Hmmm...

[Prince GFono]

I have a Mac Classic. It used to boot in System 6 (not sure which version)

For some reason, everything except a few games was erased for no apparent reason

Now it only boots from a floppy.

I tried installing System 1 (the only one i have on disk) and it still wont boot from the hard drive

[LoCash]

This is sounding like a Genius Bar question.... although there is no question mark ;)

Moving now...

[cudaboy_71]

i am *reallllly* rusty on my old mac stuff. so, bear with.

i believe part of your problem is that HFS wasnt introduced until system 5. before that the computers ran with the old MFS (mac file system) which was a linear file system --only supporting an 'imaginary' single layer of folders--no nesting.

in any case, you probably got a floppy formatted properly to boot system 1--or already had it from something eles. but, you'd have to reformat your HD to MFS to get it to boot system 1. and, while kinda cool to run system 1 for the hellovit...there's not a lot of practical things you can do. so, the best thing i'd suggest is to get system 6 (or later--the classic mac will run 7.5.3, i believe) running again.

as you know, all the oses up thru 7.5.3 are available from apple for free (as they all were in the good 'ol days) from them here (http://www.info.apple.com/support/oldersoftwarelist.html#system)

the trick is to get them on a bootable floppy. this really isnt too difficult...provided you truely have a 'classic mac' and not one of the many macs in the classic mac 'class'. IIRC, the 'real' classic mac had a 1.4mb floppy, which is the standard floppy apple shipped until it quit shipping them with the first imac. this is also the same format disk that is read by the currently shipping USB floppy drives. so, if you can locate one of these devices, and have access to an os9 bootable machine you should be able to format HFS (not HFS+/extended) and get the installers to diskette to install on your HFS harddrive.

OTOH, if you have an older classic mac class machine (Mac SE and earlier) then you have an 800k drive (or worse a 400k drive, in which case youre screwed). while a bit of a PITA, you can still use modern floppies and floppy drives to format as 800k. just put a piece of tape over the hole on the diskette (not the lock hole, the one on the other side). then your computer will recognize the disk as an 800k, not a 1.4mb.

hope this points you in the right direction. good luck.

[Prince GFono]

I found two different System 1 disks, but no system 6 disks.


Also, I have a G5, i wasn't planning on doing anything useful with the mac classic. Especially since my dad won't let me move it from the basement to my room. I'm just such a mac geek that I feel the need to screw around with computers we've had since almost the year i was born


I love the tortise and the hare in the control panel. System 6 and 7 seem so bland.

Although, much as I love Mac OS X, I can't say im thrilled with the lack of the happy mac

[Prince GFono]

difficult...provided you truely have a 'classic mac' and not one of the many macs in the classic mac 'class'. IIRC, the 'real' classic mac


Right on the front, it says "Macintosh Classic"

[cudaboy_71]

well, sounds like youre down to finding a floppy drive to create the installer disks. im not 100% sure a USB floppy would work...i'd hate to tell you it would, have you go buy one, then find out it wouldnt.

assuming it'd work, thats all you'd need. if the USB floppy doesnt work, then you need to find a pre-imac machine to create them. im racking my brain and that's the only way i can think of to get the os installed on the classic mac at this point.

[Luca]

A USB floppy drive should work, but it only works with 1.4 MB floppy disks. Low density floppy disks won't work with one.

You can't boot from System 1 because the lowest system a Classic can run from is 6.0.7. That version is available from Apple, you just need to figure out how to get those system disks onto floppies.

You probably have a dead hard drive. Those old hard drives just die eventually.

One cool thing, hold down command-option-X-O at startup and it should boot from a version of System 6 that is actually stored in the Classic's ROM! It'll let you at least use it.

[boris]

I've got a quadra I still use a lot. Can that make the 800k floppies this kid needs?

I'd do it for him.

Boris

[BlueRabbit]

A USB floppy drive should work, but it only works with 1.4 MB floppy disks. Low density floppy disks won't work with one.
The USB floppy should work with the Mac Classic, since the Classic shipped with a 1.4 MB drive (called a 'superdrive' back then, and introduced with the Mac SE in 1989). So, it shouldn't need anything special like putting tape over the hole or whatever. :)

This post made possible by Mactracker (http://www.mactracker.ca)

[Luca]

Yeah, I know you don't need 800k floppies. I'm just saying that a USB floppy won't work with them. There must be some confusion from boris's revival of this old thread. This Prince GFono guy hasn't visited here since early December so trying to help really won't do anything.