Getting files off of Mac 512k floppy disks

Was your 512 a 512K or 512Ke? Here's the specs.

512K spec http://www.everymac.com/systems/apple/macclassic/stats/mac512k.html

512Ke spec http://www.everymac.com/systems/apple/macclassic/stats/mac512ke.html

The 512K has a 400K (single side) floppy drive. The 512Ke has a 800K (double side) floppy deive.

The current USB floppy readers read only 1440K floppies.

 Cheers, Tom

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.

If you are currently using broadband to access the Internet, the networking idea may no be so bad, especially if you have more than one computer sharing an Internet connection. That will mean you have already dealt with the Ethernet side of things, and would only need to add on AppleTalk/LocalTalk. That reduces the complexity a great deal.

If it is still operational, you can establish an AppleTalk/LocalTalk network (of which your 512K(e?) would be the only member). You will need to have the AppleShare extension in the System Folder. You will need a PhoneNet connector, a phone-jack-mounted terminating resistor, and a 4-conductor telephone lead-in cord. Your PhoneNet connector would be the older DB-9 version, I believe, not the later MiniDIN-8 version.

On a newer Mac running up to 10.3.9, you use the existing (or set up a new) Ethernet network, and turn on AppleTalk-over-Ethernet. You will need an Ethernet cable and a port on your Hub, Switch, or Router/Gateway, or exclusive use of the Ethernet jack on your later computer.

You need a protocol converter to connect the two networks. The two most available on the used market are the Farallon EtherMac iPrint LT, and the Asanté AsantéTalk. The Asanté product may still be available new for much more money. Almost all the references you will see are for connecting LocalTalk Printers. You can actually connect up to 8 LocalTalk devices, mixed older Macs and printers. I have bought the Farallon EtherMac iPrint LT with its power cube for well under $25.

This is an interesting reference document for OS 6, 7, 8, and 9:

Connecting LocalTalk to Ethernet networks

For Mac OS X 10.3, this article is very helpful:

OS 9 to Mac OS X 10.3 File Sharing

Really old mac to Mac OS X 10.4 is too much of a stretch. You can add third-party software (cheap, but not free) to OS 7.5.3 to connect them, but otherwise you need OS 9.

I do not think it would work.

Under Classic on my 10.3.9 PowerPC G4 Mac, I do have access to the FileSharing Control Panel, but the "Start File Sharing" portion of the pane is not displayed. There is no way to turn on OS 9 file sharing, and the underlying Mac OS X 10.4 FileSharing does not support or understand File Sharing over AppleTalk, only over TCP/IP.

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.

There is no fan in a 512K Mac.

It sounds like the video burned out. These machines are 20 years old now and I think tgat working ones would be rare. Mine boots but the video is a bit wonky. Of course, it has been outside in a garage for almost 10 years!

I'd go for a Option 5 - Beg, borrow, steal a mac with ethernet and a floppy drive running 8.0 or earlier - the PowerMac 5400/5500 should do nicely.

If you unplug the external drive, does it turn on?