Retrieving data from a macintosh II

Hello all,
I have a Macintosh II with a couple of floppy disks made using said mac's drive. Is there any way to retrieve the data off of either the computer or the floppy disks? I have Intel generation macs, windows 7 pcs, and linux installs at my disposal to retrieve the data.
Thanks!

Probably the most straight forward way of doing this is purchasing a Macintosh computer from the late 1990's ($25 bucks)...some of these had both a floppy drive and USB ports.

This way you:

- stick your floppies from the Macintosh II into the late 1990's computer
- stick a USB flash drive into the late 1990's computer
- copy the data from the floppies onto the USB drive
- then plug the USB drive into your much newer Intel Mac.

A good example of a computer to get would be a Powermac G3.

HTH,

- Nick

hmmm is there any other option?

The easiest way to recover data from the floppy disks is to purchase a new 3.5" USB floppy drive, cheap via eBay, and connect to your Intel Mac. This will read 1.44 MB HD floppy disks, but not if yours are 800K. To read via this method the disks will have HD (high density) written on them, and a small square cut out opposite the write protect tab. I recently bought one so I could retire an older Mac that I kept so I had floppy disk access. Your only worry could be due the age of your floppy disks, their magnetic recording may have faded causing read errors. Hope you recover the data OK.

techiesteve said:

The easiest way to recover data from the floppy disks is to purchase a new 3.5" USB floppy drive, cheap via eBay, and connect to your Intel Mac.

Click to expand...

This would be a pretty good idea...I haven't used one of those yet. And like you mentioned...if the magnetic media on the floppies has degraded...they may not even be readable.

Something I have found over the years...some floppies will be readable from some floppy drives...and not others (all floppy drives were old & used).

I think that this is due to the read/write mechanisms becoming slightly worn/misaligned over the years...so a floppy formatted & written to via a slightly worn/misaligned floppy drive...may only be readable from that drive. Try the same floppy in a more or less worn out floppy drive...and it may not be readable.

And if the magnetic media has degraded...the floppy may not be readable from any floppy drive (new or old).

- Nick

Unfortunately using a USB floppy drive hasn't worked, I've tried that before and none of the OSs will mount the drive.

legggooo said:

Unfortunately using a USB floppy drive hasn't worked, I've tried that before and none of the OSs will mount the drive.

Click to expand...

Then you may be back to the idea I suggested earlier...get an older Mac (possibly a Powermac G3...Blue & White) that has both a floppy drive & USB ports. Set it up to run "Classic OS" 8.5 or 9.1.

Yes this is a bit of a hassle. But I guess that it all depends on how important that info is on the floppies.

If this sort of project was undertaken 15+ years ago...it would have been a lot easier!

- Nick

I completely agree, however it isn't my machine / documents =P. That's why I'm rather hesitant to spend any money on this.

legggooo said:

I completely agree, however it isn't my machine / documents =P. That's why I'm rather hesitant to spend any money on this.

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Ahh...but you didn't mention this in your original post. But completely understand not wanting to spend any money.

Maybe you can ask the owner of the Macintosh II/floppy disks how important the data is...and if they are willing to spend some cash to get the data.

I know many a situation where someone has old floppies like this...and is like..."I got these old floppies...can't remember what's on them...would like to know what's on them before throwing them out."

- Nick

I think it was Ann Landers who once said that if you haven't thought about, touched or used something in over a year, you don't need it and can throw it out. I'd lengthen that to five years but yeah, basically she was right.

If you do recover the data files, have you considered if the type of file will be readable on current Mac's? They could be old Mac Write files or generated by other long gone software.

legggooo said:

Unfortunately using a USB floppy drive hasn't worked, I've tried that before and none of the OSs will mount the drive.

Click to expand...

Option 1

Being an older machine, the best option for recovery would be if the Macintosh II has an Ethernet port (10baseT) and you have a machine that supports AppleTalk (10.5 and older).

You can then connect your Macintosh II directly to your network, possibly allowing your current computer to connect to it through AppleTalk. If your machine runs 10.6 or newer, I would suggest picking up a free G3 iMac for this purpose.

Option 2

Pick up an older PCI PPC Macintosh (i.e. 7600) with a serial connector (9 pin DIN). Add a USB PCI Card, and install 9.x

Once done, setup appletalk, and copy the files to the PPC Macintosh (very slow). Then copy files to USB and transfer to your current machine.

Option 3

You will need a PCI SCSI card, a compatible Macintosh (I.e. Power Macintosh G4) and an external SCSI HD case.

Install the Macintosh II HD into the case, and connect to the Power Macintosh G4. Then copy files to USB and transfer to your current machine.

