Sigh, I said I would help... and now

[tinroots]

I'm stuck! I work in a school, where they have some of the oldest macs that were in the education system... and of course for the one that I neeeeed to know how to get info off of - I don't have a clue what the heck model it was. It's the (imho) ugggly yellow/tan color and it's the all in one piece (imac concept) with a screen and two disc drives - one at least is a floppy disk drive right below the screen. Know what model?
So then, I assume, being as how I have a powerbook, and her new computer is a white egg-shaped imac w only usb + firewire connections.

I need to get her a flash disc - for future prevention of problems. Thankfully, I remembered to look at the back of this monster... it is pre usb. It's got what I always called the 'mac serial' connection. The cable that goes in is a circle with the bottom a little smaller and flat on the bottom (like the clam shell cd holders) and it has 4 prongs with a black little horizontal rectangle on the bottom just above the flat part of the outer bottom. It's tiny, you know what I mean?

So, here I am someone who always misses the point by trying the hardest way to fix something. Any suggestions on how to get her (email mostly) files off of this monster? I would simply compress the files and then email them to a usb computer -- but it's on a stoogie school server that will not allow over a tiney bit o data over it.

pppplease help, i work with this woman, she controls my ability to not get fired, plus she's very flighty and every answer to not getting anything done -- is i can't get it off the computer -- and it's all on me... and because i told her i would.

any, all, all bits etc please let me know!

[nixgeek]

Wow! Sounds like a bit of a predicament there. Sorry to hear.

Have you tried looking on the front of the computer itself for the model of the Mac? All Macs for the most part have their model names and numbers plastered on the front. My old Mac Quadra 650 has it on the front of the case.

As for the conenctions you are seeing, they can either be the Apple Desktop Bus ports (ADB for short, used before USB became popular on Macs....same idea though, but USB is better and faster) or Serial Ports for the modem or printer.

The ADB port was mainly used for the keyboard and mouse, and possibly some other devices, and it allowed you to daisy chain them all if you only had one of these. The little icon on the back looks like it has 3 lines coming out of the main line, two pointing one way, and on in the other.

The serial ports are usually used for the modem and printer. The printer port specifically was also used for AppleTalk communication using LocalTalk adapters that plugged into the printer port. The modem port was pretty much self explanatory, as are the little icons above those said ports that identified them.

As for getting the files off this computer: does this computer have an ethernet port at all? I know some of the older Macs before the iMac, especially the all-in-ones, used to be ordered with ethernet cards for use on the school's network (for the record, I'm a tech at two elementary schools in Florida). If it does, you could probably offload her files to another machine or to the server on your network.

If not, then you might be forced to set up a LocalTalk connection. This is one of the simplest networks you can create on these Macs and is basically like a crossover ethernet conenction between two computers. Click here for more on LocalTalk Serial connections.

This same site has other types of connections you can try as well if you ever run across situations in the future that require it.

http://www.atpm.com/network/setup/

If networking is not possible, then you might have to offload to a SCSI Zip drive or (dare I say it) floppies.

Here's hoping that you can resolve this. Let us know how it goes.

[tinroots]

Wow,
I've had one insane week - so I'm just now reading my emails (much to my school counselor's chagrin...(computer problem co-worker)) What a great informative, understanding, awesome reply!! Muchos gracias!