PowerBook G4 classic mode with usb floppy drive..

[John_A]

Hi, I have a PB G4 1.67 that Im going to refurbish (new Charger + HD) and install Osx tiger + Mac OS 9. I plan to use it partly to transfer files via a usb floppy drive (wich I dont have but need to purchase) to some older 68k machines.

Any pitfalls or problems I need to be aware of?

 

[sstaylor]

The usb floppy drive will neither read nor write 800k floppies

 

[Macdrone]

It may write floppies for 1.4, but it may fail.  Any success I had, I had to format the floppies as ms dos, leave the files compressed and uncompress on the mac to restore the resource fork for the file.

 

[John_A]

Ok, you mean in bin or hqx format? Sit files doesnt work after putting them on pc formatted floppies, if I remember correctly.. How about cpt?

 

[rsolberg]

I haven't had any issues formatting and writing HD (High Density/1.4/1.44MB) floppies in the versions of Mac OS you've listed with a USB floppy drive. If the drive can read and write MS-DOS formatted HD disks, it can read and write HFS (Mac OS Standard) HD disks in 9.2.2 or 10.4.x. Make sure to format the disks as HFS/Standard and not HFS+/Extended for compatibility with systems prior to Mac OS 8.

Mac OS X up to 10.5.8 includes full read, write, and format capabilities for HFS/Standard HD floppy disks.

 

[Macdrone]

.sit files do work, its just drag and drop onto stuffit expander.  I do it all the time.  Download on my 2015 iMac, put onto zip drive (easier and faster for me) and expand on my color classic.