Re: Getting software onto a IIgs

[nathan@visi.com (Nathan Mates)]

In article <6ie78s$f59@yuggoth.ucsb.edu>,
Walter Polkosnik <walt@data.physics.ucsb.edu> wrote:
>Macs have the capability to write 3.5 ProDOS disks, I was hoping to use
>this to get some software on a IIgs that was donated to me. But it seems
>that only 1.4M format is available, and the IIgs has 800k drives. Any
>way around this? It seems that 800k format should be available.

   More information on this and many other subjects can be found in
the official csa2 FAQ at http://www.visi.com/~nathan/a2/faq/csa2.html
-- this question on getting Macs to deal with disks is in section 5.9,
and more detailed warnings about the very probable occurrance of the
cheapo 3.5" drives in modern macs not being able to reliably write
800K disks that Apple's older 3.5" drives can read. If that's the
case, you may have to switch to an older Mac from when Apple still
sold quality material, not the second-rate lemons they're trying to
push these days.

   Feed the mac an 800K disk (Double Sided, Double Density-- look for
some 720K PC disks or 800K disks), and it should let you write to an
800K disk. The optional hole up in the top left (mirroring the write
protect notch) is what Mac/PC drives look for when determining what
kind of disk-- a hole implies a 1.44MB disk. [GS drives are too old to
care, and try and read everything as 400/800K] The magnetic properties
of the disk media did change slightly, and there are varying reports
of success in using a disk as the wrong size.

Nathan Mates
--
<*> Nathan Mates http://www.visi.com/~nathan/      <*>
# What are the facts? Again and again and again-- what are the _facts_?
# Shun wishful thinking, avoid opinion, care not what the neighbors
# think-- what are the facts, and to how many decimal places? -R.A. Heinlein