Because Mini VMac is already well documented on sites like Emaculation, I’m only going to describe the basics of how to setup Mini vMac and focus on how you can use it to add or remove files from the System 6.0.8 or System 7.5.5 bootable volume images available to download on my site. For a quick start, Download a standard variation, to emulate a Macintosh Plus on OS X, Windows, Linux, and many others. Summary: The Mini vMac emulator collection allows modern computers to run software made for early Macintosh computers, the computers that Apple sold from 1984 to 1996 based upon Motorola's 680x0 microprocessors. Contains Mini vMac v3.5.8 with B&W and 256 colors mode (8-bits) for Windows and Linux Note: This bundle was made by Aladie To date, Macintosh Repository served 1434600 old Mac files, totaling more than 284521.7GB!
This guide shows you how to install System 7.5.5 for the Mini vMac emulator. For a video tutorial, watch this Youtube clip (credits to Peak66 for creating this tutorial). Also try out PCE/macplus, a newer and more advanced 68k Macintosh emulator.
Before you start, download Mini vmac and find an appropriate ROM such as this one. Once your installation is completed, refer to my latest article for a list of interesting old Mac applications which you can play with using Mini vMac, Basilisk and SheepShaver.
Method 1: Installing System 7.5.5 from pre-made disk images
This section was added in August 2014 after I received comments from several readers asking for detailed instructions to upgrade to System 7.5.5 from System 7.5.3 using the disk images provided by Apple. In particular, one reader commented that since the upgrade disk images for System 7.5.5 downloaded from Apple are in .sea.bin format, there is no way to convert them into a format readable by Mini vMac, as HFVExplorer only supports .smi.bin format and the instructions provided in the download ask him to extract .sea.bin images using DiskCopy 4.2, which apparently requires an actual floppy disk drive.
While I do not have the time to verify this information, I do recall that Apple’s old software download page has changed over the years. When I first attempted to install System 7.5.5 and wrote this article, I did not have major issues mounting the installer disk images. So I guess it was only recently that the disk images provided by the download page were changed to .sea.bin, making it harder to install them using Mini vMac. A possible way to work with the .sea.bin images provided by Apple now is to use old versions of StuffIt Expander, which I have not attempted due to time constraints.
I therefore decided to make available for download the following files, which I created back in 2008 from the disk images provided by Apple. These images can be mounted directly in Mini vMac for a straight forward installation experience of System 7.0.1, System 7.5.3 and System 7.5.5:
- hfs500M.rar: blank 500MB HFS hard disk image which can be mounted in Mini vMac for installation of System 7.5.5
- Mac701.zip: installation disk images for System 7.0.1
- mac753.zip: disk images for System 7.5.3
- mac755up.zip: upgrade disk images for System 7.5.5
- hfv500M_sys755_clean.zip: pre-made System 7.5.5 boot disk with popular software. Use this to use System 7.5.5 immediately without going through the installation process.
Installing System 7.5.5 on Mini vMac is now assimple as downloading and extracting the disk images from the above files and following the steps below:
- Start Mini vMac with “Install 1″ disk image of System 7.0.1
- From Mini vMac’s File menu, mount the empty 500MB hard disk image
- Choose to install System 7.0.1 on the 500MB hard disk image
- When prompted, use Mini vMac’s File menu to switch to “Install 2″ and other System 7.0.1 installation disk images
- Upon completion of System 7.0.1 installation, reboot to System 7.0.1 and mount the System 7.5.3 installation image
- Proceed to install System 7.5.3 and reboot after completion.
- Mount the System 7.5.5 installation image and again, choose to install System 7.5.5 onto the 500MB hard disk image
- Installation of System 7.5.5 should finish without issues, After a final reboot, you will have a fully functional Mini vMac running System 7.5.5
For those who wish to try out System 7.5.5 without spending the time on installation, get the file hfv500M_sys755_clean.zip also from the above download link. Extract the zip file and boot Mini vMac with the extracted disk image to run System 7.5.5.
Method 2: Using Apple’s original System 7.5.5 installer images
The following guide, written in 2008, shows you how to install System 7.5.5 on Mini vMac using the original installer images supplied by Apple.
To start, you must first install System 7.0.1 on Mini vMac:
1. Boot Mini vMac with System 7.0.1 boot disk, download from here. In Explorer, drag the boot disk to minivMac.exe and the system should boot up.
2. Download System 7.0.1 installation disk images from here
3. Use HFV Explorer to create an empty 10MB disk image
4. Click “File” —> “Open Volume.” Browse to the empty hard disk image and open it. The disk image
should show up at the top of the left hand column.
5. Now browse your system with HFVExplorer and find the .smi.bin file that you downloaded earlier. Drag it over to the
Macintosh disk image. Just click “OK” at the prompt. This will extract the original .smi into your disk image.
6. Create another empty 20MB disk image.
7. Quit HFVExplorer and with System 7.0.1 running on Mini VMac, use Mini Vmac’s File menu > Open disk image and mount
the disk images created in step (5) and ()
8. Inside Mac OS, open the installer disk image (now mounted) created in step (5) and click on the SMI file.
9. Accept the terms and conditions. You may choose to skip the disk verification. A folder named 7.0.1 (1440k images)
should be shown on desktop.
10. Open the empty disk image mouted in Mac OS, and copy the entire folder in step 9 over.
Mini Vmac Iphone
11. Shut down Mini vMac and use HFVExplorer to open the hard disk image in order to copy the .image file out. Select
the .image file and choose Edit->Copy
12. Navigate to any folder you want on your Windows machine and choose Edit->Paste to copy the files to that folder. When prompted, paste it as Raw copy, data fork. Make sure you only paste the data fork, or else you’re going to end up with MacBinary files that you can’t boot with.
13. When you are done, you may want to remove the .image files from the disk image, leaving out an empty hard disk image.
14. Now start Mini vMac with the image “Install 1.image” created in step (12). Mount the empty hard disk image, where System 7.0.1 will be installed to.
Mini Vmac Boot Disk
15. Start the installation process. When prompted, click on Switch Disk and choose the empty hard disk image to install to.
16. When prompted for next disk, mount the required disk image. The installation will finish in around 15 minutes:
17. When installation is done, reboot with the hard disk image and you should see System 7.0.1
Mini Vmac Applications
Now we install System 7.5.3
Mini Vmac For Windows
1. Download it from here
2. Use HFVExplorer to extract all 19 SMI files into a new hard disk image.
3. With Mini VMac boot up with System 7.0.1, mount the hard disk image in step (1). Double click on the firstpart, choose to skip verification and you will see a the System 7.5.3 Install CD mounted on your desktop:
4. Double click on the installer CD and select Installer to start installation. The process should take another 15 minutes
Finally we upgrade to System 7.5.5
1. Download it from here
2. Repeat what we disk for System 7.5.3 to create a disk image with System 7.5.5 installer. Mount the hard disk image and start the installation.
3. When the installation is finished, reboot miniVmac with the hard disk where System 7.5.5 is installed to. You should see the 7.5.5 screen: