Replacing the hard drive in the Macintosh LC III

Today, I’m going to replace the hard drive in my new Macintosh LC III. It’s new because I just bought it, but it was made in about 1993. That was a time when you could get under the hood of the Mac and install upgrades, make repairs, or just tinker.

I don’t keep old Macs as museum pieces. I keep them as working machines. I bought my first Mac in 1985, and I like to have a chain linking me back to that first Mac Plus. I find that if I have on hand a Mac released about every ten years, I can access all the files in my archives and pass documents forward and backward in time.

Somehow, I let a gap open up between the 80s and the 00s. I’ve owned and used at least a hundred Macs over time, but I let go of all the ones from the 90s. That left my Mac Plus stranded back there in the 80s with no link to the 00s.

What are the important links between generations of Macs? Operating systems are probably the most important links. They change drastically over 20 years. So, a file created on a computer from 20 years ago is probably not going to be readable on a new computer today. Ports are also important links. These are the sockets on the back where you plug in keyboards and other input devices, external hard drives, network connections. Nothing on the market today can plug into my old Mac Plus.

I’m pretty excited about this LC III. It’s sort of flat and square, and in it’s time it was nicknamed the pizza box. As I’ve accumulated computers, I’ve come to appreciate a shape easily stored. The Mac mini is the epitome of that value.

Speaking of ports, it requires an adapter, but this LC III can display on an LCD monitor that can also display from a new Mac. So display technology has been pretty stable for about 30 years. In fact, I have the LC III plugged into the same monitor that my 2007 Mac mini is plugged into.

As I said, back in the early days, it was possible to open up the Mac, take a look around, and do things. So let’s get started. Unplug all the cables. Don’t forget to wear your groundwire.

At the back of the topcase are two big tabs. Lift them up and tilt the lid forward. As it pivots forward, just remove it and set it aside. What a dream!

Right up at the front, on the left, is the hard drive. It’s an 80 megabyte drive. Yes, you read that right. I’m replacing it with a 125 MB drive— a real monster!

At the back of the drive is a ribbon cable and a four-wire connector. Carefully pull those out. Little plastic tabs hold the drive in place. Gently pull those away from the drive and lift it up. You’re halfway there! Set aside the old drive.

You’re not quite done with the old drive, because you need the drive bracket. That’s the little cage of sheet metal that clips into the plastic tabs so snugly. Unscrew the bracket from the old drive and screw it onto the new drive.

Now you have the new drive securely in its bracket. Go ahead and push in the long head of the ribbon cable and the plastic plug of the four-wire connector.

You can just slide the drive and its bracket down between the tabs until it clicks into place. It’s installed.

Put the lid back on. Tilt it toward you and carefully slide the front facade up against the front of the computer. Now tilt it down until the two tabs at the back snap into place at the back of the computer. Plug in all the cables.

Now for the moment of truth. Switch on the Mac and wait to see if it boots up. There’s the startup ding. There’s the Welcome to Macintosh splash screen. Success!

We have almost doubled the storage capacity of our Mac in only a few minutes and with no cussin at all.

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

•