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Blank Image Disk for Powerbook 1400

Jungleboy

Member
Hello to all,

I have the following problem:

I need a pre-formatted image file for my Powerbook 1400.

I want to use an SD card in the Powerbook, with a storage volume of 64 gigabytes. For this I need an image file with 60 gigabyte size, on which I can install MacOS 8.6 in Sheepshaver. Then I would write the image file to the SD card with balenaEtcher.

I have already tried to create such an image file with dd. Unfortunately I was unsuccessful. The file is only recognised as a 1GB volume, although the image file was larger.

On Macintoshrepository you can find ready-made image files. Unfortunately none with 60GB and HFS+.


I would really appreciate it if someone could help me out. By the way, I use Windows 10.
 

Phipli

Well-known member
Just a thought, if I was in your shoes, I'd write the 4GB image to the card including an OS and FWB Hard Disk Toolkit, and then I would use FWB Hard Disk Toolkit to add a second partition to the disk while booted in the 1400. This would give me two bootable partitions for two different OSes :)

Not what you asked for, but something you can easily do yourself.
 

MrFahrenheit

Well-known member
Have you tried Disk Jockey ?

Edit: I misunderstood. I thought you were using a drive emulator.

Why don’t you just download one of the OS install CD ISO images for the OS version you want to use, burn it, boot from it, launch Drive Setup, and format and partition your drive like how it was done back in the 90s? Surely that is pretty simple and would work?
 
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3lectr1cPPC

Well-known member
I can echo what MrFahrenheit has said, I put a 64GB SD card in my PowerBook 3400c (which I first tested on my 1400), and it formatted just fine with Apple's drive setup, and the whole single partition was even bootable, which was a surprise, as every source I've read told me anything over 8GB wouldn't boot on an old world Mac. From there I installed System 7.6.1 without any issues.
 

Phipli

Well-known member
and the whole single partition was even bootable, which was a surprise, as every source I've read told me anything over 8GB wouldn't boot on an old world Mac.
I can't remember which macs it applies to and have a feeling it might be a Beige G3 and some other machine issue, rather than universal, but... it isn't that the partition must be all in the first 8GB, its that the /System Folder/ must be in the first 8GB.

This means if you install on a 16GB partition, it boots fine until you load in 8GB of cat pictures and then install new system components past the 8GB limit. The agony is that this results in a buggy OS months or years (or hours if you really like cat pictures) after you made the error, with no obvious change between when it worked and when it didn't.
 

3lectr1cPPC

Well-known member
Ah, interesting clarification. The current setup on that SD card is 5 partitions, 4 3GB partitions for 4 different Mac OS versions (7.6.1, 8.1, 8.5 and 9.1) then the rest is the data partition for software and documents. I did this because it was the most convenient way to have the files all in one place, not because of any stability issue, but I suppose I shouldn't run into this problem then.
 

Phipli

Well-known member
Ah, interesting clarification. The current setup on that SD card is 5 partitions, 4 3GB partitions for 4 different Mac OS versions (7.6.1, 8.1, 8.5 and 9.1) then the rest is the data partition for software and documents. I did this because it was the most convenient way to have the files all in one place, not because of any stability issue, but I suppose I shouldn't run into this problem then.
Yeah, if you can boot off your 4th partition it doesn't apply to your machine. I'm fairly sure it included some G3 laptops, but this is all second hand info. I haven't sat down and checked. You know how it is. Half remembered things from MacWorld in 1998 😆

Someone hopefully has a better memory than me.

It doesn't apply to my Pismo. That happily boots from 64GB into a disk.
 

3lectr1cPPC

Well-known member
May have tried to boot the data partition once? Don’t remember. No system folder is on it now.
Which models are affected sounds like a page for my website (or the wiki, or both).
 

MacUp72

Well-known member
I downloaded this cd image for my 1400c..it also contains an original restore hard disk image.

 

Snial

Well-known member
I used a Raspberry PI to DD the original 750MB HD to its internal HD, then DD back onto an 8GB SD Card. Then I duplicated the main 750MB partition using a little utility I wrote (see thread further down in this forum) to give myself 5 x 750MB partitions which are now: Mac OS 7.5.3 (the original one), Mac OS 8.1, and 3x HFS+ partitions.
 
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