Re: newbie with many questions...please help

["Brian Carpenter" <bcarpenter@barkingshins.com>]

Any suggestions on where to get a 1MB or 4MB upgrade for a IIGS?  According
to their website, Sequential Systems is no longer shipping any product.  If
I find one, how much can I expect to pay for it?

-Brian Carpenter
bcarpenter@barkingshins.com


David Empson <dempson@actrix.gen.nz> wrote in message
1ej2whz.e82tdisybo1sN%dempson@actrix.gen.nz">news:1ej2whz.e82tdisybo1sN%dempson@actrix.gen.nz...
> Brian Carpenter <bcarpenter@barkingshins.com> wrote:
>
> > I have had this Apple IIGS (ROM 01) in my closet now for over four
years.
> > Last weekend I decided to pull it out and try to resurrect it.  It has
no
> > hard drive, 3.5" and 5.25" drives (both seem to work great) and 512k
RAM.
> > Well, as you might have guessed, I am having many problems...many of
them
> > are not addressed in the FAQs that I have found.  Here are the two big
ones:
> >
> > 1.  I only have System Disk ver. 1.1 and so I downloaded the file
> > Apple_II_System_Disk_3.2.sea.bin from Apple.com and am having some
trouble
> > getting a usable disk made from this image.  I used a friend's Mac
running
> > MacOS 8.5 and Disk Copy 6.3.3 to create the System Disk 3.2 but every
time I
> > try to boot the IIGS with this disk I get "UNABLE TO LOAD PRODOS".  Have
> > tried several different disks that I know are good disks
(double-density,
> > double-sided).    Don't know what else to try.  Any help would be
> > appreciated.
>
> The .sea actually contains a Disk Copy 4.2 disk image, so you might like
> to try that instead of Disk Copy 6.3.3 (which supports both its own and
> the older disk image formats).  I've heard reports that recent versions
> of Disk Copy aren't very good at creating ProDOS disks from images, but
> haven't tried doing this myself.
>
> By the way: "Apple II System Disk 3.2" is the last version of the 8-bit
> Apple II system disk.  It will work on the IIgs, but it only lets you
> run 8-bit software.
>
> As far as I can tell, it is an 800K disk image, and the Mac is quite
> happy to mount it as a ProDOS volume.  It is only about 25% full (the
> original disk was actually a 5.25").
>
> The disk image works fine with Bernie to the Rescue (it boots into a
> startup menu), so any problems must be to do with the process of
> creating a real floppy disk.
>
> Apart from the issue of the Disk Copy version, there might also be a
> problem with the reliability of 800K disk support with the late model
> 3.5" drive ("manual inject" type).  Using an older machine (mid to late
> model 68K) with an "auto inject" type of 3.5" drive should help with
> this.
>
> > 2.  I downloaded and attempted to use ShrinkIt 1.1, but every time I try
to
> > run it the system reboots and then tells me that it was unable to run
the
> > program.
>
> That is actually the IIgs native version of ShrinkIt, which is called
> ShrinkIt GS.  Apple appears to have shortened the name.
>
> ShrinkIt GS 1.1 requires System 5.0 or later (which uses the GS/OS
> operating system; you only have an early version of ProDOS-16).  You
> will need at least 1 MB of RAM to run System 5.0.
>
> > As I understand the FAQs that I have read I am going to need to get
> > ShrinkIt to work to install any kind of term software and transfer files
> > from my Linux and win98 boxes via Null Modem cable.  Any help on this
> > would also be appreciated.
>
> You can get the 8-bit version of ShrinkIt (about version 3.4, if my
> memory is correct), or even IIPlus.Unshrink (version 2.01, I think),
> both of which will run on the IIgs and will allow you to unshrink 8-bit
> software.  The IIgs native version is much nicer, and it is required if
> you want to unshrink 16-bit software that uses resource forks, but you
> won't be able to use any of this until you are running System 5.0 or
> later.
>
> Have a look for some of the other FTP sites for the Apple II and see if
> you can locate ShrinkIt or IIPlus.Unshrink on one of them.