Urgent answer needed, 800kb floppy disks in 1.44mb floppy drive?

[Cyclone740]

Hi all, I am not sure where this is meant to go so I will also be adding it into another section, but I am needing to know very soon whether or not a powerbook 170 floppy disk drive, will be able to read and install software from 800 kb floppy diskettes? I have found a listing on ebay for some office programs and maybe even some os related floppy disks, but I need to know if the 800 kb one in the lot will work with my PB170 or not. I and almost certian that the 1.44 mb floppy diskettes will work in the drive.



Please any help would be greatly appreciated, as I need to know this soon. And before any goes suggesting that I go and try researching it, why do you think I am on here asking for help?! I have spent all morning (about 3 straight hours) scouring the internet for this information and found nothing. I trust me when I say that I wouldn't be coming here and annoying you all with this question if I hadn't already thoroughly tried to find the answer myself.

P.s this is the same powerbook that I am currently restoring and I am just needing some software and os diskettes. See my other threads for progress regarding the hardware and os search situations.

 

[phunguss]

This is pretty thorough: Working with Macintosh Floppy Disks in the New Millennium

 

[Cyclone740]

This is pretty thorough: Working with Macintosh Floppy Disks in the New Millennium

Thank you for this, I just finished reading the whole thing, and it was really really useful, but sadly I was unable to find something that either 100% confirmed of denied whether or not the powerbook 170 floppy drive will be able to take 800 kb diskettes. Can you maybe tell me quickly if you already know what the answer is? I am a bit pressed for time. So sorry if this is coming across as me being rude.

 

[davewongillies]

 

[Cyclone740]

View attachment 16301

Thank you for this, this matrix is quite useful. But I am a little bit confused still about whether or not I can use 800K diskettes in a 1.44MB super drive in a powerbook 170. Sorry for asking this again, I am very new to all this, and I am trying to get a simple and straight forward answer to this question.

I would be most greatful for a yes or no type of answer, but if there is more complications than that, can you at least start off by saying yes but or no but?

 

[Cyclone740]

Thank you for this, this matrix is quite useful. But I am a little bit confused still about whether or not I can use 800K diskettes in a 1.44MB super drive in a powerbook 170. Sorry for asking this again, I am very new to all this, and I am trying to get a simple and straight forward answer to this question.

I would be most greatful for a yes or no type of answer, but if there is more complications than that, can you at least start off by saying yes but or no but?

I just found the answer in one of my other posts.

The answer is yes, the powerbook 170 floppy disk drive is 100% compatible with both 1.44MB diskettes, and 800K diskettes.

 

[JDW]

I just found the answer in one of my other posts.

The answer is yes, the powerbook 170 floppy disk drive is 100% compatible with both 1.44MB diskettes, and 800K diskettes.

Which means it is compatible with 400K disks too, but whether or not it requires an HFS formatted disk is something I do not know. The oldest 400K disks were MFS (Macintosh File System). Keep in mind it is possible to format 800K disks as MFS too. So if your drive cannot read any MFS disks, then some 800K disks might be included in that.

 

[Cyclone740]

Which means it is compatible with 400K disks too, but whether or not it requires an HFS formatted disk is something I do not know. The oldest 400K disks were MFS (Macintosh File System). Keep in mind it is possible to format 800K disks as MFS too. So if your drive cannot read any MFS disks, then some 800K disks might be included in that.

Oh okay, that makes sense. Thank you for clearing that but of confusing information up for me.

 

[Cyclone740]

Hey I just came across this listing for some system 7.0.1 install floppy diskettes, but I noticed that in the last two pictures the sticker says macintosh classic. Will these still work on my powerbook 170? Or are they special to the mac classic systems?

 

[Yoda]

Not sure about the specific set of floppies you're looking at, but the pack I have (and the 7.0.1 installer set on my FloppyEMU is the same too) boot up to an install dialog where you pick either an overall 'all systems' installation of 7.0.1 or one for a specific system. There is also an option in that installer to select from a 'full' or 'minimum' installation, or to select individual components.

I have used the same set of floppies to install on a number of Macs of the same era - I think that has included a PB 170.

While I am not certain, I think 7.0.1 pre-dated machine-specific install disk sets.

 

[Cyclone740]

Not sure about the specific set of floppies you're looking at, but the pack I have (and the 7.0.1 installer set on my FloppyEMU is the same too) boot up to an install dialog where you pick either an overall 'all systems' installation of 7.0.1 or one for a specific system. There is also an option in that installer to select from a 'full' or 'minimum' installation, or to select individual components.

I have used the same set of floppies to install on a number of Macs of the same era - I think that has included a PB 170.

