Re: Apple II 3.5" disks transfer to PC

["Paul Grammens" <grammens@svn.net>]

<art@unknownrealm.org> wrote in message
BoydnWOupp-eo7-jXTWcpQ@giganews.com">news:BoydnWOupp-eo7-jXTWcpQ@giganews.com...
> I have a box of Apple II 3.5" disks (mostly containing SHK archives) I'd
> like to transfer to a PC so I can burn them to a CD-ROM.  I have a Mac
> Classic II (system 7 on it) with an external Superdrive, and a SCSI
> Harddrive (which MacOS doesn't seem to recognize).  What would be the
> easiest way to xfer these things over to my PC?  I thought about possibly
> using the SCSI hard drive as an intermediary (ie, copy all of the SHK
> archives to the HD while its connected to the MAC and them connect up the
HD
> to a PC and use Basilisk or some other such tool to read from it).
> Transfering these files via a null modem cable is just simply not
> acceptable.  There are 100+ 3.5" disks, each having possibly multiple
files
> and a null modem cable approach would be a major pain in the ass.  I don't
> own an Apple II anymore, and mostly just want to archive these files (plus
> possibly make some of the stuff available via the web for others).
>
> Any thoughts / suggestions?
>
>

I think what I'd do in your case is make disk images.  I think you'll have
difficulty using the Classic II and System 7. There is an extension that
will allow System 7 to automatically read/write ProDos disks. I think it
comes with the IIe card software package. Or upgrade to System 7.5x. (ree
download from Apple) Without that it's going to be a pain to work with
ProDos disks, you'll have to use Apple File Exchange (?) to work with
non-Mac disks.  You don't want to fork the files or mess up the file types,
so I suggest making disk images.

Ideally you'd have a faster Mac with a SuperDrive floppy and a CD burner
(Classic II is too slow, afaik, Power Macs have the speed but lack the
SuperDrive floppy).   Using Apple DiskCopy, make images as fast as you can
feed in the floppies, store them on the hard disk. Then burn the lot to a
CD.

A Color Classic with the Mystic upgrade would be perfect- 33 Mhz 68040 cpu
is fast enough to burn CD's, it has a SuperDrive floppy and runs Mac OS
7.5.5.

Any way you do this it's going to be tedious. 100 floppies is a lot of
waiting. Maybe put it next to your chair so you can watch TV and insert
floppies at the same time.

The null-modem thing can also work with the Classic II. Add the ProDos
extension, make the disk images using DiskCopy. Send the files in batches
using a Mac Zmodem comm program like Zterm, and Hyperterminal on the PC. Set
it up before you go to bed, let it run overnight transferring the files to
your PC.  Then burn to CD on your PC.   BTW, you can use your PC while this
process is going on in the background.  I've even been downloading from the
internet while simultaneously transferring files from my PC to my Mac.

It's going to take you several days just to read 100 floppies, so doing the
file transfers each night is no big deal.
-Paul