Resolved Installing Mac OS on older PowerBook

[Dharumanyo]

Does anyone have advice for installing Mac OS on a PowerBook 1400c/133 without a CD drive? I have been running Mac OS 8.1 on it, but the hard disk seems to be dying, so I am looking to swap it with a 4GB Compact Flash card using an adapter.

I've tried writing installation floppy disks, but this hasn't seemed to work. I originally tried writing the disks using dd on a modern Mac with a USB floppy drive, but that did not work. I then tried using Disk Copy on an iBook G3 with the USB floppy drive, but Disk Copy could not see the drive. Finally I tried copying the .dsk files to the original 1400c hard disk with a USB adapter and writing the floppies using the 1400c internal FDD. However, Mac OS 8.1 could not recognise the .dsk format. So now I am at a bit of a loss. I've tried with different versions of Mac OS 7.6 and 8.1. I have also tried copying a hard disk image directly to the CF card using dd, but this also failed.

So if anyone knows a good way to go about doing this any help would be very much appreciated.

P.S The PowerBook has 24MB of RAM, so it could conceivably run 8.6. Would it be possible to take the universal install of 8.6 from macos9lives.com, install it to the CF card using a PowerBook G3 (Lombard), then put the CF card in the 1400c?

 

[Project Alice]

P.S The PowerBook has 24MB of RAM, so it could conceivably run 8.6. Would it be possible to take the universal install of 8.6 from macos9lives.com, install it to the CF card using a PowerBook G3 (Lombard), then put the CF card in the 1400c?

That’s what I was going to suggest.

Idk why you were running 8.1 on it in the first place; if it were mine I’d max out the ram and install 9.2.2 (yes you can look up os9helper).
But 8.6 is a good fit for that I’d think.

Install it with the PowerBook G3 and stick the drive in the 1400. If all else fails order a new Optical drive.

 

[Dharumanyo]

That’s what I was going to suggest.

Idk why you were running 8.1 on it in the first place; if it were mine I’d max out the ram and install 9.2.2 (yes you can look up os9helper).
But 8.6 is a good fit for that I’d think.

8.1 was just what it had when I got it. I had wanted to go to 8.6 in the past, but until the hard disk started dying I didn't feel the need to get around to it.
Thanks for the advice. Interesting note about 9.2.2, I wasn't aware of that. I'll keep that in mind if I can find the upgrades at a reasonable price.

 

[amagichnich]

I don't have a CD drive for mine, just the floppy drive. But luckily I have a drive tools floppy which is a crippled System 6 or 7 environment and includes only a tool to format your hard disk and prepare it for installation. Now comes the real cool part: In this environment I could even start the installer of Mac OS 7.6 sitting on a CF>PC card adaptor and install it to the hard disk!
[doublepost=1567253031][/doublepost]Word of advice: don't use OS 9, it is soo slow on my 1400c/166 with 64MB memory, I can't imagine how slow it must be on yours.
[doublepost=1567253118][/doublepost]

P.S The PowerBook has 24MB of RAM, so it could conceivably run 8.6. Would it be possible to take the universal install of 8.6 from macos9lives.com, install it to the CF card using a PowerBook G3 (Lombard), then put the CF card in the 1400c?

Yes this should work, I did it similar with 8.5

 

[Dharumanyo]

I don't have a CD drive for mine, just the floppy drive. But luckily I have a drive tools floppy which is a crippled System 6 or 7 environment and includes only a tool to format your hard disk and prepare it for installation. Now comes the real cool part: In this environment I could even start the installer of Mac OS 7.6 sitting on a CF>PC card adaptor and install it to the hard disk!

Interesting. What is the speed like using that method? Additionally, is there any AppleTalk functionality on that disk that could allow for installing from a network drive using a PC card to ethernet adapter?
Yes, OS 9 seems like it would be far too slow.

 

[amagichnich]

Interesting. What is the speed like using that method? Additionally, is there any AppleTalk functionality on that disk that could allow for installing from a network drive using a PC card to ethernet adapter?
Yes, OS 9 seems like it would be far too slow.

The speed of what? Installation time? Daaaaaamn slow at first, but after a while it seems everything is loaded from the floppy to RAM. Still, every sub menu in the menu bar causes the floppy to seek again and everything is slow.
Once 7.6 is installed it is one damn fast OS! Right now I dual boot 7.6 for it's speed and 8.6 for compatibility.
No, there is nothing more on the floppy than disk format and disk health checker as well as a very basic system folder

 

[Dharumanyo]

The speed of what? Installation time? Daaaaaamn slow at first, but after a while it seems everything is loaded from the floppy to RAM. Still, every sub menu in the menu bar causes the floppy to seek again and everything is slow.

I thought it would be slow, but still cool that it can be done.

I'm going to mark this thread as resolved. I couldn't get the solution to work last night, but that was due only to my CD drives not working properly on the PowerBook G3s. I've ordered an adapter for CF to 40-pin ATA so I can use the same method, but with a Power Mac G3 instead.

 

[bobnugget]

I always used to install from CF card in a PCMCIA adapter.
You can also install an OS to a CF card if you have a second mac (or SheepShaver/BasiliskII depending on OS) and boot directly from it using a PCMCIA->CF adapter.

 

[reukiodo]

I used a Disk Tools floppy to boot my PowerBook 520c and a 100MB ZIP disk to install 8.1 onto the hard drive. The floppy install version of 8.1 is small enough to fit on a single 100MB ZIP disk.