G3 to SE/30

[pinto_guy]

Hi: I'm looking at the best way to download legacy Mac software from the Internet to use on my Compact Mac (eg SE/30, CC etc..). In the past, I used my old WinXP computer and it was tedious, but it worked. Now that I have Win10, it does not work any longer. 

So, what is best way to do this ? I'm thinking of perhaps buying a PowerPC G3, with Zip drive (I have an external SCSI Zip that I can use on the SE/30). Would the software downloaded by it be compatible with compact Macs ? What OS should be used on the G3 that would be Internet-friendly, as well as compatible ? I read that a dual boot (9.x and 10.x) was necessary. Is this true ?

Thanks in advance. 

 

[ArmorAlley]

Here is what comes to mind:

 1. Power Macintosh G4 MDD (or any Mac that can run OS X Tiger (10.4) *and* 9.2.2 ) running TenFourFox on Tiger. Have at least 2 partitions on your G4 – Mac OS 9.2.2 & 10.4.x. Buy and install an ethernet card in the compact mac. Launch the Mac OS 9.2.2 drive in the MDD use File-Sharing to connect the Mac OS 9.2.2 drive to the compact mac.

 2. Basilisk - If Basilisk II runs in Win 10, download the files with your Win 10 machine, bring them into Basilisk II environment, reassign the appropriate Type/Creator codes and burn CDs with files to be transferred to the compact macs. You will need an external SCSI CD-ROM that can be read by the compact mac in question. If your Win 10 machine has an IDE/USB zip-drive, 100MB (well 95MB)-zip disks can be used too, and, of course, you will need an external 95MB SCSI Zip drive for your compact mac.

 Many of the downloaded files are available as disk-images and these can be burned directly to CD on your Win 10 machine. Personally, for these, I prefer to buy them on eBay when I can. They usually aren't expensive and I like have the case, the artwork and the manual. Files like drivers are good candidates for burning onto CD-ROM in Basilisk.

 3. There is surely a way to connect a Win 10 PC by means of a PCI Powermac to a compact mac. There are guides available. I have never done it myself though and hopefully someone here will have a good link to it.

 4. Sneakernet should also be possible. With a SCSI card in your Win 10 machine, you can copy the downloaded files onto a SCSI drive formatted in FAT. The external SCSi enclosure must be 68-pin. Almost all supported SCSI drivers in Windows 10 are U320 and have the very narrow 80-pin connectors. (I have an ATTO U5LD in mine). You will need an 80-pin to 68-pin SCSI cable to connect the SCSi enclosure to the Win 10 SCSI adaptor card. Secondly, you will need a 68-pin to 50-pin cable to connect the enclosure to the compact mac. Thirdly, you will an LVD SCSI drive that also support SE (Single-ended) mode. It is usually written on the disk (LVD/SE). Your compact macs cannot address more than 4GB at a time and even then 2GB is probably a better bet. Bear this in mind while looking at 74GB drives. A 9GB drive is probably better. Lastly, you will a small adaptor from the 50-pin on the cable to the 25-pin on the back of your mac. You will need PC Exchange installed to read and mount the FAT drive.

 If you want to go the full hog on this, you could buy two 5.25" metal casing mobile racks (from a company like Icy Dock). These are drawers that allow you to pull the hard-drive out of the machine (while it is powered down obviously). With one drawer mounted in your Win 10 machine and another mounted in the SCSI enclosure permanently connected to your compact mac, it becomes a very simple matter of taking the drawer out of one machine and putting it into the SCSI enclosure.

 5. Indirect sneakernet: If you have a PCI Powermac running Mac OS 9 or lower, you should be able to transfer files by means of a USB stick or Firewire drive. I have mixed results with this.

 6. NAS drives – I don't know of any, but I wonder if there are any NAS drives that support AppleTalk. If there were, that may be an option.

 

[pinto_guy]

Wow. thanks ArmorAlley. A lot of these are beyond my skill set, but that will give me something to learn. Much appreciated !

 

[Trash80toHP_Mini]

Win 7 on my previous Firefox workstation worked with a USB Zip to sneakernet to my Quicksilver running 9.2.2. I need to set it up on the new desk arrangement again as thumb drives are a major PITA. Zip between the G4 and SCSI Zip on the 68K Macs was never a problem.

If Win10 breaks something when I hook the Zip setup up again I'll have yet another reason for loathing it.

 

[rickrob]

 6. NAS drives – I don't know of any, but I wonder if there are any NAS drives that support AppleTalk. If there were, that may be an option.

The only one I know of is the Netgear ReadyNAS 102, but that supports AFP version 3.3.  Older version of MacOS, System may not work with this version of AFP but OSX should. Another option with the ReadyNAS could be NFS, or even FTP, but that'll take some time to set up. I have one that I want to set up to share files between OSX, MacOS 9, and System 6/7. Still thinking about the best approach. I don't know if NFS or FTP will preserve Resource forks in the file system.

 

[MikeatOSX]

I got resource fork problems with uncompressed files and FTP.

 

[Cory5412]

Here's what i would do:

Put Mac OS 9 and IE5 and/or Classilla on the G3. It will get on the Internet and it should be able to download files from classic mac focused web sites just fine.

Then, put those files on floppy diskettes, zip, or use a localtalk cable to transfer the files from the G3 to the SE/30.

Doing almost anything else, including involving Windows at all or bothering with FTP, is making it harder than it has to be.

The thing we should probably be doing as we work through this process is pinging people who run sites like The Macintosh Garden to make their pages friendlier to browsers that run on the vintage computers that make the best bridge machines.

The next best option after this, if you do want to add some complexity/flexibility, is probably to put Windows Server 2003 in a safe part of your network and enable file sharing from samba and appletalk on it. That'll allow basically any Windows or Mac computer from almost any time to talk to it.

 

[Von]

I was recently in your situation and now have Lubuntu Linux running on several old PCs and as a VMware VM on my MacBook Pro. The key thing is to get Netatalk 2.1.6 running on the linux box as this gives you connectivity all the way back to System 6; don't go past 2.1.6.  FWIW my SE/30s and IIsi all have Asante network cards and I have them plugged into and old D link 10/100 switch hanging off of my airport extreme.  My MBP needs to be wired for the connection to work. I tried both an IBM x31 and the VM on wifi and could get neither to work.

Have a read on this on this thread and take note on my post about removing CUPS here. The article referenced in the first post is an absolute gold mine on connectivity...

 

[Macdrone]

If you can leave files compressed on the zip and uncompress on the destination mac as disk copy and other utilities will repair the resource forks on decompression.

I get files off my 2015 imac using a windows formated zip, put it in a color classic with external zip and use stuffit expander.  Works when I need it.