I just purchased off eBay a PowerBook 1400cs with a floppy drive
module; I have some old financial records on floppies and I need to
access them, but my iBook 900 won't do it and can't be easily made to
do it. My problem started when the PB arrived and I found the
previous owner had initialized the hard drive, so no operating
system. He had included a 7.5.3 system CD, but there was no CD-ROM
module. So, I bought a 1400 6X CD-ROM off eBay so I could install an
OS. Removal of the floppy and insertion of the CD-ROM drive was
simple, but when I boot up the PB using cmd-opt-shift-del for the
CD-ROM (the 1400 doesn't use the standard Mac "C" key command
although I tried this also) while turning the PB on doesn't work:
the drive's amber light blinks, I can hear the CD spool up, but the
screen shows only a floppy icon with a "?" in it. It does this for
about three minutes, then turns itself off. The machine included a
boot disk with 7.5.3 which works fine, but that's as far as I can
get. I've tried removing the floppy drive after the PB is powered up
and replacing it with the CD-ROM drive, but all I get is nasty
windows stating I better replace the floppy drive or else. I am
assured by the seller of the CD-ROM module that it works.
I tried copying the disk tools floppy to the desktop, but this didn't
work. In fact, I went into the disk tools floppy looking for
something (control panels, preferences, start up) which would do
anything. I ran Disk First Aid and it came up OK for the untitled
hard drive.
Networking with my iBook would be nice, but there isn't a single port
in common with the two machines; I do not like the idea of buying yet
more adaptors, cables (the PB came with various serial and SCSI
cables and adaptors), nor PC cards when I am not at all certain they
will work any better than the CD-ROM. I checked eBay and there are NO
operating system installations for 7.x nor 8.x on floppies (plenty on
CDs).
Any suggestions or workarounds to either get the CD-ROM module to
work or to get an operating system onto this PowerBook or for
troubleshooting? I've researched the LEM site and didn't find any
hints.
Many thanks. It's also great being back on an older Mac list; I used
to belong to the Vintage Macs list when I had my old IIvx.
Fred
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