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| Author | Installing System 7 Without Floppy or CD (Read 45585 times) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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68k4life
4 MB  Posts: 5 System 7 Newcomer! 
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on: March 28, 2025, 05:59
Hi, I was upgrading my PowerBook 520C to Mac OS 8 (don't kill me lol), but I bumped the power adapter and it lost power in the middle of the update. It now gets stuck on the Welcome to Macintosh screen, unless I boot with extensions off. Then it (mostly) boots, but Finder doesn't load. I no longer have a way to write floppy disks, and I don't have a CD reader for it. My second-oldest Mac is my iBook G3/500 with OS 9 on it, so I can network from there (though I don't know how). What are my options? |
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Bolkonskij
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Administrator 1024 MB  Posts: 2023
Reply #1 on: March 28, 2025, 08:40
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Ouch. Sounds like a worst case scenario :-( Your floppy disk drive in the 520C is working? I'd look for a floppy disk to boot from which will then allow me to boot / recover from. If you're located in Central Europe, I may help you out and create a boot floppy on my IIci and mail it to you. If you're located in North America, there is a service called "Rescue My Classic Mac". He'll create / mail you a floppy for a small fee. https://rescuemyclassicmac.com/ (modern browser needed) Other options that come to mind is using a SCSI2SD type of device with the iBook. Install a compatible (to the 520C) OS on the card and then throw it into the PowerBook. But this kind of operation could be annoying on laptops for having to open up the cases. Anybody else with good suggestions? The net install route will need a working floppy drive as well ...
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68k4life
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4 MB Posts: 5 System 7 Newcomer!
Reply #2 on: March 28, 2025, 10:23
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I just got the FDD working (it wouldn't eject, removing the door fixed it), so I ordering a boot floppy from that site should be an option if it comes to that. I've already got a BlueSCSI on the way, but it won't arrive soon enough. I won't be home for a few weeks after this weekend, so I'm hoping to find a solution without needing anything I don't already have. Are there any ways to force Finder to load? I've got a full Mac OS 8 system folder located on the desktop, so if there's a way to boot from that then I'll be good. If I find my Latitude D630 then I'll be good. I've got an FDD in it and it's what I've used in the past for writing floppies. Otherwise I can try to write an 800k boot disk with my Macintosh SE (I've never had trouble using a 1.44 as an 800k disk), but both FDDs in my SE are finnicky.
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68kmac
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32 MB Posts: 51 System 7 Newcomer!
Reply #3 on: July 23, 2025, 09:23
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If someone still have an old DOS-PC with Win 3.x or 9x, you can use WinImage to write Mac HD-Floppy Images back to Real Disks. Well, after Writing the Disk the shown Directory is of course trash (for PC), but it works very well. Thats how i am creating System 7 Disks for my LC. There is also a Tool called HFDos (i should have it on a Backup CD), where you can copy files from/to Mac Diskimages.
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lauland
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512 MB Posts: 674 Symtes 7 Mewconer!
Reply #4 on: July 23, 2025, 22:04
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http://macintoshgarden.org/apps/hfvexplorer Will run on more modern windows Note, you can't create a bootable disk using that or any other non-mac tool because the folder needs to be "blessed", so just copying a system folder over won't work.
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cballero
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1024 MB Posts: 1176 System 7, today and forever
Reply #5 on: July 24, 2025, 01:12
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@68kMac: get out! You mean there's utilities for old Windows and DOS that do all that? Wow!  those would be really cool to have around to play with!  feel free to upload them somewhere, like the MG! 
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68kmac
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32 MB Posts: 51 System 7 Newcomer!
Reply #6 on: July 24, 2025, 09:10
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Yes, that's how I created disks for the LC back then with MS DOS 6.22 and my 486SX. The website for the tools seems to be dead. I'll have to search through my old backup CDs. After I copied System 7.1 to disk with WinImage, I took an image from it and copied new files onto it at the DOS command line, copied the disk back to a real one, etc. Later, I connected a SCSI CD drive to the PC's power supply and connected it to the LC (internally). Those were the days.
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cballero
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1024 MB Posts: 1176 System 7, today and forever
Reply #7 on: July 24, 2025, 09:17
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No worries, but that's why we share and share alike in these forums! I hope you find them in your backups! 
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