There are
various packages for making 1.44MB MFM disks from images on a PC
and the Mac should happily boot from them (in the SE/30's case, from System
6 all the way to 7.6, and possibly 8.1 if you use a little trickery).
Yes, but what is "best" for an SE/30? 6.x for compatibility or 7.6 for
features if I have enough ram (and what *is* "enough" for 7.x?)
Myself, I like System 7.1 -- which is a problem because Apple refuses to
release it, but carrying on regardless -- because it has a small kernel,
a Force Quit option that actually works most of the time, runs much quicker
and can accept many control panels and extensions from 7.5, even the
Appearance Manager from 8.1 with a little work, so that you can give it all
the features of a later OS but with the smaller memory and CPU footprint.
All of my '030s run it ...
... except my personal SE/30, which still runs 6.0.8 because the version
of AppleShare on it does not like MultiFinder and I need this particular
AppleShare to netboot Apple II clients.
In any case, you will need to find it for aftermarket sale. There appears
to be some third-party component in it that prevents Apple from releasing
it for free download, or so I have been told. I do own it myself.
As far as footprints --
6.0.8 will be in hog heaven with just a megabyte of RAM.
7.1 will run very happily in 4MB, or even 2MB if you're really pinched
(but I don't recommend this).
7.0 does all right, but upgrade to at least 7.0.1 or 7.1 if you can.
7.5 and 7.6 could be squeezed into 4MB, but I'd go for at least 8 -- 16MB
is the sweet spot, and 30-pin RAM is so cheap there's no excuse not to.
DO NOT run any 7.5 under 7.5.3 if you can avoid it (7.5.0 is okay but buggy;
the others are quite crash prone).
Of System 7 versions, I like 7.6.1 and 7.1.
--
--------------------------------- personal:
http://www.armory.com/~spectre/ ---
Cameron Kaiser * Floodgap Systems *
www.floodgap.com * ckaiser at
floodgap.com
-- There are three kinds of people: those who can count and those who can't. --
