I have just recently aquired some older hardware that a school was throwing away. An Apple IIGS, with 5.25" and 3.5" external drives + monitor. I was able to boot into the console and write some simple BASIC programs. I haven't been able to write anything to the floppies though as I have no manuals, etc.
I also got a DuoDock with a Powerbook 230 and 14" Monitor. However this boots up with AfterDark which is password protected and is basically useless to me currently.
My main dilemma is how the heck do I make boot disks/app disks for these? My only connection to internet are through my PCs (ie non-Apple h/w). I've seen several emulators out there but haven't managed to get anything working properly.
I am a bit more interested in getting the IIGS working again, and I can/have DL the system 6.0.1 disk images from Apple's site... although they are .sit.bin format so they are a bit useless to me right now as well. I have tried several suggestions. I have a friend with an iMac as well and we tried to make boot disks (800k) on that, but we gave up there too as his external USB floppy didn't seem able to format 800k disks (1.4M only)...
Maybe if I got the powerbook up I would have a platform to produce the IIGS floppies (it has a 3.5" drive in the dock). The only catch there is getting the media in a format I can install it. Perhaps someone has old MacOS on floppies on ebay for sale??
If anyone has successfully made 800k working floppies from a PC I would be greatly interested in hearing about it (be it through an emulator, etc.). I've just been a bit frustrated in recent times. Even the ROM images I saw for many emus out there were in .sea or sit format which of course I can't use on a PC either.
Are there commands in Applesoft BASIC to format floppies? I can get to the "]" prompt, but I have yet to get the drives to do anything except spit out floppies at boot time that it doesn't like.
All you need to open .SIT or SEA files is Stuffit...there is a PC version too.
When you unstuff on a PC, the files don't like macs...
Please don't get into another petty PC vs Mac tirade that I often see on these boards. If you can't answer the question, just don't bother. I am an equal platform oppourtunity person and am not biased by any particular h/w. My problems are not really s/w or OS related it's more h/w and physical floppies I need.
For ease of use, I have more PCs which are connected at the moment and if there was something that could do what I'm looking for on a PC platform (hey Linux solutions are fine too, it doesn't have to be windows/dos)...
What I am trying to do is get Apple ][(gs) format floppies to get the real Apple h/w running. I do not want to get an emulator running, I want to use the real deal.
So the .sit/.sea files are sort of moot, I only mention those because that's the only format Apple provides the archived OS floppies in on their site. I have several .2mg files of various things I'd like to play with as well if I could make them into real floppies the machine could read. From what I have seen though the h/w on PCs and even current Macs cannot physically reproduce a floppy readable by the older h/w.
if this is true, my next thoughts are along different lines....
Has anyone ever interfaced an old Apple 800k disk drive to say PC Serial port and wrote/found a driver to write images to them? This may end up being my next project as there seems to be nothing out there in s/w that supports re-creating 'original' floppies on the newer floppy h/w (1.44M drives/usb drives on mac, etc).
Unless the powerbook 230 duo-dock floppy drive is compatible with PC drives and I can do something with the Duo-dock. I haven't really messed with the h/w too much, I've only been trying to create floppies the apple iigs could read.
Take it easy, there's no PC vs. Mac debate coming here. These people are giving you the answers that you seek.
Aladdin Systems produces compression software called Stuffit or Stuffit Expander. This software is used to compress or decompress .sit, .bin, and .hqx files as well as many other industry standards such as .arc, and .zip. The decompression software, Stuffit Expander, is also available for the PC. I believe it is called stuffit.exe or something to that effect. It is usually available anywhere you can find Stuffit software i.e. the Aladdin website.
Sometimes, but not always, a .sit file that is decompressed on a PC with the intent of being used on a Mac will cause problems. I think this is largely due to the different ways that Macs and PCs handle file structures and stuff like that. I'm not entirely certain about this though; I haven't delved into the matter.
Afterdark is very easy to circumvent. I can't imagine that anyone would use Afterdark for its security features; it really has none.
As for the IIgs, I know absolutely nothing about them and cannot be of much help to you on this. I'm sure that somebody here on the fritter will know. Just be patient.
One more quick point on the subject of archived files: Any file that ends with the .sea extender is a self-extracting file. SEA = Self-Extracting Archive.
To decompress a .sea file, just double-click it in the finder.
BTW: Just about any Macintosh with a factory installed floppy drive can format, read, and write Apple II floppies. If you have a Macintosh computer with a built-in floppy drive and you have PC Exchange installed in your system folder, you can make your Apple II floppies on your Macintosh.
I'm not so sure about Macs being able to format/read
Apple II disks. Does "PC Exchange" assist in this?
Please clarify. I have a Mac SE and can get a copy of
"PC Exchange" if this is possible. This would be
VERY useful to me!
Thanks
I have a lot of IIgs software and I think two operations manuals. The software is the operating system, tour disk and system tools disks (3 1/2) floppy. If you are intrested, reply here or E-mail me at xpert54@yahoo.com, BTW they are shipping only if you need them
To which could be added, please don't anticipate such pettiness before it is offered. PCs do not have the multispeed drives to read or write Mac-formatted 400/800kB floppies (2DD). New 2DD diskettes are now rare, most having been remaindered a couple of years ago. 2HD diskettes can be used as a temporary expedient, but they must still be written for Macintosh by Macintosh floppy disk drives. PCs do not handle properly the forked file format (resource/data) used for Macintosh files. Those are facts, not invective.
Your questions, and similar, are asked frequently in Apple's forums, and there is, many times sought and many times repeated, definitive advice available http://discussions.info.apple.com/webx?128@461.pC0Bagzp4ay.4@.68b2a73e there.
A quick point of clarification... only old Macs will have the multi-speed drive required to write diskettes that will be readable by Apple II computers. Significantly, none of the latest iMacs or external floppy USB drives are compatible. See:
http://forums.macosxhints.com/showthread.php?t=36900&highlight=800k