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recommend a older laptop to me?

In discussing details with mraroid in PM, he wants to use a CF as a SSD in a CC with a CF -> SCSI adapter. Thing is partitioning, formatting and installing System 7 the CF for this. Without use of a CD ROM Drive, this is not possible directly to the CC as it would need an external Apple Branded CD ROM Drive like the 300 or 600.

The only remaining solution is a laptop that can take a CF into a PCMCIA and through System 7 partition and format it, then put the OS on it. This only leaves a handful of laptops that can do this. He could use anything from 500 series, 190, 5300 or 1400 - all have a PCMCIA Slot and can support System 7. But to do this, he will need a CD ROM drive. With the 500, 190, and 5300, he would need an external SCSI Drive like the Apple 300 or 600. The 1400 is the only laptop that has the CD ROM Drive and supports System 7.

What 68K PowerBook other than the 190 or 500 series can support PCMCIA? I do not remember any.

 
This actually makes no sense if the idea is actually to get a bridge from a PC to the Color Classic...

Mraroid, get a $10-20 USB floppy drive and use Sheepshaver.  Save your third quota'ed computer for something else.

 
No! The Color Classic (like all Macs of that vintage) have SuperDrives, meaning they can read and write 1.44 MB disks. The newest Macs to have only an 800k drive, I think, were the Plus, early/non FDHD SE, and original Mac II. Everything subsequent to those models and up to the iMac had SuperDrives as standard.

That being said, if you can manage it, using Sheepshaver with a USB floppy drive on your PC should work perfectly fine, because you don't need to work with 800k disks to get stuff to your Coloir Classic.

EDIT: Assuming you don't end up with a Plus or SE someday, as TheWhiteFalcon predicts :)

c

p.s. You should invest in a FloppyEmu at some point, as they are incredible, and they will render this whole USB-floppy-on-a-PC thing moot, as you can just plunk your images on an SD card (regardless if they're 400k, 800k, or 1.4 MB), plug the SD card into the FloppyEmu, and plug the FloppyEmu into the Mac you wish to transfer stuff to. There is also working HD20 emulation built in as well, so you can take your Sheepshaver/MinivMac image whole and put it straight onto an SD card and mount it on your real Mac.

 
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Obviously... (Probably the SE -- I didn't know the Mac II shipped with an 800k drive also.)  Hence a floppy bridge from a PC to a Color Classic will allow portable use of a SuperDrive... (plan for the future.  in Boy Scouts it was "Always be prepared.")

 
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Yes, the first Mac to have SuperDrives was, I believe, the IIx (followed shortly by the SE/30, which was the first compact Mac to be so equipped).

c

 
By release date it'd be the IIx, going by everymac - SE/30 was released exactly 4 months later.

 
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Does your friend actually want a retro laptop or something more modern - I'd look into a Macbook which would you could probable get the for the same coin as a vintage Mac, assuming if sourcing from eBay.

 
Elfen said:
What 68K PowerBook other than the 190 or 500 series can support PCMCIA? I do not remember any.
Click to expand...
Those are the only two that are 68k, and the 500 series is not 100% compliant with the PCMCIA standard, even with a Rev C. card cage, which is extremely hard to find. If you want a 68k machine that can do PCMCIA natively, it has to be the 190.

 
I went with the 170 simply because it works with OS 7.1 and the 640x400 mono TFT has the same look as a compact. 68K Mac laptops are brittle badly designed pieces of junk which is why I have a couple parts machines just to get that one 170 perfect. Gaming was not something I want to do on a 68k mac laptop so if you do then a 68K color TFT model like a 540c would be a better choice.

 
Hi folks...

Elfen - thanks for the links.  I buy a lot of stuff directly from China and I have had no problums.

I bought a external SCSI CD drive/burner.  It is made by Sun.  It came with an adaptor and cable so I can plug it into my Color Classic.  I have been able to boot my Color Classic and I have a Mac CD that I can drop into this external SCSI drive and I can see the CD on my desktop. I can open it, and I believe install software onto my Color Classic from this disk.

The external Sun CD drive/burner is model # GWV611T (PN: 599-2147-01).  I have been unable to find any literature for it. I bought it used, cheap, but it seems to run just fine.

