So I'm following the instructions here:
https://www.emaculation.com/doku.php/basilisk_ii_setup
I have a ROM. I have a TOAST file of MacOS8.1. But no matter what I do, the emulation only shows the blinking question mark when I boot up. What am I doing wrong?
ETA: I tried a different ISO of 8.1, and now it's displaying an error saying "The system software on the startup disk only functions if on the original media, not if copied to another drive." How do I fix this?
Note the instructions in the guide:
"A copy of MacOS 8.1. You could use a physical CD, or a CD image. We don't link to them directly, but images are available online. The Internet Archive probably has a few. These will likely be in the form of an .ISO or a .TOAST file. Both should work, but I have had better luck with .ISO files. Note that some images available online are not bootable and you might just get a blinking disk image. If you get one of those, just try another."
You are probably using one of the same TOAST files I experimented with when I wrote the guide. It probably came from this very website!
Some such images are just not bootable. Look for an ISO, possibly on Internet archive.
I tried one from Internet Archive and it gave the error mesage "The system software on the startup disk only functions if on the original media, not if copied to another drive."
In Windows, right click on the image, go to properties and select "read-only". That should solve the error.
It at least booted properly this time, but it didn't give me the option to initialize. And there are no hard drives to select in the 8.1 installer.
What DID it give you?
Can you copy the text of your Basilisk II Prefs file here for examination?
It successfully loaded the 8.1 installer right away, but there are no hard drives to select in the installer on which I can actually do the installation.
displaycolordepth 0
disk C:\Users\bobby\Desktop\MacOS 8 (Version 8.1)(691-1912-A)(Apple Computer, Inc.)(1998).iso
extfs
screen win/800/600
seriala COM1
serialb COM2
udptunnel false
udpport 6066
rom C:\Users\bobby\Desktop\064DC91D - Performa 580 & 588.ROM
bootdrive 0
bootdriver 0
ramsize 67108864
frameskip 1
modelid 14
cpu 4
fpu true
nocdrom false
nosound false
noclipconversion false
nogui false
jit false
jitfpu true
jitdebug false
jitcachesize 8192
jitlazyflush true
jitinline true
keyboardtype 5
keycodes false
mousewheelmode 1
mousewheellines 3
hotkey 0
scale_nearest false
scale_integer false
yearofs 0
dayofs 0
mag_rate 0
keycodes false
mousewheelmode 1
mousewheellines 3
ignoresegv true
idlewait true
enableextfs true
debugextfs false
extdrives CDEFGHIJKLMNOPQRSTUVWXYZ
pollmedia true
etherpermanentaddress true
ethermulticastmode 0
routerenabled false
ftp_port_list 21
portfile0 C:\B2TEMP0.OUT
portfile1 C:\B2TEMP1.OUT
It appears that you have not added a disk image to install the OS onto. You only have the CD image.
Follow these instructions from the guide:
"Next, click “Create…” to create a hard disk image that MacOS will be installed to. Give it a size (I recommend about 400 MB) and a name. You should not make it larger than 2 GB. Hit “Okay.”
The CD image and the new hard disk image should now be listed in the tab. See figure 1, below."
Make sure that the disk image you created is listed, as the picture indicates.
Okay, now the first game I tried to download, after unzipping in Windows, is showing up in the emulator as just a blank file that Basilisk can't open
Ah... this I can't really help you with. It might be file specific. Perhaps create a new post about the game you are trying to run.
Especially in Windows, it is ideal to download the game as a stuffit archive and then expand it in the emulator using Stuffit Expander.
Maybe try Stuffit Expander 4.5 from here (2nd DL)
StuffIt Expander and DropStuff with EE 4.5
Expand on your Windows host and add the image to the Basilisk II Volumes tab.
It may be, that not all .sit files can be expanded by version 4.5, but it should do for a start.
I seem to have gone backwards. Now Basilisk is telling me "Can't open ROM file". I haven't changed anything since last night.
My guess is that something got moved. Even if you don't think so, just browse to the ROM again via the GUI and reselect it.
I've got the ROM. I've got the OS selected. But I'm still just getting the flashing question mark no matter what settings I change.
WHY IS THIS SO COMPLICATED
I don't know. Your progress seems to be going backward. You used to have a ROM selected, and then you didn't. You used to be able to boot from your disk image, and now you can't. You might want to also browse to and reselect the disk image. That was probably moved like the ROM was.
