I would say that barring any pressing hardware issues (weak caps, feeble PSU in need of new caps, etc) the next two most important things to do for that system is to get an Apple-branded CD drive and a AAUI Ethernet adapter for it.
There are a couple of ways of going about this. One is to build a System 7.1 Emergency Network Access Disk. As usual with System 7 NADs, space is cramped. In this case the way to go is to download and write out the official Apple 7.5.0 Network Access disk. By booting from that disk, you should be able to do a couple of esoteric things. First, all Quadras can create a RAM disk through the Memory control panel -- as can all PowerBook and the Macintosh Portable. Hopefully you have at least 8MiB of RAM. Here's how you do this: 1.) Create and boot into the 7.5 Network Access Disk. 2.) Eject the startup disk. This will get painful shortly with disk swapping. 3.) Using Basilisk II, copy the Startup Disk and Memory control panels to a floppy disk. (Just copy it out of a System 7.5.3 install that most people put on Basilisk II.) 4.) The Memory control panel must be loaded in start up for it to work properly, IIRC. You'll need to make space on the 7.5 NAD for the Memory control panel to fit -- see if you can get the Startup Disk control panel squeezed in too. Better bet is to also copy the utilities you deleted from the NAD onto the 2nd floppy so you can make things slightly easier in the future. 5.) Reboot with the 7.5 NAD. Then open the Memory control panel and create a RAM disk -- if you have enough RAM, you could even fit the whole 7.5.3 install. (It's about 40MiB.) Copy the contents of the 7.5 NAD into the RAM disk, leaving a little room. If you deleted any contents of the NAD, you'll need to restore them. Using the Startup Disk control panel, select the RAM disk as the boot volume. Reboot into the RAM volume. If you shut down, you'll have to do this all over again. 6.) Now you should have basically the 7.5NAD in RAM. From here, you might even get Ethernet access if you have the AAUI adapter, as it should be supported -- if not, you'll have to use LocalTalk, and this means you may need to procure an AFP bridge like a Asante box or my favorite, the Farallon iPrint LT. Once you get a remote computer mounted, you can install it over the network. I talk extensively about networks at: http://www.applefool.com/se30 In the future, you can build a 7.5.5 NAD CD. Do note that AppleTalk networking and other things like MacTerminal won't work on locked disks. But nothing says you can't use the NAD CD to create a RAM disk volume and copy a trimmed down 7.5.5 or even 7.1 install to access the network. In the Guide I demonstrate an example of a 7.6.1 NAD which was an awefully cramped arrangement but I networked out via OpenTransport to an OS X Tiger box. -- -- ----- You received this message because you are a member of the Vintage Macs group. The list FAQ is at http://lowendmac.com/lists/vintagemacs.shtml and our netiquette guide is at http://www.lowendmac.com/lists/netiquette.shtml To post to this group, send email to vintage-macs@googlegroups.com To leave this group, send email to vintage-macs+unsubscr...@googlegroups.com For more options, visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/vintage-macs Support for older Macs: http://lowendmac.com/services/ --- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "Vintage Macs" group. To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to vintage-macs+unsubscr...@googlegroups.com. For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/d/optout.