4-MB Mac Plus and AppleCD 300i Plus

The Mac Plus does not have a built-in Driver for a CD. You need to add the driver to the System on the Hard drive or to a Disk Tools diskette.

When I did an upgrade to an LC520 to add a CD drive, it came with a CD and diskette containing CDROM extension 4.0.3 and a Bootable and Installable System 7.1 that included the CD driver.

CDROM Extension v5.4 is available from the Older Software Downloads page, but requires DiskCopy 6.1. If you do not already have it, DiskCopy 6.1.2 is available on the Older Software DownLoads page under the PowerBook 3400.

The Macintosh Plus is capable of running under System 7.5.3, with 4 MB of RAM, but it will not be fast. However, I understand that you want to test the limits (is even 7.5.5) here.

To begin with, is the System 7.5.3 CD in question some kind of generic disc, or is it intended for a certain (other) Mac? For your information, System 7.5.3 can also be downloaded from Apple (the North American English version here, see the text file for details).

The only way of connecting a CD-ROM drive would be externally. Now, the first question is whether the drive in question will operate properly on the Macintosh Plus SCSI bus. The second question is whether a system CD can be made bootable in that drive (with somewhat newer Macs, this is possible by holding down the four keys Command=Apple + Option=Alt + Shift + Delete=Backspace at startup). Otherwise, in order just to detect a CD in the CD-ROM drive, driver software is needed. For the existing System 6.0.8 the options regarding drivers appear to be limited (the Knubbelmac site mentions a German version of Apple's CD-ROM Setup software; I have not tested this).

It is going to be easier once System 7.5.3 (which BTW has drivers for Apple CD-ROM drives) is on a hard drive connected to the Macintosh Plus. In order to do this, you may want to as someone with a semi-old Mac (with a built-in floppy drive for both 800K and 1.44 MB disks) for help.

The 68000 FAQ here has a lot of useful information. See also, for example, here, here.

Sorry that I cannot be more specific at this point. You may have to carry out a few experiments first. Do not hesitate to post back.

Jan

Addendum

I see that Grant mentioned the addition of a CD-ROM driver to the hard drive or to a disk tools floppy. The Macintosh Plus can only handle 800K floppies. In order to modify a boot floppy and to work with any downloaded files, access to another Mac is essential.

BTW, the second last link was not correct. Should be:
here


Jan

The Mac Plus was invented long before CD drives became affordable enough to include them in a computer system. It does not have support in its ROM to boot from a CD. If attempting to boot and run from a CD to install on a blank drive, installation will be very difficult.

The CD-ROM driver used by the Operating System is an Extension to your existing Operating System which will allow your existing Operating System to see the CD reader and treat the CD reader as a true mass storage device. It does not replace anything. It still does not allow boot-up from the CD drive.

In the PC ways, I would normally install Windows CD and go town with reformatting. I guess I need to change my "perspective" on looking at the Mac system. Is such "completely fresh install" doable on MACs?

If you had a later Mac that contained the CD boot-up routine in ROM, the installation process you describe would be easily doable (although it would not be necessary). The Mac Operating System is much more robust than Windows ever was. Nothing is to be gained by blowing away the old and starting afresh. Given the predicament of not having a CD ROM boot-up routine in ROM and wanting to install from a CD, I recommend you discard the notion of "starting from a blank Hard Drive".

If you want to use a PC to do downloads, you must not do the final unpacking of binary files on the PC -- it must generally be done on a Mac. Unpacking on a PC discards portions of the files and renders them useless.

The floppies that help us get Macs going from scratch are called Disk Tools floppies. They contain a simplified OS and the formatter known as HD SC Setup -- a combination of FDISK and FORMAT equivalents.

Grant has already covered the important aspects. If I may add a few comments.

I order for me to access the CD-Rom, I need to install this "CD-ROM" driver on my exisitng SCSI hard drive?

Yes, or onto a bootable floppy.

To do so, am I to understand that I need somehow to download the driver first and then trasport it onto a 800k floppy, then install this ONTO / INTO the existing SCSI hard drive which currently is populated (co-exist) with System v 6.0.8?

Yes. System 6.0.8 is a good and fast operating system for the Macintosh Plus, but it is more difficult to find the appropriate driver software (and the installation per se may be slightly more complicated than with the System 7 variants).

I was hoping to completely re-format the hard drive with fresh install from the System 7.5.3 CD-ROM I purchased from E-Bay. Is this not possible?

Since we do not know exactly which CD it is (model specific?) it is hard to answer that. But you could, as Grant also said, use a Disk Tools floppy and the Apple HD SC Setup utility on it. However, at this stage (when the bootable hard disk is the only bootable disk at hand) it does not hurt to wait a little. Anyway, the Disk Tools floppy will have to be produced first, and that is a problem. You can not do this on a PC, since a built-in PC floppy drive is unable to handle the 800K Mac format, not even with special software for Mac disks. The same is true for external USB floppy drives, whether connected to a modern Mac or to a PC. The only way to create an 800K Disk Tools floppy is on an older Mac (look for a model with a floppy drive for both 800K and 1.44 MB).

If a completely fresh install to a System 7.5.3 is impossible, what recourse do I have in terms of upgrading the System from 6.0.8 to 7.5.3?

You could erase the hard disk, once a Disk Tools floppy is available, and then install System 7.5.3, This can be done from the CD (if a bootable floppy can be modified to hold a suitable CD-ROM driver) or from the nineteen files download (each file is too large for an 800K floppy and must thus be segmented or carried over via cable). As mentioned earlier, modifications et cetera require access to another Mac.

Does a version little bit earlier, like, 7.0.1 or something come with a CD-ROM driver extension on a "bootable" floppy (800k)so that I can first boot up with such floppy and then initiate reformat from the CD-ROM.

Not ready made with CD-ROM software. The System 7.0.1 disks at the Apple site are 1.44 MB. There are System 7 disks in the 800K format (in some language versions), but if I remember correctly, the Disk Tools floppy has a system file which is basically System 6. Any Disk Tools floppy will have to be modified. We will certainly find one way or another to create/modify a floppy, as soon as you have access to another Mac.

Also, I only have access to PC based machine connected to the internet. If I do download into my PC based system, is there a way to trasport such file onto a floppy disk on a PC system?

Due to the aforementioned absolute inability to handle the 800K Mac format, a PC is far from ideal in this very case. I would suggest that you look for another inexpensive (and functional) Mac from the period approx. 1991 to 1997 (perhaps an older PowerBook), e.g. through an online auction site.

A question in this context, though: Do you have a terminal emulator with file transfer capabilities for Mac on the hard disk (or possibly on 800K Mac floppies)? This could be a separate program or the communications section of e.g. ClarisWorks (I do not remember whether Microsoft Works for Macintosh contained a corresponding part). That would make transfers from other computers (including PCs) possible, or at least easier.

Jan