Quadra/Performa/LC 630 Software Restoration Process

[inanis]

First post. Woot!

I thought I might share some knowledge and get some feedback on my process, but first the backstory.

I have a Performa 640CD I acquired from a longtime client around 12 years ago. She donated it to me because the power supply failed from a lightning strike. I happened to have acquired a Performa 630CD around that same time, so I moved the 640CD logic board over to the 630CD chassis to test it. Lo and behold: the 640CD powered up. Life happened and I promptly forgot about the machine.

I got back on a preservation/restoration kick the last couple of years and finally got back to the 640CD. Still no power supply, but I wanted to at the very least get started on preservation. I yanked the power supply from the 630CD and moved it to the 640CD so I could get the system working "au naturel". My primary goal was to convert the hard drive to CompactFlash. Good idea too, because on the first powerup, the original drive suffered a bone chilling head crash.

Now to the point of the post. I couldn't find a single process anywhere after two days of 'net searching that details everything necessary to completely restore one of these machines from nothing if you don't happen to have the original software media. I pulled together several different resources and my other ancient cobwebbed Mac/PC knowledge to create a single set of instructions for restoring the software on one of these machines.

I'd like folks input on my process: maybe there's some steps I can eliminate? A better set of software tools or installer disks I can use? At the very least, I wanted to share this process here so others who might someday need it could get use out of it.

The process is several pages long so I'll link it externally. If that's frowned upon, I can post the entire process here.

http://inanis.net/museum/quadraperformalc-630-software-restoration-process/

 

[Macdrone]

Are you looking for the 640CD installer specific disk? 

 

[tanaquil]

This is a great guide, thanks! I have a 636CD (currently running), so I'm going to save the link for future reference.

Re: preparing the blank IDE drive for the performa: wouldn't it be easier to use a SATA/IDE to USB connector, if your OS 9 Mac has USB? (Maybe that's rarer than I think - I use G3s and G4s to run OS 9.) That would save opening the OS 9 machine. Just plug the IDE connector and power cable into the drive and the USB into the USB port. Or have you tried that and it didn't work?

 

[inanis]

Macdrone: If there is such a thing, that would be plenty helpful. My process refers to a "restore" ISO for a 630CD that I downloaded and tried, but a) that ISO isn't bootable on my 640CD and B) the Internal IDE tool right on the root of that disk doesn't detect any ATA devices with or without booting to a disk with the aLoadIDE extension and c) the Drive Setup tool on that disk also doesn't see any devices. In fact, no Drive Setup version on any disk I could get to boot would properly initialize the device. They either refuse to see a device exists or try to initialize it and fail. If I can get a hold of a 640CD disk that actually boots the machine, can see the IDE devices, and properly initialize them, then that will make this process about three pages shorter. After two days of searching, none were to be found (by me that is).

tanaquil: Glad you liked it. I did not try a SATA/IDE USB device, although I have one and a Bondi Blue iMac that might have worked for this scenario. Didn't try it. Easy enough to try, though. I'll check it out and report back.

 

[inanis]

As promised, here's some updates based on tanaquil's suggestions:

iMac G3/233 Rev. B

• MacOS 8.5 Boot CD - FAIL: OS doesn't recognize USB dongle.
• MacOS 9.2.2 Boot CD - FAIL: OS recognizes dongle, but Drive Setup refuses to initialize an "unsupported device".
• Mac OS X 10.3 on Hard Disk - PASS: Use Disk Utility to create a new partition on it with "Mac OS Standard". Make sure "Install Mac OS 9 drivers" is checked.

  
iBook G3/600

• OSX 10.4.11 - PASS: Use Disk Utility to create a new partition on it with "Mac OS Standard". Make sure "Install Mac OS 9 drivers" is checked.

  
Mac Book Pro (Late 2013)

• OSX 10.11 -  FAIL: Recognizes dongle and any HFS that might be on the drive, but can't format devices as Mac OS Standard.

My checklist has been revised.

 

[inanis]

To edit the previous statement: UNCHECK Install Mac OS 9 drivers because they're PPC code and will cause the Performa to Sad Mac.

 

[Floofies]

tanaquil: Glad you liked it. I did not try a SATA/IDE USB device, although I have one and a Bondi Blue iMac that might have worked for this scenario. Didn't try it. Easy enough to try, though. I'll check it out and report back.

For my Q630 (No CD drive!) I used an Ubuntu Live CD, and a PATA to USB adapter on my PC to partition (with hfsprogs and diskpart) my unused, period-correct 10GB WD Caviar. I then plopped the System 7 installation media on it's own partition from Ubuntu. I booted from the install partition on the Q630, installed the OS from one partition on the drive to another partition on the drive, and in the end I effectively created a nice OEM recovery partition with extra useful goodies like OT 1.3 (basically everything on this page). If you have the patience to figure out Read/Write mounting of HFS volumes in Linux, and don't feel like doing the floppy shuffle, it's a great method.

 

[inanis]

... I used an Ubuntu Live CD, and a PATA to USB adapter on my PC to partition....

Why oh why do I make things harder for myself? I always forget Live CDs! Great trick. I'll have to try it out as a third alternative!

 

[dr.zeissler]

Hi, that's a tricky one.

I got a 630DOS recently, but mine has no HardDrive. I recognized that is has an IDE cable, so there must be an IDE Harddrive connected to it.

I put a very silent 20GB HDD in it. OS 7.6.1 CD booted but does not recognize the harddrive.

I got a 4,5GB Apple Branded Drive vom a G3 B&W, but as you wrote I first get a Error Code PPC.... and after that always a "sad mac".

My FWB Tools are too old and so they only support SCSI Drives, other/newer Versions are to big to get them on a floppy disc.

I have no clue how to do it. Yesterday I found that: http://macintoshgarden.org/apps/macintosh-os-75

But the 630DOSCD does not boot either....ARGH! 

 

[dr.zeissler]

Is there any bootable floppy-disk or CD-Image that is capable of recognizing non apple branded ide-drives with a Performa 630 Dos.

 

[dr.zeissler]

...it seems to be that you are right.  using tiger with usb to ide and unchecking os9 drivers leeds a a initializing drive while boot os 7.61 cd on the 630dos,

...currently installing 7.61...hdd shows 18,5gb free...os 7.6.1 installer says 2gb free, 70mb required...we will see.

Thx for the advice!

 

[dr.zeissler]

...but it does not work yet.

OS 7.6.1 is installed, a reboot starts very short, but after that I the the Image of a Disk with a "?".

Any idea, what went wrong?

Greetings Doc

 

[dr.zeissler]

With 7.5.3 it worked! Thx!