Re: Transfering programs between Apple][GS and Amiga

[Greg Buchner <null@invalid.com>]

In article <3cf5baf5@news.svn.net>, "Paul Grammens" <grammens@svn.net> 
wrote:

> "Greg Buchner" <null@invalid.com> wrote
> >
> > I can read 800K floppies on my PM 7500 running Mac OS 9.1 (the highest
> > it will run).  Only caveats...file sharing has to be off for the disk to
> > mount (dates back to 8.1 I do believe) and I think Disk Copy will make
> > an image of the file even with file sharing on...it just might complain
> > about it a bit.
> 
> I should have clarified- the real issue is making bootable disks. Usually
> it's someone who has a IIgs with no software.  The objective is making
> bootable GS/OS installation disks from images downloaded from Apple.  People
> are always saying that it doesn't work with the manual-inject drives, or Mac
> OS whatever.
> I know it worked for me, some years ago when I picked up my first IIgs. I
> used a IIci running 7.5.2.
> 
> If you get a chance, maybe you could try making a bootable floppy from an
> image. Maybe the whole thing is related to the filesharing problem you
> mention.

OK, that I can remember...I have done this for someone else, made a 
bootable disk containing ShrinkIt-GS.  I could not get a reliable 
bootable image off of the manual inject drive on my PowerMac 7500, but I 
could get one off of the manual inject drive on my Quadra 650.  
Filesharing didn't matter when I was going straight from a disk image to 
floppy via Disk Copy, and nothing I changed would make a IIGS bootable 
image from the 7500.

I do believe I could take the 7500 down to 7.5.3 and still would have a 
problem making a bootable disk.  I think it all comes down to the fact 
that with the intro of the PowerMac, Apple went to the cheaper floppy 
drive that all the people who had to replace floppy drives were 
clamoring for and things changed.  With the drives in the PowerMac the 
drive speed is constant and the variable speed and amount of data per 
track is done via software.  The drive in my Q650 is still a variable 
speed drive and as such, it has no problems creating the 800K bootable 
disks.

For those wondering what I'm talking about in that previous paragraph, 
when Apple came out with the 3.5" floppy drive (400K in the original 
Mac), the drive changed the speed it ran at for the outer tracks on the 
disk so more data could fit onto the disk.  This 'feature' also made it 
into the later 800K disks for the Apple II and the Macs.  The original 
1.44MB drives also supported this feature for 800K, but didn't make use 
of it for the 1.44MB.  That remained at a constant speed to stay 
compatible with DOS 1.44MB disks.

Anybody need any further info that I might be able to come up with?

Greg B.