Macintosh 512K -- how to make OS floppies on OSX?

[janstett]

I picked up an old Macintosh 512k on eBay and the hardware functions but doesn't have any software. I did some searching and found that Apple has allowed sites to post old Mac OS versions up to around System 7 for free. <Edit: They used to but ordered a cease-and-desist in 2001>. I have downloaded images of System 2 and System 4 to play around with it on my new, er, old Mac. However, I don't know how to take these .image files and produce floppies for them on OS X. (I have a USB floppy drive, and I hope 1.44 floppies will function as the old single sided 400k disks that the early Macs used).

I'm looking forward to getting this vintage-1984 Mac up and running. Any ideas how I can make the disks I need?

 

[aquajet]

It's not possible to create 400k or 800k disks with OS X. USB floppy drives lack the hardware support needed to read and write these disk formats. You'll need an older Mac capable of running System 7 or earlier (maybe even 8 or 9 will work, but I'm not certain). You'll also need the Disk Copy application to create a floppy disk from an image.

 

[gr8tfly]

I picked up an old Macintosh 512k on eBay and the hardware functions but doesn't have any software. I did some searching and found that Apple has allowed sites to post old Mac OS versions up to around System 7 for free. I have downloaded images of System 2 and System 4 to play around with it on my new, er, old Mac. However, I don't know how to take these .image files and produce floppies for them on OS X. (I have a USB floppy drive, and I hope 1.44 floppies will function as the old single sided 400k disks that the early Macs used).

I'm looking forward to getting this vintage-1984 Mac up and running. Any ideas how I can make the disks I need?

I was going the other way, archiving old 400/800k floppies. I used a SE running 6.0.8, and an external 400K drive (SE has OS on internal HD). Using Disk Copy, I created .IMG files, and moved them onto a SCSI HD. Then, using a Firewire to SCSI adapter, was able to move them onto my PB for archiving.

There may be a way to do it over LocalTalk, but you'd need LocalTalk to enet adapter.

Good luck! Sounds like fun. It was a trip back in time, just running 6.0.8. I have a Fat Mac also, and one of these days will get it going again.

 

[janstett]

Thanks for the help, guys... I'm hoping I can find original floppies or maybe call in a favor from a friend, hopefully he has the old system software I need... Not sure if he still has a 68k Mac in his collection though. I'll let you know how it goes.