Okay, i have os9 and osx installed on one drive, can i reinstall os9 without any formatting of my osx os?

Yes.

i put in the system restore disc and chose backup and install and now i can't get back into osx.

It just sits on the white screen with the apple because i had to hit the x key to get into osx. How do i get it back into os9?

Hold the option key at startup to see a list of bootable devices.

okay let me check.

It had a hard drive with an X next to it and I clicked the right arrow and now it has the white screen again with a circle and a line through it.

I rebooted again and same thing only shows me the one drive with the X on the hard drive and won't boot in osx. Damnnn!!!

I don't understand how that could be? I was just in 9 and when holding down option it won't even show os9 or let me even boot into osx? UGGHHH! Im so pissed, i guess im SOL huh?

Okay i put the os9 install cd back in, got into os9, but when i go to startup disk, it says Macintosh
HD:ORIGINAL ITEMS:SYSTEM:LIBRARYCORESERVICES MAC OS X

WHAT THE HELL DOES THAT MEAN, I WENT INTO THE HARD DRIVE AND FOUND A FOLDER CALLED ORIGINAL ITEMS AND IT HAS THE STUFF FROM OSX IN THERE. COULD I DO LIKE A ARCHIVE AND INSTALL OVER OSX? WOULD THAT WORK?

You could archive and install. It should save everything.

i just booted back into os9 and i clicked the apple and there is nothing under the apple no control panel, just one thing i forget what it is. I can't believe this.

*sigh* :rolleyes:

OK, before you go spewing that you hate Macs in anger, keep in mind that you selected the wrong option. Backup and Install replaces the currently insalled System Folder (by renaming it to Previous System Folder) and installs a fresh System Folder while keeping all your applications and other documents intact. The Mac OS 9 installer will not format your drive either....you have to use Drive Setup in order to do that. All the OS 9 installer will do is install OS 9. You only had to do a regular install and it would have reinstalled OS 9 for you without hosing anything else.

The other option you can do in OS 9 is go to the Apple menu at the left and select Control Panels-->Startup Disk. Once that opens up, see if you see the Mac OS X folder. If so, then select it and reboot. That should put you back in OS X.

At the very worst, you might have to just reinstall everything. OS 9 first, then OS X. They can also be on the same partition if you want it that way. Some people prefer to put them in separate partitions, but that's your choice.

Thats the problem osx won't bood when i do that, just hangs on the intial white screen with grey apple. And i don't hate macs, just on my soap box.

It had a hard drive with an X next to it and I clicked the right arrow and now it has the white screen again with a circle and a line through it.

See Mac OS X: "Broken folder" icon, prohibitory sign, or kernel panic when computer starts
http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=106805

When you are having problems or troubleshooting, disconnect all external devices except your kbd, mouse & monitor.

Cheers, Tom

Thats the problem osx won't bood when i do that, just hangs on the intial white screen with grey apple. And i don't hate macs, just on my soap box.

It looks like you need to re-install x.

If you are smart, divide the harddrive in 2 parts and install 9 on a differente partition from X.

This in general does prevent os installs influencing each other to much.



Good luck, Kees