Suppose you didn’t get System 7.5 with your Performa, and you’re a power honcho with no interest in those sissified user-friendly features. Suppose you want a real, thoroughbred Mac.
You can run regular Mac system software on your Performa (yes, even if it’s an older Performa model). Just make sure your new System Folder contains the correct Enabler (see Chapter 5).
If installing a whole new System Folder onto your Performa is too radical, check to see if you have the Performa General Controls control panel in its Control Panels folder. If so, there’s a much simpler way to get rid of your machine’s special features: just turn them off (see Figure 15-3). You’re left with a plain-vanilla Mac — no more hand-holding.
And if it’s a really old Performa, one that doesn’t have the Performa General Controls control panel? In that case, your Launcher control panel is responsible for not just the Launcher window, but also the Document folder on your desktop and the self-hiding programs! Take the Launcher out of the Control Panels folder, restart, and suddenly those special Performa features are gone.
Apple Backup
You, O Lucky Pre-1995 Performa Owner, get your own very, very simple backup program called Apple Backup. It’s Apple’s way of assuaging its guilt at having provided you with no System disks — you get Apple Backup as a way to make your own System disks. (Fortunately, you can pretty much ignore Apple Backup and Apple Restore if your Performa came with a CD-ROM drive. You can use your Performa CD-ROM disc as a backup of your original Performa software, and you can use DiskFit Direct, included with this book, for backing up on a regular basis.)
It couldn’t be much easier. Double-click the Apple Backup icon or, if Apple Backup is one of the programs listed in the Launcher (as it is when you first set up your Performa), click once.
You are asked whether you want to back up just the System Folder or the entire disk. You’re now asked to feed in blank high-density floppy disks, one after another. You need a lot of them, and you need a lot of time. The program patiently and steadfastly copies one file after another from your hard disk onto the floppies, until it’s all done. As it works on each disk, Apple Backup tells you how to label the floppies it’s making.
If anything ever happens to your hard drive, you’re supposed to use Apple Restore to put it back together from your floppy-disk backups. It will ask you for the specifically labeled floppies you created using Apple Backup, and will re-create your System Folder (or your entire hard drive, if necessary).
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The lost software dilemma
Virtually every Performa comes with a generous bundle of software — useful software like ClarisWorks and Quicken. Problem is, all these programs — and even your system software — come pre-installed on your hard drive. You don’t get a single floppy disk. So what happens if you accidentally delete one of the programs? And what happens if you need to re-install your System Folder?
Apple Technical Support’s official answer: Restore all the files from the 326 backup floppy disks you were supposed to make when you bought the machine. Here’s Apple’s own depressing explanation of this process: “To copy the files back, you will need backup disks. You were instructed to make a backup copy of your programs on floppy diskettes when you first purchased your computer. You will need these disks.”
Don’t believe it. First of all, if your Performa has a CD-ROM drive, it probably came with a CD-ROM called The Macintosh Performa CD. If it did, restoring your programs (or your System Folder) is a breeze; the CD contains a complete backup of all the software that originally came with the computer.
What if you don’t have The Macintosh Performa CD? And what if you don’t even have the backup disks Apple says you should have made?
Call Apple and beg. It works. We know this because we work with an editor who accidentally trashed every one of the programs on his brand new Performa the day he bought it (he’s really not as dumb as he sounds). He didn’t even have a chance to make backup disks. Desperate, he called 1-800-SOS-APPL and explained his dilemma; Apple sent him all the software needed to replace his original programs —absolutely free.
