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How to install OS onto CF card

Challenger 1983

Well-known member
I just got my CF to IDE adapter for my 2300c in the mail, how do I go about loading an OS onto it?, specifically Mac OS 8.1

 

Byrd

Well-known member
... without using your 2300c?  At very least I'd format the CF card in the 2300c itself booting from a floppy and patched version of Apple HD Setup.

 

jessenator

Well-known member
At very least I'd format the CF card in the 2300c itself booting from a floppy
Using an adapted CF card (for most adapters) is not like using an intermediary device, (e.g. SCSI2SD, MacSD, et al.) but is just a blank medium awaiting formatting: AFAIK, CF and IDE is pin compatible, and the adapter really only serves as passive adapter and in cases of PC use, selects slave/master. (Though mine has a voltage selector as well...) Mine is dead simple, with just a slot for the card, a floppy-style power connector, and then maybe a bit of voltage regulation. No PALs/GALs, or any other logic happening on the board:
GgxqZZ8.jpg


and patched version of Apple HD Setup.
Well, OP, your mileage may vary, but I didn't have to do anything special with mine. And with OS 8 in particular, you should be able to use the copy of Drive Setup it comes with. In my experience, all I've had to do was format and then install from a medium of choice (in my case CD).

I think the patched Apple HD SC Setup is really only for certain cases, like using a SCSI to SD, but I could be wrong.

 

Realitystorm

Well-known member
What system do you have and what size of CF card do you want to use?  You could create an image file that is the size of your CF card and then use an emulator that supports drive images to initialize the file.  I used SoftMac before, but it only supports up to 3GB files, I'm planning to update my blog entry on using MAME to initialize drive files (you no longer have to compress files), so it might let you initialize larger files.

 

Challenger 1983

Well-known member
I have a powerbook Duo 2300c and unfortunately no floppies to use with it, my first thought was also disk utility however I currently have no way of using it, I cannot find my USB floppy drive 

 

Trash80toHP_Mini

NIGHT STALKER
Have you got a PCMCIA equipped 'Book from that era or any 630 based machine in 040 or PPC variant with IDE? You should be able to use that card in a PCMCIA adapter or in the HDD bay any of the desktop machines as a blank hard disk to format/install any system for a 2300c from floppy or CD.. If you have a PCMCIA 'Book, a baseline boot drive with utilities on CF in a PCMCIA adapter is a gotta have it kinda thing for my bag of tricks,

Almost silly sounding, but very doable in the 2300c: if you happen to have SCSI2SD or the like and converter to hook it up to an internal SCSI cable you can borrow from any 'Book at all, you can put your installer on the SD-whatsis. Plug that cable into the internal SCSI connector to boot the 2300c. With your CF/IDE adapter in the HDD bay as the install target you're good to go. All done sans KBD of course, so you'll need Dockage of some kind for ADB peripherals unless you can get by with just the trackpad?

Least complicated. least expensive would be to get a 3.5" adapter and do the dirty in anything between the Q60 and 6500.

 
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cheesestraws

Well-known member
Another option that might well work: create a disk image of the right size in Basilisk or SheepShaver, install the OS there making sure to install the universal version, and dd it across to the CF card?  That would probably be what I would try first.

 

davidg5678

Well-known member
Another option that might well work: create a disk image of the right size in Basilisk or SheepShaver, install the OS there making sure to install the universal version, and dd it across to the CF card?  That would probably be what I would try first.
This is roughly how I set up my Powerbook 1400. I wanted to use System 7.6.1, but only could make 1.44MB floppy disks for my Powerbook. What I ended up doing, was formatting the Compact Flash card using the Powerbook, and then mounting it within Basilisk II on my modern computer. I then was able to install the operating system and software using my modern iMac. When I plugged the CF card back into the Powerbook, everything from the emulator was still there, and it worked perfectly.

Something important to note is that large capacity CF cards may give you a bit of trouble. I could not get a 4GB card to work at all, but things went easily as soon as I switched to a 512MB CF card.

 

LaPorta

Well-known member
Large capacity cards are not an issue as long as you properly partition them. As long as you use partition sizes appropriate for the OS you are wanting to use, it should work fine.

 

Challenger 1983

Well-known member
I'm going to look for my USB floppy drive again as I do not have any software currently compatible with the 2300 on a floppy

 

LaPorta

Well-known member
Do you have a floppy drive for the 2300? BTW, thanks for the heads up on the 2300 screen on ebay, I may offer $100 on it to swap the screen. If you need floppies, I should have 2300 disks somewhere in my stash, since we owned the machine since it was brand new. I may have the disk tools disk for it and could make you a copy.

 

Challenger 1983

Well-known member
Do you have a floppy drive for the 2300? BTW, thanks for the heads up on the 2300 screen on ebay, I may offer $100 on it to swap the screen. If you need floppies, I should have 2300 disks somewhere in my stash, since we owned the machine since it was brand new. I may have the disk tools disk for it and could make you a copy.
 glad that listing may be of some help, I feel like shipping disks from the US to Canada may be cost prohibitive unfortunately

 

LaPorta

Well-known member
At the least, the Disk Tools disk for a 2300. If I recall, it didn't have a full install CD, because there was no way to actually use it. However, I will double-check.

 

Challenger 1983

Well-known member
At the least, the Disk Tools disk for a 2300. If I recall, it didn't have a full install CD, because there was no way to actually use it. However, I will double-check.
Thanks, Is there a specific disk Image I should use from the internet if you can't find a physical copy of the OS

 

LCARS

Well-known member
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Realitystorm

Well-known member
Hi Challenger, you could try writing one of my pre-created drive images to your card to start with.   It will give you a 2GB drive on your CF card and should boot.

https://www.savagetaylor.com/downloads/downloads-macintosh/

Or, if you want to use something like balenaEtcher or DD to create an image of your CF card and send it to me via private message I can initialize it and send it back to you setup with an initial 2GB partition.

In general you should be able to use your CF card the same way I do SD cards for the SCSI2SD.

 
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