What I'm trying to do is load System 7 Pro onto the PowerBook 180. I've got a set of disk images that are Sys7Pro, and after some major tweaking, they're into a format where Windows and Rawrite can handle them. I edited the disk tools image to contain the System Enabler 131 so it could boot correctly. In a random attempt at doing a straight Sys7Pro install, I copied the system folder from the Disk Tools disk to the hard drive, and behold, the Mac could boot without a floppy, and could run the installer disks.

I start going through a full install because it detected I had a PowerBook 180 and had gotten the correct software, And just before PowerTalk (I believe), it asked for the first install disk again, and when I put it in, it said that the installation had failed, or couldn't be written on the drive, and everything had been restored.

Now, the reason I did this is because the Sys7Pro Install disk 1 couldn't boot the PowerBook. It would say Welcome to Macintosh, but then the disk would stop spinning and absolutely nothing would happen. It would also appear to crash when I pushed the powerbutton to turn the frozen computer off. No error number, just blankness and some generic error text along with the bomb symbol.

Now, I was thinking that I just needed to run the installer as an update, not a new system install (not sure, my verified working Mac knowledge begins with OS 9 and the G3). So I wanted to get the original System 7.1 disks for PowerBook 180 (which are supposedly different). But when I got them, they were in weird files that nothing I tried would open (rawrite produced bad disks, UniExtract couldn't open em, and HFVexplorer didn't know what to do with them). So I just gave up and decided to ask.

@spiceyokooko: If you've got some different PowerBook 180 disks than the ones on MacintoshGarden, I'd love to give em a try.

@24bit: That's a really great idea, actually. I haven't messed with Mac emulation in awhile, but that'd be VERY useful...