>	I've just picked up an SE/30 with a unbootable MacOS installation
>	(even with shift held down). Hopefully its just the install and
>	not hardware...
>
>	What would be the best way to make a MacOS boot floppy, given
>	access to a MacOSX G5 with USB floppy drive, and various PCs
>	running NetBSD or Windows... Also - from where should I download
>	the images?
>
><http://download.info.apple.com/Apple_Support_Area/Apple_Software_Updates/
>English-North_American/Macintosh/System/Older_System/System_7.0.x/>
>
>	Thanks!
>
[snip]
>	It starts to load, says "Welcome to Macintosh" (with Extensions
>	off if shift is held down), then dies with a bomb window but
>	no message.

hi,

  you're almost there!
  although I'm not familiar down to the details with MOSX G5 + USB-FD,
I'd say that the basic workflow is to get floppy disk images from apple
and on behalf of DiskCopy put them on floppy media, which in turn should 
bring your SE/30 to boot - it just appears that the HD content is bad,
but the HW seems to work


  now the caveats:

  1) the archive files at the spot your link points to do not look floppy
sized
(e.g.   System_7.0.smi.bin   22-Feb-2002 13:35   4.2M )

-> I know MacOS 7.x consist of 'many' floppys, most of them are needed to 
successfully finish the install
  what I don't know is whether multiple floppy disk image files ase in said
4.2MB
archive or it is a single disk image intended for HD...

  so to cut time in the experiment, I'd suggest you get the files from the 
sibling directory   ../System_6.0.x/SSW_6.0.8-1.4MB_Disk1of2.sea.bin  and
../System_6.0.x/SSW_6.0.8-1.4MB_Disk2of2.sea.bin 

  it's the even older OS, but with just two HD floppys you have it complete:
it should suffice to boot the SE/30, repartition the HD and install itself 
onto the HD, then boot from the HD


  2) the files you download are SelfExtractinArchives, which of course have
self extractingprogram code made for 68k: this will either run on your MOSX
G5
because you have Classic/OS9 on it (and it should include emulator for
68k-CPU)
  or 
  you have to extract the disk image file (only 1 in each downloaded files)
manually with help of an unpacking tool (sorry, cant help more here...)


  3) in the .../Applications/Utilities folder on the MOSX G5 monster you 
should find a utility program named DiskCopy or similar: if it can cope with

the USB-FD it should be possible to bring the disk image files onto floppy
media
  if not, you've lost...


  4) If your SE/30 has 800kB fd (because someone fiddled it to be so - it
should not!)
then you have lost too: I'm not aware of any USB-FD capable of this apple
special format...


  if you have lost, you need a Mac running OS 6.x...9.x with a stock apple
fd, it will:
- be (natively) capable of running the SEA archives for unpacking them
- be (natively) equipped with DiskCopy able to put the image files on floppy
media


  I'm not aware of a way coping with the .bin , the .sea and apples floppy
image file format under NetBSD (the last being very close to be dd'able, but
just not quite AFAIK...)


  additionally, your SE/30 may have sat around for too long: the battery
that 
backs the PRAM holding the preferred boot device/partition and keeping the
clock
going when the system is unpowered may be empty - it's worth replacing it
with a 
new one (I've seen weird boot errors simply due to empta PRAM batteries!)


good luck
Stephan