Yes folks the tears are flowing at my house today. The reason, my beloved Performa 6400/180 has given up the ghost. Shows a disc with blinking question mark that just stares at me! I have tried a repair disk given to me 100 years ago or so it seems but, Norton repair utilities on that disk cannot seem to find the drive for the Performa. Now the heart ache result of this is I have spent hours playing 2 choices of Solitaire and Cribbage but No More.
When I explained to my wife as to why I needed another computer to play my games on well, the explanation fell flat seeing as how there is a 17" iMac and a 13" MacBookPro sitting side by side on the desk next to that dear old Performa.
Now how to I dispose of this machine so that no one can access the hard drive?

Thanks for any help:)

Why not just replace the hard drive? Might be a challenge finding a compatible one but it'll bring your computer back to life.

Performa 6400/180 (eBay (http://www.ebay.ca/itm/Vintage-Apple-PowerPC-Macintosh-Performa-6400-180-Model-M3548-/150832395907?pt=US_Vintage_Computers_Mainframes&hash=item231e4fb683#ht_500wt_1156)) - Iowa, USA - Currently at $112 USD.

The Performa 6400/180 (http://www.everymac.com/systems/apple/mac_performa/specs/mac_performa_6400_180.html) came originally with a 1.6 gigabyte IDE hard drive.

eBay has a bunch of IDE drives (http://www.ebay.ca/sch/i.html?_from=R40&_trksid=m570.l2736&_nkw=IDE+hard+drive) available...

There may be a limit (depending on your OS and hardware) to how large the new drive can be... this site may help: The 6400 Zone (http://www.zone6400.com/index.html)

It just won't see a large volume- can be formatted to work.

RIP Performa 6400
1996 - 2012

Human Years : 16
In computer years - a long full life. :clap:

put in the system disk and rase the hard drive or unscrew the case and pull out the hard drive and bang it with a hammer a couple of times.

Thanks for your helpful replies:-)) Yes that is quite a lifespan for the machine but for the last 5 years it was just for playing on. As far as taking out the hard drive, well you are talking to someone who does NOT know what a hard drive looks like! I have gone family on this and taken your tips to a nephew who ay one time did "Mac" repairs

Rest in Peace Soldier, You did your duty...

I had a Quadra 650, (my 1st mac) run great for 13 years, I only gutted it for parts to upgrade a PPC 7100 which died 6 months later.

That was when Macs were built to last....

Hmmm... why assume the Performa 6400/180 is actually really kaput because of a blinking question mark at boot up, and using some Norton repair utilities seems like an oxymoron solution as a possible fix.

My old LC 630, and loaded with all kinds of extra boards added still works as does my G3 DT PPC Mac but they both need some babying support at times to keep working.

Hmmm, I think everyone is missing the point of the original post. I believe Steadfast wishes for a new machine and it is time to say so long to the Performa...

Hmmm, I think everyone is missing the point of the original post. I believe Steadfast wishes for a new machine and it is time to say so long to the Performa...

Me thinks you might just be correct and you pressed the correct button and I think it was called 'rationalization' from what I recall from my UVIC physiology major. ;)

Honest, I'm not looking for another machine. It just breaks my heart to see OLD reliable sitting there. Now as for the babying comment, I used what I had at hand and that disk was given to me by the Engineer who owns the Mac store in Mississauga on one of his visits to the Hamilton MacIntosh Users Club.
My nephew thinks he might, just might remember enough about taking it apart to do a hard drive replacement but he wondered if such things were available. I hastily directed to the ehMac site:)

IF you really want to spend the time and maybe some money on recouping the 6400's operation, and IF the HD is actually kaput which it may not be, it's still possible in this day and age.

The boot flashing ? mark could be due to a corrupt System or possibly it just got "un-blessed" and needs to be re-blessed in order to boot from it.

Appropriate Mac System disks are still available and a Google search on 'Mac system 9 install download' etc. will provide some links. Just don't download some of those from the P2P sites from England or Australia etc. as they will NOT normally work!!

To replace the HD, CanadaRAM.com can supply you with a replacement HD, and as I recall on the 6400's, there's just one or two screws at the back to remove, slide off the cover and a single screw to remove to replace the hard drive.

You may not think so, but the cure for this sadness might just be a few minutes of trying different approaches or, at the worst, replacing the hard drive. On these models, it's just not that hard--with the right tools (screwdriver, etc.).