Help1942

Q: Father-in-law's Mac II just died.  All data is on hard drive.  He purchased an Apple desktop today.  Is there anyway to have the hard drive removed and information transferred to new Apple?

Need to transfer data from MacII to a new Apple desktop.  First, is this possible.  Second, how and through what companies.

Posted on Jul 15, 2012 4:40 PM

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Q: Father-in-law's Mac II just died.  All data is on hard drive.  He purchased an Apple desktop today.  Is there anywa ... more

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  • by JustSomeGuy,Helpful

    JustSomeGuy JustSomeGuy Jul 15, 2012 5:32 PM in response to Help1942
    Level 3 (586 points)
    Jul 15, 2012 5:32 PM in response to Help1942

    What are your (father-in-law's) expectations?  Software that ran on the Mac II won't run on the new Apple machine, as there are too many generations of Mac OS between the two.  The data (i.e. files) could likely be translated from, for example, from whatever word processor or spreadsheet he used to modern equivalents.  A company like RetroFloppy could take a drive and translate the files.  If you wanted to do it yourself, you'd need a way to connect the old drive to the new machine - like an external enclosure that spoke USB out one end, and could accept a SCSI drive internally.  That could allow you to mount the drive directly to the new machine and copy the files directly.  Then you'd need a way to translate the files you had to whatever software is (going to be) in use on the new machine.

  • by Help1942,

    Help1942 Help1942 Jul 15, 2012 5:44 PM in response to JustSomeGuy
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Jul 15, 2012 5:44 PM in response to JustSomeGuy

    He ran a small farm business and used Quicken for his business.  Those are the only files with which he is concerned.  I am sure quite sure that the version of Quicken is relatively old as well in order to even run on the old Mac.  I read another post in which I believe you referenced RetroFloppy, and I saw that they advertised pulling data from floppy disks, but I wasn't sure if they handled hard drives as well.  I can check them out and contact them directly.  The guy at BestBuy told him that there was no way that it could be done.  I told him that I would recommend asking people that specialize in the issue and not a jack-of-all-trades person.  I truly appreciate the guidance and help.  Have a great night.

  • by JustSomeGuy,

    JustSomeGuy JustSomeGuy Jul 15, 2012 6:42 PM in response to Help1942
    Level 3 (586 points)
    Jul 15, 2012 6:42 PM in response to Help1942

    From the Best Buy guy's perspective, I suppose there is no way.  Nothing he sells in his store will do the job, that's true.  The Quicken files will be interesting.  You might need to get in touch with Quicken to understand what to expect in terms of abilities to import age-old files; what the oldest version that can be run on the new Mac, and so on.

  • by dalstott,Helpful

    dalstott dalstott Jul 16, 2012 1:26 PM in response to JustSomeGuy
    Level 4 (2,625 points)
    Jul 16, 2012 1:26 PM in response to JustSomeGuy

    It is going to be tough to transfer data from a old SCSI drive to an ATA or Sata drive in a newer Mac.  I found some threads that adresses the problem with no easy solution. I take it there is no backup.

     

    https://discussions.apple.com/message/7308585#7308585

     

    https://discussions.apple.com/message/4100519#4100519

     

    https://discussions.apple.com/message/4845604#4845604

  • by Help1942,

    Help1942 Help1942 Jul 16, 2012 1:46 PM in response to dalstott
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Jul 16, 2012 1:46 PM in response to dalstott

    Regrettably, my father-in-law didn't have a backup.  That would have made this process at least a little easier.  Thank you for the links to other related chats.  I will pour through them and hopefully try to help him.  He suspects that one or all of my three little ones (two 5-year olds and a 3-year old) may have been behind the recent fall of the Mac II, so I feel obligated to try and help.  Thanks for the help and guidance.

  • by Appaloosa mac man,

    Appaloosa mac man Appaloosa mac man Jul 19, 2012 8:12 AM in response to Help1942
    Level 5 (4,330 points)
    Jul 19, 2012 8:12 AM in response to Help1942

    Help1942,

     

    Some of us still use the older Macs and have plenty of spare parts and accessories.  The key is finding a Mac User Group by googling your geographic area to find one of us.  We happen to be in Washington State and could help you in a heartbeat.

     

    When someone says that their computer died, the first question to ask is if the hard drive died or a power supply. If the hard drive died without a backup, you have an expensive data recovery process to explore.  If the computer died because of some other cause, the hard drive can still be put into an external drive and data copied over to another drive.

     

    Your first task is to find someone who has all the tools.  What you are asking is a very simple matter for someone with plenty of older computers on hand.  Please give more information about what the computer is doing.  Does it still make noise when you turn it on?  Does it chime?  Does the hard drive click?  Is it just the monitor that does not come on?  Do you see a flashing ? when you turn on the computer.  Every noise means something different.

     

    Ji~m

  • by El Deanio,

    El Deanio El Deanio Sep 15, 2012 12:44 PM in response to JustSomeGuy
    Level 3 (757 points)
    Desktops
    Sep 15, 2012 12:44 PM in response to JustSomeGuy

    A perfect example of why to keep 'important' stuff on paper if possible, rather than just electronic media.

     

    By 'paper', I mean anything that doesn't require an intermediate technology to be able to recover that information. So not necessarily just 'electronic' media. When's the last time you used a microfilm reader?

  • by dalstott,

    dalstott dalstott Sep 15, 2012 5:41 PM in response to El Deanio
    Level 4 (2,625 points)
    Sep 15, 2012 5:41 PM in response to El Deanio

    Good point El Deanio.

     

    The only problem I see is that the upcoming generation is not too familiar with that stuff paper and how to use it. About the only familiarity is with toilet paper which is going to be hard to replace electronicaly, but I don't rule out some laser like light beam to take it's place.

  • by El Deanio,

    El Deanio El Deanio Sep 29, 2012 5:20 PM in response to dalstott
    Level 3 (757 points)
    Desktops
    Sep 29, 2012 5:20 PM in response to dalstott

    Laser Bidet?

     

    Burns the crap away (and sorts out any haemorrhoids too). 

     

    Stench might still be a problem though.  Even more so than before.

     

    In any case it'd probably be mistaken for a French pop group!

     

     

  • by dalstott,

    dalstott dalstott Sep 29, 2012 7:22 PM in response to El Deanio
    Level 4 (2,625 points)
    Sep 29, 2012 7:22 PM in response to El Deanio

    Ahh! good thinking as we can't have any big yukk factors like foul odors hanging around. Maybe have

    an effective supersonic exhaust fan unlike the pathetic devices we live with today?

     

    Given all the gifted minds that monitor these discussions I am certain a solution is at hand.