I've been itching to jump in, but I just didn't know where! 
Okay, let me throw a few ideas out there.. almost just for kicks: without making things even more complicated, can we look at adding a layer, then working back to the original discombobulation?
The approach I want to suggest implies being familiar with virtual machines. Simply put, you setup a Basilisk II-compatible/friendly VM to test run your Mac emulator.
I'd also advise downloading a tested drive that has an OS already installed and known to run w/Basilisk II, like this one that uploaded by one of our Garden members. The other piece of this puzzle is a compatible Mac ROM copy. That one you may have to look for and then test with the rest of your setup.
What I like about the VM idea is that you have full control over the whole test environment and as far as I know, Basilisk II can run fine within these virtual machines. This can easily rule out quirks in your system.. trust me, I've seen the quirkiest quirks in the most normal and basic of vanilla Windows and even Mac installs!. It helps to have a second rig, not only for troubleshooting, but as a quick-and-dirty backup, which by the way, is a must for any day-to-day use of any emulator!
Same here, cbone 
I was already suggesting Basilisk II Build 142 from Emaculation plus the bootable image here:
/apps/macos-753-emulators
in spite of the fact that watchsmart and his forum will offer best help with setting up Mac emulators.
I recall one W10 instance where SheepShaver would not run, athough everything was in place and I had a few of those setups without issues. My guess was a missing dot net framework. I never found the culprit as I trashed the OS.
If everything else fails, one of us might create a fully configured Build 142 in a folder to be expanded to the Windows desktop. The paths should match in such case, as everything would be in C:∖user∖desktop∖BasiliskII.
That's the one I used. The OS is in the SAME FOLDER as everything else. WHY CAN'T IT FIND IT?!
WHY IS THIS SO INSANELY COMPLICATED
I wonder.. are there any YouTube or even Cornica videos with the steps outlined for installing Basilisk II? At the very least, it may shine a light on a missing step, something done or configured wrong, etc. As with anything else, the culprit usually tends to be something more hidden, not easily identifiable, which is why I proposed a VM from the get-go.
Perhaps, then, the solution may be for anyone to upload a vanilla VM image with Basilisk II installed and it could even auto-run right from boot-up? This would allow for an almost instant run. Again, just thinking out loud here. What I don't know is are there any VM OS disk image formats that are interchangeable: can they boot from VMWare Player, VirtualBox, even QEMU or Hyper-V?
I've only played/ran VirtualBox due to my lower system requirements (and then QEMU, but only for Mac OS 9.. Screamer, I believe?) for me, VirtualBox offered the easiest and most compatible VM for my Windows Desktop.
If you're still struggling after this, a quick visit to the Emaculation.com forums for more troubleshooting suggestions and a fresh look at your setup may be the best next-step.
Afterthought: I've only struggled (for one year) to get Basilisk II running on the Android OS (specifically on my Android-capable Chromebook) then (another two years) again when my Internet-access within Basilisk II stopped working. I kept posting my issues here, emaculation.com and a few other spots until I found my breakthrough in some long-lost archaic file somewhere, which gave me the key to my frustration, so trust me when I say, I've been in your shoes, kind of, and I totally understand your going nuts over why something that should be so simple can end up being so complicated to achieve.
Just tried Cat_7´s latest Windows build on W10-64 and it runs like a charm.
Even better, the emulator folder is self contained now, no second party libraries should be needed.
I´ll try to set up something small due to my lousy upstream later.
A VM would be my next step too, I think I still have a XP VirtualBox instance upped somewhere.
Edit:
Here it is: https://www.magentacloud.de/lnk/lNYMJVDc
The downloaded 7z must be expanded by 7Zip and moved to the main directory of Windows C:∖
Again, the emulators file paths do apply to C:∖BasiliskII - anything else will not work oob.
Basilisk II should start by clicking BasiliskII.exe or BasiliskIIGUI.exe and "Run".
The emulator should then boot MacOS 8 from a small 100MB volume.
On a side note, there is a compressed macosx_6gb.rar file in the the BasiliskII folder.
This 20k file does inflate to a 6GB disk image which may be added to Volumes in the GUI.
After initialisation of the new drive it may be used for installing a fresh OS, also the files from Mac_HD.dsk can be copied over to have some more space for apps and games or the MacOS 8.1 upgrade.
