Can't open older MAC floppy disks

[Tom W.]

I have a number of 3.5" floppies with data and graphics
on them from my older MAC Classic that I would like to be
able to open on my PC. When I put one of these in
drive "A" I get a message telling me the disk is not
formatted. I have tried formatting one just to see what
would happen and got an error message saying the disk
couldn't be formatted. They are not write protected.
When I had Windows98 on this computer, I believe I was
able to open them with a conversion program that was in
Win98. Now, running XP home on the same computer it
doesn't allow me to open them. Is there a conversion
program or setting I can use to open these disks?

 

[Yves Leclerc]

There has be a XP auto-update where the CD/floppy drive access can cause
this problem. I do not recall the full update but I do believe it ended
with 1557. I safely removed it from my Pro based system.

Y.

 

[Richard Harris]

This is because of the file system Mac's use on floppy disks and hard disks
(plus some CD's). It's called HFS (HFS+ on drives over 512MB's - kinda like
FAT16 and FAT32).

As far as I know MacDrive can not be installed on XP, so you wouldn't be
able to just put it in and open it up through explorer. However - you could
try a tool such as HFVExplorer - as I seem to remember that this can read
Mac formatted media.

Hope this helps!

Rich

 

[Dwight Stewart]

This is because of the file system Mac's use
on floppy disks and hard disks (plus some CD's).
It's called HFS (HFS+ on drives over 512MB's
- kinda like FAT16 and FAT32).

As you say, XP will not read Macintosh floppies. With a relatively recent
Mac-OS (OS-7.6 or later, I believe), his Mac will read floppies formatted on
the PC. However, Tom also mentioned a problem formatting the disks he has.
This is likely caused by the use of a floppy size not supported by Windows
XP. The Mac Classic could use 400k, 800k, and 1.44mb, floppies. Windows XP
won't format the first two sizes.

Assuming Tom has a recent Mac OS, his solution is to...
1. Format 1.44mb floppies on the PC.
2. Copy the files on the Mac floppies to his Mac HD.
3. Insert a 1.44mb floppy from the PC into the Mac.
4. Copy the graphics files to the PC floppy.


Dwight Stewart (W5NET)

http://www.qsl.net/w5net/