I have recently bought a external floppy drive for my new mac. How could i put a game from the internet on a floppy and have it work with my 1984 macintosh
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Help!! How to put games on floppy disk!!
- Thread starter Macintoshguy1984
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When you say external floppy for your new Mac, do you mean something like a USB floppy drive connected to your modern Mac? And you want to know how to use it to write a floppy for your Mac 128K or 512K?
Unfortunately a USB floppy drive won't be able to write a disk that the 128K / 512K can read. A USB floppy drive is a standard PC floppy connected over USB. But PC drives can't write 400K Mac floppies (this is due to the early Macs using variable speed tracks to fit more data on the disk). You need to find a Mac with a SuperDrive or 800K drive. These drives are internal to the Mac, or external with a 19-pin connector.
The easiest way is to find a Mac with a built-in SuperDrive (1.44 MB). This would be any Mac made after 1990 with an internal floppy. Then you can bootstrap that Mac using your USB floppy drive, and then use that Mac to bootstrap the 128K / 512K.
This might be a useful resource for you: http://siber-sonic.com/mac/newmillfloppy.html
Unfortunately a USB floppy drive won't be able to write a disk that the 128K / 512K can read. A USB floppy drive is a standard PC floppy connected over USB. But PC drives can't write 400K Mac floppies (this is due to the early Macs using variable speed tracks to fit more data on the disk). You need to find a Mac with a SuperDrive or 800K drive. These drives are internal to the Mac, or external with a 19-pin connector.
The easiest way is to find a Mac with a built-in SuperDrive (1.44 MB). This would be any Mac made after 1990 with an internal floppy. Then you can bootstrap that Mac using your USB floppy drive, and then use that Mac to bootstrap the 128K / 512K.
This might be a useful resource for you: http://siber-sonic.com/mac/newmillfloppy.html
Now I see you posted this in the Software forum as well. As rsolberg correctly pointed out there, your bridge Mac needs to support Mac OS 7.6.1 or earlier. Thought I'd mention that here for others that come across this thread.
So a g3 with internal floppy drive would work
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A G3 will not work because it can't run System 7.6.1 or earlier. I think you'll be good with almost anything before a G3 (and after 1990), such as a PowerPC 604e-based machine or earlier. Check the specifications at everymac.com for the particular model to be sure.
is it because he needs to write to a 400k disk that he can not use some conversion software such as "MacDisk"?
I use an external usb floppy drive ($13 from Fry's) connected to my Windows 10 machine. Using MacDisk I can easily write to a 3.5" disk, then install on my mac's. Took a little trial and error but works great.
I use an external usb floppy drive ($13 from Fry's) connected to my Windows 10 machine. Using MacDisk I can easily write to a 3.5" disk, then install on my mac's. Took a little trial and error but works great.
Correct. The original 1984 Macintosh, and several models after that, can only read/write either 400k or 800k floppies, which are incompatible with any PC drive. You need a Mac floppy drive to format, read, or write them.
I need to get my hands on MacDisk for Windows. It's a shame there's not a solution as seemingly easy as that for modern Macs running, say, El Capitan (or is there?). I'd welcome a piece of software for Mac that could deal with HFS-formatted floppies. As it is, it's the FAT file system only on the most modern OS. =(
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Yeah Yosemite and El Cap are really annoying.
That's why I kept using Mavericks. I don't like the new look either.
Someone should port Transmac to OSX. That would be a lot easier!
If windows can do it then why can't El Capitan do it as well??
I was using win 7 and Transmac before I was introduced to the Floppy EMU. Now that I own one I wouldn't go back!
I know it's expensive but it will last forever! BMOW still sells his Model A which is slightly less expensive.
Don't forget that you can still write to a floppy from the floppy EMU!
The Floppy EMU way is clearly the easiest way.
That's why I kept using Mavericks. I don't like the new look either.
Someone should port Transmac to OSX. That would be a lot easier!
If windows can do it then why can't El Capitan do it as well??
I was using win 7 and Transmac before I was introduced to the Floppy EMU. Now that I own one I wouldn't go back!
I know it's expensive but it will last forever! BMOW still sells his Model A which is slightly less expensive.
Don't forget that you can still write to a floppy from the floppy EMU!
The Floppy EMU way is clearly the easiest way.
Well, really writting disks is totally different for Windows users then it is for Mac users (at least Mavericks users, I don't know if Yosemite supports floppies). On a mac, it's as simple as putting the .sit or extracting a .dmg. For windows users, the process is very complicated; it involves Mac vmini, Mac Disk, Winimage, and HFS+ reader/writter. It is like playing telephone, except here you translate from Mac format, to Windows format, then back to Mac format.
anyone remembers totally free SoftMac for windows? It has this cool feature of converting floppies to Macintosh format (hfs) and extracting .dsk to your floppy. You dont need MacDrive to do it.
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Yeah, I remember SoftMac. That was a useful piece of software back in the day. I also agree with BaldOldEagle on the whole FloppyEmu front. I actually own two of them. Kind of excessive. I realise this. =P
Yeah, I have two FEMUs, too. There is no comparing the usefulness of that product! The only thing that could make it better would be an ethernet connection where it could access my fileshare in realtime without having to sneakernet SD cards around.
Hey Joe. Maybe I'm not 100% clear on what you meant. Are you saying you wish you had a file server where you can access all the 68k Mac files via Ethernet? If that's not what you meant, sorry. But that's something I've been doing far more these days. The FloppyEmu is essential in getting a couple things loaded initially - mainly the OS, AppleShare and OpenTransport. But after that, I just hook the old Mac up to the network and I can use Chooser to manually type in the local IP address of my G4 Mac Mini running Tiger. Bam....all the files and installers are accessible on the 68k Mac. All this DOES require having Ethernet cards in the old Macs, something I've managed to do for all of mine except for the SE/30s. =/
Yeah, that's what I want to do, and it would be a luxury if FEMU had that connection so my fileshare would follow me around without having to worry about hardware on the 68ks. Only one of my machines has Ethernet (the Q700). The SE, SE/30, and IIsi both have unreasonably expensive Ethernet hardware. And of course the 128k doesn't even have the option. I've read about using the Q700 as an Ethernet bridge machine, then using LocalTalk for the network, but I haven't gotten that adventurous... yet. My machines are also in different rooms, so there's always the pesky task of wiring the house for LocalTalk. But having dual mini DIN wall jacks in every room might be kind of fun. 
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