Apple Macintosh LC - Manual (Page 8)

drive, you are ready to begin. Continue reading here.
If your Macintosh came with a non-Apple hard disk
If you purchased your Macintosh with an internal hard disk that is not made
by Apple Computer, you may need to prepare that hard disk for use before you
continue with learning about your Macintosh. (Apple prepares its hard disks
before they leave the factory.) If you have a non-Apple hard disk (contact
your Apple dealer or representative if you are not sure), turn to Chapter 13
in Part III of this book to prepare your hard disk. Then return to this page
and continue learning about your computer. If you have an Apple hard disk, do
not go to Chapter 13. Simply continue reading here.
Starting up the Computer
This set of exercises will teach you about starting up the computer.
1.Find the disk labeled System Startup, and insert it into a disk drive. (Do
this with the computer turned off.)
As you saw when you inserted the Macintosh Basics tour disk, disks are
inserted with the metal end going into the slot first and the printed label
on top.
2.With the disk in the disk drive, press the top of the on/off switch on the
back of the computer to turn on the Macintosh. (Make sure the monitor is
turned on also.)
You hear a beep, and then a whirring sound as the computer starts reading
from the disk.
In a moment a picture of a smiling Macintosh appears on your screen.
It is soon replaced by a screen called the Macintosh desktop. You are ready
to continue.
WHAT'S Going On Here?
What just happened involves several key concepts that will help you
understand your Macintosh.
Disks
In order to operate, your Macintosh needs information. In the computer
world, information is stored on disks. The System Startup disk you inserted
is one kind of disk called a floppy disk (because the material inside the
plastic case is very thin and flexible). The Macintosh Basics disk is also a
floppy disk.
You can think of a computer and disks like a cassette tape player and tapes.
Just as cassette tape players make sounds using information stored on tapes,
computers do their work using information stored on disks, like the System
Startup and Macintosh Basics disks.
Hard disks
There is another kind of disk called a hard disk that serves the same purpose
as a floppy disk. (It is a place to store information for the computer.) But
hard disks are different from floppy disks in two ways. First, a hard disk