hello,
I am having a bit of trouble installing system 7.5.x on my recently purchased powerbook 540c. i am not familiar at all with the install procedure for the classic mac os's (ihave experienced everything from various bsd flavors to most major linux distros, to osX - but no classic mac stuff). i cant seem to find out how to do a completely, from scratch, install of system 7 from floppies. most everyone says to use the network access disk and then grab the instaler from another comp, but this is not an option for me. is there a boot disk for the sole purpose of installing sys7 or is the only way to have a small 2 comp network at least. i got the computer off ebay and it still had its old sys7 installed on it with a password on the users acount, so i cant excctly log into it and do an install/update from withing sys7.
i a sorry if this topic is covered somehwere, i am an avid forum user, and i know how anoiying it is when a person posts without first searching. i have searched to no avail.
thanks
yo
You need the boot disk -- sometimes called utilities or disk 1. What you want to do is erase the hard drive using drive setup. Initializing the disk erases it. Then you can install a new system. This is a fresh install in lieu of a "clean" install where you insert a new system into an existing one. A "clean" install is possible in later versions of 7.5.x but if you just got the 'book it would be wise to wipe it. I *might* have the original install floppies for the blackbird. I'll scrounge around and see if I do. If so, I'll send them to you. Unless, of course, you live on Mars or some w-a-a-a-ay far off place.
William
ok so there is a fresh, boot-from-floppy install without networking. Of course if you find this mysterious disk i would be ecstatic, you could, if needed, copy the image of the boot disk(s) and email them to me as attachements. thanks for the input it helps alot.
one last thought, would these system specific disks be on apple's old software ftp site?
Yes,
System Software 7.5.x is freeware according to Apple. You can download the boot disks and the whole she-bang from there. Let me know if you have any problems.
sorry to persistantly bug, but system 7.5.x is on there in its 19 floppy glory, but is it bootable? from what i have tried the 19 floppys are just so you can coppy all 19 of them to your hd and connect them together via the first .smi image. i found the network access disk, but given that i have no computer to 'host' the installer, its useless to me. could i make my own boot floppy with the core system folder and make it load itself into a ram disk so that i could then feed it 19 floppys ( idont even know if there is enough ram to do such crazyness). i guess i have a hard time determining what is bootable or not. are all .sea's bootable, or is that just a cooncidence? while i am here, is there any place where i could get a schematic for the aaui 10baseT adapter i might eventually need? actually, i will look/post this in the hacks section. thanks for all your help.
Yo
I'm down with the flu or some evil bug variant. I'll rummage around for the disks. Any chance you have an external CD hooked up to that 'Bird? As for the ethernet dongle, it's easily available on the LEM swaplist for less than $10. Also, consider putting OS 7.6.1 on that 'Bird. It'll go as far as 8.1. How much RAM does it have?
William
no i dont have a cd-rom, i wish i did. How much would a scsi external cdrom go for anyway? i havent been able to get past the login screen so i dont know how much ram is in it, i dont have a long enough torx bit either so i havent opend her up. I would love to try os 8.1 but thats past the realm of free(unless apple would like to release that as well). 7.6.1 would of been my ultimate goal, im just trying to get 7.5.x out of the way before i even think about what i want to with itif i theoretically had a cd-rom, how would that work? would i be able to boot from the network access disk and then mount a cd-rom? if you find those disk(s) let me know, and if you email me the images of all of them, i will invite you to gmail ;D
Hey,
Send me your email (ahearn@jmug.org) and I'll send you the boot disk and some info.
William
message has been sent.
1. Download the 19 floppy images and make 19 real floppy disks.
2. Boot from the disk tools floppy and format the hard drive.
3. Boot from the Install 1 floppy, which runs the installer and asks for the other disks in turn.
Sometimes people have trouble writing a real floppy disk from an image, such that the result is not bootable when it should be. Apple's Disk Copy works every time.
Nobody wants to sit there and create 19 real floppies, or feed them to the computer 1 at a time. That's why they suggest network access disk, CD-ROM solutions, etc.
the thing that got me was that when disk copy tried to mount the first floppy, it pieced together the whole thing and then gave me an error. I tried various times but the times i did manage to copy the image on the floppy it wasnt bootable. if i format the hard drive will it, by nature of not having an OS, look in the floppy drive for something, even if it isnt bootable(like the installer)?