Transferring Appleworks files from IIgs to Macintosh

Dust bunnies can be remedied. I recommend taking out the floppy drive of its enclosure & blowing it out thoroughly. Make sure to look at it from all possible angles so you don't miss something you can't see at a different vantage point. If you can find one I personally keep a special head cleaning floppy that comes with head cleaning fluid to clean out floppy drives on older Macs too. Department stores like Target may have them. Best Buys in big cities sometimes stock them too.

Hi taerchen!

The workhorse diskette of the Apple II was the 5.25 inch 160K floppy. The 3.5 floppy was introduced much later.

The only reason Mac OS 8 and later cannot read 400K diskettes was that Apple removed software support for it. The 400K was a double-density (2D) diskette written on only one side, using MFS--Macintosh File System. Apple IIgs diskettes were using ProDOS file system, so they should not collide with the removal of support for Mac MFS file format.

Keith,

You may enjoy reading a little background information on disk drives, starting with the following:

http://apple2history.org/history/ah05.html

http://www.mandrake.demon.co.uk/Apple/drives.html (best index w/ photos and drive specs.)

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Floppy_disk (the brutal full from the begining of time as we know it.)

Enjoy.

Jim

My cousin has many years of Appleworks files that
were authored on her Apple IIgs. Does anyone know how
to get these files into the Macintosh to use in
Appleworks on the Mac?

Is this even possible?

Yes it would be. But you must be using a Mac that supports ProDOS floppies. My Performa 6360 did and that was a 1996 Mac. As far as I know no USB floppy used on a New World Mac does. In that event you will need to use a NULL Modem to transfer the files from the IIgs to the Mac.

You can use Zterm on your Mac and similiar software on the Apple II.

Any help will be much appreciated.

I am told many of these files are IMPORTANT
RECORDS!!

TIA

Keith
IIgs is only capable of 800k Prodos(one hole,DSDD) disk. 1,44Mb are out of range therefore.
Good luck

That also means that the Mac you're reading such a floppy in must use a Sony SuperDrive. Which might explain why the Beige G3 refused to read the 800k formatted floppy. On the other hand some of the functionality of the Apple IIe emulation card's extensions may not be integrated into Mac OS 9. Some of the code may be considered to be too old or obsolete & Apple probably knew this when writing Mac OS 9 and its four updates. This might explain why a perfectly functional Beige G3 would refuse to read such a 800k ProDos formatted floppy.

Keith-

I am not sure I made my suggestion clearly. I was suggesting -- in order to see if the G3's drive was working properly -- that you do an experiment solely on the G3.

Format some diskettes on the G3 in ProDOS format, drag some Mac files with short-ish names on to those diskettes, then take a look at the files to see if they seemed to be present and near the right length. Then eject the diskettes and try re-inserting them and see if the diskettes can be recognized and mounted and the files could be seen.

This would tell you in a very coarse way whether the G3 drive could read the files it had written, and could cope with a ProDOS formatted diskette being inserted.

Keith,

Remember to have her format a disk or two on the IIGS side. The exact drive she is using on the IIGS will determine the level of success with any one disk.

For example, this website reference: http://www.mandrake.demon.co.uk/Apple/drives.html gives the following information:

"Apple FDHD External (G7287
The FDHD External uses a similar case to the 3.5" External but the 800K mechanism has been upgraded to a 1.4M mechanism. With appropriate software, it is capable of reading PC format disks in both the Mac and Apple IIgs.

It was designed for use with Macs with an FDHD disk controller (eg SE FDHD, SE/30, IIx, IIci). If used with a Mac that doesn't have an FDHD controller, it will operate as an 800K drive. It should not be used with the Mac 128 or 512K.

The FDHD can also be used with Apple IIs fitted with a "SuperDrive controller" or a suitable third party disk controller. If used with a IIgs that doesn't have a "SuperDrive controller", it will operate as an 800K drive."

So, The IIGS might read the 1.4 disk and it might not, depending on her drive. That is why details are so important. Much of the information posted here is general in nature. Trial and error is also a factor when any one drive is having issues. A disk formatted on her IIGS has a much greater chance of being read by dozens of Macs than a disk formatted in a Mac and then taken to the IIGS. It is worth doing both.

Good luck.

Jim

1)Maybe the ProDOS option is for use with the IIe-Card/LC. You can also partition a HD with a ProDOS-partition-my Mac has even tried to format a CD with ProDOS.
2)I think there is also a SuperDrive with 1,44 MB-both usable on Macs and specialized IIgs.
3)IF I remember correct the Profile 5MB for IIe was also formatted with ProDOS-System.
My 3,5" drive on IIgs can only read 800k disks I am sure.

There are some more possibilities to transfer files from IIgs.
Best solution would be to use an older MAC with both Ethernet- and LocalTalk-capabilty.They should be cheap. You can then connect IIgs with LocalTalk to the MAC(you can use a serial printer cable for that-cheap,too) and transfer files. The IIgs should have a RAM Card(4MB).
More expensive: You can buy a controller-card to connect IIgs to an external HD and transfer files and use this HD on a suitable Mac.
You also can buy a CompactFlash Card for the IIgs,you may look at:
http://dreher.net/?s=projects/CFforAppleII&c=projects/CFforAppleII/main.php

Addition to Superdrive:
http://www.whoopis.com/computer_repair/
Apple SuperDrive_HDI20.pdf

If you taped over the hole and were able to read the diskettes, your cousin is using the wrong kind of diskettes. The two types have different oxides, and you should be very skeptical that you have the correct data.

I think your fundamental question of how to convert Apple IIgs AppleWorks data to AppleWorks 6 for the Mac is a good one for the AppleWorks Forum, here:

http://discussions.apple.com/forum.jspa?forumID=1004

that forum has one thread that touches on the subject, but you may want to start a new topic:

Topic: How to Open MacDraw II File