This disk (CD-ROM) is unreadable by this Macintosh

About BasiliskII, a 68k Mac emulator for Windows, MacOSX, and Linux that can run System 7.x through MacOS 8.1.

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RanJay
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Re: This disk (CD-ROM) is unreadable by this Macintosh

Post by RanJay »

Ronald P. Regensburg wrote:
RanJay wrote:
Ronald P. Regensburg wrote:The disk contains a HFS volume with the name "PADI O/W Disc 1".
Did you select that volume name in Disk Utility in El Capitan to create the disk image from it?
Do you mean when I did it in Catalina?
No, when you did it in El Capitan.

Oops. I did it in Catalina, and not El Capitan.
I am currently in the process of doing it in El Capitan on my older MacBook Pro.
I somehow misread your directions and did it on the wrong computer. DOH!
I tried to make the image, even though it was greyed out, but it said operation cancelled.
Yes, in Catalina it is not possible to make a disk image from a HFS volume using Disk Utility. It should be possible in El Capitan. Did you select the name "PADI O/W Disc 1" in Disk Utility in El Capitan?
Yes. It is currently making the disc image.
Actually, it just finished.
I'm going to transfer that image to my Catalina computer and load it as a volume in BII GUI.

Stand by.
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Re: This disk (CD-ROM) is unreadable by this Macintosh

Post by RanJay »

Ronald P. Regensburg wrote:
RanJay wrote:
Ronald P. Regensburg wrote:The disk contains a HFS volume with the name "PADI O/W Disc 1".
Did you select that volume name in Disk Utility in El Capitan to create the disk image from it?
Do you mean when I did it in Catalina?
No, when you did it in El Capitan.
I tried to make the image, even though it was greyed out, but it said operation cancelled.
Yes, in Catalina it is not possible to make a disk image from a HFS volume using Disk Utility. It should be possible in El Capitan. Did you select the name "PADI O/W Disc 1" in Disk Utility in El Capitan?
Ronald
Thank you so much for your help!
That worked!
I now have the CD-ROM on the Finder desktop without any error when loading it.
You don't know how appreciative I am to you and Ricky for all this help and support!!!
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Ronald P. Regensburg
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Re: This disk (CD-ROM) is unreadable by this Macintosh

Post by Ronald P. Regensburg »

Good!
I do not know how these particular disks should be used. If you need to switch disks (eject one and insert the next one), then you will need to mount all three at the same time. Disk switching is not possible in BasiliskII.
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Re: This disk (CD-ROM) is unreadable by this Macintosh

Post by RanJay »

Ronald P. Regensburg wrote:Good!
I do not know how these particular disks should be used. If you need to switch disks (eject one and insert the next one), then you will need to mount all three at the same time. Disk switching is not possible in BasiliskII.
I loaded all three discs and then used the installer from disc one to install the entire program.
It does need the first disc when starting the program, but I don't know if that is for the first time, or forever.
I can try it both ways and see if I need to leave disc one mounted.
Disc 2 and 3 no longer need to be mounted.
So I'm good.
Now if I could only get an old floppy drive to be recognized.
I have an database on a floppy I can't access.
The floppy drive I have is an external Toshiba USB.
Any ideas?
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Ronald P. Regensburg
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Re: This disk (CD-ROM) is unreadable by this Macintosh

Post by Ronald P. Regensburg »

A floppy drive cannot be used with BasiliskII.
Can you connect the drive to the El Capitan machine and mount the the floppy there? Then you can create a disk image from that floppy the same way you did with the CDs.

Is the software to be used with the database for 68k Macs?
Last edited by Ronald P. Regensburg on Wed Jul 01, 2020 2:39 pm, edited 1 time in total.
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RanJay
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Re: This disk (CD-ROM) is unreadable by this Macintosh

Post by RanJay »

Ronald P. Regensburg wrote:A floppy drive cannot be used with BasiliskII.
Can you connect the drive to the El Capitan machine and mount the the floppy there? Then you can create a disk image from that floppy the same way you did with the CDs.

Is the software to be used with the database for 68k Macs?
I've tried loading the floppy on the old MacBook Pro without success.
I suspect it may need a driver?
And yes, the database is for a 68K Mac.
If I could get the database off the floppy, I'd be golden.
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Ronald P. Regensburg
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Re: This disk (CD-ROM) is unreadable by this Macintosh

Post by Ronald P. Regensburg »

What kind of floppy is it? If it is a specific Mac format, a 400k SS or 800k DS floppy, your floppy drive will not be able to read it. Your floppy drive may be able to read 1.4MB HD floppies.

400k and 800k floppies can be read by the Mac floppy drives that were built-in in old Macs.