While I am not certain, I think 7.0.1 pre-dated machine-specific install disk sets.

Thank you so much for the fast reply this is really helpful information, I can now look at buying them. Thank you truely.

 

[Yoda]

Thank you so much for the fast reply this is really helpful information, I can now look at buying them. Thank you truely.

Pretty sure that amongst us all here, we'd be able to rustle up good duplicates of a suitable set of MacOS floppies for the 170, even if those don't turn out to be suitable. The full 7.1 installer pack I have is only 11 1.4Mb floppies, and that includes the 2 'update 3.0' disks.

Of course if you have a suitable system capable of writing Mac 1.4 floppies, you can make your own set from the download at https://macintoshgarden.org/apps/macintosh-os-701. The second DL there gives you a 6-disk set of images. Macintosh Garden is where I got my 7.1 install pack from, and saved them to actual floppies on a Performa 630.

 

[Cyclone740]

Pretty sure that amongst us all here, we'd be able to rustle up good duplicates of a suitable set of MacOS floppies for the 170, even if those don't turn out to be suitable. The full 7.1 installer pack I have is only 11 1.4Mb floppies, and that includes the 2 'update 3.0' disks.

Of course if you have a suitable system capable of writing Mac 1.4 floppies, you can make your own set from the download at https://macintoshgarden.org/apps/macintosh-os-701. The second DL there gives you a 6-disk set of images. Macintosh Garden is where I got my 7.1 install pack from, and saved them to actual floppies on a Performa 630.

Wow thank you so much, I would love to give making some macintosh compatible 1.44mb floppy diskettes. I will see if I can make some for the other software diskettes first, but if these diskettes don't work, I will look at making some of my own with your help and the help of maybe some other members, and also what else I can find from the internet.


Sidenote, I might need to create some driver and software install floppy disks for an apple printer. I can't be certian yet but if things work out then I may need to make my own floppy diskettes to use the device. They would be for a portable printer, not one of the large ones like the one in the link below.

Two Vintage Retro Apple LaserWriter II Printers & Modems - Desktops in Balmain NSW | Gumtree Australia

Pair of vintage Apple printers Museum pieces Were working approx 10 years ago Comes with pair of Ethernet modems which were used to connect them to the network Would like them to go to someone who will restore then Good condition, some yellowing of plastic but all even with no dark patches...

www.gumtree.com.au

I am also not sure if they would be worth trying to get my hands on. But I have heard that they are very good, but still quick rare now and it can be hard to find the software and drivers and replacement consumables such as toner. Am I correct?

The thing is, I am really trying to get into the vintage mac scene and maybe even make a system 7 powerbook 170 my daily driver for 1 week. But I understand that I would have a long way to go before that, like fixing the broken installation of my powerbook 170.

BTW, does anyone know of a way to get email working on a system 7 powerbook?

 

[Yoda]

Driver software for many printers is still out there, and macintoshgarden.org along with the Macintosh Repository (https://www.macintoshrepository.org/) are excellent sources for a lot of software and driver resources. For a PB 170, you'll typically need an appropriate connecting cable of course.

With vintage printers, you do have to be cautious about available supplies (ribbons, ink or toner cartridges) and be aware that there can be mechanical problems due to aging rollers or paper feeds.

Personally, I have found making floppy disks for installers easy because I have the Performa 630 with a floppy drive, and an ethernet card, so as long as I can get the disk images onto it, it's as simple as feeding blank disks, formatting them as Mac 1.44Mb and then drag-and-drop the contents, but there are other ways, I think. There are other solutions too, such as an external BlueSCSI device, which uses a microSD card as a hard drive replacement, and can be used almost like a USB 'thumb' drive. One of these can actually be used as a boot device if the internal HD fails, but can also be used for a large number of installers. That's probably getting ahead of where you're at though!

It's useful to have a method of creating usable disks though, because it means you'll have the means to not only install software and the system that way, but also fix problems if something goes wrong. But you can end up needing quite a few disks!

Pretty sure you won't be able to use a 170 as a daily driver, because even with some necessary additions to get it on the internet, data and security protocols have changed and proliferated since most things System 7 could really do. In saying that, my 170 is in use almost every day as a 'distraction free' work environment for projects and writing, and it's truly excellent for that.

Vintage Macs are quite a lot of fun, not least because you can discover quite easily just how amazingly capable they actually were back then. My 170 (and Mac Classic II) have the exact same software on them which I used back in the early/mid 90s for the design and production of magazine layouts, and they still get used for marketing layouts and newsletters, as well as typesetting adverts and flyers - the software tools there were so much better focussed on the user's specific purpose than much of what we have available today, which is far more sophisticated, but then also far too scatter-gun for my own tastes.