I downloaded some 7.6 and a 7.6.1 floppy images, but they come in a .bin format and neither BasiliskII nor HFVexplorer (nor Mini vMac) can read them, even if I change the file extension. Mac OS always asks to initialize them.
What can I do?

You must be windows folk. In modern Mac, it still can expand bin.
In windows, the easy way is to unpack it in System 6 vmac by bin unpack program and then export it. Find them in vmac sites.

_________________
There is an App for that!
https://github.com/rickyzhang82

These are probably MacBinary-encoded images. You can unpack them using unar (the Windows command-line version of The Unarchiver); afterwards, everything should be able to recognize them.

I tried it and it gave me a .rsrc file and another file without extension. None of them works

Sorry, I don't understand
BTW yes, I use Windows

If it is indeed an archived image file, the .rsrc file should not be important and the file without extension should be mountable in BasiliskII by adding it to the volumes list in the GUI. Where did you get the files from?

BetaArchive (it's the Italian version of 7.6.1, I can't find it anywhere else on the Internet)
I mount it in conjunction with a system 7 boot disk, which asks to initialize it

I suppose they could be self-mounting images, in which case I don't think unar will help you.

Since you have a bootable System 7 disk, try copying the .bin files to your System 7 disk, and then unpacking them with Stuffit Expander.

Alternatively, since you have HFV Explorer, you should be able to copy the .bin files to your System 7 disk that way, as described in http://www.gryphel.com/c/image/ .

I seem to recall that an Italian 7.6.X is included with the Mac Antology DVDs.
Max1zzz has the `99 and `00/`01 collections on his private server.
http://macintoshgarden.org/forum/max1zz ... mac-server

Maybe better to get things rolling with an untouched copy from DVD.

Here is a quick-and-dirty to extract the data fork out of a MacBin file on a Windows PC. It does not restore the original dates as I can't find info of the date format used as yet.

Please let me know of any problem.

http://www.retroprograms.com/temp/DeMacBin2016.zip

Usual dire warnings apply about no-resource-forks.

That is precisely what unar is supposed to do.

Variety is the spice of life, they say. My one has a gui and works via drag&drop. It is a variant of one I originally wrote in VB6 in 2000. Use it, don't use it: up to you.

Well, I've downloaded other files from BetaArchive, specifically the system 7 and 7.6 installation floppies, extracted them with DeMacBin and they work, so it must be a problem with the system 7.6.1 floppies (they're update only btw)
EDIT: they only works in mini vMac, Basilisk II still doesn't recognize them

There's your solution then: set up the image in Mini vMac and then deploy it in BII