Got a Mac Plus, wondering where to begin.

[BlackFalcon448]

Hi guys. I just recently bought a mac plus on craigslist for $20. It came with the original keyboard and mouse, both in excellent condition. It also came with a "DirectDrive 70" which upon further inspection I found out was an external 20mb SCSI drive. According to the lady that I bought it from, the hard drive died around 1997 and its been sitting in her basement even since. I tested the hdd and it is indeed dead, so I have no way of booting this thing. From what I've been able to find out this computer could either boot from 800k floppies or a properly set up hard drive. I'm assuming the hard drive I have was used to boot it, because the lady said she didn't have any floppies to sell with it.

Because of this, I'm kind of at a loss. I have no computers available that can read 800k floppies (Macbook pro, a couple of iMac G3's, power mac 7600 etc) so I can't create new boot floppies. Any suggestions?

 

[dmr727]

Your 7600 will read and write 800KB disks. Although I don't recommend doing this for important data, cover the square density hole of a 1.4MB disk with some tape to make your 7600 think it's 800KB, and in most cases it'll format just fine.

Obviously you'll need the 7600 on the internet (or networked to a machine that is) and Disk Copy installed to image the floppy with a suitable disk image.

 

[BlackFalcon448]

Your 7600 will read and write 800KB disks. Although I don't recommend doing this for important data, cover the square density hole of a 1.4MB disk with some tape to make your 7600 think it's 800KB, and in most cases it'll format just fine.

Obviously you'll need the 7600 on the internet (or networked to a machine that is) and Disk Copy installed to image the floppy with a suitable disk image.

The problem is, I got the 7600 from my school and some kid had shoved a pencil in the floppy drive and it was never replaced (no one used them anyway so I don't think anyone knew it was broken), so I would have to get a replacement. It also seems like the floppy cable was removed too, so I would need that as well.

I was also looking up how to set up a localtalk network between the 7600 and the plus. BTW, the 7600 is on the web. (its a HORRIBLE experience, don't ever try) so I can at least download files for floppy images. I was also thinking of getting an apple hd20sc to replace the broken direct drive 70. So many choices...

 

[dmr727]

I was also looking up how to set up a localtalk network between the 7600 and the plus. BTW, the 7600 is on the web. (its a HORRIBLE experience, don't ever try) so I can at least download files for floppy images. I was also thinking of getting an apple hd20sc to replace the broken direct drive 70. So many choices...

Sounds like the start of some good fun with your new machine! If it were me, I'd head over to eBay and get yourself a replacement internal drive and cable for the 7600. You're still going to need some way to write 800KB floppies for your Plus, and the 7600 is a great way to do it. I wouldn't waste my time with the web on it - just get a good FTP client (Fetch, for example), and FTP over to your MBP to retrieve whatever you download from there.

AFAIK, no PC or USB floppy drive can read and write 800KB disks, so now that you're getting into more vintage gear, it's good that you already have a 'transitional' Mac to get programs to and from your Plus and modern hardware. Especially since a single vintage Mac in your collection has a funny tendency to turn into multiple different ones.

 

[KurtangleTN]

Someone please correct me if I'm wrong but I read that in order to write/format 800k floppies you need System 7, Apple removed the ability with 8 and above?

That Power Mac 7600 shipped with 7.5.5 so you're ok, but that's just another thing to think about if it's running 8 or later. Apple hasn't released 7.6 free, so you'll need to find it another way.

 

[MacintoshMaster]

I have the DSK file for system 7.1.

 

[RichardOwens]

Hi guys. I just recently bought a mac plus on craigslist for $20. It came with the original keyboard and mouse, both in excellent condition. It also came with a "DirectDrive 70" which upon further inspection I found out was an external 20mb SCSI drive. According to the lady that I bought it from, the hard drive died around 1997 and its been sitting in her basement even since. I tested the hdd and it is indeed dead, so I have no way of booting this thing. From what I've been able to find out this computer could either boot from 800k floppies or a properly set up hard drive. I'm assuming the hard drive I have was used to boot it, because the lady said she didn't have any floppies to sell with it.

Because of this, I'm kind of at a loss. I have no computers available that can read 800k floppies (Macbook pro, a couple of iMac G3's, power mac 7600 etc) so I can't create new boot floppies. Any suggestions?

An Apple User Group will have someone with a running collection of old Macs.

Using 6.0.8 with a early edition of Claris Works may be better.

Do not even think about copying with a single disk drive.

Try eBay or the User Groups for 800K discs.

 

[tevion5]

Someone please correct me if I'm wrong but I read that in order to write/format 800k floppies you need System 7, Apple removed the ability with 8 and above?

That Power Mac 7600 shipped with 7.5.5 so you're ok, but that's just another thing to think about if it's running 8 or later. Apple hasn't released 7.6 free, so you'll need to find it another way.

System 9 will write HFS 800k disks just perfectly actually, and any Mac OS version below it.

It is MFS 400K disks that are only needed on a 512k and 128k that require system 7 and lower. I use Mac OS 9 on my power mac 8600 to write 800k disks for my 512Ke (essentially a plus) all the time