Is there a system on the MAC clones ?

Nikon_Warrior · #1 October 24th, 2005, 03:29 PM

I suffer from MACitis. When I was in the Air Force, all the publishers, printers and photo labs in the late 70s through the mid 90s, had, used and worshipped their MACs. Thus, when I got the chance to buy a MAC -- I did. Now, I search out old MACs to learn about them.

At a flea market, yesterday (Oct. 23, 2005), I found three MAC clones - Motorola Star Max 3000/160 - gathering dust in a corner.

I got them home and they powered up. I got the floppy disk icon with the flashing question mark on the boot up screen. I tried the keyboard bypass startup disk procedure which did nothing. Is this an indication that there is no Operating System on the hard drive? Stickers on the machines reveal they came from an Oklahoma public school.

From the 160, I believe they must use 160 mhz processors. I'd like to be sure there is no operating system before I try to install a new one. If the old one is there; I'd like to be able to resurrect it. If there is no operating system on the machines, would it be adviseable to try and install System 7.5 or would another OS be more efficient?

Thank you for your time.

Sam
Nikon_Warrior

DeltaMac · #2 October 24th, 2005, 03:47 PM

That StarMax is indeed a 160MHz PPC 603e, something close to the PowerMac 6360/6400/6500
The blinking ? means that no bootable operating system can be found.
This might mean that the OS is damaged, or missing entirely. This can also mean that the hard drive is not recognized or running, or could also be missing. This series of computers originally came with System 7.5.3, and was just supported up to OS 8.1 You should be able to OS 9.1 OK. If you can find an installer CD for anything from 7.5.3 to 9.1, you should boot the system to a CD and check for the existence of a hard drive, and you can test it using the Disk First Aid, which will usually be in the Utilities folder on the installer CD.

barhar · #3 October 24th, 2005, 03:50 PM

'... would it be adviseable to try and install System 7.5 or would another OS be more efficient?', at a minimum - System 7.5.3.

bobw · #4 October 24th, 2005, 03:57 PM

http://www.lowendmac.com/moto/3000.shtml
You can run up to 9.1 on this machine.

Mikuro · #5 October 24th, 2005, 05:17 PM

Just in case you don't know, 7.5 is available as a free download on Apple's web site. Check out Older_System for the downloads, and oldersoftwarelist.html for a humongous list of old software Apple offers for download.