Re: 3.5 SuperDrive

["Byron Q. Desnoyers Winmill" <byron@desnoyers.org>]

On Wed, 31 Dec 2003, ground.ecn AppleII Librarian wrote:
> If you are using a Windows or Linux box to access the internet, get Peter
> Watsons MS-tools package, or better yet, his MUG! nda to handle MSDOS
> formatted disks.  The MSDOS FST in sys 6.01 will handle MSDOS as
> read-only, but MUG! can handle MSDOS disks as read/write.
>
> These tips should get you started.  Good luck!

There are also ways to read HFS disks on Linux, OS/2, and Windows.
The two routes for Linux: use hfsutils, which provide a series of
commands for manipulating HFS disks; or use the kernel HFS support,
which tends to be compiled into Macintosh Linux kernels but should
be available as a kernel module on Intel versions of Linux.  I've
tried both routes on hard drives, and they are very reliable.
Unfortunately, I've never tried it on floppies (since my Mac doesn't
have one).

Apparently there is a ProDOS file system kernel module for Linux,
but it is not part of the official kernel.  (In short, good luck
getting it to work!)

I think an old version of hfsutils was ported to OS/2.  An IFS is
also available, which is the same idea as a Linux kernel module.
By that I mean you can access HFS disks just like any other disk.
I think I tried both routes on CDs and floppies and it worked
flawlessly, but this was a long time ago.

There is something akin to hfsutils for Window, only it has a GUI
attached to it.  I really don't know what it is called, because I
don't do Windows.

Of course, anything on Intel hardware requires the disk to be
formatted as a 1.44 MB floppy -- unless you have special hardware.

The situation on the Macintosh is somewhat different.  You can
access both HFS and ProDOS formatted floppies.  There are problems
with ProDOS disks under Mac OS 9, but it is fine under System 7.x
and hopefully the same can be said for 8.x.  The problem is with
the OS, and not the age of the machine.  (Of course, certain machines
will only run Mac OS 9 or Mac OS X -- but they won't have built in
floppy drives anyway.)

Did I forget anything (besides the Amiga ;-)?

Byron.