See: https://retrocomputerverzamelaar.nl/app ... -formaten/
And: https://fletcherpenney.net/2018/02/read ... oppy_disks
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Re: This disk (CD-ROM) is unreadable by this Macintosh

Post by RanJay »

Ronald P. Regensburg wrote:What kind of floppy is it? If it is a specific Mac format, a 400k SS or 800k DS floppy, your floppy drive will not be able to read it. Your floppy drive may be able to read 1.4MB HD floppies.

400k and 800k floppies can be read by the Mac floppy drives that were built-in in old Macs.

See: https://retrocomputerverzamelaar.nl/app ... -formaten/
And: https://fletcherpenney.net/2018/02/read ... oppy_disks
Hmm... Good question.
Unfortunately the floppy drive has no markings indicating what size it is.
I believe it is at least an 800 DS disc, as the metal slide has openings on both sides.
I don't recall 400K SS discs having openings on both sides.
If this is the case, and my drive won't read the disc, what are my options other than buying an old Mac?
Last edited by RanJay on Thu Jul 02, 2020 2:04 am, edited 1 time in total.
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Ronald P. Regensburg
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Re: This disk (CD-ROM) is unreadable by this Macintosh

Post by Ronald P. Regensburg »

RanJay wrote:If this is the case, and my drive won't read the disc, what are my options other than buying an old Mac?
You would need a specialised floppy controller like KryoFlux: https://www.kryoflux.com/?page=home
or have this, or a similar, company make a disk image from the floppy that you could use in BasiliskII.
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Re: This disk (CD-ROM) is unreadable by this Macintosh

Post by RanJay »

Ronald P. Regensburg wrote:
RanJay wrote:If this is the case, and my drive won't read the disc, what are my options other than buying an old Mac?
You would need a specialised floppy controller like KryoFlux: https://www.kryoflux.com/?page=home
or have this, or a similar, company make a disk image from the floppy that you could use in BasiliskII.
Well it doesn't appear that KryoFlux has the floppy drive for sale.
At least I could not find it.
But I suppose if I did, it would probably be expensive.
I'll see if I can find someone with an old Mac that can maybe make me a disc image.
Thanks for all your help Ronald.
It's very much appreciated.
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24bit
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Re: This disk (CD-ROM) is unreadable by this Macintosh

Post by 24bit »

Maybe a long shot, but I would give Basilisk II Build 142 a go with a Windows 2000 virtual machine and the USB floppy drive attached to it.
If Basilisk II B142 does not mount the floppy (Ctrl-Sift-F11), I would ask for help at Macintoshgarden.
There are users in Sweden, Germany, Australia etc. some kind soul in your country will be able to care of your floppy.
Some guys even own the "magic" flux imager:
https://macintoshgarden.org/forum/mac-s ... lux-imager
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Re: This disk (CD-ROM) is unreadable by this Macintosh

Post by mabam »

RanJay wrote:Well it doesn't appear that KryoFlux has the floppy drive for sale.
At least I could not find it.
But I suppose if I did, it would probably be expensive.
The category “Floppy Drives” on their website is empty. The floppy controller mentioned by Ronald is available though: https://webstore.kryoflux.com/catalog/p ... anguage=en
But yes, it’s rather expensive.
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Ronald P. Regensburg
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Re: This disk (CD-ROM) is unreadable by this Macintosh

Post by Ronald P. Regensburg »

24bit wrote:Maybe a long shot, but I would give Basilisk II Build 142 a go with a Windows 2000 virtual machine and the USB floppy drive attached to it.
If the floppy is indeed a 800k DD floppy disk, the floppy drive cannot read it. These floppies can only be read by Apple floppy drives that read/write those disks with variable speed. That was an Apple-specific method to increase capacity on disks that could otherwise hold only 720k. Apple stopped using variable speed writing with 1.4MB floppies that can thus be read by any floppy drive.

If the floppy is a 1.4MB HD floppy, it should be possible to mount it on the El Capitan machine. I remember I could do that with a generic USB floppy drive connected to my previous iMac.

One can discern between 720k/800k DD floppies and 1.4MB HD floppies by the small square holes in the corners at the bottom of the case. The 720k/800k floppies have only one hole, the 1.4MB HD floppies have two holes, one at each side.

