Need help with creating boot disks for Mini vMac

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2009, October 2 - 1:50am

macmonster

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Joined: 2009 Jun 5

Need help with creating boot disks for Mini vMac

Hello,
I have a special problem and maybe someone can help me with that. I have a lot of games for the original Macintosh. The original Macintosh had no hard drive and the system folder is together with the game files on on 400k diskette. I wanted to upload some games to Macintoshgarden and tried to convert them to image/dsk files. I copied the files from the diskette to my old Macintosh Classic with Mac OS 7.0.1, Then I put the diskette in a USB floppy drive and copied them again to my MacBook with Mac OS X 10.6. I opened Basilisk II with Mac OS 9.0.4 and dragged the files from the Mac OS X shared folder to the Mac OS 9 desktop. So far so good.
I followed the instructions from Macintoshgarden and created with ShrinkWrap my image file of the folder. After that I opened the image file with DiskDub and saved my .dsk file. Finally I dragged the new .dsk file in my Mac OS X shared folder and quit out of Mac OS 9.
But my game .dsk file won't boot. I tried everything. But nothing. Mini vMac won't boot with my dsk game file. I always have to boot with another system disk and then I have to mount my newly created disk.
So what is my mistake? What do I need to do differently to get a boot disk for Mini vMac? For most of the games for the Macintosh I need to boot from the game disk. Is it possible that the system folder could have been changed while I copied from one location to another?
I even used the blank disks (.dsk files) mounted them in Mac OS 9 and copied the files to them but this also did not work. I double checked the original diskette with my Macintosh 128k and it worked perfectly.
Any idea what went wrong or what I need to do? Thank you!

Edit: Replaced 'xxx 7' by 'Mac OS 7' - IIGS User

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2009, October 2 - 2:54am

Euryale

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Joined: 2009 Jul 22

You mentioned that the system folder is together with the game
and you just transfer the files by changing the floppy 'cuz your original Mac has no hard drive,
by using a USB floppy drive and into Basilisk with Mas OS X as a host..
That's what I understood..

Once I did the same but instead of using real floppies, I use the Floppy disk Images that I use to boot mini vMac, (interchanging files from Basilisk/vMac, and it happened exactly the same problem
-mini vMac won't Boot-
I actually mentioned something similar about it here a MacGarden before on this thread..

http://macintoshgarden.org/forum/sample-issue-vmac-wstuffit-40-mouse-sta...
*Check the whole thread

Basilisk somehow Corrupts the disk images used to boot vMac

What I did is, I changed/replaced the System Folder of the floppy disk image I use to boot mini vMac
for a fresh one containing System 6.0.5

Someone asked me Why I still use the SoftMac emulator?

and That's EXACTLY for this, SoftMac DOES NOT corrupt Mini VMac disk Images/files
and I can transfer safely older B/W files I download from here, onto mini VMac,
but unfortunately this is not your solution cuz SoftMac is not made for Mac OS X.

I think you have to get a new fresh Disk image containing a new System folder

the User Watchmart has his Web site with Games already in disk images
that could help you in the future:

this is his site
http://emaculation.com/doku.php/system_6_hell

2009, October 2 - 3:25am

(Reply to #2) #3

macmonster

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Joined: 2009 Jun 5

Hello Euryale,
Thank you for your reply. I heard about SoftMac but I have no Windows and I am not going to use it. But if you think that Basilisk corrupts the system folder I am going to install ShrinkWrap on my Macintosh Classic and I can use Mac OS 7.0.1 as the host operating system. Maybe this is even better because I had too many steps and maybe it helps to create the image files on a "real vintage Mac".
I had the same idea with replacing the system folder and it worked. But some games have a special kind of Finder so it won't work for those.
Thank you also for the link. I did not know about this game collection. Nice stuff... I will try them out over the weekend.

Edit: Replaced 'xxx 7' by 'Mac OS 7' - IIGS User

2009, October 2 - 2:08pm

(Reply to #3) #4

IIGS_User

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Joined: 2009 Apr 8

But some games have a special kind of Finder so it won't work for those.

Some of such special boot disks use the name 'Finder' for the game itself, directly booting into it.

2009, October 2 - 3:44am

Euryale

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Joined: 2009 Jul 22

I think your problem confirms that Basilisk actually Corrupts vMac's disk Images,
(at least now, we Know that, so that's a plus)
Hopefully someone using Mac OS X as a host, could help you out.

2009, October 2 - 4:04am

Daxeria

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Joined: 2009 Apr 8

macmonster,

The best thing to do is install DiskDup on your Classic and use that to make disk images directly from the floppies. This will ensure that we have an exact, sector-by-sector copy of everything on the disk, even if it's invisible or copy-protected.

1. Open DiskDup on the Mac Classic
2. Go to the Options menu and choose Tolerate, then set the lower text box to "999"
3. Insert the disk to be copied
4. When it ejects the disk, click "Save Image" to save it
5. Repeat steps 3 and 4

(Step 2 makes sure that the copy will proceed even if bad sector protection is used. If that's the case, we might have to have a hacker work on the game before it can be played in mini-vMac.)

DiskDup images are very resilient, so don't worry about what they're called or how they're compressed - as long as you upload them, we'll be able to sort them out.

BTW, ShrinkWrap doesn't read 400K disks, so it will not work on Mac 128K games.

2009, October 2 - 4:31am

Euryale

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Joined: 2009 Jul 22

@Daxeria,
Can it be done without a Hard Drive in The Classic Mac?

2009, October 2 - 6:53am

Daxeria

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Joined: 2009 Apr 8

I'm pretty sure it can: DiskDup will just eject itself while you insert the disk to be copied and then the disk to save the image on. But macmonster referred to "installing ShrinkWrap on" his/her Classic, so it sounds like there is a working hard drive.

2009, October 2 - 7:28am

Euryale

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Joined: 2009 Jul 22

Allow me to quote Macmonster :

"...The original Macintosh had no hard drive and the system folder is together with the game files on on 400k diskette"

this tells me that He/she doesn't have a Hard drive installed,
That's why I was wondering if what you said can be done.

(by the way how do you guys here do the Quote things you use a lot here?)

2009, October 2 - 7:58am

#10

Daxeria

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Joined: 2009 Apr 8

"...The original Macintosh had no hard drive and the system folder is together with the game files on on 400k diskette"

"The original Macintosh" refers to the Macintosh 128K from 1984, whose games came on 400K boot disks as described. The Classic is a much later model, which macmonster is merely using to copy those disks.

(by the way how do you guys here do the Quote things you use a lot here?)

Put <blockquote> and </blockquote> around a paragraph.

2009, October 2 - 8:25am

#11

Euryale

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Joined: 2009 Jul 22

Ok, Thanks, and I thought the original Macintosh and the Classic Macintosh was the same computer,
D'oh!

2009, October 2 - 3:32pm

#12

Attila

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Joined: 2009 Apr 22

Mini vMac emulates a Plus, not a 128k or 512k; that might be the problem if the software is really, really early.