Additional Information

Floppies formatted on 800k like those from your Macintosh II cannot be read by a Macintosh running 10.x

Computers with 10.x support and a internal floppy drive are not an option as the floppy drive is disabled by 10.x

Other Suggestions

Find someone around your area that has all the equipment for you to transfer the files.

I suggest just taking them to a computer repair store and see if they can retrieve the data for you. If it only takes them a few seconds and you bring your own USB thumb drive, they might even do it free of charge.

Adric said:

I suggest just taking them to a computer repair store and see if they can retrieve the data for you. If it only takes them a few seconds and you bring your own USB thumb drive, they might even do it free of charge.

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You do realize that a Macintosh II is from 1987-1990 right??

I'm thinking that walking into an average/generic computer repair store with a 23-26 year-old Macintosh computer to retrieve data is going to be a pretty darn difficult task.

Even if someone walked into a dedicated Macintosh repair store (if these even exist where the OP is located)...they're still going to have trouble working with a 23-26 year-old Mac.

But this could definitely be a method of retrieving the data...IF a local computer repair store didn't have a problem working with such an old Mac.

- Nick

pigoo3 said:

You do realize that a Macintosh II is from 1987-1990 right??

I'm thinking that walking into an average/generic computer repair store with a 23-26 year-old Macintosh computer to retrieve data is going to be a pretty darn difficult task.

Even if someone walked into a dedicated Macintosh repair store (if these even exist where the OP is located)...they're still going to have trouble working with a 23-26 year-old Mac.

But this could definitely be a method of retrieving the data...IF a local computer repair store didn't have a problem working with such an old Mac.

- Nick

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Yeah I know. Honestly, the OP is probably going to need some sort of data recovery specialist anyway because those floppy drives were not known for longevity or reliability. They used iron oxide and the the oxide would wear and/or flake off over time. In other words, they lose their magnetic charge and even when they were new, they were still somewhat unreliable (though very convenient back then!). Even when stored in perfect conditions, they're only rated to last maybe 10-20 years so it's highly unlikely the OP will be able to just pop it in a drive and get the data. It might be gone forever at this point.

If the OP is THAT desperate to get the data off of them then there are data recovery labs that can work some pretty good magic but they won't be cheap. That's why I suggested just taking it to a computer repair store first because they usually have some pretty rudimentary/basic equipment for recovering data. Here in Atlanta, I use a place called iHospital. They recover data off of all sorts of devices and if they can't due to extensive damage/corruption that's beyond their equipment, then they can at least point you in the next direction or refer you to a lab.

Is the data on these floppies really that important though?

Adric said:

Yeah I know. Honestly, the OP is probably going to need some sort of data recovery specialist anyway because those floppy drives were not known for longevity or reliability. They used iron oxide and the the oxide would wear and/or flake off over time. In other words, they lose their magnetic charge and even when they were new, they were still somewhat unreliable (though very convenient back then!). Even when stored in perfect conditions, they're only rated to last maybe 10-20 years so it's highly unlikely the OP will be able to just pop it in a drive and get the data. It might be gone forever at this point.

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You're "preaching to the choir" here. I've been using Mac's since 1986.

Believe it or not...I still have floppy disks from the 1980's...that I can still successfully read and retrieve data from.

Something that I have found is...as the floppy drive ages (wears out)...the floppies created on that computer/drive are can sometimes only be readable by that computer/drive. So the floppies & computer start to become "matched". If the same floppies created on computer A are inserted into computer B...sometimes they are not readable by computer B (different "wear & tear" on the two floppy drives).

Adric said:

If the OP is THAT desperate to get the data off of them then there are data recovery labs that can work some pretty good magic but they won't be cheap.

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This was one of my first thoughts for the OP...Is the data important enough to retrieve?...if retrieving will be a very involved process.

Adric said:

That's why I suggested just taking it to a computer repair store first because they usually have some pretty rudimentary/basic equipment for recovering data.

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This sounds like step #2...if the OP finds that they cannot directly retrieve the data. At this point...it sounds like the OP doesn't have access to the proper hardware to even try to retrieve the data themselves.

Adric said:

Here in Atlanta, I use a place called iHospital. They recover data off of all sorts of devices and if they can't due to extensive damage/corruption that's beyond their equipment, then they can at least point you in the next direction or refer you to a lab.

Click to expand...

Sounds like a pretty good place you've got there. But these guys sound like the kind of folks that recover files from damaged/crashed hard drives, hard drives the were in a fire, etc. Real "forensic" type data recovery experts...that charge $100's if not over $1000 for data recover on an average HD.

This might be over-kill for the OP. But again...it depends on how important the data is.

I think that the OP mentioned that the machine/data isn't even their own. The actual owner of the machine/data...probably opened up a closet one day...saw the old computer & floppies...and probably thought..."I wonder what's on that HD and floppies?"...and that was probably it & got the OP involved..

- Nick