hi janet in a word, nope. if you put a floppy from a pc into a system 7.x mac, the mac will say 'this disc is not formatted, would you like to format it now?'. the only problem is you'll have 2 options, format or eject! likewise if you put a sys. 7.x disc into a pc, it wont be able to read it and will ask you if you want to format it.
best thing to do is to get hold of HFS Explorer for PC - i used this while struggling through the process of getting Stuffit downloaded from a PC and on to my LC III... HFS Explorer will allow you to mount ,format and write to Mac floppies on a pc. you can also see what was on them from windows format before you do anything drastic... you won't damage your hard drives, and the quick way to find out what format it was in is to bung it into the floppy drive on the Mac. the only thing you risk is losing what you've saved on the floppy if you hit 'Initialise' or 'Format' by mistake....! so best to view on HFS Explorer first.... hth miriam flawed jai wrote: > tonight I'm feeling like pawing thru my box of old UFO 's [unidentified > floppie objects] > and seeing what's on them. I just got done doing it with all my old > cassette tapes and I've got energy left to burn, so i thought I'd > switch media and ream out my mystery floppies. > Now, the confusion is this: > I'm a rank beginner with computers. I confess. This will be the first > time I've ever done this. I know that macs use forked formatting to > address data and PC's don't. My kid has been picking up other people's > tossouts for months, and we have a box of PC floppies and a box of mac > floppies. I have sorted them thru a number of times, but you never know > until you actually go to use it. > > so If i start slipping one floppie at a time into my machine[s] and ask > the machine to open it and show me what's on it, what could i > conceivably run into, here? > > I have a IIsi, a IIfx, and an LCIII. > theye are running on system 7.5.5 or 7.1, depending. > > the IIfx has only one floppie drive, not two, despite its being built > for two if i wanted them. > > what kind of dialog boxes am i liable to see once i start this project? > what do i do as i see them? > [ no smartass answers, here, like 'answer them!, please] > > can i do anything horribly wrong, doing this? > > what happens when you put a floppie into a mac machine > > 1) if it was formatted on a PC and you don't intend to erase over it and > record new data > [ should i just save it to the PC box and try it on that later?} > > 2) if it was recorded in a different operating system than the one on > your machine at the moment? > > 3) if it's blank and you want to make it one of your mac supplies for > future storage? > > 4)if it has something irrelevent to you and you decide you want to clean > it up and reuse it for storing something else 'mac' on, in the future? > > is there any quick way to tell from looking at it, if a floppie is mac > format or PC? > > can i do any harm to my machines or floppie readers in the process of > doing this task? is there anywhere things could go horribly wrong? is > there any safeguard I should take before i start, so that i can save my > fate, if i screw up royally somehow? > > i stress--i only intend to pop the disc into the reader and look at > what's on it. I don't intend to upload it onto the hard drive or do > anything in the way of data transfer from the disc to the machine. > > like i said--I'm a computer newby, a rank, virgin beginner. giggle if > you want to, but this is serious stuff when you're just sticking your > toe in the big ocean. > > Janet Schwartz > > > > http://community.webtv.net/mensabrains/BADCODE > > http://www.anybrowser.org > > -- iriXx www.iriXx.org copyleft: creativity, technology and freedom? [EMAIL PROTECTED] www.copyleftmedia.org.uk _ ( ) ascii ribbon against html email X / \ cat /dev/sda1 > /dev/dsp all your base are belong to us -- Vintage Macs is sponsored by <http://lowendmac.com/> and... Small Dog Electronics http://www.smalldog.com | Enter To Win A | -- Canon PowerShot Digital Cameras start at $299 | Free iBook! | Support Low End Mac <http://lowendmac.com/lists/support.html> Vintage Macs list info: <http://lowendmac.com/lists/vintagemacs.shtml> The FAQ: <http://macfaq.org/> Send list messages to: <mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]> To unsubscribe, email: <mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]> For digest mode, email: <mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Subscription questions: <mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Archive: <http://www.mail-archive.com/vintage.macs%40mail.maclaunch.com/> Using a Mac? Free email & more at Applelinks! http://www.applelinks.com