Image

(I got the image from this site: https://www.instructables.com/id/Conver ... y-to-720k/)
Last edited by Ronald P. Regensburg on Thu Jul 02, 2020 12:26 pm, edited 2 times in total.
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Re: This disk (CD-ROM) is unreadable by this Macintosh

Post by RanJay »

24bit wrote:Maybe a long shot, but I would give Basilisk II Build 142 a go with a Windows 2000 virtual machine and the USB floppy drive attached to it.
If Basilisk II B142 does not mount the floppy (Ctrl-Sift-F11), I would ask for help at Macintoshgarden.
There are users in Sweden, Germany, Australia etc. some kind soul in your country will be able to care of your floppy.
Some guys even own the "magic" flux imager:
https://macintoshgarden.org/forum/mac-s ... lux-imager
I'll give that a go and see if I can get it working.
Thanks!
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Re: This disk (CD-ROM) is unreadable by this Macintosh

Post by RanJay »

mabam wrote:
RanJay wrote:Well it doesn't appear that KryoFlux has the floppy drive for sale.
At least I could not find it.
But I suppose if I did, it would probably be expensive.
The category “Floppy Drives” on their website is empty. The floppy controller mentioned by Ronald is available though: https://webstore.kryoflux.com/catalog/p ... anguage=en
But yes, it’s rather expensive.
Oh yeah.
Definitely expensive.
I could probably buy a used PowerBook for half that.
But I don't want to spend that kind of money just to read a floppy disc and get one file.
Thanks!
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Re: This disk (CD-ROM) is unreadable by this Macintosh

Post by RanJay »

Ronald P. Regensburg wrote:
24bit wrote:Maybe a long shot, but I would give Basilisk II Build 142 a go with a Windows 2000 virtual machine and the USB floppy drive attached to it.
If the floppy is indeed a 800k DD floppy disk, the floppy drive cannot read it. These floppies can only be read by Apple floppy drives that read/write those disks with variable speed. That was an Apple-specific method to increase capacity on disks that could otherwise hold only 720k. Apple stopped using variable speed writing with 1.4MB floppies that can thus be read by any floppy drive.

If the floppy is a 1.4MB HD floppy, it should be possible to mount it on the El Capitan machine. I remember I could do that with a generic USB floppy drive connected to my previous iMac.

One can discern between 720k/800k DD floppies and 1.4MB HD floppies by the small square holes in the corners at the bottom of the case. The 720k/800k floppies have only one hole, the 1.4MB HD floppies have two holes, one at each side.

Image

(I got the image from this site: https://www.instructables.com/id/Conver ... y-to-720k/)
Well I guess the disc is the 720KDD version as there is only the one hole used for locking/unlocking the disk.
My next question is, if I am able to find a computer that can read this disc, what do I do next?
I know you said to create an image file of the document, but how do I get that from the old computer to the new computer.
Presumably the old computer will not have a USB drive and probably only has dial up access to the internet if able to find a modem that does that.
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Re: This disk (CD-ROM) is unreadable by this Macintosh

Post by RanJay »

Ronald P. Regensburg wrote:
24bit wrote:Maybe a long shot, but I would give Basilisk II Build 142 a go with a Windows 2000 virtual machine and the USB floppy drive attached to it.
If the floppy is indeed a 800k DD floppy disk, the floppy drive cannot read it. These floppies can only be read by Apple floppy drives that read/write those disks with variable speed. That was an Apple-specific method to increase capacity on disks that could otherwise hold only 720k. Apple stopped using variable speed writing with 1.4MB floppies that can thus be read by any floppy drive.

If the floppy is a 1.4MB HD floppy, it should be possible to mount it on the El Capitan machine. I remember I could do that with a generic USB floppy drive connected to my previous iMac.

One can discern between 720k/800k DD floppies and 1.4MB HD floppies by the small square holes in the corners at the bottom of the case. The 720k/800k floppies have only one hole, the 1.4MB HD floppies have two holes, one at each side.

Image

(I got the image from this site: https://www.instructables.com/id/Conver ... y-to-720k/)
Well I guess the disc is the 720KDD version as there is only the one hole used for locking/unlocking the disk.
My next question is, if I am able to find a computer that can read this disc, what do I do next?
I know you said to create an image file of the document, but how do I get that from the old computer to the new computer?
Presumably the old computer will not have a USB drive and probably would only have dial up access to the internet if able to find a modem.
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Re: This disk (CD-ROM) is unreadable by this Macintosh

Post by Ronald P. Regensburg »

That certainly is a challenge.

This web page covers about everything there is to know about reading old Mac floppies and about transferring files from old Macs to new Macs:
https://siber-sonic.com/mac/newmillfloppy.html

I may add these two possibilities if the old Mac has a drive that can read and write both 800k and 1.4MB floppies and if you can still find useable 1.4MB floppy disks:

1. On the old Mac get the files from the 800k floppy. Initialize a 1.4MB floppy HFS and copy the files to that 1.4MB floppy. The 1.4MB floppy should be readable with your USB floppy drive and mountable on the El Capitan Mac. You can then create a disk image file from the 1.4MB floppy that can be mounted in BasiliskII.

