How can I circumvent OS X if there is no Classic?

grimsongrimson
Posted:
in macOS edited January 2014
Okay - I'm brand new here, and have a wonderfully stupid problem.



For years I have had a Powerbook 520. It has served me well, mostly just for word processing and Excel. I have no printer - I work at a university, and would simply take disks into the library and print off the G3s and iMacs.



Now the library has updated to G4s running OS X, with NO Classic folder. So when I insert my disks, I get a message saying "There are no applications on this disk that OS X can recognize." (my files are AppleWorks 6.0).



So what I'm tying to do is find a way to open these files one last time, so that I can then email them to the 600Mhz iMac I just got (which, of course, has no disk drive, so this is the only way I can think of to get the files transferred).



Or - just thought of this - is there some way to hard-wire network the 520 to the iMac to transfer these files? I doubt it - 520 is too old, but what do I know?



Thanks for any advice.

Comments

  • Reply 1 of 11
    gizzmonicgizzmonic Posts: 511member
    This might be a topic for the Genius Bar...but!



    I'm wondering if the PB 520 has an ethernet connector?



    If not, the cheapest route would be to get a USB floppy drive (around $15 if you look around).



    Otherwise you could bring your OS 9 CD up to the library and install Classic and/or Appleworks 6 when no one's looking
  • Reply 2 of 11
    hobbeshobbes Posts: 1,252member
    Wait, so your files are on a floppy, saved in Appleworks 6.0 format?



    And the G4s running OS w/o Classic don't have Appleworks?



    Are the G4s running Microsoft Word? If so, save the files to your disc from AppleWorks as MS Word-compatible files.



    If not, try saving your files as RTF (Rich Text Format) files, and they will be openable by TextEdit, OS X's basic text editor.
  • Reply 3 of 11
    lucaluca Posts: 3,833member
    All PowerBook 5xx series laptops have built-in ethernet, but they use the old AAUI style instead of RJ45 (the kind that looks like a phone jack). All you need is an AAUI/RJ45 adapter to get a standard ethernet port on the 520. Then you'll have to configure your 520 to connect to the same network the iMac is on, or you could even just connect them both to the internet and send the files through email.
  • Reply 4 of 11
    mount_my_floppymount_my_floppy Posts: 913member
    Even better, do you have a .mac account?
  • Reply 5 of 11
    paulpaul Posts: 5,278member
    Quote:

    Originally posted by grimson

    So what I'm tying to do is find a way to open these files one last time, so that I can then email them to the 600Mhz iMac I just got (which, of course, has no disk drive, so this is the only way I can think of to get the files transferred).



    why do you need to open them? just copy the files off the floppy to the G4 then email them to your iMac... no opening necessary...

    or am i missing something?
  • Reply 6 of 11
    mount_my_floppymount_my_floppy Posts: 913member
    I thought when he said open them, he ment take them from the disk... Could be wrong though.
  • Reply 7 of 11
    ast3r3xast3r3x Posts: 5,012member
    Quote:

    Originally posted by Paul

    why do you need to open them? just copy the files off the floppy to the G4 then email them to your iMac... no opening necessary...

    or am i missing something?



    haha thats what i was thinking but he would've been able to figure that out wouldn't he?



    haha lets hope it isn't that easy
  • Reply 8 of 11
    grimsongrimson Posts: 108member
    "why do you need to open them? just copy the files off the floppy to the G4 then email them to your iMac... no opening necessary...

    or am i missing something?"



    Sorry...I must not have made this clear, but I can't copy the files off the floppy because the G4s won't even let me access the floppy at all. I just get the "Can't read disk" message, and that's it. No disk icon comes up and I can't find any way to access the disk whatsoever. That's pretty much the question I was asking - is there any way around this?



    Hobbes - thanks, I will try that suggestion.
  • Reply 9 of 11
    hobbeshobbes Posts: 1,252member
    Ah, well, if the G4 isn't recognizing the disk, more compatible file formats won't help much. If you can get the G4 to recognize the disk, though, that may be helpful.



    What's the brand/maker of the floppy drive attached to the G4?



    OS X actually does have (at least some) floppy disk driver support -- I was surprised to plug in an external floppy disk drive and OS X recognized the floppy right away.
  • Reply 10 of 11
    escherescher Posts: 1,811member
    Quote:

    Originally posted by Luca Rescigno

    All you need is an AAUI/RJ45 adapter to get a standard ethernet port on the 520.



    grimson: I recommend that you follow the route that Luca suggests. I had a PB 520c for my 4 years in college. (It's on loan to a cousin in France now.) With the AAUI transciever, it could easily connect to the 10base-T (RJ45 connector) campus Ethernet network. When I upgraded to a Wallstreet PowerBook in 1998, I simply connected the 520c to the Wallstreet with an Ethernet crossover cable, turned on file sharing on the 520c, mounted the 520 disk drive on the Wallstreet's desktop and dragged over all of my files. Admittedly, that was before OS X. But there is no reason it wouldn't work. I've also copied files this way between my old Rev.A iMac (OS 9.x) and my iBook (OS X).



    Good luck!



    Escher
  • Reply 11 of 11
    grimsongrimson Posts: 108member
    Well, I went the east route and popped in to my local Apple store and picked up an external floppy drive. As my files were all just AppleWorks word processing files, it was a very easy transfer. I came up with a couple of scenarios where I might actually need a floppy drive in the future, which is why I went this route.



    Thanks to everyone for all the suggestions.
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