Re: Help: Write IIgs disks from Mac ?

["Mark Cummings" <NOTfigjams@primus.com.au>]

>... Now, I'm in nostalgia mode,
> and managed to get myself an Apple IIgs.  Territory I never explored
> before, and I find it interesting.

Nice to see you eventually got to the best in nostalgic computers.

> It's a ROM3 machine with a 1MB expansion board in it.  I have two 3.5"
> floppies, and two 5.25" drives.  I understand it can only support two at a
> time, but I thought it might be useful for various combinations of copying
> disks.

Well excuse me... a ROM-3 is a prised item among IIGS users :). The 1MB will
give you ~2MB total RAM, I think that's just enough to run System 6.0.1.
3-5MB total is nicer. Add a 4MB RAM card to your shopping list, or go the
whole hog and get yourself an 8 megger from Alltech.
You can run 2 of each drive size at the same time. 2x 3.5s and 2x 5.25s. the
latter 5.25s being connected to the end of the daisy chain. ie Apple IIGS -
3.5 - 3.5 - 5.25 - 5.25. Dont try to put the 5.25's first.

> But...   I have no system disks, and trying to create them has been
> interesting to say the least.

quite a difficult problem when starting out, easiest way is to buy your
first set of System disks from approved distributors like A2Central.com

> I have tried, using a PowerPC 6100 at work under MacOS 9.1, to make disks
> from the System disks from Apple and other sources I've found.  DiskCopy
> reports a successful disk creation, but when I try to boot I get a "UNABLE
> TO LOAD PRODOS" or similar error message.

I knew those power PCs were over rated ;) Have to take them off my wish list
!

> Now, I also tried making the same disk on my Classic at home using
> DiskCopy 4.2 and System 7.1, and it worked fine.  Strange...

Old _and_ reliable, that's what I like about the vintage Apples.

> I then loaded DiskCopy 4.2 on the PowerPC 6100 at work and tried again
> from the same image file, and it couldn't make a bootable disk.  I took a
> drive out of the Apple IIgs enclosure, put it into the 6100, and wrote the
> disk again.  Still no go.  I put the Mac drive into the IIgs enclosure,
> and it would boot the one I made on the Classic, but not anything made on
> the 6100.

OK down to reality mode... The newer (relatively speaking) Apples use a
different type of disk drive that is not as good at making Apple ][ 800K
disks. The older auto-inject in the Classic's, LCII etc. get better results.

> Does any of this ring a bell?   In order to write a useful image, do I
> have to be running older system software (7.1?)?  This is the only
> variable that seems to be making the difference, or is it in the hardware
> controller of the 6100?  These were all attempted on DS/DD disks, not HD
> disks.

I use a Quadra 605, system 7.6.1, with the newer type "swallow you fingers"
disk drives, and havn't had any problems with 800K ProDOS disks, but I have
heard that the older "slam the disk down" drives are better. I have used
both with equally good results, but maybe I got lucky. Perhaps cleaning your
disk drive heads may help.

> On a side note, I've found that the company (allelec?) still has HD units
> available, and I'll probably spend the money just to get it operational to
> put down with the Classic in my "What a marvel for their time" museum.
> Then again, it's not like their useless, and I'm sure before it get's
> "filed away" I'll have some great fun playing around with it all for at
> least a few months.

go for one of those Alltech Focus HDD's, they are they ducks nuts, and good
value for money. Mine's broken but that doesn't change my opinion. The good
thing about the Focus is you can go to about a 2GB mechanism, although
250-500MB is more than enough for 99% of GSers. I am about to get a new
500MB or 750MB 2.5" mechanism for mine, and thats more than I really need.

Mark