How to put something on my virtual desktop through Windows?

About SheepShaver, a PPC Mac emulator for Windows, MacOS X, and Linux that can run System 7.5.3 to MacOS 9.0.4.

Moderators: Cat_7, Ronald P. Regensburg, ClockWise

Post Reply
podonnell
Space Cadet
Posts: 4
Joined: Tue Apr 22, 2014 3:47 pm

How to put something on my virtual desktop through Windows?

Post by podonnell »

I have some files I would like to put into my emulated Mac OS, and I would like to do so without mapping drives from within MacOS. Is there a certain folder or directory that I can drop a file into that will make it appear on my desktop?

Will using something like an HFV or .image viewer be required to do so?

Many thanks.
User avatar
Cat_7
Expert User
Posts: 6145
Joined: Fri Feb 13, 2004 8:59 am
Location: Sittard, The Netherlands

Re: How to put something on my virtual desktop through Windo

Post by Cat_7 »

Hi,

Welcome. Your emulator allows you to access files you have in Windows directly. Please look at the settings for "Enable My Computer ..." in the GUI. The drive letters you enter there will be accessible from the My Computer icon on your Mac OS desktop.

When the files you transfer do not open in SheepShaver, you might need to use HFV explorer. Please see images 2 and 3 in this guide : http://www.emaculation.com/doku.php/basilisk_142_setup to get an idea about how to transfer files with HFV Explorer.


Best,
Cat_7
User avatar
adespoton
Forum All-Star
Posts: 4227
Joined: Fri Nov 27, 2009 5:11 am
Location: Emaculation.com
Contact:

Re: How to put something on my virtual desktop through Windo

Post by adespoton »

You need to enable a shared folder in the sheepshaver prefs. That, or when sheepshaver isn't running, open up hvf explorer and load the disk image.
User avatar
Ronald P. Regensburg
Expert User
Posts: 7821
Joined: Thu Feb 09, 2006 10:24 pm
Location: Amsterdam, Netherlands

Re: How to put something on my virtual desktop through Windo

Post by Ronald P. Regensburg »

adespoton wrote:You need to enable a shared folder in the sheepshaver prefs.
Isn't that feature only available in OSX and Linux versions? In Windows the external file system feature is called in the GUI "Enable the 'My Computer' icon on the Mac desktop" with the possibility to choose the drives (C, D, E, etc.) to be mounted.
podonnell
Space Cadet
Posts: 4
Joined: Tue Apr 22, 2014 3:47 pm

Re: How to put something on my virtual desktop through Windo

Post by podonnell »

A shared folder would be great.

I would really like to avoid the "Enable My Computer ..." setting as that is creating .finf folders every time I navigate through my folders. I would really like to avoid this from happening. Also, I have been booting from macos9800.image, as I have been unsuccessful at launching from a volume I have created. I kept getting the flashing ? icon. I followed all steps on the tutorials I found, and the only thing I question I didn't complete had to do with a MACOSX CD image. I never "installed" MacOS to my virtual disk that I created, so I figure that is why it was unable to boot to it.

Anyway, I don't mind working from macos9800.image, but I would just love to prevent these folders from appearing, and find an easy way to transfer files into the virtual OS straight from Windows.

Any ideas are greatly appreciated.

Thanks!
User avatar
Cat_7
Expert User
Posts: 6145
Joined: Fri Feb 13, 2004 8:59 am
Location: Sittard, The Netherlands

Re: How to put something on my virtual desktop through Windo

Post by Cat_7 »

Hi,

It seems you play the Douglass Adams game?

You cannot boot from volumes that don't have a Mac OS system folder on them. Normally you would install Mac OS by booting from a Mac OS CD image and start the installer and install onto a clean disk image. Your mac8500.image seems to contain a system folder, so you can start from that. However, we cannot be sure whether it contains a complete system folder, or just enough files to start Mac OS and start Starship Titanic.

The shared folder is only available in SheepShaver for Linux and Mac OS X. In Windows you can only share complete drives. If you don't want the files you mention to be created in your Windows folders, you can only use HFV explorer.

Using HFV explorer:
Start the SheepShaverGUI. Create a new volume of e.g., 100 Mb in the same folder as your macos9800.image. Lets name it "exchange.hfv" The volume will appear in the volumes list in the GUI. Start SheepShaver. A dialogue will show in which you need to format (initialise) the volume. Choose a nice name such as "exchange disk", and choose Mac OS Standard as the format type. After initialising, the new disk shows up on the desktop. Stop SheepShaver.

Start HFV Explorer, and open exchange.hfv by selecting it through the file menu (File/Open Volume). The empty disk image shows up on top of the list of folders in HFV explorer with the name "exchange disk". Next, in the folder list, navigate to the folder in which you have the files you want to use in SheepShaver. The files show up in the pane to the right of the folder list. Drag the files you want to copy from the pane on the right onto the disk image by dragging them to "exchange disk" entry in the folder list on the left. Answer OK to any questions asked. After copying has finished (there will be no indication it has finished), click the "exchange disk" and see whether you files are on the exchange disk. Then stop HFV explorer.

Start SheepShaver and your disk with the new files will appear on the desktop. Double click the icon and you files will be visible.

