Thread

System 3 for my 512Ke

68kMLA Peripherals 14 posts Jul 29, 2008 to Aug 3, 2008

#1 Tue, 29 Jul 2008 - 22:08 68kMLA

http://www.info.apple.com/support/oldersoftwarelist.html

I believe that's where one should look first. How do I copy it onto a floppy? I know it has to be an 800k floppy, but I only have the 1.44MB IBM formated ones I use on my Macintosh Classic. What to do? Thanks!

#2 Tue, 29 Jul 2008 - 22:15 68kMLA

Use 720K PC floppies if you can't find 800K Mac floppies -- they're actually identical media. Only the formatting differs. In an emergency, you can get by with a virgin (not just empty, but actually demagnetized) 1.44MB floppy. Cover its media identifier hole with a piece of tape, and you're off to the races. This trick is not completely reliable, and so should be used with that in mind.

BTW, the oldest OS that Apple provides directly is system 6. If you need something older than that, you'll have to go elsewhere.

#3 Wed, 30 Jul 2008 - 00:25 68kMLA

Uh oh. Elsewhere? I hope it's not eBay.

I'll do some homework. Can I copy it using any floppy drive?

#4 Wed, 30 Jul 2008 - 14:43 68kMLA

Probably some disk help here:

http://macwindows.com/sitemap.html

#5 Wed, 30 Jul 2008 - 15:42 68kMLA

Uh oh. Elsewhere? I hope it's not eBay. I'll do some homework. Can I copy it using any floppy drive?

Nope. Mac 800k disks are not possible to make on PC drives, due to their use of GCR instead of MFM encoding, and the fact the speed of the disk varies depending on the area being accessed.

#6 Wed, 30 Jul 2008 - 16:28 68kMLA

You can't format 1.44mb for 800k use? I'm pretty sure I've done that. I bought an external 800k Apple drive to use with my SE/30. When I put a 1.44mb disk in the external drive it asks me to format it for 800k. I'm pretty sure I've used those in my Plus.

#7 Wed, 30 Jul 2008 - 16:43 68kMLA

You can, just not on a PC.

#8 Wed, 30 Jul 2008 - 16:44 68kMLA

You can format it on a Mac.

You can read and write to it on a Mac.

You can't do squat with it on a PC.

/edit/ so in other words, you need to get the images onto a floppy-equipped Mac.

If the Mac has a superdrive, you can always get the images -exactly- as they came off the net ie don't uncompress or anything - stick them on a 1.4MB floppy and transfer them across to the Mac's HD, then decompress them there to make 800k floppies

#9 Wed, 30 Jul 2008 - 17:39 68kMLA

I guess I missed the PC part! Want me to make you a Sys 3 floppy?

Edit: I can't find a good link for System 3. :'(

#10 Wed, 30 Jul 2008 - 22:35 68kMLA

Edit: I can't find a good link for System 3. :'(

That's what I meant by "elsewhere." Apple doesn't offer it online, and their lawyers have aggressively shut down others from doing so. Kind souls from this forum have been known to provide these hard-to-find system versions...

#11 Wed, 30 Jul 2008 - 23:10 68kMLA

if anyone has it, let me know. I will put it on my server. Lawyers be damned, I will fight tooth and nail against apple if I have to. I am not afraid of a lawyer. i have nothing to lose

#12 Wed, 30 Jul 2008 - 23:14 68kMLA

I guess I missed the PC part! Want me to make you a Sys 3 floppy?
Edit: I can't find a good link for System 3. :'(

Yeah. I couldn't find a link either. That's why I came here (for the 1000th time) for help. I guess I should've done more research. :'(

#13 Sun, 3 Aug 2008 - 02:49 68kMLA

Dan - I found a good link for System 3 finally. In fact, I found a good link for all of the previous Systems and quickly downloaded them. Do you still want/need a floppy?

#14 Sun, 3 Aug 2008 - 23:33 68kMLA

Yeah, I still do need a System 3 disk. PM Sent.