Transferring Files

[krissel]

Yup, that's the one.

http://eshop.macsales.com/item/Other%20Wor...uting/PCMCIA2P/

In fact I purchased mine originally a few years ago from OWC so it must be the same or a fresh model cause mine doesn't have the little grippers on the side. Otherwise it looks exactly like the pic, same label. When I got it I was so pleased with how well it worked that I immediately ordered a second one for my Mom's Lombard.  Glad they still had them.



If you have a drive connected to it you eject the drive like any other external, by dragging the icon to the trash. To eject the card itself you do the same if you are running OS 9 as the card puts an icon on the desktop. In system X you usually have an eject option in the menubar for the card. If for some reason it doesn't eject there is a pin hole for the infamous paperclip eject method.

If this is a Wallstreet there are actually two PCMCIA slots, one on top of the other. Be careful you don't put the card in on a slant so it is partially in both slots. I have the FW card and a USB card in mine, stacked, and leave them in all the time. I do vaguely remember having a hard time ejecting a card (I think it was a Compact Flash adapter) and having to use the paperclip and rebooting to get it to recognize it. But that was about 6 years ago and the details are fuzzy...

[Jack W]

More questions Kris,

iMac 700MHz PowerPC 7441 (G4):iMac G4/700 (Flat Panel)

The FW drive I ordered for the iMac is 160GB.
Everymac.com states that the max drive supported by this iMac is 128MB.
Does this also apply to external FW drives?
Even if I initialize it with my QS 2002 into three partitions (all overkill) as follows:
• MacHD Backup 40GB
• Transfer 10GB (for transferring files with the PowerBook G3
• Old Files (~50GB) for long term storage
• Spare (Remainder ~50GB) for future use.

I would scale these down if the iMac has the same 128GB limitation on the fw drive.

PowerBook G3 Wallstreet (I'm not sure which model it is 233 - 250 - or 292)

And regards using the PCMCIA card I ordered that you suggested:

If the external has 4 partitions, do all show up on the OS 9.2.2 desktop, like they do on Tiger?

If so, all is cool.

  , Jack

[krissel]

Firewire drives do not have the same restrictions as internal ATA drives. The whole drive will be seen but remember that it won't total fully up to 160, probably closer to 155.. Just make sure you install OS 9 drivers when you do the partitioning.

Partitions are a personal thing. I used to have many partitions on my drives but started running into space problems with the newer OS that tend to grow exponentially. I tend to use fewer and larger ones now.  In your case since the main drive is only 40G having much larger partitions would only be necessary if she were going to store large files like movies or tons of audio which I don't think is the case.

Yes, all partitions will show as separate icons on the desktop.

Here's how to tell the Wallstreets apart:

http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=24604

[Jack W]

Thanks krissel.

The PB is definitely a member of the M4753 family (PowerBook G3 Series).
The expansion bay holding the optical drive is on the right side toward the front.
No firewire or USB ports.

I'll check when I go over there later this week.

Thanks for the info on firewire drives under OS 9.

I am going to do some pre-checking on my PowerBook G4 under OS 9 when the PCMCIA card arrives this week.
The order for the firewire drive and PCMCIA card already have a UPS number from OWC.
I really like that company!

- Jack

[Jack W]

Hi Gang,

Good news! I finally got the transfer process locked down.
Forget Ethernet! Too darned complicated and trouble prone.

krissel offered the key clue — purchase a PCMCIA firewire card for the PowerBook.

We had already decided to purchase a backup firewire drive for her.
So now it was a simple matter of developing the right strategy to get it all to work:

1) Insert PCMCIA fw adapter in PowerBook
2) Boot PB and wait for it to put the icon on the desktop for the PCMCIA card. This is critical!
3) Connect fw cable between PB and fw drive and turn on fw drive
4) FW icons appear on desktop! Magic!
5) Drag files to be transferred to the 'Transfer' partition on the fw drive
6) Dismount the fw icons by dragging to the trash. (critical)
7) Disconnect the fw cable
Shut down PB

Then, on the iMac:

1) Start up iMac if not already on with fw icons showing on the desktop
2) If fw icons don't show up on desktop, power off fw and power back on. Icons should now show up.
3) Open 'Transfer' partition and copy files over.
4) Dismount fw icons. (Critical)
5) Power off fw drive.

I probably have too many steps in there, but it works for now!

This could have been much easier if the PB was a newer model running OS X.
Then the PB could have been connected via firewire mode and mounted directly on the iMac desktop.
But this is a PB G3 Wallstreet sans fw and running OS 9.

Thanks to all who offered suggestions, and especially to krissel for giving that clue about the PCMCIA FW card. ($20)

WOW!

Thanks again, Jack