Problem installing System 7.0 to a Macintosh Classic

I can't give you a specific site for old fonts but browse the links below and you may find what you want. Good luck.

http://www.info.apple.com/support/oldersoftwarelist.html

http://oldermac.hardsdisk.net/oldmac.html#hard

http://oldermac.hardsdisk.net/oldmac.html#soft

http://rescuemyclassicmac.com/index.html

http://www.filetransit.com/category.php?id=290

http://www.pure-mac.com/

http://macfaq.org/software/macos.shtml#Q1.1.8

Under the first link provided by dalstott you will find a complete System 7.0.1 download. The individual 1.44 MB disk images are contained in a large self-mounting image (.smi). In order to handle the .smi (and create sector-copied floppies), another older (pre-1998) Macintosh computer would be needed (System 7.0.1 is said to be required to mount an smi file, but 7.1 or 7.5 may be a better choice if there is a problem).

http://download.info.apple.com/Apple_Support_Area/Apple_Software_Updates/English -North_American/Macintosh/System/Older_System/System_7.0.x/System_7.0.1.smi.bin

System 7.0.1 includes a Disk Tools disk. If the Macintosh Classic has an original Apple hard drive (not re-formatted by a third-party utility), you can start the computer from the Disk Tools, then launch Apple HD SC Setup, select the drive, and choose to initialise. Be sure to backup important files before this, if applicable.

If the Macintosh Classic has sufficient system resources available right now, it may also be possible to use it for certain floppy-disk creation steps. Please post back if you have any questions regarding details (or alternatives).

Which other computers do you have access to (old or new Mac, Windows PC)?

Jan

Hi,

>the diskette "fonts" has a problem with one font suitcase missing.I dont know how this is possible to original System 7 diskettes

Diskettes may lose information after a number of years. Therefore, it is always good to keep and renew backup copies (Disk Copy 4.2 can be used for this).

Is the Macintosh Classic working OK under the limited System 7.0 that is installed now, apart from the font problem? Is it possible to run programs (even if any resulting documents may be hard to read) and read menus?

BTW, how much RAM is installed?

>I have a NEC external usb disc drive it is probably for PC and doesnt recognised from my computers.

Is it a floppy drive? Many external USB floppy drives can be used for both PCs and Macs with 1.44 MB HD diskettes (720K PC-formatted DD diskettes will usually work as well, but not the special 800K Mac format). An iMac G3 must have at least Mac OS 8.6 and the USB Mass Storage Support 1.3.5 addition in order to properly detect a USB drive. Sometimes, a powered USB hub is needed.

http://support.apple.com/kb/DL1265

Which operating systems are your modern Macs running?

My idea is to somehow try to transfer some necessary or useful files to the Classic. If the Classic is working sufficiently OK, it could then be used to create and modify floppies. However, for the transfer we would need a working floppy drive connected to an Internet-capable computer to begin with. Do you have access to a Windows PC with an internal or external floppy drive?

Jan

Hello Stelios,

>My other iMac G3 has 9 Os but dosnt seem to recognize the external floppy drive.

You could perhaps check whether a special driver is available/needed for that model. It ought to work without, but you never know with USB. Does System Profiler detect the drive as such (do not expect anything on the Desktop until a floppy has been inserted)? If someone you know has a powered USB hub, it may also be worth testing (in order to guarantee the best possible power supply to the drive).

>If i can use this usb external drive i have all the system 7.0 downloaded and i will try to make floppies to install it from the begining.

It is usually better to create properly sector-copied floppies on the old Macintosh computer (with the built-in floppy drive). A USB floppy drive connected to the iMac G3 would then be used for plain transfers to the Classic. Keep any MacBinary (.bin) or BinHex (.hqx) encoding intact as long as possible, preferably until on the Classic, where StuffIt Expander (see below) can be used for the decoding.

