 

[Tomtheman70]

'bout time Seriously, if u really liked it, go get an iMac G5, take out its HDD and put in your perrrforma's

He doesnt want me spending more than $25 to fix his computer. I think buying a G5 would be a weee bit over that spending limit

Well, if David (My neighbor) was going to use the Mac for anything other than card playing, which he probably won't. (Don't tell but his wife won't let him use the Dell because she's afraid he'll mess something up, so she lets him use the old ancient Mac for his 2 or 3 games) He doesn't even have internet to it anymore, I believe.

So, I looked on the mac site and it seems that yes, disconap, it uses a SCSI hard drive, so now the issue will be getting a SCSI hard drive.

Another issue is going to be.. how am I supposed to make a Mac bootable OS disquette if I have no other Mac's to work from? All I have are PCs and the one person I know who has one seems to be having a hard drive issue. . Is there anyway I can make the floppy compatible on a PC for a Mac?

 

[IJ Reilly]

Wait, isn't an SCSI hard drive nothing more than an IDE hard drive plugged into an SCSI controller, you big dummy?

(Sorry, I seem to be channeling Fred Sanford again!)

As for creating a Mac floppy on a PC -- I know it can be done, but probably not for under $25. How about an external SCSI hard drive? Probably you could find one of those in a used computer gear shop (or a thrift store even) for next to nothing.

 

[dpaanlka]

Actually, those LC/Quadra/Performa 63x models do, in fact, have IDE hard drives. They were the first, or among the first Macs to have IDE hard drives. They also had an available TV tuner option, which was fun. They were also the last 68k desktop Mac ever, new models being sold as late as early 1996.

Being such late models, they also never ran System 6, only 7 - 8. Mac OS 7.6.1 is probably the optimum OS for this machine, as it is the most stable version of Mac OS 7 (by far) and will run quite a bit faster than 8.1.