retrieve data from a powerbook 150 and 170

hi all,

i have a powerbook 170 that starts up with the flashing-question-mark-disk icon and a powerbook 150 that does not start up at all. i have data on both that i would like to retrieve (old hypercard stacks; anybody know of a modern reader?).

what is the best way to achieve this?

is it easy to open up the powerbooks and just remove the hard drive? and would it then be easy to buy a cable to connect the bare hard drive into a moden USB port?

thanks!

MacBook C2D, Mac OS X (10.6.4)

Posted on Oct 28, 2010 6:07 PM

17 replies

limsilas Author

Level 1

10 points

Nov 25, 2010 1:28 PM in response to Jan Hedlund

thank you, jan.

now, sorry to switch back to the topic of the powerbook 150 - but as you'll recall, that's the drive that i pulled out and attempted to read (via an IDE-USB adapter) on a modern mac, but to no avail.

however, i re-installed the hard drive, and was able to power it on!! and even log into the system!

but of course, i've reached another hurdle - for some odd reason, my floppy disk drive is not working properly. when i try to insert a disk, it stops about 1/3 of the way in. i've inspected the drive and there appears to be nothing obstructing the disk, but for whatever reason i simply cannot insert it fully...

Jan Hedlund

Level 7

24,235 points

Nov 28, 2010 1:11 PM in response to limsilas

If you cannot repair the floppy drive, and if the PowerBook 150 otherwise is starting/operating OK from the hard disk, you would have to find another file transfer method via existing software.

If ClarisWorks is on the computer, it is possible to use the program's communications section (a standard serial modem could be used for transfers over the public telephone network; or you could connect a null-modem cable between the PowerBook and the serial port of a PC for a local transfer).

Jan

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retrieve data from a powerbook 150 and 170