Table of Contents for this issue:
Classic Macs Intro Post

I am the volunteer Tech Support for my son's k-8 school, where we are doing the best we can with hand-me-downs (thank God they're Macs!). I'll have lots of questions for the list, but right now here are my most pressing ones:

1). I have now 3 donated 512K Macs, none with any software including no system software. Since I haven't been able to boot them up, I'm not sure what I can do with them. I believe that they can use System 3.2 (?) and that I should be able to use them "the old way" to work as word-processors, with an old MacWrite-type application, then output either via sneaker-net to our "high-end" machine (LC 575) to doll them up with graphics, etc; or via a local-talk network to the other machine. This way I can have 4 students composing word-processing documents at a time, rather than one. Has anyone done this? Any suggestions? What can I do re: memory in these machines? One has an external 800K drive, I can't tell if the other two had their internal drive upgraded to 800 or are still 400K. Any cheap solutions? Most importantly, where can I get old System Software or old word-processing software, like MacWrite? If you have the software, e-mail me the file. Thanks!

2) I also have a donated Mac SE, (not /30), which works, but wonder what I can do to upgrade it. It has a 20mg hard disk and system 6.02, and 1 meg RAM. I have some other 1 meg 30-pin chips, can I upgrade RAM and use System 7.1 and use it as a ClarisWorks machine, also Localtalk connected to a "workstation", another LC575 (our other one of 2) in another classroom?

3) Finally, I have an SE/30 with a dead hard drive, Not even seen or found by Norton, other disk repair utilities. Where can I get a cheap internal drive? I probably don't need a big one, since we won't be doing multimedia on its 9" B/W screen, but a 40 or 80 would be nice. It has 5MB RAM, probably all I need for a ClarisWorks machine, but maybe I could make it a simple e-mailer? (I have an old slow modem).

Thanks in advance for your help.

Curt Kiest Tech Team Coordinator
Laguna Salada Alternative School
Pacifica, CA
LSASTecky