Re: How to read old Apple floppies on Mac?

["ralmin" <xbiber@bigpond.net.au>]

> Well, stretching the envelope here a little, since we're talking about a
> loooooooong time ago, but...
>
> 1) IIRC, pre-Mac Apples used DOS as their OS, ergo the floppies you have
> are DOS.

All computers use a DOS. Apple II, MacOS, Windows, Linux, All use a DOS.

DOS just means Disk Operating System in general. The PC's DOS (MS-DOS) and
the Apple's DOS are totally incompatible.

> 2) It follows that any machine with an appropriate size drive and DOS
> will be able to read the files...note that doesn't mean the machine in
> question will be able to open the files, just copy the bytes to its hard
> drive in a consistent fashion.

What you're talking about will not work.

It is possible to buy fairly rare cards for older PCs which allow you either
to attach an Apple II floppy drive or to read the disk in your existing
5.25" drive. This still doesn't make the file systems compatible, you need
some programs which can read the disk format too. It's more trouble than
it's worth trying to read the disk on a PC.

> 3) Once transferred, you should be able to copy/FTP/email the files to a
> Macintosh.
>
> There are some assumptions here, the first of which is that these files,
> whatever they are, contain information formatted in a way that modern
> applications will understand. You will have the best luck if they are
> straight text. If they are documents from some long lost Apple

> application, you will have difficulty opening them.

True, that would be the case no matter how you transfer the files.

Simon.