Are there any old Mac fans who might be able to support a senior relative?
Are there any old Mac fans who might be able to support a senior relative?
It's a bit uncertain, but I think someone might know how to handle this. My grandfather passed away recently, and he kept many sermons and unfinished autobiography notes on an old Power Macintosh 6400 (a Performa 6400/180). His aunt has been working hard to keep these records safe. The computer is still running System 7.5.5, and the files appear to be in ClarisWorks format. The floppy drive seems to work, but there are issues with saving to older discs. Since HFS support ended after Mojave, transferring files might not be possible without a Mac from between those versions. The CD-ROM drive is tricky—some software discs read fine, but ejecting isn’t reliable and inserting blank CD-Rs doesn’t seem to work. I’m not sure what the right steps are for writing to a blank disc, especially since I’m not familiar with System 7. My goal is to help my aunt avoid unnecessary work.
Would converting them to plain text help? You can paste them here if you'd like. For the CD drive, standard replacements are easy to locate. Any external drives should work fine.
In five minutes back, I wasn't sure why I referenced ClarisWorks just to illustrate the system's older feel. There are several early versions of the autobiography already saved as .rtf, so I'm not overly worried about the file type.
I'm sorry for your loss. Concerning the disk drive, it seems to be just a CD-ROM. I remember having a Performa 550c with System 7 running during that time. It's unlikely writable CD drives were available on those models.
It's surprising what you notice. Checking the specs on everymac.com confirms your point. It seems you're highlighting how outdated the technology used to be—remember saving files to a CD? That was a time when storage devices were limited in both capacity and speed.
I’m thinking about it now and might need a bit more time to figure it out, but I hope someone else has an answer. I’m confident it’s possible.
Sorry to hear about your situation. Creating files on a CD won’t be feasible unless the original drive has been swapped out for a burner unit, which is unlikely. The device you mentioned also came without Ethernet hardware by default—it was an extra feature. Honestly, the simplest approach would be to retrieve the hard drive and have someone with the right tools install it and its HFS filesystem. Do you know anyone with older Macs from the late 90s or early 2000s who might be willing to help? I have those models, but I’m open to suggestions if you prefer sending the drive online. You’d likely need a bridge machine that safely mounts the drive and supports modern file systems, possibly using Linux. It could work, though compatibility with an old HFS drive isn’t guaranteed.
HFSExplorer functions best with resources similar to the one provided: StarTech USB SATA Adapter page. Updated on January 6, 2022 by Nayr438.