Re: Q: Can I read Macintosh or ProDOS disks on my PC?

[bpb@stimpy.us.itd.umich.edu (Bruce Burrell)]

Mitchell Spector (spec@vax2.concordia.ca) wrote:
> In article lazarus.long@adobe.com (Lazarus I. Long) writes...
> >
> >is it possible to read Mac or ProDOS disks in windows, NT or DOS?
> 
> 	Absolutely not in the case of 400K and 800K 3.5" floppies.
> The Apple II (ProDOS) and Macintosh (MFS/HFS) used a GCR encoding
> scheme for these lower density formats, which is a completey 
> incompatible with a standard PC floppy drive.

   Not -quite- "absolutely not" -- the Central Point Deluxe Options Board 
would allow reading GCR-encoded disks on DOS machines.  It still uses 
the standard PC floppy drive, but I'll grant that that the whole 
configuration isn't exactly standard.
 
> 	On the other hand, 1.44MB High Density 3.5" floppies are
> now standard on the Macintosh (every model shipped since 1988).
> Diskettes formatted as such use MFM encoding, which _is_ compatible
> with any PC drive. The 800K/GCR format is still common with Apple II
> systems, although in rare cases there are SuperDrive equipped 
> machines and they can create 1.44MB ProDOS disks. Both HFS and 
> ProDOS use MFM encoding on HD (High Density) 3.5 diskettes.
> 
>         I know there is a DOS application which can move files from
> HFS <-> MS-DOS (and probably one for Windows) but it's name slips me
> at the moment. If a similar program exists for ProDOS, the same can
> be accomplished (ProDOS <-> MS-DOS) using your PC.


   There are several on SIMTEL mirrors, e.g.,
ftp://ftp.coast.net/SimTel/msdos/dskutl ...  MacSee and Mac-ette. 
MAC-In-DOS is a commercial option. 

   The only way I know to get stuff from ProDOS 5.25" to anything else,
short of a modem, is to use a GS with COPYII utilities to move it to 3.5",
then use Apple File Exchange. 

   -BPB