Old Mac OS's

Mr Gawler · July 20th, 2002, 04:26 AM

I have a mac powerbook 180. It apparently does not have a OS since all I get is a flashing floppy icon when turning it on. I have no disks for this mac. My goal is to install Linux on it if I can. But I'd like to install a mac os on it first (I think I need to anyway) I thought the older Mac OS's were available for free downloads (older than OS 8) from apple but can't find them. Anyone know if this is true and if so where and how I can get the OS onto this dead mac. I have no mac friends locally but do run Linux and windows (hoping there's a utility to write mac floppies). For those who don't know the bowerbook 180 had NO cd drive.

troyt75 · July 20th, 2002, 08:58 AM

At Apples web site they have this,

Macintosh/System/Older_System/System_7.5_Version_7.5.3/System_7.5.3_01of19.part.bin

It's 19 parts and the link is
here bottom 1/3 of the page.

Hope that helps.

storm2k · July 20th, 2002, 02:53 PM

i dunno if a pbook 180 is powerful enough to run os 7.5.3.... 7.1 is more likely... and i don't know if it would be powerful enough to run linux either in anything other than the command line. try yellow dog for that...

Mr Gawler · July 20th, 2002, 08:36 PM

Ok, I got the system 7.5.3 files. I know nothing of mac files. How can I get them onto the powerbook? Just copy them to floppies? I'm gonna try that but suspect it won't do the trick, so does anyone have any ideas?

storm2k · July 20th, 2002, 08:42 PM

i think you boot with the floppies and it has an installer on it...

Tomteriffic · July 20th, 2002, 08:51 PM

As an alternative, you might check around and see if there's a Mac users group near you. Since the old OS'es are free, you're not breaking any laws by getting a copy on CD from someone.

I'm assuming a 180 has a CD-ROM drive here, but, you get the CD into the drive and boot the machine while holding down the "C" key. The machine will boot off the CD-ROM and you should see the contents of the CD once it's booted. If not, double click on the desktop Icon, which will open the contents window. You can run the installer from there.

storm2k · July 20th, 2002, 10:30 PM

actually you might want to check out a mac users forum... www.macosx.com is one that i have been to a few times... maybe they can help you.

Praetorian · July 30th, 2002, 10:02 PM

No cd-rom on the 180 Tomterrific. I've looked into Mac user groups around here and the only one I can find is something run by a school district. The web site hasn't been updated recently at all, so they might not be together anymore. I've got a few contacts though and I might be able to find him what he needs...

Tomteriffic · July 30th, 2002, 10:58 PM

If the OS files are on floppies, check the extensions on them. If they have an .sit extnsion, you'll need the Windows version of Stuffit Expander to "unzip" them. Another newer Mac with the Superdrive extensions (enables a Mac to read PC format disks) would be helpful in order to copy the expanded files to a Mac, and then move them back to Mac formatted disks. From there, booting and installing from the floppies should be relatively easy. The installer ought to be on the first disk.

Still, an earlier OS that takes less RAM might be helpful. I forget what 7.5 took. but it seems it was at least 4 or 5 megs, so a really old Powerbook with minimal memory may have a hard time running it. Ran fine with a 64 meg 6500, with plenty of room to spare.

Praetorian · July 31st, 2002, 03:35 AM

haha! What a productive post.

Leave the guy alone. He's got an extra Mac and wants to make some good use of it. Idiot...