Mac Classic Question

Are the diskettes DD (800K) or HD (1.44 MB)?

A new (empty) Mac-formatted floppy should appear on the Desktop to begin with. Is that the case here, or do you get some kind of error message?

Do you mean 'initialise'? When one wishes to re-initialise an already Mac-formatted diskette, one would normally click on the floppy icon and then choose Erase Disk from the System menu. Is this what you tried? Or are you trying to 'install' something?

Is the Macintosh Classic otherwise working OK (starting up from the internal hard disk to the Desktop without errors)? Which system version is installed (see About This... under the Apple menu)?

Jan

Hi,

This happens from time to time. The pre-formatted disks can not be read properly from the beginning. Then the verification of the new formatting is not successful. One possible cause is that the diskettes in fact are bad.

If you have access to another older Mac with a floppy drive, you could check whether it is possible to reformat a floppy there, and after that try again with the Macintosh Classic.

You could even test reformatting one floppy in a PC, and then try again with the Classic. This test can also be done with a (pre-formatted) new PC floppy. The Classic should report that it is not a Macintosh disk and offer to initialise it.

Another possibility is that the read/write heads in the floppy drive need to be cleaned (a special cleaning disk can be used for this). Can other Mac floppies be read properly?

It can be wise to run the computer with Extensions off (hold down the Shift key while starting up) during tests.

The usual things like resetting the PRAM and rebuilding the Desktop should not change anything in a case like this.

http://support.apple.com/kb/ht1379

http://support.apple.com/kb/ht2344

BTW, I assume that this really is a Macintosh Classic (with a System 7 variant?), not just any other 'classic' Macintosh.

http://support.apple.com/kb/sp198

Jan

Hello again,

Have you tried the other methods above (reformatting PC floppies, etc)?

Sorry, I do not know much about software samplers. I have to assume that this is not for the Classic but for a modern Mac. Could the following web page example possibly be of interest to you?

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

Jan