A fresh System 7.0 can be downloaded from Apple, but System 7.0.1 may be a better choice (2 MB of RAM is the absolute minimum, I would recommend 4 MB)

http://download.info.apple.com/Apple_Support_Area/Apple_Software_Updates/English -North_American/Macintosh/System/Older_System/System_7.0.x/System_7.0.smi.bin

http://download.info.apple.com/Apple_Support_Area/Apple_Software_Updates/English -North_American/Macintosh/System/Older_System/System_7.0.x/System_7.0.1.smi.bin

http://support.apple.com/kb/TA28534

Both system software downloads are approx. 5 MB. If sector-copied floppies are to be made on the Classic (from the .smi contents), the large downloaded (.smi.bin) file will have to be segmented before the transfer on floppies. I do not know whether the shareware program SplitIt (2.0) will work under Mac OS 9, but you may want to test it. Once on the Classic, the file segments can be joined.

http://archive.info-mac.org/_Compress_&_Translate/

http://archive.info-mac.org/_Compress_&_Translate/00cmp-abstracts.txt

>i dont have access to a PC except the fact that i can go to some friend and prepere a diskette there.

You will need an appropriate version of StuffIt Expander for the decoding on the Classic. You could ask your PC friend for help here:

With access to a Windows PC (capable of running a DOS program) with a floppy drive, try the following. Go to http://rrzs42.uni-regensburg.de/Macintosh/files/macftp.html and download the MACDISK.EXE file. Then, prepare an empty 1.44 MB PC-formatted floppy via the FORMAT A: command under DOS or the "full" formatting option under Windows (do this even if the diskette is new and empty). Run the MACDISK.EXE (DOS) program on the PC. Follow the instructions on screen. The result will be a Mac-formatted (sic!) floppy complete with a ready-to-use StuffIt Expander 4.0.1 installer for Macintosh that can be used to install the utility on the Classic.

Now, you could transfer Disk Copy 4.2 (a .bin file) from the iMac G3 to the Classic (Disk Copy 4.2 is used to create exact sector-copied floppy disks from images, via the Make A Copy button).

http://download.info.apple.com/Apple_Support_Area/Apple_Software_Updates/English -North_American/Macintosh/Utilities/Disk_Copy/Disk_Copy_4.2.sea.bin

A Network Access floppy is useful (will work as a startup floppy, which can be used if/when one wants to mount .smi files). Create the floppy on the Classic using Disk Copy 4.2.

http://download.info.apple.com/Apple_Support_Area/Apple_Software_Updates/English -North_American/Macintosh/Utilities/Network_Access_Disk_7.5.sea.bin

Do not hesitate to post back for additional information.

Jan

In principle, that should work, providing that the individual files are disk images in a Disk Copy 4.2-style format. However, with a download from another source, apart from the licensing question, there is a risk that the files are not complete or faulty. It is always best to download system software from Apple.

With access to the PC, you could use a Windows utility for Mac disks (such as TransMac) for all plain program transfers to the Classic (on Mac-formatted 1.44 MB HD diskettes).

Jan

>I think i cant find System 7.0.1 from Apple source

Earlier, you could download a complete set of British English System 7.0.1 separate disk images from Apple. These disk images could be decoded and decompressed by StuffIt/Aladdin Expander for Windows (such as stuffit-expander-10-windows.uu below) on a PC, and then written to floppies using WinImage. BTW, decoding Mac files on a PC is an exception to a general rule (normally, keep the encoding until on an older Mac).

http://archive.info-mac.org/_Compress_&_Translate/

A similar procedure is possible with the Network Access Disk 7.5 floppy

(see also https://discussions.apple.com/thread/5546633?answerId=23801121022#23801121022).

Today, the System 7.0.1 download (only US version, link above) directly from Apple still contains separate disk images, but these are inside a large self-mounting image file. This means that another method (such as the one with segmenting software described earlier, where disk images are written to floppies on the Macintosh Classic) would be needed.

>at this time its very difficult to update my RAM to 4 MB

It is possible to run both System 7.0 and 7.0.1 with only 2 MB of RAM, but there is not going to be much memory left for applications.

Jan