Re: Transfering programs between Apple][GS and Amiga

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

"Matthew Carpenter" <msc1983@mac.com> wrote
>
> Actually any Mac with a floppy drive and Mac OS 7.5 through Mac OS 9.1 can
> write and read ProDOS disks.  I use my PowerMac6100/60 to put things on
> floppies for use with my IIGS often.
>

People who have tried Macs with the later manual-inject drives have reported
problems, at least when creating disk images. At some point the Mac OS also
dropped support for 800K disks. I thought it was well before OS 9.1, but
I'll defer to anyone who really knows.

You are correct that even a Mac Plus or SE with the 800K drive can read and
write ProDos disks, but I know that System 7.0 and 7.1 can also read and
write ProDos disks with the proper software/extensions.

But this all gets pretty complicated. Maybe it's best to list the factors
involved in getting it to work:

1. The floppy drive.  800K drives and the auto-inject 1.44 drives definitely
work. The 400K drives in the old 128K and 512K Macs won't work. People have
reported problems with the later manual-inject 1.44 drives. Modern USB
floppies won't work

2. The version of Mac OS.  System 7.5-7.6 work for sure, just insert the
floppy. Pre 7.5 takes some extra software or extensions to work with ProDos.
At some point after 7.6 the Mac OS drops support for 800K disks.

3. The hardware.  Macs without floppy drives won't work.

-Paul