Can a MDD G4 be a Bridge Machine for classic macs?

[smrieck511]

I've got a G4 MDD tower (os 9.2) and a USB floppy drive. Is it possible to make boot discs using system 6 and 7 images on an OS 9 machine like this? if so, what version of Disk Copy is recommended?

I'm thinking I remember this requiring an earlier Mac but I'm hoping I'm wrong.

 

[Nixontheknight]

I've got a G4 MDD tower (os 9.2) and a USB floppy drive. Is it possible to make boot discs using system 6 and 7 images on an OS 9 machine like this? if so, what version of Disk Copy is recommended?

I'm thinking I remember this requiring an earlier Mac but I'm hoping I'm wrong.

as long as you don't have a machine that requires 400k or 800k floppies, it should work fine, otherwise, look for a PCI power Macintosh with a floppy drive and look for a USB PCI card

 

[smrieck511]

Cool. thanks!

 

[s_pupp]

I agree with Nixontheknight.
My main Mac is a MDD G4, but I use a PowerMac 8600 for the bridge Mac because of how much it has in common with earlier Macs (floppy drive capable of reading/writing 800k floppies, ADB, SCSI, ability to boot into late versions of OS7). Plus, with the ability to add PCI cards to give it SATA, IDE, USB, FireWire, etc, it is a great bridge to a more modern era.

 

[Phipli]

I have, but don't tend to use bridge machines. If you have a SCSI CD drive or an ethernet card, you can transfer directly from modern computers.

My current methods are to use Toast in the Basilisk emulator to save a .toast image, then burn it using the host linux computer's cd burning software as an iso. Done right, that gets me a bootable cd with whatever software and drivers I need to set up the computer, including FTP software.

There after I move most files by FTP.

 

[MacKilRoy]

You can easily find cheap SCSI cards for the MDD and connect any of the multitude of SCSI drives to your MDD and manipulate it using that. Advice is to not use OSX when dealing with older system software and files for transfer on an old drive.

 

[volvo242gt]

Any of the G3/G4 PowerMac towers made after 1998 will work well as a bridge machine. You won't have 400K/800K floppy access, but, as long as you have a SCSI card installed (I personally use an Adaptec 29160N in whichever G3 or G4 I have at the moment), you can either stick a 50-pin ribbon cable and a hard drive power cable out an empty slot opening in the back of the computer, then run a SCSI drive hanging off the back, or use a 68 pin to centronics SCSI cable with an external hard drive case. Copy your software from the MDD to the hard drive, then reinstall said drive in the 68K Mac you need to get the software files onto.

Alternatively, you can use either a zip drive or a jaz drive to transfer files to and from the MDD and your older Macs.

 

[Nixontheknight]

Any of the G3/G4 PowerMac towers made after 1998 will work well as a bridge machine. You won't have 400K/800K floppy access, but, as long as you have a SCSI card installed (I personally use an Adaptec 29160N in whichever G3 or G4 I have at the moment), you can either stick a 50-pin ribbon cable and a hard drive power cable out an empty slot opening in the back of the computer, then run a SCSI drive hanging off the back, or use a 68 pin to centronics SCSI cable with an external hard drive case. Copy your software from the MDD to the hard drive, then reinstall said drive in the 68K Mac you need to get the software files onto.

Alternatively, you can use either a zip drive or a jaz drive to transfer files to and from the MDD and your older Macs.

and you can use EtherTalk if you have OS 8-9.2.2 on your G3/G4 to bring files to your old macs, I've been doing that with a G3 iBook

 

[volvo242gt]

and you can use EtherTalk if you have OS 8-9.2.2 on your G3/G4 to bring files to your old macs, I've been doing that with a G3 iBook

Yup. Also can use LocalTalk with those machines that don't have ethernet installed to transfer files. It'll be slow, but it'll work.

 

[cjtmacclassic]

Yup. Also can use LocalTalk with those machines that don't have ethernet installed to transfer files. It'll be slow, but it'll work.

This is my setup exactly and it's mostly fine. MDD G4 to an AsanteTalk bridge, linked to localtalk network consisting of a Classic, PB140, and IIci. I can boot OS9 on the G4 and interact with all the other machines, and make floppies from whichever one is best suited. It's a little slow, but reliable. Eventually I'd like to add a bridge and link an older Airport router, specifically for machines with limited wifi support.