>Right now, I'm pretty concerned about how to crack open the box without
>breaking
>it, so I can inspect the hard disk to see what it is, physically. Does
>anybody
>have a recipe for doing that?
This is going off memory of upgrading a 6360 (same case design)... if you
want exact, I can email again on Monday when I am in front of a 630.
To remove the logic board: On the back, there are two plastic tabs, push
them lightly, remove the plastic face plate. Remove the two screws on
either side under the face plate. Pull on the handle, the board will
slide out.
To remove drives: Flip the unit over, look at the front, you will see two
push tabs holding the front face plate on. Push the tabs, remove the
plate. The drives are on sleds, to remove a drive, push the locking tab
on the sled, remove sled and drive.
>Moreover, I imagine I'll use one of the considerably larger IDE types I've
>set
>aside from PC use to replace the drives now in the machines. It's safe to
>assume, however, that NOT any IDE drive will work, since Apple Computers,
>Inc.
>didn't like folks buying hardware at a resonable price from someone else
>rather
>than allowing Apple to gouge them. (part of the MAC culture, I guess) I
>note,
>also, that the CDROM is SCSI. That being the case, I'd like to see whether
>there's room for a SCSI HDD in the box. There certainly is room in the
>system
>(logically). That would work even better, since I have lots of extra SCSI
>drives. Have any of you MAC gurus got experience with replacing MAC IDE
>drives?
There is no room in the case to add a 2nd internal drive, and running
cables to replace the IDE with SCSI will be a bitch. Also, if you use
SCSI, you are limited to using Apple approved drives, or you need 3rd
party formating software (or a hacked version of apple's software). If
you stick with IDE, you can use any drive you want, of any size you want
(I am almost 100% positive apple has no problems using drives larger than
8gig on 68k machines... but you might want to double check before buying
a 40 gig and hoping to use it... of course there are OS limitations on
the size of a partition on older versions of the OS, don't remember
details right now). Either way, you are safe to stick an older multi gig
IDE drive into the 630 without a problem. Apple's software will recognize
it just fine. Just remember that 68k machines can't use HFS+ formatting,
so keep your drive partitions under 4 gig, or you will be wasting TONS of
space on the drive.
>It looks as though the drives in the boxes are 250 MB or so, which might be
>adequate for some things, but I doubt it would be adequate for internet
>activity.
Actually, internet activity is probably what will be happiest on the
250mb drive. I think you are thinking Windows size applications. For
Email you can use Eudora or Emailer (both about 3mb), Web can be iCab
(about 3mb and actively under development). Fetch 3.0 has a 68k version
that is about 2mb for FTP. And a plethora of other 68k friendly internet
software (check www.macorchard.com).
Throw in a copy of AppleWorks 5, and you have decent office apps. (or go
all out with things like Nisus Writer, FileMaker Pro 3 or 4, not sure on
spreadsheet but there are good options). If you make a mild attempt to
lead a Microsoft free life, you will be AMAZED at the stability, small
size, and speed of applications out there... all that are just as good
(and in most cases BETTER). If you need to talk to MS documents, just
grab a copy of MacLink Plus (although, the latest versions are PPC only,
so getting access to the latest MS doc formats on a 68k machine can be a
bit trickier... but still doable without too much effort).
If you have 1 or 2 gig IDE drives sitting around anyway, why not use
them. More important than upgrading the drive in my book would be to deck
out the 630 with RAM by adding a 32mb chip. Once you have the ram, you
can run OS 8.1 if you would like (in my opinion, it runs smoother and
faster than 7.6.1, and is more stable than 7.5.5... but YMMV). OS 8.1
opens you up to even more good 68k software.
-chris
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Received on Sat Nov 17 2001 - 16:30:24 GMT