Classic Mac Kickstart

Classic Mac Kickstart Version 1.0, April 24, 2010 By M INTRODUCTION You have an old Macintosh -- one that is new enough to have a SuperDrive, but that is older than an iMac. For some unknown reason, instead of throwing it away, you want to get it running again. This CD-ROM image will make your job easier. Burn it to a standard CD-R with any burning program, and you will have an HFS-compatible CD-ROM containing all the files you need to kickstart your old Mac. (The HFS-compatible part is what makes this image valuable. Try using a modern computer to make a CD-ROM that an old Mac will read, and you will find the experience slow and frustrating.) HOWTO First, you'll need to start with a real, physical floppy disk and a working modern computer that has a floppy drive. Sorry about that; I couldn't figure out how to make this CD bootable. Using high-density drive on a Mac or PC, copy Boot75withCD.img to a floppy. Search the web for "rawrite" to find an appropriate utility. (Yes, you can create high-density Mac floppies on a PC.) Now boot your Mac with that floppy. You should be taken to the Desktop, and the Apple CD-ROM driver should be loaded. Now stick in this CD-ROM. You can now install System 6.0.8, System 7, System 7.0.1, or System 7.5.3 (with update to 7.5.5) depending on what kind of Mac you have. (Actually, if your Mac is really old, you have probably figured out by now that you wanted to boot from the System 6.0.8 floppy. At least floppy disks can be erased.) Once the basic System is running, you should install StuffIt Expander 5.5. This gives you the ability to open .bin, .hqx, and .sit files. Now install DiskCopy. This lets you mount .img files. Finally, install Fetch and get your network settings right. Congratulations! You now have a working Mac that can download and install more programs from the Internet. Have fun. NOTES All these files can be downloaded from Apple's site. It's unlikely Apple will care that they're being made available in this slightly more convenient form.

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sowbug (2010-04-26)

One comment about this ISO: OSX users can mount the ISO just fine, of course. But unfortunately, it's not a hybrid HFS/ISO9660 image, so Windows users won't see anything unless they're using an HFS-aware mounting utility (. This partially defeats the purpose of making it easier to kickstart an old Mac using modern hardware ("modern" including Windows machines).
I apologize for this; I'll update the image to make it a hybrid, so that Windows users will be able to use it easily. Meanwhile, try any of the following: MacDrive, HFV Explorer, Linux's loopback mount (mount -o loop disk1.iso /mnt/disk), and possibly the Apple BootCamp HFS driver for Windows (which might work only with HFS+).

sowbug (2010-04-27)

I've addressed the problems described in my previous comment. See http://thepiratebay.se/torrent/5518302 for the 1.1 version of this ISO.