I have many floppy disks with files probably created on an old Mac. When I put these disks into my TEAC external floppy disk drive connected to either an iMac G4 or a Mac mini, it makes weird noises and nothing happens. Is this the floppy drive's fault?
You need more than just a floppy disk drive to read a Mac floppy disk--a special. An internal floppy drive, and the PC's operating system will not be negatively.
Where To Get A System Floppy For Mac
Some of the disks work, and they seem to be high density disks. But when I format a high density disk on the 512k, copy the files there and put it in the TEAC drive, nothing happens.
I have tried using an iMac G4, G5, Mac mini and many PCs to access the files. Could I possibly: -Get a USB adapter for the external floppy drive from the Mac 512k -Network the Mac 512k using LocalTalk -Connect the Mac 512k using dial-up and e-mail the files -Find some kind of way to print the files Which of these would be easiest to save the files?
The early Apple Macs used a drive made by Sony that varied the drive speed on the inner/outer tracks, and managed to squeeze 400K on a single-sided, or 800K on a double-sided diskette 2D. No other manufacturer followed their lead, except when making drives specifically for the Mac. MS-DOS diskettes do not change speed and can hold only 720K on a double-sided diskette.
MS-DOS drives and USB diskette drives sold today cannot read the 400K or 800K format. Option 1 is out - There are no USB adapters for the 17-pin external Floppy that shipped with a Mac 512K. The 400K disks use one side of diskette 2D disks to support a very simple flat file system called Macintosh File System (MFS). Support for MFS was removed from the System Software at System 8 to make room for HFS+ Extended format on larger Hard Drives. 800K diskettes use the same diskette 2D, but use both sides and use Hierarchical File System (HFS) which allows folders and nested folders.
They can be read by any Mac that shipped with a Built-in diskette drive which is still in proper working order. That takes you up to, but not beyond, the beige G3. Since the beige G3 shipped only with Mac OS 8 and later, it cannot read 400K MFS diskettes, if that is what you have.
So you could get a cheap older Mac and read the diskettes with that, then throw it away or sell it again when done. Your Mac 512K can share a later Mac's files, and mount them on its desktop. You can then drag and drop whatever you please into the shared Mac's folders. The later Mac (whose files are being shared) is acting as a File Server.
To act as a File Server using Personal File Sharing, a Mac must be running System 7 or 7.1 or later (I am not certain which, but we can figure that out if you need it). To share files with an older Mac, the Mac doing the Sharing using AppleTalk/Localtalk must be running System 7 or 7.1 to Mac OS X 10.3.9, not Mac OS X 10.4 and later. 1) Get a USB adapter for the external floppy drive from the Mac 512k Not a solution. There are no USB adapters for the 19-pin external Floppy that shipped on these and some other Macs. 2) Network the Mac 512k using LocalTalk This solution requires a Mac that still has a high-speed serial port or two.
These also include Macs up to and including the beige G3, but not later. There are protocol converters to translate AppleTalk-over-Ethernet used by more modern Macs to AppleTalk/LocalTalk used on older Macs. The complexity is daunting for a one-off transfer, unless you have or intend to have a LaserWriter, or intend to continue File Sharing.
3) Connect the Mac 512k using dial-up and e-mail the files. Modern email has System Requirements that will seem mighty steep to a 512K. Perhaps someone else can think of an email sender that would work here, but I am drawing a blank. Claris emailer 1.1 seems to make references to MacTCP (or Open Transport which was rock-solid stable at system 7.5.3) 4) Find some kind of way to print the files Chooser extension Drivers for ImageWriter, AppleTalk ImageWriter, and several versions of the LaserWriter were available early on, and included with the system software. Microsoft gave away MacDaisyPrint to allow Word 3.2 and Word 5 to print on Daisy Wheel printers, but I haven't seen a daisy wheel printer in a long time.
Other vendors may have issued drivers for their Serial printers for Macs of that era, but most of them will not let you download them today. HP Deskjet was one of the early LocalTalk printers. The folks at the Apple Store are trained in the latest Mac Hardware and Systems Apple is currently offering for sale. They do not get much training on older Macs, so their knowledge of older Macs is very spotty. The serial connections on an original Mac or 512K or 512KE use a DB-9 connector.
Printer cables and Modem cables and PhoneNet connector for those Macs use the DB-9 connector. The Mac Plus is the first unit to offer the round MiniDIN-8 connector. The DB-19 is only for a double-density external Mac Floppy, and your Mac cannot use a High-density external Floppy capable of reading and writing 1.4 MB floppies. If you have a SCSI connector on your Mac, it would have to have 25 pins. Ok, so I don't know if this still belongs here, but I think my Mac 512k died. It just stopped working and gave off a burning smell. It was on for a long time, and the fan may have stopped working.
When I tried to turn it on initially, it would make some squeaking sounds but wouldn't start up. Just now though, I heard the startup sound along with the squeaking noises and it seemed to be doing something. Then it made some clicking noises and started smelling again. The screen stayed blank, but the red light on the external floppy drive went on when I put in a disk. Can I do something to save it or should I start looking for that pre-beige G3 Mac? Apple Footer. This site contains user submitted content, comments and opinions and is for informational purposes only.
Where To Get A System Floppy For Machine
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