Converting 5.25" Floppy Disks

| How To...An Introduction Converting 5.25" floppies is a truly tricky undertaking. There are numerous tools for doing the job, but all of them require an original Apple II with 5.25" drive. No, there's no 5.25" disk drive for Macs on the market. It is not possible to get the job done without a real Apple II. The tools described hereafter belong to one of two categories. ][2Mac rushes a 5.25" floppy over to a Mac via a serial connection. (Current Macs do not come with a serial port, so for some people choosing the right method is a no-brainer.) ][2Mac reportedly works very well and requires: a Apple II (any model) running DOS 3.3 a 5.25" drive a serial connection to a Mac running System 7 or MacOS 8 or later Another class of utilities creates the disk images right on the Apple II hardware. You will end up with a file that is recognized by Bernie but sitting on your Apple II. You will need to take additional steps to move the file to the Mac. Usually this can be simply done by means of a Macintosh-formatted 3.5" disk, or a removable disk. For some it might be even the most straightforward approach to upload the disk image file to the Internet from the Apple II and download it on the Mac again. Please check the tutorial "volume sharing" for additional information on how to share volumes in Bernie. Do you really need to convert floppies? In some cases it is not necessary to convert 5.25" disks at all because the software is already available. If you are the legitimate owner of a software, you can download disk images from the Internet of most entertainment software and a number of applications. Please honor intellectual property - do not download software that you are not allowed to use. Thank you! You do need to go though the conversion procedure when you'd like to reuse personal data or customized applications. We do have the equipment for making disk images of unprotected software but we do not have the time to offer our services to a large audience. If you really need to get your data converted, we may do so at regular consulting fees and as time permits. Please contact us and we'll do our best to find a solution.
| Using ][2Mac requires: Apple II/DOS 3.3, Mac/MacOS 7 or later, serial connection ][2Mac is an utility that lets you transfer 5.25" floppies to a Mac file using a serial connection. ][2Mac has received numerous updates lately and should be compatible with the latest MacOS versions. Keep in mind that the Apple II part of the software must be run from within DOS 3.3. To learn more about ][2Mac and how to use it, please hop to its home page. Please note that there's a separate FAQ for your burning questions.
| Using ImageMaker requires: Apple IIgs/GSOS ImageMaker is a GS/OS application for turning any disk into a disk image. Unlike other tools ImageMaker requires a Apple IIgs running GS/OS. With ImageMaker you pick the disk you'd like to convert and save the resulting image file onto another medium such as 3.5" disk or a removable Zip disk or the like. This image is compatible with Bernie.
| Other Tools There are a number of other tools for making disk images, including: Copy ][+ 2Convert To learn more about other utilities, please visit EmulationNet's Apple II page.