Sidebar Sidebar
Become a MacRumors Supporter for $50/year with no ads, ability to filter front page stories, and private forums.

Anybody got a link to a System 7.6 installation ISO?

tevion5

tevion5

macrumors 68000
Original poster
Jul 12, 2011
1,967
1,603
Ireland
Got a new Power Macinotsh 8600 but I'm having trouble finding the OS! I believe Apple allow this stuff for free now so I don't think there is any licensing issues. Unlike EA blocking copies of SimCity from 1985... xD

Anybody help me out here? :)
 
havokalien said:
7.5 and 7.6 are still not free from apple. I have 7.6 on cd extra if you want.
Click to expand...

I have "acquired" a disk image of 7.5, but I haven't tried it yet so I'm not sure it will work.

Is that an original Apple official 7.6 CD? how much?
 
havokalien said:
7.5 and 7.6 are still not free from apple. I have 7.6 on cd extra if you want.
Click to expand...

7.5 is available from here, but I don't think that it'll work on an 8600. The only copy of the 8600 "Macintosh CD" (ie. restore CD) that I can find is a broken link :(

I don't believe that there's any issue with downloading the restore CD that originally came with the machine (if you can find it). After all, the machine included a licence for 7.6 when it was purchased, so there shouldn't be a problem with running that same version on it.
 
The 8600 will only run 7.5.5 (with System Enabler 702) and 7.6.1 - it will NOT run anything earlier and will NOT run 7.6.0

The 7.5.5 CD that shipped with the 200Mhz machine has a P/N of 691-1231-A (international version is prefixed with "Z" ie Z691-1231-A).

I can't recall if you can boot the 200Mhz 7.5.5 CD on a faster CPU card as later 8600s with faster CPUs only shipped with 7.6.1 CDs P/N 691-1623-A.

As previously noted, with 7.6.1 you won't be able to write 400K disks unless you use DiskCopy to write an image file to a floppy.
 
MacTech68 said:
The 8600 will only run 7.5.5 (with System Enabler 702) and 7.6.1 - it will NOT run anything earlier and will NOT run 7.6.0

The 7.5.5 CD that shipped with the 200Mhz machine has a P/N of 691-1231-A (international version is prefixed with "Z" ie Z691-1231-A).

I can't recall if you can boot the 200Mhz 7.5.5 CD on a faster CPU card as later 8600s with faster CPUs only shipped with 7.6.1 CDs P/N 691-1623-A.

As previously noted, with 7.6.1 you won't be able to write 400K disks unless you use DiskCopy to write an image file to a floppy.
Click to expand...

Can 7.6.1 do 800k disks?
 
7.6.1, 8.x. 9.x .. have no issues at all with 800K, or HFS.

7.6.1 will not write MFS, and 8 will not even read it.
 
tdiaz said:
7.6.1, 8.x. 9.x .. have no issues at all with 800K, or HFS.

7.6.1 will not write MFS, and 8 will not even read it.
Click to expand...

What file format will a 512Ke running 6.0.8 be using on its 800k disks?

If system 8 can write 800k disks for my 512Ke I will get that instead because 7.5.5 and 7.6.1 are very tough to find as installations.
 
800K on a 512Ke is going to be HFS. The determination is made when you select "Single Sided" or "Double Sided" at the time of formatting the disk. Single sided would be MFS. This is set in motion by the ROM and supporting operating system.

Useless trivia:
If you install an 800K drive in a non-enhanced Macintosh you get this really cool "rare" 800K MFS formatted volume.
 
tdiaz said:
800K on a 512Ke is going to be HFS. The determination is made when you select "Single Sided" or "Double Sided" at the time of formatting the disk. Single sided would be MFS. This is set in motion by the ROM and supporting operating system.

Useless trivia:
If you install an 800K drive in a non-enhanced Macintosh you get this really cool "rare" 800K MFS formatted volume.
Click to expand...

Brilliant so my 8600 which actually arrived with a 4GB HDD and system 9.1 will have no problems making disks for my 512Ke 800k HFS then? Looks like I'm sorted :)
 
Install Toast and drag the system folder and assorted other things to a disc, make it bootable, and save an image if you don't have a writer on that machine.

That way you can boot a CD from the installed system software if you have to setup another drive.
 
tdiaz said:
Install Toast and drag the system folder and assorted other things to a disc, make it bootable, and save an image if you don't have a writer on that machine.

That way you can boot a CD from the installed system software if you have to setup another drive.
Click to expand...

Thanks for the advice. Turns out the 8600 was used in a graphics design studio back in the 90's so it has Toast, Photoshop 6, and a host of old software already on it! Previous owner was kind enough to upgrade to 136MB ram too, probably for better OS 9 performance. Might try throwing in a few PCI cards I have lying about to give it Firewire 400 and USB.
 
MacTech68 said:
It may be moot now but a 7.5.5 original install CD has just been relisted on eBay:

http://cgi.ebay.com/itm/181253999187
Click to expand...

Ohhhh! I don't exactly need it right now, but because of its rarity I'm nearly tempted to bid! :p
If I hadn't just bought a lovely 20" iMac G5 (why do I feel the need to collect these machines? xD) I might be able to justify the cost, but everything works for me now so I might just let it slide.

Got Sid Meir's Pirates working on my 512Ke! *Life achievement fulfilled.
 
Last edited by a moderator:
The person I got it from was not the last user of this machine it seems, and as a result the Administrator account has a password on it I don't know. There may be a way around this, but the machine hasn't been clean since 1997, so a system re-installation might be good practice. I has tons of crapware on it like an ancient yahoo messenger and some archaic versions of Flash and Photoshop :p In short, it runs slow.

If I bought/acquired a retail copy of System 9, would it clean install from CD onto my 8600, just like a windows XP install (sort of)?
 
9 Should install w/o any hassle.

As for the "crapware", MacOS is pretty easy to rid of that stuff overall. The 9 install may even upgrade what is there, but I'd just start over and move over things. It will do that too, by moving it another folder.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Register on MacRumors! This sidebar will go away, and you'll see fewer ads.
Top Bottom
Back