It would be very kind, if someone else except TenPoundHammer could confirm the BasiliskII folder does its thing on a Windows 10 rig as expected.
Maybe we can solve the riddle?
Works as advertised
Edit: Does the enclosed hard disk image contain a complete installation? We have other disks floating around the internet that are used only for users to find out the installation is not complete. That makes troubleshooting troublesome sometimes 
Thanks for giving it a go, Cat_7!
Good to know the Basilisk II folder is still usable on your side.
Also a big thanks for you ongoing work of building Basilisk II SheepShaver for the rest of us and solving so many emulation related problems.
The 8.0 instance is a default install, but it misses the unchecked options in the installer.
I dropped Sound and Monitor onto System folder, but that was it, I think - except for disabling the Monitors & Sound CP.
24bit's link doesn't work for me. I get "cannot open ROM file".
So the link 24bit sent has a folder compressed with 7-zip, which is similar to Windows .zip compression. This is what you would need to open it:
Step 1: A 7-zip compatible compression program like 7-zip from 7zip.org. This is a Windows program (for anyone who may be wanting to download this to run on Mac OS X.. don't, lol). A 7-zip compression program is absolutely needed to open the archive file with the folder that's inside of it.
Step 2: Folder location. This archived folder needs to be decompressed and placed in your C: hard drive. Anywhere else, like your downloads/documents folders, desktop, etc. will make the Basilisk II program within the folder not run.. it simply will not, plain and simple. Once you have the folder, not the 7zip archive you downloaded, likely to your downloads folder, inside your root directory (another name for the C: drive), you will (or at least should) have a working copy of the Basilisk II emulator.
Step 3: Opening the right Basilisk II program. Okay, you know you tried to run Basilisk II from your computer and it didn't work, so the archive file that 24bit put on the link has its own copy of Basilisk II. This is a key thing to understand because you may want to go back to the copy of Basilisk II you already have and try running that copy. If you try to do this, your original copy will most likely continue giving you the same error it gave you before.
So if you follow steps one and two above, you will have a new folder in your C: drive. Inside that folder is the copy of Basilisk II that you need to open for it to work. It comes ready to open: I know that for sure because I downloaded 24bit's file, opened the archive with 7zip, copied the folder inside, then copied the folder to my C: drive, then opened the new folder inside the new Basilisk II folder copy, found the BasiliskII.exe program I found inside, and then the emulator ran perfectly.
Try the three steps above and let us know if you get stuck! or let us know if that's what you already did and we'll see where the gears are getting stuck on your end..
The zipped Basilisk II folder ran perfect on my Win10 too, I just placed it in my root C: drive
Thanks cbone!
I was counting on you.
well, u did make it too easy, lol
I get "cannot open ROM file".
See the last post I made addressing the error you're getting and see if it helps.
After doing that, if you're still having any problems opening the copy of Basilisk II 24bit linked, then try giving us a step-by-step of what you're doing on your end so we can get an idea of why you're having these issues.
Another way of helping us see what's happening on your end is if you capture some screenshots on your computer and uploading them someplace online so you can post those screenshots here. Like the old saying goes, a picture is worth a thousand words, and in this case, may also solve the mystery of the errors you're having and allow us to better give you the right fix. A pretty nice and new picture uploading site is https://pasteboard.co/, but there are many others you can use online.
I hope this helps!
I'm dropping it in C:/ like you're telling me, and no matter what I do, it says it can't find the ROM.
Got it.. the issue has to be with your system somehow, somewhere! because I was shocked when I downloaded 24bit's install on my Chromebook at how easy his archive was to use! I simply copied it to a flash drive, popped that into my desktop, then I actually used Bandizip because I like all of its reviews and it even has a Mac version I've never tried (however, I first posted 7zip for you because it's been the default choice for 7zip files, which is very unobtrusive and it just works). Frome there, I opened the folder, found BasiliskII.exe and opened it and that's it, it just worked!
I appreciate 7zip because it has a magical ability to consistently yield smaller .7z archives than the .zip format, nearly twice as small at times! But that's neither here or there for your issue right now. The bottom line is that on most Windows desktops, this archived folder should work.
