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Macintosh LC475 (1993) - Help.

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mby70

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Aug 24, 2011
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I have a Macintosh LC475 that I've had boxed up in the original packaging, in plastic bags too, in the loft for about 12 years. I am going to chuck it out but want to get my cv off it first. Unfortunately I can't get the thing to start up, I just get the disc icon with a question mark on it. It's been so long since I used it that I can't remember what this means? Is it a hardware problem or possibly a problem with the mouse/keyboard? Or am I being stupid expecting it would work after not being switched on for so long?
 
The question-mark disk icon means it can't find the System software. This means either someone erased the hard drive, or it's gone bad. Do you have the System disks for it? Try booting it with them, and see if you can read the hard disk. If so, reinstall the System software; if not, try reformatting the hard drive and then reinstall.
 
Thanks John. It didn't come with any system disks, so not an option, it's in excellent condition though. If I remove the hard drive do you think it would be possible for me to extract any data from it? If so what sort of kit would I need? Thanks.
 
You'd need a SCSI controller in a system with software installed to read HFS volumes. If you don't already have one, it'd probably be cheaper just to pick up some second-hand system disks on eBay (or better yet, if you have a working Mac with an internet connection and a floppy drive, download the disk images from Apple and use DiskCopy to write them to disk.)
 
You don't have much options in the way of connecting the hard drive to another computer, unless you find a Mac that can connect two hard drives (master and slave) and the same HDD type. Somewhere on the Apple FTP site (I think it's still running), there's downloads for system software. Do you have any idea what version of system software it had?
 
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I think it's OS7. Downloading the disc images sounds like a good idea, but I don't have access to mac, and certainly not one with a floppy drive. I used to be so clued up on macs, but don't know anything about them these days. Is it possible that the hard drive is f-cked, do they just stop working after so long, if they aren't used? I've popped the top open and noticed there is a lithium battery inside, is there any chance that this might be stopping it from booting if it's dead?
 
The hard drive might be bad or it might not, you never know until you try formatting it. The battery may or may not be an issue - Macs are pretty good about booting without a working battery, usually, but each of them seems to respond differently to having it dead, so you never know. I'd replace it, at any rate - even if it's not dead, it's old, and if it springs a leak that'd be very bad.
 
Well, if I was recovering the drive for one of my clients, I would use one of two approaches.

The first would be to put it in a PC with a SCSI controller (like a 1542 Adaptec) and then run TransMac to read the HD and pull off the files to CD.

The second would be to put the target drive in an external SCSI enclosure and connect it to my 475 test unit and extract the files to floppies.

Unfortunately, each method requires some slightly specialized equipment and that's probably why my clients would send it to me to do.
 
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