Thrift store finds - MAC SE

--- Phil Clayton wrote: Can anyone tell me how to make a boot disk for the MAC SE.. There are two hard drives on my MAC SE, lots of stuff there, but I don't know how or what to look for to make a boot or operating disk.. Is there a directory like DOS or somthing on the hard drive..? Can someone help...? Phil.... --- end of quote --- If there's no directory (folder) on either hard drive called "System Folder," then they won't boot. If there IS such a folder and they still don't boot, then system files may be missing or damaged. At the bare minimum, a Mac needs a System Folder containing two files, "System" and "Finder." Realistically, you need some other stuff too, but under system software earlier than 7, that should be enough to boot the machine. Likewise, a floppy disk with that folder and those two files will also start up the SE. I think that Apple has old system software available from their ftp site (my school's public fileserver has versions up through 7.1, therefore those systems are probably freely available from Apple). You would probably want to download disk images for system version 6.0.5 or 6.0.8 (there should be four 800k disks), make floppies out of them, then boot with the "System Tools" disk and run the installer. It will make whichever hard drive you choose be a bootable volume. The "System Tools" and "Utilities 1" diskettes are both bootable -- Utils 1 has Disk First Aid for basic diagnostics and directory repairs, and HDSC Setup for initializing or formatting a hard disk. You can also make a bootable hard drive by drag-copying the system folder from one of the floppies to your hard drive, but it's better to use the installer so you get all the goodies and doodads beyond the minimum system. If you can't find disk images, I can email or ftp them to you. -- MB