2. On the old Mac create a disk image from the 800k floppy. If the image file is not too large for a 1.4MB floppy, you could copy that image file to the 1.4MB floppy, mount that floppy on the El Capitan Mac and copy the disk image file from the 1.4 MB floppy. The image file should be mountable in BasiliskII.
Last edited by Ronald P. Regensburg on Thu Jul 02, 2020 2:36 pm, edited 2 times in total.
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Re: This disk (CD-ROM) is unreadable by this Macintosh

Post by RanJay »

Ronald P. Regensburg wrote:That certainly is a challenge.

This web page covers about everything there is to know about reading old Mac floppies and about transferring files from old Macs to new Macs:
https://siber-sonic.com/mac/newmillfloppy.html

I may add these two possibilities if the old Mac has a drive that can read and write both 800k and 1.4MB floppies and if you can still find useable 1.4MB floppy disks:

1. On the old Mac get the files from the 800k floppy. Initialize a 1.4MB floppy HFS and copy the files to that 1.4MB floppy. The 1.4MB floppy should be readable with your USB floppy drive and mountable on the El Capitan Mac. You can then create a disk image file from the 1.4MB floppy that can be mounted in BasiliskII.

2. On the old Mac create a disk image from the 800k floppy. If the image file is not too large for a 1.4MB floppy, you could copy that image file to the 1.4MB floppy, mount that floppy on the El Capitan Mac and copy the disk image file from the 1.4 MB floppy. The image file should be mountable in BasiliskII.
Ok. That sounds doable.
If I am able to find someone with an older Mac that reads/writes 800K and 1.44 floppy discs.
Wish me luck! LOL
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Ronald P. Regensburg
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Re: This disk (CD-ROM) is unreadable by this Macintosh

Post by Ronald P. Regensburg »

RanJay wrote:If I am able to find someone with an older Mac that reads/writes 800K and 1.44 floppy discs.
As far as I know, all Macs with built-in floppy drive introduced after 1990 can read and write both 800k and 1.4MB floppy disks.
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Re: This disk (CD-ROM) is unreadable by this Macintosh

Post by RanJay »

Ronald P. Regensburg wrote:
RanJay wrote:If I am able to find someone with an older Mac that reads/writes 800K and 1.44 floppy discs.
As far as I know, all Macs with built-in floppy drive introduced after 1990 can read and write both 800k and 1.4MB floppy disks.
Ok
So I contacted my local MicroCenter store.
After numerous trips and paying $15+ tax, I had my files on a newer floppy (not readable on Catalina).
I was able to load it onto my 2008 MacBook Pro and put the image file on a flash drive.
I got my database!
It was readable by BBEdit on Catalina, but was mostly gibberish.
So, which program did I use to make it?
I ended up thinking Clarisworks may be the program.
Found a copy of Clarisworks, loaded it, and it worked!
My database is just as I remember it and complete.
So. My question to you is, how do I get this old database current with today's software?
And which software do I use?
Thought?
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Ronald P. Regensburg
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Re: This disk (CD-ROM) is unreadable by this Macintosh

Post by Ronald P. Regensburg »

Congratulations! :smile:
RanJay wrote:My question to you is, how do I get this old database current with today's software?
And which software do I use?
If you made a pretty design for the database in ClarisWorks, I do not think there is any current software that can reproduce that design.
If you just want the entries imported in a modern database or spreadsheet software, you could try saving the file as text (I think it is a choice in ClarisWorks File menu) and open that file in a database or spreadsheet application.
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Re: This disk (CD-ROM) is unreadable by this Macintosh

Post by emendelson »

LibreOffice is reported to be able to open ClarisWorks databases; I haven't tried it, but it's free, so the worst thing that can happen is that you'll waste a few minutes installing it.
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Re: This disk (CD-ROM) is unreadable by this Macintosh

Post by RanJay »

Ronald P. Regensburg wrote:Congratulations! :smile:
RanJay wrote:My question to you is, how do I get this old database current with today's software?
And which software do I use?
If you made a pretty design for the database in ClarisWorks, I do not think there is any current software that can reproduce that design.
If you just want the entries imported in a modern database or spreadsheet software, you could try saving the file as text (I think it is a choice in ClarisWorks File menu) and open that file in a database or spreadsheet application.
There is no design.
Just boxes with text.
Such as NAME, TITLE, YEAR, etc...
If I save it as a text file, which I can, is there anyway to import it into a new program that can sort and align the rows/columns?
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Re: This disk (CD-ROM) is unreadable by this Macintosh

Post by adespoton »

LibreOffice should be able to directly import the database. If it fails, export to CSV in Claris, and import that into whatever spreadsheet program you want to use (Libre, Excel, GDocs, etc.).
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