We have an old Performa 575 and before we get rid of it, we want to remove the hard drive. I have taken off the back panel and can see all of the components but am not sure which is the hard drive or how to remove it. I searched online for instructions but couldn't find any. Can anyone help? Thanks!
The HD is on a special tray. You need to lift or pull down (do not remember) a tab under the disk and pull the disk with the paper-fabric thing???
The bracket and the disk should pull out. Attache to the disk will be some adaptors for power and the SCSI connector that connect directly on a special connector on the motherboard.
No paper-fabric thing on this model, as the connection is made at the rear of the drive with the attached SCSI-to-CardEdge connector board. Use long nosed pliers to lift the tab out of the locking slot and pull very hard for the first half-inch. Then the drive connector will be disengaged and the retention force will be greatly diminished, the drive will fly out of the slot, flinging you backward across the room.
If you ever expect this Mac to work again, the next user will need the SCSI-to-CardEdge connector to apply to the new drive. This can be removed by prying at the ends with a slotted screwdriver, revealing a perfectly regular 50-pin SCSI and four-pin Molex power connector.
You can avoid all of this if you have a Disk Tools diskette. Boot the diskette, select your drive, and choose Initialize. From the Options, choose Write Zeroes. It takes an hour or more, but wipes out everything.
