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Mad With Macintosh

 

 

How can I get an OS on a Mac using only my PC?

 

 

It's reasonably common that someone gets an old used Mac and it has no operating system on it. Often, these people don't have

anything other than a PC to access the Internet. As long as your Mac is an SE FDHD or Mac IIx or higher, you can use these

directions compiled by Alex Harrington (aka "fastkeys") to get that Mac up and running. Due to irreconcilable physical differences

in the floppy drives of PCs and Macs, a Mac 128, 512, Plus, original SE, or un-upgraded II cannot use this procedure.

 

You'll need your PC (running Win 9x or NT), some error-free 1.4MB floppies, and a good deal of patience. Download the

following:

 

RAWRITE - actually part of Slackware Linux, but it can be used here too. It's free and a very small download (about 36K).

System 6.0.8 bootdisk image (900K). If your Mac needs System 7 or higher, get the 7.5 Network Access Disk and use that

to put a very basic OS on the Mac.

Aladdin Stuffit Expander for Windows - PC Version.

 

Once you have everything, install Stuffit Expander, unstuff the disk image to a new folder on your hard disk, and name the folder

something short, like "Mac." Copy the RAWRITE program into this same folder. Rename the image file to image.img. Start your

MS-DOS Prompt and type the following:

 

Type c: (or whatever your drive letter with the Mac OS image file is)

Press Return or Enter.

Type cd\path\to\where\you\unstuffed

Press Return or Enter. You should see a prompt something like this c:\mac>.

Type rawrite

This will execute the RAWRITE program. You should see this:

 

RaWrite 1.3 - Write disk file to raw floppy diskette

 

Enter source file name:

 

Type image.img

Press Return or Enter.

It will then ask which drive you wish to write. Insert a blank floppy in your floppy disk drive.

Type a: (If your floppy is a different letter, substitute that letter.)

Press Return or Enter.

Press Return or Enter again.

The disk should now be written. This may take some time. It can be quite noisy on some floppy drives but this is normal.

If all goes well, rawrite will finish and return you to the DOS prompt.

Close the DOS window.

Remove the floppy disk from the drive.

Place the new bootdisk in your Mac's floppy drive and power it up. The Mac should boot from the floppy.

Use the Apple HD SC utility on the boot disk to re-initialise your hard disk, if present.

When the formatting program completes, quit it and drag the contents of the floppy onto the hard disk.

Open the System Folder on the HDD and then close it again to "bless" it.

Go to: Special -> Restart

The boot disk should eject and the machine should restart from the HDD.

 




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