Migrating Data from old Macs (System 7 / System 9)

Question

I'm trying to migrate data off of a Macintosh Performa 6115CD and a Power Macintosh 7300/180. The Performa is running System 7 and the 7300 is running Mac OS 9. I do not have an external SCSI adapter to attach the disks to for a raw copy.

What's the best way to get data off of these machines? I was looking into Appletalk over IP but I'm not sure how to proceed.

Answer 1

I was looking into Appletalk over IP but I'm not sure how to proceed.

I presume both older Macs have working ethernet adaptors.

1. Connect your computers up to your network router using DHCP. Go to the Apple menu in OS 9, go to Control Panels, and open the TCP/IP control panel. Select Ethernet for the Connect Via: option, and Using DHCP for the Configure option. You didn't mention which version of System 7 the other computer had, 7.5+ should have the proper drivers installed, 7.0 or 7.1 may need drivers you can download here: http://download.info.apple.com/Apple_Support_Area/Apple_Software_Updates/English-North_American/Macintosh/Networking-Communications/Network_Software_Installer/ZM-NSI_1.5.1.sea.bin
2. If DHCP doesn't work, you may have to manually enter IP addresses. Use 192.168.0.x for each computer's address (where x is unique for each computer) 255.255.255.0 for the subnet mask, and 192.168.0.y for the Gateway/Router (where y is whatever you've set up your router to be.)
3. In OSX on the new computer, set up file sharing. Go to Sharing in System Preferences and check the box next to File Sharing (this is AFP protocol). In case that doesn't work, also enable FTP sharing.
4. In OS9 find the Chooser option in the Apple Menu. Select this, and you should have an option called AppleShare. Select this, and hopefully your OSX computer will appear. If you cannot see the OSX system in the server list, enter its IP address manually. If that still doesn't work, you can try connecting from the OSX computer, or try using FTP. Fetch 4.0.3 for Mac OS 7-9 available here.
5. On the System 7 machine, the process is similar, use the Chooser in the Apple menu to connect. Fetch also works for System 7 if you can't get AFP to work. (See above link.)

If you can't connect from the older machines to the newer and "push" the files to the new machine (the way i recommend) you may have to set up file sharing on the older machines.

More information on setting up File Sharing on Mac OS 7-9 can be found on this Apple Support Page.

Good luck!