Re: PFS--->iMac or ibm or mac

[dempson@actrix.gen.nz (David Empson)]

David L. Stephens <daves@china.solve.net> wrote:

> A //c owner who has (cough) upgraded to an iMac

Bit of a major leap there.  :-)

> has asked me to copy his 5.25" PFS disks onto 3.5" 800k ProDos disks so he
> can transfer the files to the iMac. I do not know anything about  PFS data
> disks or iMacs or Macs for that matter.  Can someone tell me if PFS disks
> can be read on an iMac or mac, or direct me to a FAQ.  The superdrive on
> the iMac lists the formats of disks it will accept but the 800k ProDos was
> not one of them.

The iMac has no floppy drive, so he must have added an external drive.
As far as I know, the only options are:

- an Imation "SuperDisk", which supports its own 120MB format as well as
PC-compatible 720KB and 1.44MB formats.

- a standard floppy drive which supports 720K and 1.44MB disks.

There are no drives you can connect to an iMac which support Apple's
traditional 800K disk format, as used by earlier Macs and by the Apple
II.

You also cannot access Apple ][ 5.25" drives on an iMac.

Note that the "SuperDisk" must not be confused with a "SuperDrive".  The
latter is a completely different beast, namely Apple's intelligent 3.5"
drive which supports Mac 400KB and 800KB formats as well as
PC-compatible 720KB and 1.44MB formats.


Another problem is that the iMac has no serial ports, so you can't do a
null-modem serial cable connection between the IIc and iMac and do a
file transfer.  This is at least a possibility if you got a
USB-to-serial adaptor for the iMac, assuming these devices support
standard communications software.

An alternative would be to network the iMac to an older Mac which has
serial ports and a floppy drive which supports 800KB disks.

The questions left are:

1. How to get data onto an 800K disk.  You would need a UniDisk 3.5
connected to the IIc for this, and the IIc would need to have the right
firmware version to support it.  Might be tricky.

The serial cable and communications software route may be easier, but
there probably isn't any comms software on the IIc at present.  You
would need to get hold of this from somewhere, on disk.

2. How to get the PFS files into a format which is supported by
something else. 

What sort of PFS files are they?  I'm guessing it is PFS:File data
files.  The question then is which version of PFS:File?  It might be the
original Pascal version or the later ProDOS version.

In the case of the Pascal version, there is a freeware program called
something like "PFS.FILE.CONVERT" which reads PFS:File data files and
copies them onto a ProDOS disk as a plain text file, which (once
transferred) could be imported into a database on the iMac.

I've never dealt with the ProDOS version, so I don't know how accessible
its data files are.

I believe there is also a conversion program for PFS:Write data files,
but I haven't had anything to do with them.

-- 
David Empson
dempson@actrix.gen.nz
Snail mail: P.O. Box 27-103, Wellington, New Zealand