So since it's not working on your end, it may seem redundant, but break down for us exactly what you did from the moment you downloaded this archive, what program you decompressed it, everything you can share.. the error you're consistently getting is simply too bizarre! For all we know, you stumbled upon a bug in the program, which would be incredible when seeing just how long the Basilisk II for Windows port has been available online, you know?
Also see if you can post a screenshot of your desktop with the error displaying, as well as the file you're opening. Anything more you provide may be useful at this point because we're all in the dark as far as the issue you're seeing, so we want to read your steps and see what you're seeing on your end!
I´m using admin accounts on Windows all the time, could it be you are using a restricted user account TenPoundHammer? Also, is there an (aggressive) security suite running on your Windows PC, preventing Basilisk II from opening the ROM?
The Macs path randomisation offers a similar security feature too.
I am the number one guilty of doing that as well! 
I've even gotten in a bit of trouble for running things with admin rights enabled everywhere, you'd think I'd learn.. but it did make me shun Windows for everything except local network stuff.
So it's possible his security software or restricted admin usage on his system is preventing the Basilisk II installs to read any files? But as I understood it, wouldn't Windows normally show a prompt to enter admin rights? So more likely would be that his malware scanner may be intercepting his Basilisk II activities!
Let us know if this sounds possible, TenPoundHammer..
I am using an admin account. I'm the only one who uses this computer.
I downloaded it and 7Zip'd it like I was told. I put everything in C. I open Basilisk. Cannot open ROM File.
and have you "informed" Basilisk II where the ROM file is located? Usually you set this in the Basilisk settings GUI launcher app "BasiliskIIGUI.exe".
Start Basilisk II via the BasiliskIIGUI.exe app, too. Otherwise changes you make in the GUI may not set.
Huh?
Huh what?
I open BasiliskII. I tell it to open the ROM by selecting it. And then it tells me it can't open it.
WHY. IS. THIS. HAPPENING.
Define open Basilisk II
You should be using the BasiliskIIGUI.exe to set it up, then click the Start button in the GUI app.
That is EXACTLY what I'm doing. Open BasiliskIIGui.exe. Select the ROM -- that's the thing that says MAC OS ROM, right?
Click Start.
Cannot open ROM File.
WHAT AM I DOING WRONG
I don't know what you're doing or if what you are doing is wrong.
These are my settings for the JIT version of B2, yours should look similar to this.
Note the PATH to the Mac OS ROM ROM File
Wow, I'm stupid. I looked over these instructions 10,000 times and somehow never put it in the right spot. NOW it works.
Well, I'm glad that it works for you now.
Next question, where in Windows do I drop files I want to use within Basilisk?
Check "My Computer" in the GUI under Volumes tab. When you next start B2 you'll have a My Computer icon on your desktop, if you open it it will show folders with drive letters for names. There will be at least one folder in there with the letter "C" as it's name. Open that and you'll see it showing the contents of your main PC drive.
Have an easy to access folder on your PC where you can dump files to use in B2 and collect them from there.
A word of advice. Do not try to open (extract or run) files inside the "My Computer Drive" you need to copy them to inside an emulated HD, such as the start-up disk running B2's Mac system, or any other mounted emulated HD. Otherwise things may not work as you would hope them to.
Good you got Basilisk II working finally, TenPoundHammer!
Could you eventually explain a bit more detailed what you did with my MacOS 8 upload to render it non booting? You may have read that the item was working oob for Cat_7 and cbone.
How can the identical folder not work in Windows on your side? 
From TenPoundHammer's description when he finally got it working, it sounds like he tried running the BasiliskII GUI app first instead of going straight to BasiliskII.exe. Since everything was all set to go, he didn't need to do that extra step with your folder.. still, it also sounds like he missed a key step somewhere, and knowing how wordy I can get describing things in as much detail as possible, I know anyone can get confused trying to follow my own setup steps, lol.
Still, we all pulled together and got everything worked out! Your posting the folder for him 24bit, allowed us to have by far the simplest Basilisk II installation.. short of creating an installer for the folder with matching start menu items! lol
TenPoundHammer, let us know exactly which stepped you missed so we can catch future situations like yours. Many of us have installed this thing so many times that what appears to be elemental to us may actually be somewhat tricky to others..
And welcome officially to the Basilisk II club!
let us know exactly which stepped you missed so we can catch future situations like yours.
The answer to that began here and ended right here ...follow the path, my dear Watson.
