Sharing a floppy disk over AppleShare

[napabar]

Has anyone out there ever figured out how to make a Mac share a floppy disk over AppleShare? I know Apple prevented this on purpose, but I wonder if there was ever a workaround or a hack that let you do it. I couldn't find anything online.

Thanks!

 

[tmtomh]

This might be of some use:

http://lowendmac.com/myturn/010315.html

 

[napabar]

That's really just for transferring files from a floppy to a modern Mac. I'm looking to get a floppy disk actually mounted on a client Mac with AppleShare.

 

[Mac128]

That's really just for transferring files from a floppy to a modern Mac. I'm looking to get a floppy disk actually mounted on a client Mac with AppleShare.

Depending on what filesharing software you are using, that could be a problem. Even in the old days of AppleShare Server 1.0, you mounted a User's computer, not his floppy disk as they were one in the same and shared his folders. External floppies' files had to be dragged onto the root directory of the mounted System (that was your firewall LOL). When hard disks came along they were the volumes in the computer you could separately mount (including the HD-20 which was just a giant floppy), I don't believe other floppy disks were ever visible on the network. In System 7 peer-to-peer, 7 required a hard disk, which changed the way AppleShare works completely, you couldn't even access a 7 System without a hard disk.

I think what tmtomh was referring to in his link was this line:

Unfortunately you can't directly share floppy disks. You can, however, on the SE, drag the floppy's icon onto the "Floppy Server" (Desktop Folder alias) icon. This will cause a folder, identical to the floppy disk, to appear on the USB Mac's Desktop.

Not only does that require System 7, which defeats using your 512K Mac, but doesn't allow you to dynamically change your disks.
So I don't believe there is a way to mount floppies via AppleShare. If there is any chance at all it will be with v.1.0, which I have been looking for myself for some time now to confirm. In any event, while 1.0 will allow you to mount from another 1.0 client, it will not work with 2.0 and up, thus preventing a modern Mac from accessing it (although the reverse will work in a limited fashion). However, there were several third party networking products that might including TOPS and MacServe. Try http://www.mac128.com/macserve , check out the article on AppleTalking with a 128K also which discusses TOPS more in depth, which will be available for download soon for guinea pig testing.