How to get software on a Mac Classic?

[SaltyPeanut]

Hello, I'm new to this forum so sorry in advance if this has been asked before.

I've been trying to get software from my PC to my mac from Macintosh Garden. I understand how you can't open those .sit files on modern OSes like windows or else it messes up the fork. What I'm trying to figure out is how to get the software working on my mac. Everytime I use Stuffit 4.0.2 it just gives out a file with no extension. I've read that there was some changes to the format from 4.0 to 5.5, but I don't have a Mac with a floppy that could extract and mount the .dsk image.

So, in short, how would I get software off of an online repository without the use of another classic mac, or some sort of web server setup? Is it even possible? Thanks in advance.

 

[Skate323k137]

Most convenient if money isn't an issue, FloppyEMU

In a world where Raspberry PIs still were easy to come by, RaSCSI I might recommend for better performance with still decent user friendliness.

Then there is the serial port(s) (modem/printer). You can use a null modem cable to connect to serial (or serial to usb) on a modern computer and transfer files. But it is very slow, as in literally dial up speeds.

There are a lot of threads on the manner, and a lot of the answer to your question depends on your budget and/or tech skill (or desire to use said skill).

 

[Mu0n]

I've been a PC user since the early 90's since I switched away from Macs and been using Mac emulators since 2004. This is exactly my home turf.

If you have a working Mac Classic disk drive that can deal with 1.44mb disks fine:

get a USB disk drive for your PC and deal with .sit files inside an emulator. I recommend going for Basilisk II running System 7.5.3 as a very good gateway environment. You mainly use Stuffit Expander to deal with .sit and you might get a simple folder of files, or a mounted disk image.
You can mount the A: usb disk drive inside the emulator and copy to it directly. There's also an olden utility that can deal file copying outside of an emulator called HFVExplorer, but if you have a .sit file that needs extracting, best to go deal with that inside the emulator.

If you don't have a working disk drive:

I heartily recommend getting a BlueSCSI that can connect externally to the SCSI port (depending on the version you find, you may need an extra overeasy connector for an earlier revision of the bluescsi). Just deal with .hda disk drive images, which you can mount in Basilisk as well. Yeah you have to do some moving around of the microSD card it uses, but it's pretty fast, especially if you aim to keep that device outside the case. I recommend getting to that solution anyway even if you make the first work because it's so convenient.

 

[Skate323k137]

Aha, yes, 1.44mb floppies. I have a pile and yet I forget to think of them because neither my SE or IIGS can use them.

If you use your classic Mac a lot I recommend having both a SCSI solution (blueSCSI is affordable) for speed and persistent storage, and some floppy or floppy image solution (emulated or real) for quick sneakernetting and use of dsk images.

Dealing with stuffit extraction etc as much as possible in the emulator is definitely a good pro tip I can 2nd.

 

[Mu0n]

A FloppyEMU is:
-a bit more expensive to buy
-very easy to use, almost no possible snag to hit compared to BlueSCSI
-slower
-more humble space wise in hard disk mode, but for Classics that's alright - this means if you have ideas of grandeurs, it won't be your go to solution!

I own a pair of BlueSCSIs (one inside a classic 1 case and 1 outside a mac plus for which I added a diode to power up the scsi port, connected with an OverEasy adapter) and a FloppyEmu.

 

[dochilli]

Making Floppies and CDs for Older Macs Using Modern Macs, Windows, and Linux PCs | Low End Mac

David and Steve's Blog – Just another WordPress site

 

[SaltyPeanut]

I've been a PC user since the early 90's since I switched away from Macs and been using Mac emulators since 2004. This is exactly my home turf.

If you have a working Mac Classic disk drive that can deal with 1.44mb disks fine:

get a USB disk drive for your PC and deal with .sit files inside an emulator. I recommend going for Basilisk II running System 7.5.3 as a very good gateway environment. You mainly use Stuffit Expander to deal with .sit and you might get a simple folder of files, or a mounted disk image.
You can mount the A: usb disk drive inside the emulator and copy to it directly. There's also an olden utility that can deal file copying outside of an emulator called HFVExplorer, but if you have a .sit file that needs extracting, best to go deal with that inside the emulator.

If you don't have a working disk drive:

I heartily recommend getting a BlueSCSI that can connect externally to the SCSI port (depending on the version you find, you may need an extra overeasy connector for an earlier revision of the bluescsi). Just deal with .hda disk drive images, which you can mount in Basilisk as well. Yeah you have to do some moving around of the microSD card it uses, but it's pretty fast, especially if you aim to keep that device outside the case. I recommend getting to that solution anyway even if you make the first work because it's so convenient.