Best,
Cat_7
podonnell
Space Cadet
Posts: 4
Joined: Tue Apr 22, 2014 3:47 pm

Re: How to put something on my virtual desktop through Windo

Post by podonnell »

Cat_7 wrote:Hi,

It seems you play the Douglass Adams game?
Hmm... No? Where did you gather that?
Cat_7 wrote: You cannot boot from volumes that don't have a Mac OS system folder on them. Normally you would install Mac OS by booting from a Mac OS CD image and start the installer and install onto a clean disk image. Your mac8500.image seems to contain a system folder, so you can start from that.
I follow you perfectly. I believe the tutorials I was following assumed I had a Mac OS CD image in the drive, but I did not. The mac8500.image indeed was a compiled OS with a startup folder. So SheepShaver can book from either a .image file, or a .hfv file that contains a startup folder? Any other differences between the two?
Cat_7 wrote: However, we cannot be sure whether it contains a complete system folder, or just enough files to start Mac OS and start Starship Titanic.

The shared folder is only available in SheepShaver for Linux and Mac OS X. In Windows you can only share complete drives. If you don't want the files you mention to be created in your Windows folders, you can only use HFV explorer.
Understood, I had thought this might be the case. So my goal will be to get a working .hfv volume, which I will then be able to alter with the HFV explorer, as you have instructed. I will then be booting from the macos image, and my personal .hfv folder will act as an extended drive? If I want to get rid of the .image folder, I will need to install the startup folder to my personal .hfv drive, is that right?
Cat_7 wrote: Using HFV explorer:
Start the SheepShaverGUI. Create a new volume of e.g., 100 Mb in the same folder as your macos9800.image. Lets name it "exchange.hfv" The volume will appear in the volumes list in the GUI. Start SheepShaver. A dialogue will show in which you need to format (initialise) the volume. Choose a nice name such as "exchange disk", and choose Mac OS Standard as the format type. After initialising, the new disk shows up on the desktop. Stop SheepShaver.

Start HFV Explorer, and open exchange.hfv by selecting it through the file menu (File/Open Volume). The empty disk image shows up on top of the list of folders in HFV explorer with the name "exchange disk". Next, in the folder list, navigate to the folder in which you have the files you want to use in SheepShaver. The files show up in the pane to the right of the folder list. Drag the files you want to copy from the pane on the right onto the disk image by dragging them to "exchange disk" entry in the folder list on the left. Answer OK to any questions asked. After copying has finished (there will be no indication it has finished), click the "exchange disk" and see whether you files are on the exchange disk. Then stop HFV explorer.

Start SheepShaver and your disk with the new files will appear on the desktop. Double click the icon and you files will be visible.

Best,
Cat_7
Again, very clear instructions and I follow you perfectly. I have completed the above and now have a working .hfv file. The only thing I'd like to do further is eliminate the .image file.

Thank you for the very detailed and clear information.
User avatar
Cat_7
Expert User
Posts: 6145
Joined: Fri Feb 13, 2004 8:59 am
Location: Sittard, The Netherlands

Re: How to put something on my virtual desktop through Windo

Post by Cat_7 »

If you search the web for macos8500.image you'll end up at a site demonstrating running Starship Titanic from said image. It seems OSvirtual.net at any time hosted a file with the same name. On a side note: that site currently hosts a nice disk image with Mac OS 9 installed and some additional software.

SheepShaver can boot from any file that is internally formatted as a HFS or HFS+ disk and contains a system folder. The name (.image or .hfv or even no extension) doesn't matter. So you can change the file extension to your liking, but remember that after you changed a file extension, you will need to remove the old and and add the new file to the volumes list in the SheepShaverGUI, otherwise SheepShaver will keep on looking for the file with the old name.

Think of disk images as real hard disks, they have a size and are formatted as e.g., NTFS for Windows. The difference is that a disk image shows up as a file on your hard disk. The disk images for Mac OS are formatted to be used as a HFS or HFS+ hard disk.

If you want to get rid of the .image file, start SheepShaver with both images in the volumes list with macos8500.image being the topmost entry. Next, once in Mac OS, copy the file "System Folder" from the macos8500.image disk (I don't know how it is called on your Mac OS Desktop, but it should be the topmost disk icon) onto the 'exchange disk" (not onto the desktop!). The "exchange disk" should then contain a copy of the System folder.

Please note that you should copy anything you want to keep from the macos8500.image

Stop SheepShaver. Start the GUI and remove the macos8500.image from the volumes list. Start SheepShaver. It should now start from the exchange.hfv and show only one disk ("exchange disk") on the desktop.

If you are happy with the result you can then also "physically" remove the macos8500.image file from your SheepShaver folder.

Please note that the 100Mb size of the exchange.hfv will not be enough to install a fresh and complete Mac OS 9 onto that disk. So you might be better of by creating yet another disk image of appropriate size, such as 2000 Mb. To stay on the save side, you shouldn't go any larger. Then perform the steps outlined above on the new disk image.

Once you located a CD image of a Mac OS 9 installation CD, you can then boot from that CD image and perform a full installation.

If you followed the OSvirtual path, you don't have to install anything but can simple boot from the downloaded image, as long at is at the top of the volumes list.

Please take care not to throw any disk images from your windows machine unless you are sure you don't need any files contained in them.

Best,
Cat_7
podonnell
Space Cadet
Posts: 4
Joined: Tue Apr 22, 2014 3:47 pm

Re: How to put something on my virtual desktop through Windo

Post by podonnell »

Once again, thank you very much for all the detailed info. I follow exactly what you are saying, and agree this should be the best possible solution for me.

After this, I will be able to boot from a single file formatted so that I can use the HFV explorer, and my initial problem will be solved.

Many thanks again, I can see this is a very friendly and helpful community.
Post Reply