With my recent pickups, I've now got few 68k macs in my collection. I've got file transfer solutions for my Apple II's and pretty much anything PPC based but 68k is another story.
It really has little to do with the architecture of course and more with the available peripherals. I've read about SCSI to Ethernet adapters but they seem to be few and far between. Is there something like a SCSI -> USB solution? Is that even possible?
Right now it looks like the easiest solution (since floppies are so unreliable, even new old stock) is to setup a small network between a more modern machine (say my 6100/av) and the 68k macs. It just doesn't seem too interesting.
Any suggestions?
Nope, no USB solutions for any of the NuBus Architecture Macs, sorry.
I've got a Zip Drive on any/every computer I've got set up at any given time. A lot of folks don't like them, but I've had great luck overall since the very beginning.
Setting up a LocalTalk to EtherNet bridge box is probably the best way to go. As long as you don't have more than a few Macs on an active network, the speed isn't all that bad for 25 to 30 year old toys.
jt
Hey, don't be knockin' LocalTalk!
Setting up a phone-net is pretty cool, and you can do fairly long cable runs if needed. The little phone-net adapters weren't too difficult to build yourself either, which adds to the coolness factor.
Or, another alternative is an external scsi drive to transfer data between Macs. No Apple proprietary parts required, unless you've got a 68K Powerbook with the HDI scsi port.
Wow - do I feel like an idiot
I just picked up a Cutting Edge 30mb external SCSI drive and somehow this solution never occurred to me.
Been there.
I've been dealing with non-Mac hardware lately, so I do tend to forget how handy it is having that nice scsi port on the back.
I like the Zip Drive solution because I use it across the MacOS<->ubuntu<->Windows divides.
SCSI is convenient for larger transfers, if you didn't have the external box, a Y-Power Adapter Cable and multiple connector SCSI Ribbon Cable work wonders as well so long as you keep the SCSI IDs synchronized.
Edit: gotta keep the partition size at the lowest common denominator for internal or external transfers as well. I've got external drives, but I like playing around inside the toys with the hood popped. :bigsmile:
If the 68K Macs are Nubus architecture (or even LC PDS architecture, etc), get a few Asanté ethernet cards. Pop'em in, and you can network everything together. Then, download your files to the 6100 (or, better yet, a more modern Mac - don't uncompress them, if said Mac is running OS X) and ftp to that computer using Fetch on your 68K Mac. Extract your files on the target machine.
The external SCSI drive also works wonders... I've a Mirror ZFP case containing a 250MB Apple ROM'ed Quantum LPS270S. Usually use it as a boot drive for my Plus with 7.1 on it.
-J
The solution helped me a lot. I had apple and I know how I suffered from Data transfer related issue. You have touched an important issue.