Hi. We have an old iMac classic that has stood unused and now won't start up. We need to dispose of it, but can't erase the data because of this. The cable is firmly plugged in both ends (we did check that!). Any ideas? Is it the battery, if so what do we do? And does anyone want this for spares? Thanks, Mike and Ann Hart
Just a suggestion, it is not hard to remove the Hard disc on the early iMac when you have separated the front and back of the case by removing a few screws. I don't think the failure of the battery would stop it booting up , it would just not run properly. Removing the rear of the case will give access to the battery. It will also give access to the hard drive which can then be removed. A dock in which to plug the hard drive can be bought quite cheaply on Amazon, but you need to buy the correct model. Early iMacs use IDE drives not SATA like the more recent Macs do. After you have sorted all that out you can then connect your old hard drive to you current mac by USB and recover your data. A likely reason your old iMac will not start could be a failure of the power supply. A second hand replacement could be obtained from http://www.thebookyard.com
But then you may not feel like this level of advanced fiddling.
Something else to try - when you say it won't start, what if anything happens? if something happens then perhaps you could start it while holding down the T key. This would start it in target disc mode, i.e. it would look just like an external drive to another Mac connected to it by FireWire cable. This would enable you to erase the data having retrieved anything you want. Alternatively, you could start it from the CDs (DVDs?) that came with it and erase it using Disc Utility from there.
I would suggest the PRAM battery is probably the first thing to check, of course it could be the logic board or power supply given the age of the machine.
If its the battery, I have a spare one you could try. If not, I've dismantled these old machines before, if it's a bondi blue (1st, 2nd gen) their harddrives are a bit difficult to get at. I'm happy to get at it and wipe if you want.
Mike Hart 