Installing Mac OS 8 without CD drive

[Hrududu]

A friend of mine just got a Powerbook 1400cs but without a CD-ROM drive. Its running a horrifyingly old install of 7.5.3 thats probably been on there since 1996. We'd like to get it running a nice clean install of 8.1 but only have it on CD. I know there was never a floppy disk version of 8, so is there a way I can create floppy disk images of the installer from my CD? I was thinking back to some software I'd used many years ago (Compact Pro came to mind) that I believe made disk images. Anyone done this before?

 

[H3NRY]

Do you have a SCSI CDROM drive to boot the 1400 from? Install from another Mac with SCSI target mode?

 

[beachycove]

If you have another old mac with a CD drive and have the necessary networking hardware (and I assume you do), stick the CD in another machine, turn on filesharing, and mount the CD on the 1400's desktop as a network drive by connecting to the other machine in the Chooser. Install.

Even localtalk would work fine for these purposes, though the installation will take maybe an hour.

 

[Hrududu]

I do have external SCSI CD drives, but not the HDI-30 adapter to attach it. As far as installing over LocalTalk, I don't recall that being possible.

 

[porter]

As far as installing over LocalTalk, I don't recall that being possible.

For example I have a "System 7.5 network install CD", you need a lower version and basically do an upgrade.

I recommend find the magic SCSI adapter, I acquired one a couple of years before I acquire my 1400 and was very grateful for it when I needed it!

 

[Bunsen]

If the internal hard drive is larger than 4GB (unlikely unless it's been upgraded), don't attempt to install or format the drive over SCSI Disk Mode. There's a firmware bug that leads to data corruption on larger drives.

 

[Mycatisbigfoot]

As far as installing over LocalTalk, I don't recall that being possible.

I installed 8.5 over apple talk to a power book 2300c, and it works fine, well its very very slow, but it works fine, but you should boot from a 3 1/2 disk and wipe the drive one the system as there is alot of stuff the the old owner I think, and yes the 8.1 boot floppy will have apple talk and all of that stuff, but it takes a long long time to install, so having sothing to do while it installs and if you want to install stuff that comes on the installer you should keep an eye on the laptop

 

[Bunsen]

I thought you couldn't share a CD drive over Appletalk. If not, I suppose you could image it to the other machine's hard drive.

 

[beachycove]

You can share a CD over AppleTalk, from any machine with File Sharing turned on and with full privileges set for the user in question, and yes, as has been reported, you can install a system from a CD mounted over a network, assuming you can boot the target machine with a lower system version or with a Network Access floppy. Booting from another hard drive would presumably work for a network installation, too. I am a little surprised that this is not common knowledge.

I have found, mind you, that a CD popped in my A/UX - AppleShare Pro Q950 has to be explicitly shared in the server software before it will appear on the network. Personal File Sharing from other machines is less particular, it would seem, as all you need do is put the CD in the machine and bingo, there it is on the list of networked drives running on the fileserver in question.

I too have installed 8.5 on a PB2300c over LocalTalk, though I then upgraded to 8.6. It took ages, but the installation worked flawlessly. MacOS 8.6 runs surprisingly well on the thing, and from a CF drive at that, though with Speed Doubler installed and with many of the bells & whistles turned off/ USB support etc. disabled.

Mind you, I do have 56MB of RAM in it. YMMV with lower specs.

I'd be interested to know if the solution proposed worked for the owner of the PB1400.

 

[Mycatisbigfoot]

Yea like the poster above me said what you can do will work, and thats the best bet, I would get the "network floppy" to reinstall 8.1 and use speed dubbler

but thats just me. so you should be fine

 

[Gil]

LocalTalk is your friend. :b&w:

 

[LCGuy]

You most certainly can share a CD over LocalTalk - you just can't BOOT from it. I have installed OS 8 over LocalTalk, booted off a custom boot floppy with System 7.6, and a few other bits required for LocalTalk access. It does work, its just extremely slow.