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My son is working on a school project, the subject is the history of Mac computers.

He’s writing a paper but has to create a visual display too.

I suggested displaying his paper live in MacWrite on an old Mac.

We can get an old Mac easily, but how can we copy a file to it? The best I can come up with is retype it.

We have Windows machines and a Mac Mini, but no other Macs.

Is there a cable that can make a PC or a USB drive look like an external disk drive? Or a USB floppy drive that can write an old Mac floppy disk format?

Update: Based on information on this website I think I can use an old SCSI CD-ROM drive with a Mac Plus.

4 Answers 4

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A USB to DB9 or DB25 adapter, a Null Modem cable, and Kermit on both ends.

I'd just re-type it, but I got Cs in school.

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  • Do old macs have db9 connectors ? I like this idea.
    – Bart
    Nov 15, 2009 at 21:39
  • This is actually just a mac modem cable. But: how do I get kermit on the mac ? I think I still need a floppy.
    – Bart
    Nov 15, 2009 at 22:09
  • You might not need kermit on the old mac. It may have a terminal program on it. Did OS 8 or whatever have comms software installed? It must have. Nov 15, 2009 at 22:15
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The most common hardware interface shared by both new and old macs is Ethernet (you may need an additional Ethernet card on some old mac). From this, any IP-based protocol should work, including Appleshare IP. For converting the paper to Macwrite, I suggest plain text.

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  • I think (very) old macs used LocalTalk at the hardware layer for networking. Nov 15, 2009 at 19:23
  • netatalk is the Linux package that speaks appletalk; don't know about support in modern proprietary OS's.
    – Broam
    Apr 16, 2010 at 16:29
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A USB floppy drive would probably be the simplest method. Shove a blank disk in the Plus and let it format it there, then see if it mounts on a newer Mac.

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  • +1 for formatting it on the older mac. You can also try FAT12/FAT16 from Windows/Linux if the old mac has the "pc exchange" extension loaded.
    – Broam
    Apr 16, 2010 at 16:29
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If the file isn't too large, you can email it to yourself at a web mail address, such as a Yahoo mail or Google mail account. Then you can download it onto the classic Mac.

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  • 8
    It might be hard to believe, but there were times when computers were not connected to the internet...
    – Arjan
    Nov 15, 2009 at 19:03
  • @Arjan - Depending on the age, I remember using a beefed up Mac Classic to browse the web in the late 90s. It wasn't fast, it was B&W but it did work. I'd never have used it seriously however.
    – Chealion
    Nov 16, 2009 at 5:46

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