riotinside wrote:
I have a PowerMac 5400/120 ...OS8 ... Sys 7...
... how to hook the drive up to my MBAir or MacMini? ...
some good suggestions on the hardware options to access the files. However, an issue you might have is actually editing any of the files that were created with discontinued Classic Mac programs in file formats that might not be readable by any software that runs on a modern Intel Mac.
You might need some special conversion utility to extract, say WriteNow documents, for example, this link addresses the dilemma you face:
http://ask.metafilter.com/204539/Translating-WriteNow-Mac-files
might be easier to do this kind of conversion with a PPC/OS X/Classic-capable Mac than directly to an Intel Mac without even Rosetta, although there is SheepShaver emulation out there if you are really in a bind to run older Mac software on your Intel Macs.