System 7
Macintosh Recovery - System 7
System 7, also known as Big Bang or Mac OS 7, is a single-user graphical user interface-based operating system for Macintosh computers. System 7, the successor of System 6, remained as the main Macintosh operating system until it was succeeded by Mac OS 8 in 1997.
System 7 was earlier used to refer to all 7.x versions. With the release of version 7.6 in 1997, the operating system was officially renamed as Mac Os. Though System 7 was developed for the Motorola 68k processor, it was later ported to the PowerPC after Apple adopted the new processor.
Important features included in this OS are cooperative multitasking, virtual memory, personal file sharing, an advanced user interface, QuickTime and QuickDraw 3D. In System 6, cooperative multitasking was optional through the MultiFinder option. In System 7, it was made mandatory.
By making Trash a formal directory, the deleted items are preserved between reboots and disks eject events instead of being purged. The new file sharing server included in the System 7 allowed any machine to publish folders to the AppleTalk network. System 7 is provided with a new optional full-color user interface. A new Sound Manager API, version 2.0, replaced the older ad hoc APIs.
System 7 paved the way for a full 32-bit address space from the previous 24-bit address space. It marked the advent of System Enablers, small extensions that were loaded at startup to support Macintosh models introduced since the last OS revision. System 7 was also the first version of the Mac OS that required a hard drive as it was too large to work comfortably from floppy disk.
