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New Member - Mac 512k Questions

O

OhioFox

macrumors newbie
Original poster
Nov 2, 2017
12
1
Ohio
Hi Folks!

I’m new to the forums, but have been reading them for a while and have had great pleasure seeing some of your collections and am extremely impressed with the level of knowledge everyone has!

Earlier today, I pulled the trigger on a Mac 512k on eBay, and I’ve been super excited to receive it for the remainder of the day, it’s my first vintage system.

After the auction closed I started to think of things I may need to get this up and running and doing a bit of research on this particular model, and hence I now have a couple of questions I was hoping some of you may be able to assist with.

First, I’m pretty sure I’m not getting an OS included with the machine. I did some reading and saw there were a number of versions I could run on this and wondered if anyone had an opinion as to which is the preferred one? I also wondered if anyone knew where I could source some of these OS disks? Google wasn’t particularly helpful.

Second, I took another look at the pictures of the Mac running, and it’s shown to be powered up with the disk image on it, but rather than a “?”, it has an “x” on the disk. Is this normal?

I think that’s it for now, I apologize for the long post! Thanks in advance to anyone who may be able to assist with these questions, I’m really looking forward to getting involved with the community!
 
AFAIK the "X" on the icon can mean a disk insertion was detected but was not able to be booted from, OR the mouse button was held down to eject a floppy at startup.

This could mean many things, like a seized eject mechanism, bad 'disk insert' switch, bad 'filter' on the motherboard, bad mouse, bad keyboard, and some I've probably not thought of.

As for what system to run, I don't have an opinion on that (you'll find many do) but at the very least, you'll need to discover what ROMs you have and what floppy drive model is inside to narrow your choices.

At least with pics (hopefully recent) of the machine working, you won't be chasing major Analog Board faults. :)

There is somebody who regularly posts a link to a site that sells pre-written boot disks. **mumbles to self** : who was that? ;)
 
Thank you so much, that’s put my mind at ease a little at least!

I’ve spent the past couple of hours scraping the net to see what I could find out and I did see a video of how to fix the floppy drive if that is indeed needed. I’ll be honest, it looks like a fun project, and not too far off of what I’ve done in the past refurbishing old game consoles, so I’m now even more excited for this thing to get here!

Looking forward to see if anyone else has opinions on the OS, I know there’s many options and many have a preference, so it will be interesting to see what the general consensus is!

Again, thanks for taking the time to reply, I really appreciate your input!
 
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As for getting a system disk, it's best to wait and see what the machine actually has before obtaining a system it can't possibly boot. :eek:

A private individual sells pre-written boot floppies for a fee (taking some of the pain out of making your own if you have no other older Macs).

Please note I've NOT used their services myself, so all usual cautions should be exercised. :)

http://www.rescuemyclassicmac.com
 
MacTech68 said:
As for getting a system disk, it's best to wait and see what the machine actually has before obtaining a system it can't possibly boot. :eek:

A private individual sells pre-written boot floppies for a fee (taking some of the pain out of making your own if you have no other older Macs).

Please note I've NOT used their services myself, so all usual cautions should be exercised. :)

http://www.rescuemyclassicmac.com
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Perfect, thanks once again! My Mac is finally on the way, and I’m waiting impatiently for it to arrive. I’m sure I’ll have a bunch more questions when it finally gets here!
 
System 4.1 is supposedly the highest the 512K can deal with. All early ones are much of a muchness until you get to Sys 6, which is beyond the meagre RAM of the 512K.
 
weckart said:
System 4.1 is supposedly the highest the 512K can deal with. All early ones are much of a muchness until you get to Sys 6, which is beyond the meagre RAM of the 512K.
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Great information, thank you! I've so much to learn about the old systems, I can't ever remember there being so much to figure out when I was on the other side with my old 486!
 
Quick update to let you know that my 512 did arrive today, but due to the lack of any sort of packing materials, the case is busted.. I'm totally gutted. Thanks to everyone who had helped out with my questions, I'll still be able to use the information, but now I'm back on the hunt for a machine that's in decent condition to start playing with. It just wasn't meant to be.. :(
 
OhioFox said:
Great information, thank you! I've so much to learn about the old systems, I can't ever remember there being so much to figure out when I was on the other side with my old 486!
Click to expand...

Probably comparing to a 286 would be more appropriate - by the time of the 486, the Mac had "settled down" a bit. A 286 would be a closer comparison, with the completely nonstandard memory situation, conflicting OS support, pre-Plug-and-Play expansion card difficulties, etc.
 
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If it's just the case which was damaged there are a couple of cases for sale on Ebay. Both have a best offer option.
 
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Thanks to everyone who posted replies! I’m in the process of finishing up my restoration now and am extremely happy with the results so far! Not that it’s anything super rare, or that out guys haven’t seen before, but I’ll pop some pics of the finished project when it’s all done. Thanks once again!
 
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