My thought was to burn a CD-R as a boot disk that would boot to a Mac OS - version 7 something.  But also on this CD would be non apple software that would let me partition and init the CF card.  I bought a CF AztecMonster CF-3.5inc. SCSI Converter Card:

http://www.ebay.com/itm/CF-AztecMonster-CF-3-5inc-SCSI-Converter-Card-New-Condition-for-AKAI-E-mu-/261937236424?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_0&hash=item3cfcad09c8

It bolts perfect to my Color Classic plastic sled that my SCSI hard drive is on. I have swapped some email with Manabu Sakai in Japan (the fellow who built this card), and he directed me to some non apple software that he says will format and init any CF card.  As my CC is taken apart now and the floppy (with this partition software on it) has no name on the floppy other then "Driver", and I forgot to write down the name of the software, I can't tell you the name of it until I can read the disk.  If it is legal to give it away I am happy to give it away free to anyone here who might want it. Manabu believes it is the best software to use for this, as well as other format and init applications for Macs.

Soooooooo....  maybe I can get away with not buying a older Mac laptop if I could figure out a way to burn a boot CD with this partition software on it.

I searched the web looking for a directions on how to burn a boot floppy or a boot CD using a version of OS 7.  I could not find any.

Maybe someone knows of a web site I can go to read up on how to do this?

Do you think I need a second Mac (Lombard for example) to support my Color Classic? I do not want to be stuck in Ecuador and then find I can't install or support something or install something, or fix something on my Color Classic with out having a second Mac with me.

So if need be, I can buy a Lombard (or something else that I can plug my external SCSI optical drive into) and have my buddy bring the laptop into Ecuador when he flies in. If the Mac laptop I bought has no built in CD burner, then I would need a Mac laptop that can support my Sun Microsystems SCSI CD reader/burner.

Also, do I understand correctly that the Lombard shipped as either 333Mhz or 400Mhz?

Are after market laptop batteries still available (I am not taking about the small internal logic board battery).  I don't need them, but just asking.  I have a external USB floppy drive.  Do you think it might work if I plugged it into a USB port on a Lombard?

Sorry for the many questions!  I am still reading all your posts and following links.

Thanks for all the great support.  I hope I can return the favor some time.

jack




 

 
CC_333 said:
No! The Color Classic (like all Macs of that vintage) have SuperDrives, meaning they can read and write 1.44 MB disks. The newest Macs to have only an 800k drive, I think, were the Plus, early/non FDHD SE, and original Mac II. Everything subsequent to those models and up to the iMac had SuperDrives as standard.

That being said, if you can manage it, using Sheepshaver with a USB floppy drive on your PC should work perfectly fine, because you don't need to work with 800k disks to get stuff to your Coloir Classic.

EDIT: Assuming you don't end up with a Plus or SE someday, as TheWhiteFalcon predicts :)

c

p.s. You should invest in a FloppyEmu at some point, as they are incredible, and they will render this whole USB-floppy-on-a-PC thing moot, as you can just plunk your images on an SD card (regardless if they're 400k, 800k, or 1.4 MB), plug the SD card into the FloppyEmu, and plug the FloppyEmu into the Mac you wish to transfer stuff to. There is also working HD20 emulation built in as well, so you can take your Sheepshaver/MinivMac image whole and put it straight onto an SD card and mount it on your real Mac.
Click to expand...
CC-333....

I have a external USB floppy drive.  It works on my ubuntu/PC box.  So, do I understand you correctly that in that I can plug my floppy drive into a PC, and then run PC software called Sheepshaver/MinivMac?  I can down load or move Mac software to my PC (?) and then burn it to a floppy?  I do not know what FloppyEmu is.  Is this some kind of software that will do Mac software emulation?  Can I do the same thing and burn a CD-R on my PC and somehow burn a Mac boot disk and add my Mac partition and init software to this CD?

jack

jack

 
Actually, if you want a Mac OS utility that manages CF cards no problem, try Hard Disk SpeedTools. It grows in the garden and worked perfectly for my CF -> SCSI adapter in my PB 540c. It was able to detect the unformatted card, init it, partition it, format it, and everything. Perfectly compatible with System 7.1. Its the only utility I know of that can do that. The FWB software can't see a CF until its been inited, Hard Disk Speedtools doesn't have that limitation.

 
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OK.  I will look for Hard Disk SpeedTools software.  Now all I need to know is, can I take my working CC II running 7.5.3 and my external SCSI CD burner/reader and make a Mac boot disk with this software on it?

The one Mac branded CD I do own, will boot to a desktop on my Color Classic.  I think if I remove that CD, and then drop in another CD with Hard Disk SpeedTools on it, my Mac will not like that.  ???

So that is why I want to make a CD Mac boot disk with software like Hard Disk SpeedTools on that boot disk.  But I do not know how to do that.

jack

 
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