newbie with many questions...please help

["Brian Carpenter" <bcarpenter@barkingshins.com>]

I have had this Apple IIGS (ROM 01) in my closet now for over four years.
Last weekend I decided to pull it out and try to resurrect it.  It has no
hard drive, 3.5" and 5.25" drives (both seem to work great) and 512k RAM.
Well, as you might have guessed, I am having many problems...many of them
are not addressed in the FAQs that I have found.  Here are the two big ones:

1.  I only have System Disk ver. 1.1 and so I downloaded the file
Apple_II_System_Disk_3.2.sea.bin from Apple.com and am having some trouble
getting a usable disk made from this image.  I used a friend's Mac running
MacOS 8.5 and Disk Copy 6.3.3 to create the System Disk 3.2 but every time I
try to boot the IIGS with this disk I get "UNABLE TO LOAD PRODOS".  Have
tried several different disks that I know are good disks (double-density,
double-sided).    Don't know what else to try.  Any help would be
appreciated.

2.  I downloaded and attempted to use ShrinkIt 1.1, but every time I try to
run it the system reboots and then tells me that it was unable to run the
program.  It then asks me if I want to re-boot the machine, execute the
"Start" program or enter pathname of next program.  It also gives me an
error code = $110B.  As I understand the FAQs that I have read I am going to
need to get ShrinkIt to work to install any kind of term software and
transfer files from my Linux and win98 boxes via Null Modem cable.  Any help
on this would also be appreciated.

Ultimately I would like to get the null modem thing happening so that I can
download apps, games etc. and transfer them to ProDOS disks and run them.  I
realize that there are emulators out there for several platforms, but it
just isn't the same as sitting in front of a Woz Limited Edition...I'm sure
you understand.  Again, any assistance that anyone can provide would be
greatly appreciated.  Thank you.

-Brian Carpenter
bcarpenter@barkingshins.com