More PowerBook 145B trouble

Jan
You are right. It is regrettable that the 145B's lack of support for SCSI Disk Mode is reported by LowEndMac, without there being any mention by Apple that that was one of the economies lavished on the machine in making it 'offer the same performance [as the PB 145] at a lower price'. Neither in the Service Source repair manual nor in the Technical Specifications. So much for an oustandingly useful facility that could have been crafted solely for PowerBook troubleshooting.

Mt Everything does have the virtue of being free and downloadable, but almost any of FWB Toolkit, InTech's HD SpeedTools or LaCie's Silverlining might do the same job. The last is also 'free' in that it comes/came with every LaCie drive for pre-OS X. Version 5.8.3 should be adequate, but only the 6.5.4 updater for 6.5.1 seems to be available from LaCie's site. Silverlining Lite 2.2.2 is here.

michaelbenji
My apology for offering you a false hope about SCSI Disk Mode.


Apple IIe; 68K: 11DT + 4PB; PPC: 5DT + 3PB; G3: 6DT System 6.0.8 to OS 10.4.x

michaelbenji,

"The above info...I need a 'dummies' version, as I am now officially over my head."

Only you can determine your comfort level for tinkering and the value of the data. If you do not have a back up of your data and it is worth the money to recover, then that is the way to go.

If you want to learn from this process, you will need tools to play with your toys. I pointed you to one option for removing your hard drive and connecting it to another Mac that has more powerful software tools than will fit on a floppy. Jan politely pointed out that I forgot to check one fact. The adapters I mentioned are for newer hard drives. You can still use an external adapter, just a SCSI one, not an IDE one.

Denis suggested connecting your laptop to another computer with a special cable. That cable will probably cost more than some pay for those laptops. It is worth having because that cable allows another computer to look inside your laptop and read your hard drive. Unfortunately, the devil is in the details. Jan seems to be the most awake on this one because he pointed out that the 145 will not support SCSI Disk mode. I have not verified that claim but Jan knows his stuff. The only reason to correct someone on these posts is if someone spoke from memory and forgot a detail. These guys have forgotten more about computers than most will ever know.

If you want to buy adapters and hardware and have tools for playing with toys, join our ranks of learning as we go. If this laptop is for business use, there is little choice but to seek professional help.

Jim

Hello Denis,

Yes, almost missed that one myself. Suddenly remembered that there was something about the PB 145B and SCSI Disk Mode. Checked at LowEndMac (BTW, a very good site for older Macs), and was later able to verify the information via KB article # 13611.

Regards,
Jan

Hello,

Yes I did create a modified Disk Tools Floppy to use Mt. Everything.

Just curious, how did you do that? A copy of the existing floppy or something from a downloaded disk image? Via the iBook's USB drive (made under which operating system)? The disk is bootable?

I'm wondering if it's worth it to initialize the hard disk and see if I can get the computer back up and running.

Only you can decide that. If you believe that you have the most important files already, it might be worth trying.

I wonder if there is a way to recover that data on my iBook G4, or if I need to do it on an older computer--and does it have to be a PB 145B?

If a set of backup copies had been made by Apple's own backup application (used with certain PowerBook models, where you had to create the system floppies from files on the hard disk), I would say that it should be the same model, since the restore application looks for the machine type. I am not familiar with Redux Delux, so I cannot say whether this program is limited to a certain range of computers. It may be quite sufficient with a desktop Mac of the same era. A program called Wish I Were... (try a Google search) could perhaps be useful, too.

If there are any other specific programs I should try (I do need version numbers so I don't download the wrong thing)

You could try Drive Setup 1.7.3 to begin with. There is always a risk that an attempt to update the hard disk drive driver software (by any utility) can make the present contents of the disk inaccessible. If you need instructions on how to modify, for example, a Network Access Disk 7.5 ( here) floppy, do post back later.

Jan

michaelbenji
If you don't have a yen for another (old) PowerBook, don't feel that you are constrained to use one of them in the rescue. In many ways, desktops, which do not all have the compromises imposed by the compactness of PBs, are better suited to your purpose. For example, the LC 520 and PPC 5200 form-factor AIOs are marvellously accessible: logic board and drives are readily got at. With an adapter from SCSI 50-pin to the miniature format used in the PBs you can much more easily deal with the PB's drive, allowing yourself, free of the PB environment, to determine with finality whether the drive is able to be mounted reliably and downloaded, and perhaps formatted and returned to service.


Apple IIe; 68K: 11DT + 4PB; PPC: 5DT + 3PB; G3: 6DT System 6.0.8 to OS 10.4.x