When I go visit my grandfather who has a mac, I want to go armed with a disk
containing some text and word processor files.  I have an MS DOS machine
and I run windows.  I found something called MacSEE 2.2 which comes in
both windows and dos versions.  I got it via FTP from archive.umich.edu
or someplace.  It works sometimes, but not all the files come through 
intact.  Is version 3.0 of MacSee any good?  Is there another package
that you've used that works?  I have a high density 3 inch disk drive.

25 responses total.

The newer Macs have a SuperDrive, which can read DOS format disks.
Your best bet is probably to write the disk in DOS format, and rely
on the Mac to read it.

If your grandfather has Word (for Mac) it reads quite a few MS-DOS
wordprocessor files (after they've been run through AFE).  So if you
use Word for Windows, you can pull the files into the Mac almost
directly, or I suppose you could have WinWord write a MacWord file.
...bleah.  Just depend on AFE and that Superdrive, and hope your
grandfather's Mac software can read your files.

I used to transfer files between my old laptop and my Dad's Mac with Kermit.
You might consider this method, too, if your diskettes can't be easily
read.  (I've also done this with an Amiga, too.)

Of course, I had a null-modem cable that made serial transfer very easy.

Josh, I have a null-modem setup at home, but on trying to implement it also
at my office (Mac IIci to XT), using Versaterm to ProComm 2.4.2, everything
works except F)ile in Host Mode, which reads once and freezes. S)hell
works fine. I used a Mac to (DB25) modem cable, and wired a no-handshake
null modem. What pin-to-pin does your null-modem cable have?

I thought that SuperDrive meant that HD Mac disks and HD DOS disks
were the same, but an Apple format HD disk doesn't work in my DOS
machine.  Please explain.

What is AFE?

HD Mac and HD DOS disks are the same at the physical level -- they 
both use 80 tracks and 18 sectors/track.  But the logical formatting
is different; DOS can't read Mac-format disks.  AFE is Apple File
Exchange, a Mac program to read DOS-format disks.

Mac-format HD disks *can* be used in a DOS machine; you just have to
reformat them first.

re 5: I dunno.  It came with my copy of Brooklyn Bridge.  

I have a program (I forget what it's called) that is supposed to read (but
not write, I don't think) Mac format disks in a DOS machine.  Somebody gave
it to me, but I've never used it because AFE seems a lot simpler.

An other thing you can do is to use a program called Soft PC.  It actually
makes the Mac act like a DOS machine, so you could even run your normal word
processor in it.

Good point, Steve, but you should mention that Soft PC is a commercial
program that costs a lot of money.

Yeah, some people would think of that... ;)

There's a commercial program for the PC called MACinDOS that reads and writes
Mac disks on a PC - I'm not sure of how good it is though. ;)  I think I read
about another one somewhere too, but I can't remember the name.

  There's a shareware one, or a shareware demo of a real program which will
do some limited reading of Mac disks...

DDo you know what the shareware one is called?  Also, where can it be FTP'd
from?

  I forget what it's called, but you can get it from ftp.cica.indiana.edu...
look in the index, there....

I think the thing from ftp.cica.indiana.edu you're talking about
to use Mac disks in a DOS machine is called 
Macsee (dos) and MacseeW (windows)

It didn't work too well for me.  Left messes on the DOS disk to be
cleaned up by chkdsk.  It also left corrupted or unreadable files
on the Mac disks.  Not a good program, and I don't care what's 
wrong with it because Apple File Exchange can be used on the Mac to
translate to and from DOS the way MacseeW is s'posed to be able to
translate things to and from Mac.

Have you guys used MacSee? It's shareware and very effective.

According to 17, kaplan doesn't seem to think so.

Well, I don't know what his problem is because we use MacSee all the time.

Any of the Mac machines can read/write to/from ms-dos disks
using the Apple File Exchange program, which has a screen appearance
similar to the Font/DA Mover.
 
The newer disk drives are backwards compatable to 720K and 800K
disks, but the older drives (obviously) can't read the higher
density disks.
 
Apple File Exchange is included with the system software on the Mac.
  
Somewhere around Sys 7, some extra methods became available for
the transfer 'tween machines. the worst case scene is losing the formatting
and font stuff. But if you save in RTF (RichTextFormat) and transfer
that particular file, everything is maintained.
 
There +may+ be a problem formatting a 3.5 on a Mac with the MS-DOS
format. Sometimes a messy-dos machine will buy it, sometimes not.
  
The generic recommendation is to use messy-dos 3.5's (of whichever
density) that have been formatted on a messy-dos machine.
  
If you are transfering graphics and stuff like that, make sure
to include the graphic itself in the transfer, else it cmes
out as a bit-mapped-mess. Al the links are kept together, including
style sheets and usr-dicts and all, if you include them with
the move.
 
Just to keep thigns interesting, my Mac 800 K drive does a fine
job with ms-dos 720K floppies to adn from my Apple //e running
MS-DOS 5.0 and MS Word 5.1. slap them disks back and forth to Macs
all the time.

MS-DOS will run on an Apple //e?

  (with a board to do such a thing in there :) )

Yes, and there is one currently available - brand new -  for $199.
email me your request for it - follow ups willl get ms-dos 5.x
and probably 6.x, if you wnat. running jsut fine.
  
It helps to ahve a scsi HD on line also, but ceratinly NOT 
a requirment.
  

Hi, there is a new controller from German called Catweel.
Catweasel, it can read/write AMIGA/MAC floppy on PC platform.
Regards (AW)

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