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Powerbook 100 help?

quasar5413

New Member
Joined
Apr 29, 2013
Messages
3
So I have recently acquired a working Powerbook 100 and accompanying floppy disc reader. Aside from being yellowed with age and the battery not taking a charge, the unit powers on just fine. The matrix screen pulls up, and a few seconds later, a mouse will pop up. Soon after, the floppy disc symbol shows up with a question mark in the middle. Now, keep in mind, I was born far after floppies were mainstream. I have many because they interest me; relics of a lost era. Though I understand floppy diskettes well and still use them for some backup purposes, this symbol was new to me. With some quick internet searching, I was able to find out that this means the computer wants me to put in the boot floppies to load the system into the RAM. Now, this unit came with no floppies of any kind, so I immediately went to the internet to download the images. This is where my many troubles begin:

Roadblock 1: I have never before used a mac computer. I am running on a Windows 7 64bit installation. I do, however, have a working floppy drive and a few 1.44mbs lying around.

Roadblock 2: I have no understanding whatsoever of which version of System I can use (bare minimum version is acceptable, but the newest is preferable)

Roadblock 3: My diskettes are formatted with FAT. Not with Mac filesystem.

Roadblock 4: I can extract the IMG files once I have the correct ones, but do not understand how to boot from them with the Powerbook.

Roadblock 5: I have no Mac computers in the house to format the floppies

Can anyone render assistance?:confused:
 
Okay so I have used a third party software to put the img files on floppies, and can boot into the Disk Tools Diskette. Unfortunately, the Apple SC HD Setup cant find my hard drive. It is quite obvious the drive is faulty. It makes the clicking noise that always signifies the end of a drives lifespan. I was wondering if anyone knows how I might at least temporarily bring this drive back? Adding oil is what I have learned from googling, but all I have is WD-40 and I would not put something so volatile (and sticky in the long run) into a fragile drive. Plus, all of my computer experience tells me that no amount of lubrication will put this in working order. I think the arm is malfunctioning, and If required, I will, as a last resort, open the drive (egads!) in a ziploc bag and attempt to diagnose it. wont be finding any 2.5" SCSI 34-pin drives anytime soon. Or for a low price.
 
I'm not sure why you would want to bring it "temporarily" back, but on a drive that old, bearings could be the cause. You could try any of the voodoo tricks like the stiction spin or sticking it in the freezer, but you should expect it to fail shortly after. Don't add a hydrocarbon based oil and certainly not WD-40 (which is only a water displacer, not an actual lubricant). I'd use a solid lubricant like something molybdenum-based if you're going to have a go at cracking it open.
 
Well sticking it in the freezer is a last resort. I guess I could if I had no other option. What exactly is (and how do I perform) a stiction spin? Really, as long as I get the satisfaction of making it work for awhile then I will be satisfied. A permanent solution would be great but that seems unlikely.
 
A good firm series of twists of the drive along the axis of rotation to free it up if the bearings are just balky. Not to be used on drives that aren't parked, but that shouldn't be a problem here.
 
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