I have a bunch of Zip disks with stuff on them, mostly dating back to 1997 (gasp!). A bunch of it was from when I took classes in graphic design, web-design & "Mac design". Getting it over to "the modern times" took a bit of effort, but it was doable. Thus: Getting my "pizza box" G3 up and running (piece of cake, just plugging it into the wall & a cable to the router, had a spare LCD screen & converter mac-VGA). Had a Zip drive too, although it tends to do the "click of death", a reboot usually fixes that, and none of my Zips gave me any gruff once the drive was happy. So: Turn file sharing on in 9.2.2 for a suitable folder. Copy Zips (and diskettes…) to that folder. Fire up an iBook G4 (whose keybard died, but I transplanted another form another iBook, and I also have a spare USB keyboard, mostly because both iBook keyboards are English/American, which gives me certain challenges since I run Norwegian Sysyems, and the Norwegian & UK/USA layout are different, + the "B" don’t work…9, with a "brain transplant" (with Firewire Target Mode) from my old Powerbook G4, whose screen card died on me 3-4 years ago, thus my Powerbook running 10.5 lives again, on the iBook. Really weird the first time i booted it! Anyhow, the 10.5 Frankenstein combo connects to the G3 (wirelessly) AND to my Mini running 10.9.5. So i copy files from the G3s HD to my Mini’s HD using the Frankenstein setup as an intermediary. I can also print to my Epson laser with the 10.5-frankenstein. Easy as pie! The Mini shares its printer over Bonjour. As for the iBook, it flat out refused to install anything higher than 10.4, so I clobbered it over the head with my Powerbook G4 & Target Mode. Luckily, I had two chargers for those types of Macs, so they can both run at the same time, no worries about doubtable batteries (the one on the iBook is pretty lousy, the one on the Powerbook is pretty OK (bought a new from MacFixit (or maybe it’s the one I got from Apple after faulty ones were found out?). and I have a brand new one from the same company sitting around, bought just before the PB screen card died. And I write this on my non-retina MacBook Pro with High Sierra, 16 gb RAM and an SSD I finally got to work after replacing the hard disk cable (a job I had to outsource to a good friend of mine with keener eyesight & steadier hands than mine. She gpt a bottle of wine for the job!).
Last time I set this up, i had an ancient laptop running 10.2 as the intermediary, and then the Mini ran Lion. Then I was able to make server aliases of the Modern Macs on the G3, that doesent work now. But as long as the 10.5 FrankenMac combo can see the G3, and also see the 10.9.5 Mini, I’m happy. Of course, the 10.13.1-equipped machine can see both 10.9.5 and 10.5. Which is dandy. As for 9..2.2 (or OS 9 in general), when an app crashes, the whole machine goes down. Say what you like about OSX, but the ability to kill apps and still have a running Mac, is priceless. 10.1 was useless (i have it on another, tower G3…), 10.2 works, but clearly a "work in progress". 10.3 helped me get used to OSX (my pancake G3 can boot into that if I decide…), 10.4 is, well, stable, but old fashioned and clearly "left behind". 10.5 is actually useable, you can surf most sites, and iTunes will work with modern streming services (internet radio staitons). "Lion" worked fine, but somehow I upgraded to 10.9.5 (whatever feline *that* is). Happy with that, still "3D", as opposed to 10.13.1’s "flatland look". But I guess that is the way of things now. The ancient 10.2-laptop is on loan to a friend of mine, who is busy recreating old magazines from Quark files to PDF (by way of OS 9, which that laptop also runs) and memory sticks to a more modern Mac, in order to get the PDFs to the WWW. I tried using a stick here too, but with USB 1.1 (or whatever the speed of the USB card i put into it is, it’s just too slow with a 32 gb stick… Although it’s got Firewire too, I only have one loose FireWire disk, and that is a wee bit flaky…). Enough now. Point is, it works. G3+ Zip [9.2.2.]-> cable to router -> G4 iBook booted from a G4 PowerBook in FireWire Target Mode, [10.5], wireless -> Mac Mini [10.9.5], wireless. :) Hm. I also have a couple of 6500s, One has this weird system on it that never took off, another has a PowerPC-adapter that makes the abyssmally slow 6500/250 into a blindingly fast 9.2.x-machine. Almost too bad it can’t run OSX… *And *it might be able to boot in OS 8 (I have that both on CD and a Zip…). Nothing wrong with old computers. Or old 35 mm cameras. Or cars. Or buses. Or trams (trolleys). 1913 is no age! Still runs like a tee! (I know, I drive it…). As does the G3 (from 1997). Plenty of RAM, and an exra HD in place of the internal Zip. :D It could use a new clock battery, but as long as it gets to go on-line, it finds the time by itself, once it’s set. Too much hassle to unscrew the cover to swap it (Yes, I’m lazy… but I’m all Shakin’ Stevens & Blind Bob now…). As for files, Quark files can be opened on the G3 & sent to file using Dekstop Printer or saved as PDF (which ends up as a PostScript file, which tne Distiller on the G3 or the Mini can make a PDF out of). Screen shots from 9.2.2, which are PICTS (files, nor the warrior tribe from Old England…), come out "off" in 10.9.5. The content is out of center and cannot be re-centered. 10.5 to the rescue! Preview in 10.5 happily opens those files just fine, and one can then export tjem as JPEGS or simular modern formats. Which 10.9.5 is happy with. Quark files also opens in 10.9.5 with InDesign, I just have to find the same fonts ( a headache…) and the placed files (also a headache at times). Then to export to PDF is easy. I have a bunch of WriteNow-documents, too (oh, what a lovely program that was! Quick, compact & wysiwyg!). Opening them all to export as prints is a bit of a job, but I wonder if there’s a way around in X? I have some Excel files that are wayy to old for the Excel on the G3, but I have a Classic sitting around, that might be able to run an old enough version of Excel to open those files (a few spreadsheets I adopted from a book of SuperCalc models I bought for my first computer, a Tiki-100 ( https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tiki_100). Nowadays, a loan can be calculated on-line anytime, but not so in the Dark Ages… Plus I have diskettes with which to transfer files… Hm. I also have some Ready-Set-Go!-documents, too, that maybe the Classic could extract, too… Anyhow, my setup works. Thanks to a knowledgeable person here, who told me the brain transplant trick with the iBook & PowerBook G4s. -c. -- Ciel Waagenes Udbjørg, Oslo -- -- ----- 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 [email protected] To leave this group, send email to [email protected] 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 [email protected]. For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/d/optout.
