Apple Lisa Personal
Computer
1983 to 1985

This document describes how to deserialize the Lisa computer's Office System disk number 1. This disk is used by Lisa computer owners to install Apple's Office System software, release 3.0 which is also called "Lisa 7/7". Deserializing a disk makes the disk usable on Lisas other than the original Lisa wh ich was first used to install the Office System software.

I used the Macintosh application FEdit 3.0 to deserialize the Office System disk 1.

WARNING

You should make a copy of the Office System disk 1 before attempting this deserialization since this document describes a technique that can easily damage the Office System disk beyond all hope. A good Macintosh application that copies Lisa disks is Apple's "Disk Copy 4.2" application (dated 1991).

The deserialization technique basically consists or changing several bytes on the Office System disk so that the disk appears to the Lisa as a 'virgin master'. A virgin master disk can be installed on any Lisa. But once installed a virgin master becomes a "serialized master" which can only be used on the Lisa which installed it first. A serialized master has the Lisa's unique serial number written to it (See the last page for Lisa serial number information).