[X4U] Re: Norton for use on very old Mac

[Barbara Alfors]

Hi Mark,

I asked our consultant - see his response below:

Mark Des Cotes wrote:

> Hi all,
> 
> Here's a question for the old timers on the list. I've been asked to
> go have a look at someone's old Mac that will not boot up. I've been
> told that it's a, get this, a Centris (not sure which model) and that
> it's running OS 7.??. I've dusted off some old Norton disks I had but
> I'm not sure which one is for OS 7. I've found Norton Utilities
> version 3.5, 4.0 and 5.02. Can anyone remember which version I should
> use?

He'll probably be fine with Norton 3.5 (I have the box and it says "System
7.1 or higher, Power Mac or Macintosh, 4 MB (!) RAM required, 8 MB
recommended" [damn software bloat]).

Of course, the Centris is not only running pre-OS X, but is also a 68K
processor; I think 5.x might possibly be Power Mac only, 4.0 is a toss-up.
Frankly, the older a version is, the faster it will probably run, and the
only real issue with running too old a version was the incompatibility
between Norton 3.5.1 or earlier and HFS+ formatted HDs, but since those
require OS 8.1, that can't be an issue here.

The nice thing is that in those days, Norton was a pretty good tool, and
saved a lot of people's bacon, IF they just used it for occasional
maintenance or repair; it was less good if it was installed and running crap
like DiskLight or -ugh- CrashGuard (a.k.a. "CrashDoubler"). Then it was a
real drag.

His biggest problem, though, will probably be getting the HD to spin up if
it's been off for a long time - I'd open the case and give it a few sharp
raps with his knuckles right on top of the spindle. The next problem might
be replacing any System 7.x System files if they've gone bad, but hopefully
the user has the CDs (floppies? <shudder>) somewhere.

-P.

-- 
Philip Accas Consulting

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