The Three Beep Blues

[ejlorge]

Hello everyone,

I have an old G4 iBook which my daughter spilled juice on a couple of years ago. Ever since then it has done the three beep thing with a blank screen.

(I have since gotten an Macbook Air, but I have an IMPORTANT document I need to retrieve.)

To fix it I have tried every key-holding-down reboot combination AND I have just removed, cleaned and reinstalled the RAM. No luck.

Any advice on how to either resurrect this machine OR how to retrieve the data on it is greatly appreciated (I don't trust our local mactech).

Thanks, Eric.

 

[mickbab]

Can you get the harddrive out, stick it an enclosure and try getting the data from that?

 

[scottness]

Have you tried Target Disk Mode? You'll need another Mac with Firewire... That's one option. You could also just remove the hard drive, though I forget whether or not it's easy on the 12".

 

[ejlorge]

Wow, thank you both for replying so quickly.

scottness:

I think I tried the Target disk mode; I connected the iBook to my 2009 iMac via firewire, but no external disc icon appeared on the iMac desktop.


mickbab:

What sor of "enclosure" do you mean?

 

[scottness]

Wow, thank you both for replying so quickly.

scottness:

I think I tried the Target disk mode; I connected the iBook to my 2009 iMac via firewire, but no external disc icon appeared on the iMac desktop.


mickbab:

What sor of enclosure do you mean?

You actually don't need an enclosure, but the enclosure makes it easy. The enclosure allows you to take a hard drive and read it via usb or firewire. When you buy any external hard drive, it's the same hard drive you'd put in a desktop, just with a fat enclosure around it.

Here's another option that'll work just like an enclosure: http://eshop.macsales.com/item/Newer Technology/U2ES2HDK/

 

[mickbab]

What sor of "enclosure" do you mean?

Well I have just recently replaced my internal harddrive in my uMBP, and to have a bit of extra external storage I placed the original drive in an external harddrive enclosure.

Basically looks just like any other external harddrive you can buy, but it is empty inside and you put your own harddrive in it.

Make any sense?

 

[ejlorge]

So, assuming I don't get an enclosure, how can I retrieve the data from the HD once I remove it?

What is the mode of connection?

Thanks again.

 

[scottness]

Well I have just recently replaced my internal harddrive in my uMBP, and to have a bit of extra external storage I placed the original drive in an external harddrive enclosure.

Basically looks just like any other external harddrive you can buy, but it is empty inside and you put your own harddrive in it.

Make any sense?

These are my personal favorite. I've got two.
http://www.icydock.com/product/mb662ueab-2s.html

 

[Thiol]

So, assuming I don't get an enclosure, how can I retrieve the data from the HD once I remove it?

What is the mode of connection?

Thanks again.

You need either an enclosure or an adapter to connect any external hard drive to another computer.

Others have given you good examples of enclosures. Here are a couple of adapters:
http://www.newertech.com/products/usb2_adaptv2.php
http://www.wiebetech.com/products/UltraDock.php

An enclosure is the recommended route.