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How do I write Macintosh CD images to physical CD's?

MacintoshMan1999

Well-known member
I'm trying to figure out how to get CD ROM Images from The Mac Repo and Mac Garden onto a physical cd, I tried to use IMG Burn but that doesn't work. I've also tried using Basilisk II's ability to use the internal drive but, to no avail.

Any other method I could try?

Thanks in advance.
 

Skate323k137

Well-known member
I'll be honest (and probably of little help), I place them on an HTTP server and burn them using Toast on any older Mac I have access to with internet and a CDR drive.
 

robin-fo

Well-known member
If you have a modern Mac, attach a CD burner (or use the internal one if available), right click on the image file (e.g. the .iso or .toast) and select the burning command (I don‘t remember the exact command name).
 

MacintoshMan1999

Well-known member
If you have a modern Mac, attach a CD burner (or use the internal one if available), right click on the image file (e.g. the .iso or .toast) and select the burning command (I don‘t remember the exact command name).
I have a Macbook with a drive, let me try that...
 

ArmorAlley

Well-known member
Toast files are rebadged ISOs. Simply rename the file whatever.toast to whatever.iso and it should work.
Image files created with DiskCopy require a Macintosh: certainly running Mac OS 9 or below or possibly Mac OS X.
Toast/ISO-files that are compressed with StuffIt also require a Macintosh although Mac OS X /Windows versions of StuffIt might work.
I often use Ubuntu and Windows 10 to burn Toast/ISO images for the Mac.

I have a Mac Mini G4 running Mac OS 9 as my entry point to the Mac Garden or Macintosh Repository. I burn CDs & DVDs on that. I can strongly recommend getting one of these and installing Mac OS 9.2.2.

What I don't know how to do, is to make bootable images. Is their a setting in Toast that I am missing?
 

MacintoshMan1999

Well-known member
If you have a modern Mac, attach a CD burner (or use the internal one if available), right click on the image file (e.g. the .iso or .toast) and select the burning command (I don‘t remember the exact command name).
It worked! Thank you!

The macOS I'm working with is 7.5.3.
 

Phipli

Well-known member
If you have a modern Mac, attach a CD burner (or use the internal one if available), right click on the image file (e.g. the .iso or .toast) and select the burning command (I don‘t remember the exact command name).
I've heard modern Mac OS doesn't do classic mac os bootable cds any more? I don't use current macs.
What I don't know how to do, is to make bootable images. Is their a setting in Toast that I am missing?
The problem is that a huge number of online images are have not been copied in a way that preserves the bootability. More are bad than good, so it doesn't really matter.

Old Toast versions had a "bootable" checkbook. Newer versions just did it automatically.

Something I'd try is mounting the image on the OS 9 computer and telling Toast to make a CD from the mounted Volume.

Burning a bootable CD that way burns the CD driver from the running OS onto the CD, so disks burned that way will contain the 9.2 driver and won't boot 68k macs.

A good iso image should contain its original driver and boot whatever the original disk booted.
 

pizzigri

Well-known member
The problem seems to be in most cases the fact that modern cd burning software burns cds in a non-compatible format for the ancient on-board ROM. There once was a flag in Toast that allowed to burn “classic” CDs so that they could boot on older machines such as the Quadra 700 - that was my problem. I wanted to install the old fashioned way Mac Os 7.5 on an actual SCSI drive, a 1gb Medalist pro, and even though all cds I made were perfectly readable from the OS on the lc475 and Apple 600i drive I have, they wouldn’t boot on the 700 and the same 600i until I discovered this tidbit of info. I actually posted the exact flag and how to set it somewhere in the forum but cannot remember where.
 

bengi3

Well-known member
So many variables! On top of that most images in the various repository simply do not work. To make sure I use an iBook G3 at 900 mhz to burn or duplicate classic Systems or MacOSs
 

pizzigri

Well-known member
So many variables! On top of that most images in the various repository simply do not work. To make sure I use an iBook G3 at 900 mhz to burn or duplicate classic Systems or MacOSs
Yeah I use a g4 flat panel imac at 700mhz for the same reason
 

Phipli

Well-known member
Perhaps we should make our own archive of known working CD images?

The ones online are terrible. Although MacOS9Lives! have a good collection of working images.
 

LaPorta

Well-known member
I make CD/DVDs that I need straight out on my BluRay drive on my 2020 iMac. Work just fine as long as they are .cdrs. Granted, most of these are my own images (that are also made on said 2020 iMac).
 

Unknown_K

Well-known member
Any old 68k/PPC will work. I burned images from a IIfx when needed. The good thing about all old macs is they have SCSI ports or at least PCI slots that take SCSI cards so keeping a few external burners around solves many problems.
 

bengi3

Well-known member
I am doing some tests using rewritable CDRW, so far none of them is even recognized by older Macs if I make them bootable in Toast, while they work as intended in the Mac that has burned them. Any experience on this?
 

Unknown_K

Well-known member
CDRW has different reflective properties many old CD drives cannot read them.

http://www.differencebetween.net/technology/difference-between-cdr-and-cdrw/

"CDRW achieves this by using certain metals to store the data rather than dye, like with CDRs. The state of the metallic material can be changed while that of the dye, once activated, can no longer be changed back. A CDRW requires a better laser though compared to a CDR.

The main advantage of the CDR is compatibility with older CD-ROMS. Because of the difference in material with the CDRW, some older drives and players, like discmans and stereos, may fail to recognize and read the data stored in a CDRW. Newer models can read both CDR and CDRW, but for those with older hardware, a CDR is the safer bet."
 
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