Thanks for the tip! I downloaded Basilisk II and put Mac OS 7.6.1 on it. I also have a USB Floppy Drive, so I tried the method you suggested. The problem with the .sit files creating nulls was a product of use Stuffit 4.0.2 instead of 5.5, so that's solved.

The problem I have now is putting the resulting files on my Floppy. I mounted my A:\ drive as a external file system in the settings. It's formatted for my mac, and Basilisk II recognizes it, but when I try to drag files on it, it just states that the file couldn't be written due to a disk error. I tried continuing but it still produces no result. Do I have to mount it differently in Basilisk II GUI, or is there something specific I have to do to make this work?

 

[Mu0n]

I just tried these steps and it worked on my end. The disk was even MSDOS formatted, but I was able to copy a mac file to it.
I'm using Basilisk II 1.1 with the year stamp 1997-2008.

Another alternative you can use for file transfer is HFVExplorer:

HFVExplorer 1.3.1 (for Windows) - Macintosh Repository

HFVExplorer is a very useful Windows tool that can create, format, read and write HFS floppies, hard disks and disk images on a PC. HFVExplorer...

www.macintoshrepository.org

One unintuitive step is that when you want to open your virtual hard disk, don't navigate to it using this program's file tree navigation area. Do it by going to the menu and selecting File/Open Volume. I always had more success that way. The interface is glitchy since the advent of Windows 7 and later, but it ends up working despite the flaws. You can then drag and drop files between opened volumes and directories in the tree navigation area.

 

[rjkucia]

RaSCSI is my favorite option, and by far the most capable.

Regarding Pi availability - pre-built RaSCSIs with Pi included are still available here - https://samplerzone.com/products/chicken-rascsi-sd-scsi-drive
That's where I got mine.

 

[Skate323k137]

RaSCSI is my favorite option, and by far the most capable.

Regarding Pi availability - pre-built RaSCSIs with Pi included are still available here - https://samplerzone.com/products/chicken-rascsi-sd-scsi-drive
That's where I got mine.

Nice, pretty fair price all together by all means.

 

[SaltyPeanut]

I just tried these steps and it worked on my end. The disk was even MSDOS formatted, but I was able to copy a mac file to it.
I'm using Basilisk II 1.1 with the year stamp 1997-2008.

Another alternative you can use for file transfer is HFVExplorer:

HFVExplorer 1.3.1 (for Windows) - Macintosh Repository

HFVExplorer is a very useful Windows tool that can create, format, read and write HFS floppies, hard disks and disk images on a PC. HFVExplorer...

www.macintoshrepository.org

One unintuitive step is that when you want to open your virtual hard disk, don't navigate to it using this program's file tree navigation area. Do it by going to the menu and selecting File/Open Volume. I always had more success that way. The interface is glitchy since the advent of Windows 7 and later, but it ends up working despite the flaws. You can then drag and drop files between opened volumes and directories in the tree navigation area.

Ok, well I found out why I couldn't copy to my Floppy Drive.

The Floppy Disk can be written to if its a PC/IBM Formatted Disk, and the Macintosh Classic can't read that format. But thanks for the suggestion about HFVExplorer! With a combination of both, I was able to write to programs to my Mac! Thanks a bunch!

If you're curious on how I did it, I first set up Basilisk II with System 7.6.1, Mostly following the Macintosh Librarian Tutorial on it. Afterwards, I extracted it using the aforementioned Stuffit 5.5, then used Disk Copy 6.2 to make a .dsk file. I mounted my Z:\ Drive to Basilisk II, and sent the .dsk to it. Afterwards, I used HFVExplorer the way you stated above, and it worked! Thank you so much again, It was a headache trying to set it up myself. It might of all been in vain however, since my SCSI drive is showing signs of failing, so I would have to replace it with a SD-2-SCSKI soon anyways

 

[ymk]

So, in short, how would I get software off of an online repository without the use of another classic mac, or some sort of web server setup? Is it even possible? Thanks in advance.

MacSD can do this easily. Just download files directly to the SD card, then use the Commander application to transfer them to one of the volumes on your Mac.

MacSD can deal with a variety of images, including ISO/BIN CD images and floppy (both raw and DiskCopy).

Disclosure: I sell MacSD.

 

[rjkucia]

MacSD can do this easily. Just download files directly to the SD card, then use the Commander application to transfer them to one of the volumes on your Mac.

MacSD can deal with a variety of images, including ISO/BIN CD images and floppy (both raw and DiskCopy).

Disclosure: I sell MacSD.

That's very cool! Commander looks like it solves the problems with pretty much every other solution, which is getting a file onto an HFS disk. The next best thing I've seen so far is RaSCSI's automatic CD creation (makes a CD image and mounts it from a file), but this seems much better for moving lots of files at once.