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Compact mac virginity lost

bittin

Well-known member
Just bought my first compact mac for 47 dollar from a guy in Sweden Macintosh SE Model: M5011 what os and apps are best on this thing and how do i write them with an usb floppy drive?

 

Mk.558

Well-known member
1) Do you already have a Mac?

2) I looked up your model and you might have an 800KB drive. Most, if not nearly all USB floppy drives cannot handle 800K disks. The solution would be to use an intermediary Mac that can handle 800K disks, like an SE/30, IIfx, IIci, etc. You could look into upgrading your system to handle 1.4MB disks -- there was an SE known as the SE FDHD, which had a Superdrive that can handle 1.44MB disks.

3) The best OS considering the limited speed of your system would most likely be 6.0.8.

4) Applications and games are varied, but serious work should be delegated to other platforms. macintoshgarden.org has an awesome collection for a start.

 

bittin

Well-known member
1: yea got an eMac G4, 2 Powerbook G3s "Wallstreet and Lombard" an iMac G3, and a Powerbook Duo 280c standing here to

2: ah

3: where to find that?

 

Mk.558

Well-known member
1) The eMac won't be able to handle it, the PowerBook G3s -- I wouldn't know about that, but they do have internal floppy drive "inserts" (Including the PowerBook Weight Saving Device :approve: ) which should work. The 280c definitely couldn't either, since looking at the specs reveals no FDD (unless external). You might end up doing a 1.44MB -> 800KB operation -- suggest you figure out how to get that thing connected to a network.

2) <...>

3) Link which also can be traced back to here. (If you look down you'll see disk images for 800K disks) I have a bunch of open windows stuffed with tabs as I'm working on my SE/30 and software, I can offload some links for things you might need if you want.

EDIT: A tremendous asset to you at this time (Does your hard disk work?) is a RAM disk. If you don't have 4MBs of RAM, you should do everything you can to do so. (I can offload some unused 1MB modules to you if you want).

I definitely love RAMDisk+ 2.01 under 6.0.8. Start the application, hold down the option key or click the mouse, specify the size of the RAMdisk (leave enough for what you need to do!) and press Enter. It'll copy your startup disk folder into RAM, and boot into it. If you wiped your HDD and just installed a fresh install of 6.0.8 (using the RAMDisk as your startup drive), once the Installer quits you can switch to your HDD by heading into the System Folder and CMD-Option double-clicking the Finder file (as long both are the same versions). You'll switch boot drives in a flash.

 

LCGuy

LC Doctor/Hot Rodder
FWIW, the Wallstreet came with a floppy drive as standard...mine has one. It can go into either the battery or optical bay. Of course though, after all these years whether yours specifically came to you with an FDD is another issue. The Duo 280c can also read and write 800k disks with a MiniDock or Floppy MicroDock with external FDD, or a full Duo Dock.

 
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