Working in the PC environment

When you switch to DOS or Windows, you’re operating in a real PC world. The floppy disk drive, mouse, and keyboard all act as they would with a standard PC. There are, however, some issues you need to be aware of.

Floppy disk drives and floppy disks

The Macintosh floppy disk drive is drive A in the PC environment. To eject a disk from this disk drive while you’re in the PC environment, press x-E.

In the PC environment, you can insert only DOS-format disks or blank disks. If you try to insert a Mac OS–format floppy disk, it is ejected. If a

Mac OS–format disk is already in the disk drive when you switch to the PC environment, you will not be able to use it in the PC environment.

(In contrast, when you are in the Mac OS, you can use Mac OS disks as well as locked DOS-format disks.)

If you format a blank disk in the PC environment, it is formatted as a DOS disk. (In the Mac OS, you can format disks for DOS as well as for the Mac OS). Keep in mind, however, that some blank disks are preformatted by the manufacturer. If you insert a new, blank disk in the PC environment and it is ejected, it may have been preformatted as a Macintosh disk. To use the disk in the PC environment, you must first return to the Mac OS and reformat (reinitialize) the disk as a DOS disk.

Although you can format a floppy disk in a DOS 720 format in the PC environment, DOS computers may not be able to read it. For best results, format the disk in the Macintosh environment, choosing DOS 720K as the format. See “How do I prepare a disk for use?” in the “Disks” topic of Macintosh Guide, available in the Guide (h) menu.

Restarting the PC from a floppy disk

To restart (reboot) the PC environment from a floppy disk, insert the disk into the floppy disk drive. Press x-Control-Alt–[keypad] period. When the floppy disk is ejected, immediately reinsert it into the disk drive.

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Apple 640 manual Working in the PC environment, Floppy disk drives and floppy disks, Restarting the PC from a floppy disk