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: 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. 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 ][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 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: To learn more about other
utilities, please visit EmulationNet's Apple
II page.
Please check the tutorial "volume sharing" for additional
information on how to share volumes in Bernie.
requires: Apple II/DOS 3.3, Mac/MacOS 7 or later,
serial connection
requires: Apple IIgs/GSOS