Powerbook 145

Hi, good find.

Yes the 145 loads it's system from floppy. This is the link to Apple's system sw downloads. You can run up to System 7.6.

http://download.info.apple.com/AppleSupport_Area/Apple_Software_Updates/English-North_American/Macintosh/System/Olde rSystem/

Is it worth anything? Well, nope. Can it be connected to the internet, technically yes, realistically it's a B&W small screen and it will only support some really old browsers.....but technically it can be done using OS 7.6 and finding an vintage installation of Internet Explorer. But you will need to find an old Asante EN/SC 10T ethernet connector which will plug into the square scsi connector on the back.

But this makes for a very very slow connection on a very very slow laptop.... or if it has the internal PowerPort modem you could go dialup...

But for those minimalists out there it's a pretty cool old powerbook.

Kevin

Hi,

Is it a 3.5 disk i need to install new software?

Yes, you would need a 3.5" diskette. The PowerBook 145 can handle both 1.44 MB (HD) and 800K (DSDD/2DD) Mac-formatted floppies. It is also possible to read/write/format 1.44 MB (HD) and 720K (DSDD/2DD) PC floppies, providing that a PC Exchange control panel (standard in System 7.5 and higher) is installed and active. For handling PC floppies, the systems 7.0.1 and 7.1 contained a separate program called Apple File Exchange instead (on a Tidbits system disk).

You can use a USB floppy drive connected to a modern Mac for file transfers. It is usually a good thing to keep any downloaded MacBinary (.bin) or BinHex (.hqx) unaltered until on the old PowerBook. If a PC is used for downloads, this is very important (in order to avoid file damages). Once on the PB 145, use an appropriate old version of StuffIt Expander for the decoding (post back for further information, if necessary).

A Norwegian System 7.0.1 can be found here. Unfortunately, the System 7 Tune-Up does not seem to be part of the Norwegian version, so you may want to try the complete British English 7.0.1 here. BTW, the PowerBook 145B is another model, which requires at least System 7.1.

Alternatively, a Norwegian System 7.5.3 has been made available for download here. Please note though that an 80 MB hard drive would be needed for a 7.5.3 installation.

How do i clear the HDD and install new software?

For example, the Disk Tools floppy of System 7.0.1 may allow the hard disk to be reformatted (the Apple HD SC Setup utility). Use the existing system to create all required sector-copied system floppies et cetera from disk images first, via Disk Copy 4.2.

Can it be connected to the internet?

Yes, as Niteshooter indicated above, this is possible. Without a SCSI-to-Ethernet adapter (there was one from Dayna, too), and without an internal modem (probably the best solution in this case), you could connect an external serial modem to the round (MiniDIN-8) modem port. A PPP program would be needed for dial-up. For systems earlier than 7.5, MacTCP has to be installed separately. The exact web browser and/or email program depends upon the operating system used.

You will find many shareware programs here.

A manual for the PowerBook 145 can be found here.

Jan