My closet is like a scene from Hoarders: The Mac Episode.....
November 16, 2011 11:25 AM Subscribe
I was an AD/Photoshop expert for years, but I've changed careers and my computer needs have become less hardcore than they used to be. I'm getting rid of old career/office stuff I don't need, but just realized I have an entire closet full of old Macs and hard drives that are full of all sorts of stuff I should probably sort through, consolidate, purge and/or save... How do people do that nowadays?
I know for a fact there are some things from my past I definitely want that are on the drives (although they'll be in old versions of programs many would still be openable, I figure). I just really don't know where to start... I don't even know if I have the monitors for some of these old CPUs now. Is there a service (I'm in L.A) where people will do that kind of archiving for you and put stuff on hard drives so you can review and store it from your current computer? Or are these machines paperweights now and I should've done this before? Thoughts? I can't imagine I'm the only person who's had to go through this.
Thanks in advance.:)
I know for a fact there are some things from my past I definitely want that are on the drives (although they'll be in old versions of programs many would still be openable, I figure). I just really don't know where to start... I don't even know if I have the monitors for some of these old CPUs now. Is there a service (I'm in L.A) where people will do that kind of archiving for you and put stuff on hard drives so you can review and store it from your current computer? Or are these machines paperweights now and I should've done this before? Thoughts? I can't imagine I'm the only person who's had to go through this.
Thanks in advance.:)
As to how, forget the computers, you remove their harddrives, plug them into a USB adaptor, and copy the entire drive. With old zip drives and floppies and oddball removable platter disks, this gets trickier, maybe using the old computer it easiest. Maybe a USB adaptor is available.
posted by -harlequin- at 11:40 AM on November 16, 2011 [1 favorite]
posted by -harlequin- at 11:40 AM on November 16, 2011 [1 favorite]
Depending on how comfortable you are with a screwdriver, you might want to remove the hard drives from the machines and hook them up to your current machine with a SATA docking station. I'm assuming that you're still on a Mac, so you'll be able to read the HFS/HFS+ drives and copy off whatever files you need.
If the machines are old enough, then the drives might be PATA (parallel ATA, with a big rectangular 40-pin connector and ribbon cable instead the neat little SATA connector), in which case you'd need an adapter like this, which does both SATA and PATA, but needs a place for the drive to sit on, since it's not a full-fledged dock.
Hopefully your Mac collection doesn't go back all the way to the days of SCSI drives, since that would take considerably more effort to get hooked up.
posted by McCoy Pauley at 11:45 AM on November 16, 2011
If the machines are old enough, then the drives might be PATA (parallel ATA, with a big rectangular 40-pin connector and ribbon cable instead the neat little SATA connector), in which case you'd need an adapter like this, which does both SATA and PATA, but needs a place for the drive to sit on, since it's not a full-fledged dock.
Hopefully your Mac collection doesn't go back all the way to the days of SCSI drives, since that would take considerably more effort to get hooked up.
posted by McCoy Pauley at 11:45 AM on November 16, 2011
I did this a couple of months ago with a bunch of hard drives and the easiest way was to take out the drives from the computer cases and use a cable that allowed me to plug in the drives as an USB device. It's kinda slow but it worked pretty great.
posted by Foci for Analysis at 11:56 AM on November 16, 2011
posted by Foci for Analysis at 11:56 AM on November 16, 2011
The DIY method would be to simply open up the computers, take out the hard drives, and then use an external docking station plugged into another Mac to sort through the files at your leisure. (There are cheaper docking stations out there, but IDE ones are rather rare, and your drives are probably IDE.)
Depending on the Mac, pulling the drives is either really simple or really difficult. On Powermac G4 towers, it's just a matter of popping a side latch, opening the side, and removing one single screw. Most Mac towers ought to be similarly easy. iMacs probably require Allen wrenches and disassembly.
posted by neckro23 at 1:33 PM on November 16, 2011
Depending on the Mac, pulling the drives is either really simple or really difficult. On Powermac G4 towers, it's just a matter of popping a side latch, opening the side, and removing one single screw. Most Mac towers ought to be similarly easy. iMacs probably require Allen wrenches and disassembly.
posted by neckro23 at 1:33 PM on November 16, 2011
(On non-preview, Foci for Analysis found the more affordable docking adaptor that I was looking for.)
posted by neckro23 at 1:34 PM on November 16, 2011
posted by neckro23 at 1:34 PM on November 16, 2011
USB to IDE/SATA Adapter Cable w/ Power is a standard item, and usually really cheap. Drive docks are actually pretty handy, too. Some of your drive may be dead, but pulling the drives and harvesting content should be no-able.
If you discard drives, you may want to use DBAN or eraser to wipe data.
posted by theora55 at 6:54 PM on November 16, 2011
If you discard drives, you may want to use DBAN or eraser to wipe data.
posted by theora55 at 6:54 PM on November 16, 2011
You don't have to remove the internal drives of most Macs - Try booting them into target disk mode and just use your disk tools to create .img files of the mounted systems. You don't need a monitor to enable target mode, just use the key combo and plug the firewire cable between the machines in. If it mounts, you're golden.
posted by Orb2069 at 10:41 AM on November 17, 2011
posted by Orb2069 at 10:41 AM on November 17, 2011
This thread is closed to new comments.
Keep it all. If you ever need it, you can go find it - it's all on the one drive (plus backup). Sometimes it's also fun to just browse down memory lane.
posted by -harlequin- at 11:37 AM on November 16, 2011