Got a tip for us?
Let us know
Become a MacRumors Supporter for $50/year with no ads, ability to filter front page stories, and private forums.
Will a Quadra 630 Boot today?
- Thread starter Eric Idle
- Start date
- Sort by reaction score
I can guess that if your Quadra 630 has been in storage for nearly 20 years, the PRAM battery would need to be replaced.
Some tips about making your own replacement battery: https://mattpilz.com/diy-battery-pack-replacement-cmos-clock-pram-batteries/
That same article also has a link to a small app that will set the internal clock to a date after 2019 - could be an issue on the 630.
But, you would just have to try a nearly-30 year old display -- and, hopefully, the hard drive will actually turn! You should specifically listen when you first try to boot for the hard drive spin-up, with the clicks that would be audible, too.
Some tips about making your own replacement battery: https://mattpilz.com/diy-battery-pack-replacement-cmos-clock-pram-batteries/
That same article also has a link to a small app that will set the internal clock to a date after 2019 - could be an issue on the 630.
But, you would just have to try a nearly-30 year old display -- and, hopefully, the hard drive will actually turn! You should specifically listen when you first try to boot for the hard drive spin-up, with the clicks that would be audible, too.
Could I remove the hard drive and add it to an enclosure at mount it on Mar or a PC today? From memory the Quadra 630 drives were PC compatible.
"PC compatible" is not quite accurate. The hard drive will connect through an IDE interface, but it is formatted for your Mac. Windows won't see it or mount it, unless you install something like MacDrive, or HFSExplorer on a Windows PC.
Probably not worth doing -- unless you know that there are files on the old Mac (that you haven't looked at for 20 years) that are important enough to recover now. If your plan is just to get the drive turning, you don't even need to connect to any computer. Just install in an external enclosure, if you can find one, plug the enclosure power in (either a standard AC cord, or it will connect to a "wallwart" of some kind. Turn the drive power on, and lister for spinup. If you hear that, the drive is likely going to work in the Mac.
Probably not worth doing -- unless you know that there are files on the old Mac (that you haven't looked at for 20 years) that are important enough to recover now. If your plan is just to get the drive turning, you don't even need to connect to any computer. Just install in an external enclosure, if you can find one, plug the enclosure power in (either a standard AC cord, or it will connect to a "wallwart" of some kind. Turn the drive power on, and lister for spinup. If you hear that, the drive is likely going to work in the Mac.
Thank you for the reply. There are files on this drive that I would like to recover. They were text edit files, sadly compressed with compact pro. My guess is that I'll need to uncompress them in a System 7 environment before I can use my current Mac to open them. Is that correct? If that's true then I have to rely on this 20 year old mac booting up completely. I wish that were not the case.
The Unarchiver should expand Compact Pro compressed files.
(I guess you meant "SimpleText", as TextEdit did not yet exist prior to OS X
)
(I guess you meant "SimpleText", as TextEdit did not yet exist prior to OS X
)Thank you! So if I understand this right, I pull the hard drive from the Quadra and get an enclosure for it. Hope that it still works when power is applied, and then connect it to my current Mac. It should mount and then use the software you linked above to decompress the compact pro file. Yes, SimpleText! I have not heard that name in a looong time.The Unarchiver should expand Compact Pro compressed files.
(I guess you meant "SimpleText", as TextEdit did not yet exist prior to OS X
If the drive does not power up, is there anything that can be done to get past that or am I at a dead end?
Thanks again!
I recently unpacked a 9600, which is only 2-3 years newer than the 630, after about 20 years of storage. It booted and everything worked fine, including the external drives.
I just worry that something might blow if I entergize the circuit after such a long period of time. I don't have a monitor or mouse so I would have to source those before powering it up would be worth while. Better I just pull the drive and use my current Mac if the drive will mount.
I wouldn't worry about damaging anything by powering it up. As noted above you probably need to address the PRAM battery, and a lot of power supplies of that era are starting to have issues with leaky capacitors, but nothing ventured nothing gained!
Yes, I agree with OP.
Without a display to plug in to the old 630, seems pointless to boot from that. It would likely work OK, but unless you really want to get the old Mac working, it's probably best (and simpler) to just pull the hard drive, and get your files off that way.
Without a display to plug in to the old 630, seems pointless to boot from that. It would likely work OK, but unless you really want to get the old Mac working, it's probably best (and simpler) to just pull the hard drive, and get your files off that way.