Any FAQ/info on file transfers, disk images etc?

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Any FAQ/info on file transfers, disk images etc?

I'm in the midst of reviving my old Apple ][+ clone, and while waiting for some replacement components to get the computer going I thought I'd look into the software side of things and try to refresh my knowledge of how to use my (5.25") floppies and transfer files and programs to/from other platforms (most notably a current Mac, or an Atari STe in case a serial port is needed which my Mac doesn't have).

I'm sure these things get asked all the time, so I'm wondering if there's a FAQ, an online guide or something which I can read to catch up?

PS: I came across this page on ADT Pro which looks like what the doctor ordered except I'm not familiar with ProDOS (my disks are all DOS 3.3 or CP/M as far as I remember), so that may not be for me. I do however have a Super Serial card, so I'm thinking that might be a good start. OK, enough questions -I'll read an FAQ on this if there's one :-)

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compatability

http://adtpro.com/compatibility.html

 

I was just looking at this last week with my Apple II plus.   To use ProDOS with ADT Pro, you need an Apple II with 64K of RAM, unfortunately my 16K RAM (language) cards were not working.  I also needed a serial port on the Mac (or PC) side which means getting a USB to serial adaptor as shown in the various notes for ADT using the Super Serial card on the Apple II.  If you don't have the adaptor, it is possible to uses the cassette ports on the Apple II connected through audio cables to the computer.  My old PowerPC Mac has headphone and line in (microphone) jacks.  This time around I didn't have my PowerPC Mac handy, so I used an old PC with headphone and microphone jacks.  A newer PC laptop I use has both mic and headphone in a single jack so I would have needed yet another adaptor to split out the line in and headphone.  I think I've used ADT in the past on a Mac and it presents an easy to use interface.  I tried using the "server" ADT on an old PC, and it is not as easy to use.

 

A long time ago, before I knew about ADT, I wrote a custom program to read my DOS 3.3 disks and sent encoded binary text over the serial port to another custom program on the PowerPC reading the text via a KeySpan serial to USB adaptor that would save them as .DSK files on the Mac.  Due to the age and quality of some of disks not everything transferred but it worked good enough at the time.  I was not able to transfer ProDOS, Pascal, CP/M or other formats using my custom method.  ADT is probably your best bet.

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You can do a bootstrapping...

You can use the bootstrapping method... which will let you create an ADTPro Disk incl. ProDOS... that can then be used for further transfers later on. It's fully described by David... 

http://adtpro.com/bootstrap.html

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Cool!

Cool!

I've spent some time reading the documentation as well as other sites explaining. I find it a bit overwhelming at the moment, but I understand the basic idea is that it reads a floppy on the ][+, then transfers it over to the Mac as a disk image or vice versa. I don't know yet if any of my ancient files are still readable on the (probably close to 35 years) old 5.25" floppies, but is there any way to extract individual files so they can be further converted on the Mac? Or is this just for transferring entire floppies back and forth?

Luckily my ][+ has 64K (48K base memory and a 16K language card), I have the Super Serial card and I should be able to obtain a USB to RS-232 adapter cable. I read here that it's advisable to get one with a FTDI chipset (not the cheaper Prolific chipset) as this proves greater reliability with ADTPro. Apparently the adapter has been tested with ADTPro, but alas they don't shop outside of the U.S. so I need to find one on my own. I have sourced a Deltaco adapter as well as one by DeLock which uses the FTDI FT232RL chipset, but they're USB-C while my (not the very latest) Mac uses standard USB ports (USB-A?). Are there adaptor plugs which allow converting, or are they in fact different electrical/interfacing standards?

 

Oh, I also came across something called A2V2 (Apple II to Mac disk transfer) which was linked from one of the ADTPro help pages. Is this an alternative to ADTPro or something entirely different? Strangely I couldn't find any download link.

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ADTPro allows full diskimages

ADTPro allows full diskimages only... no partial file transfer. But for such request you might use FTP software (using serial connection) like PuTTY or Filezilla (for example) at a PC side and some FTP software running on your A2... while I didn't have a recommendation what software to be used here.

 

I've never used A2V2, because I transferred all diskimages between an Apple IIe and a Windows Machine. So A2V2 is to be used in case of transfering disc images between an Apple II... and a MAC. But again... I never used this, so can't tell you what's a better solution. I like ADTPro.

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I see. So there are two ways

I see. So there are two ways of cross-platform transfers: depending on if you want to transfer an entire floppy or just a file or two. Good to know as I can see uses for both methods.

Obviously ADTPro is what I need to do first in any case (so I can transfer an FTP program over to the Apple II first), but can I use the same physical connection method with FTP transfers? It appears that a USB to serial adapter connected between my Mac and the Apple II Super serial card is what I need to aim for.

 

 

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