Macintosh System Software

Published February 1, 2024

Apple’s Developer CD Series 1989 to 2009

Starting in 1989, following the release of Apple’s first CD-ROM drive in 1988 (the AppleCD SC), Apple began distributing software updates and technical information about it’s products on CD. In addition to downloading these for my own use, I am including links to online sources to make it easier for others to find these CDs and I’ve included links to the relevant Apple Direct/Directions articles that describe the contents of each CD. I have found these CDs incredibly useful for learning about and setting up these old systems.

SCSI2SD: FAT32 32GB easy edit version

A new, and I think a much easier way to use your SCSI2SD with your Macintosh system. This image file can be used to setup your 32GB card with a FAT32 formatted partition that contains a set of volume files that you can easily mount and edit using Basilisk II, Mini vMac, or some other tool. I created this image file after wondering if I could create something for my SCSI2SD that would be as easy to use as my MacSD. Turns out I could, and then I found out that Andrew over on the MLA beat me to it. This is my version of what he created, his version is formatted exFAT, I decided to use FAT32 and I added more volume files and support for an optional second drive (with 4GB volumes).

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Published March 3, 2023

CD-ROM: Using a Bootable CD-ROM to setup your 68k Macintosh

A few years ago I created a bootable System 7.5.5 CD-ROM image file by editing the contents of a bootable System 7 CD-ROM I have. I discovered that I could change the contents system folder to 7.5.5 and the disk would still boot. This entry describes how you can use my CD-ROM image file and edit it’s contents.

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Published January 15, 2021

System 7.1.3: Editing my Macintosh 68k bootable images to add the full version of System 7.1.3 (System 7.1 + System update 3.0)

In my previous blog entries I mentioned that I could not include the full version of System 7.1.3 (System 7.1 + System Update 3.0) with with my drive images due to copyright restrictions, but you can install the full version of the North American version of 7.1 up to 7.1.3 using Apple’s Legacy Software Recovery CD.

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Published January 10, 2021

System 7.0.1: Editing my Macintosh 68k bootable images to add the full version of System 7.0.1

In my previous blog entries I mentioned that I could not include the full version of System 7.0.1 with my drive images due to copyright restrictions, but you can install the full version of the North American version of 7.0.1 using Apple’s Legacy Software Recovery CD.

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Published May 10, 2020

System 6.0.8: New images for Macintosh System 6.0.8

As part of a general cleanup and as something to do on rainy days, I’ve decided to make a version 2 of the drive and…

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Published September 2, 2018

System 7.5.5: Editing my Macintosh 68k bootable images to add the full version of System 7.5.5

In my previous blog entries I mentioned that I could not include the full version of System 7.5.5 with my drive images due to copyright restrictions, but you can install the full version of the North American version of 7.5.5 using Apple’s Legacy Software Recovery CD, if you want to install one of the other versions you need to use either disk images from ~~Apple’s FTP site~~ the Internet Archive, or from Apple’s Developer CDs.

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Published September 2, 2018

System 6.0.8: Editing my Macintosh 68k bootable images to add the full version of System 6.0.8

In my previous blog entries I mentioned that I could not include the full version of System 7.5.5 or System 6.0.8 with my drive images due to copyright restrictions, but you could download the full versions from Apple’s FTP site…. that option is gone, and is now replaced with the files being available from the Internet Archive. So if you are using one of the drive image files I created with minimum versions of System 6.0.8 and System 7.5.5 this guide will tell you how to update to the full version of 6.0.8.

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Published January 6, 2018

SCSI2SD: Using a SCSI2SD adapter to setup your 68k Macintosh

I recently purchased a SCSI2SD V.5 adaptor (3.5″ and 2.5″) to replace a failing 1980s SCSI HD, and realized once I had it set up I could “image” the Micro-SD card to make boot-able images anyone could use.

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Published December 28, 2017

Floppy Drive: Using a 3.5″ HD Floppy Drive to setup your 68k Macintosh

Booting your classic 68k Macintosh from a 3.5 inch floppy disk was the most common and the easiest way to get most classic macs working when your starting with a more modern machine (most, but not all, more on that in a bit).

This post focuses on 3.5″ High Density (HD) disks that can be created using modern USB floppy drives.

Selecting your System Software for your 68k Macintosh

As I mentioned in my Setting up your vintage (classic) 68k Macintosh not every Macintosh System can run every OS, for example System 7.5.5 was the last version to support the original Macintosh Systems with their Motorola 68000 (68k) processors, 7.6 required Systems with a 68030 and 32bit clean ROMs, with support for 68k processors ending with System 8.1. I also include some information about PPC systems, but my main focus for this page is 68k systems.

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Published November 15, 2015

Setting up your vintage (classic) 68k Macintosh

I’ve been playing around with old Macintosh systems since the late 90s when Mac Plus systems were plentiful and cheap. Over the years I’ve learned, forgotten, and relearned information about these systems, often going months at a time when I do not get to play with these old machines, so I decided to create this site to record the information I found useful, or interesting about my 68k Macintosh systems. Hopefully this information will also be useful to others who are new to setting up, configuring and using these old Macintosh Systems.

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Tag: Macintosh System Software