🚀 go-pugleaf

Rebecca and Rowland <real-address-in-sig@flur.bltigibbet> wrote 
> A working boot disc.  System 6.0.8 is what you need, but how to get it
> is another matter - do you have any sort of physical access to a working
> Mac?
> 
> ftp://ftp.apple.com/dts/mac/sys.soft/                    Sys 5.0 - 7.0.1
> 
> is a pointer to downloadable disc images of 6.0.8 - they're in BinHex
> encoding (hqx) and need to be decoded to be of any direct use.  Decoding
> them on a PC will lose the resource fork which is a Bad Thing.
>

Ok, I can get access to a 'Power Mac' from the marketing department at
work,
but this doesn't have internet access, whereas I do from my PC.

Can I download the file to the PC, save it to floppies (PC format which
apparently
the Power Mac can read OK) and get that to decode it without the pesky PC
corrupting it?

And what does the Mac need to decode the file?  It's equivalent of 'Winzip'
I suppose (which the PC versions says can decode HQX). 

> It certainly is - but note that System 6.0.8 (the most recent OS you can
> run off floppies) is really rather old so not a lot of modern software
> will run - quite a lot of current(ish) software is too big to fit on
> floppies even if it *can* run under System 6.

So long as it can accept words and save them I'm not fussed about the age -
I presume there's an equivalent of 'wordpad' or 'write' on the Mac.

> ftp://ftp.iele.polsl.gliwice.pl/pub/software/emulators/emul8.bydnet.com.
> pl/Macintosh/HFSexplorer111.zip

Downloading as soon as I finish typing this.
> 
> Anyway, check the case: if it says `FDHD' or `SuperDrive' anywhere on
> it, you've got a Mac with 1.4M floppies.  The 800K Mac format uses
> variable rotational speed, but the 1.4MB format doesn't.

Nope the label say dual 800k floppies.  

I've also had a look inside once I made a tool to get to the top two screws
(they're in a deep hole!) and cleaned out the dust.  Low and behold the
main PCB is dated 1987, as is the date code on the case.  Anyway, it has
four 30pin SIMMs - the memory on the label at the back says it's 1Mb, so I
presume 4x256k=1meg.

I happen to have four unused non-parity 70ns 1meg SIMMS out of an old 386
PC - will they go in OK to upgrade it?

And out of interest I note from nosing on the web that you can add a
hard-drive to it.  SCSI I presume.  There is a large shrouded IDC type
connector on the PCB as well - could it plug into there?  Or is it
external?

> Does that HP have a serial port?  

Nope, so I'll have to look out for the necessary.  I shall worry about
printing from it once I've got it going.

Thanks for all the help so far.