Older System on Old Mac

[rhale1]

My brother's got a Performa 6214CD we got from a university. It's nice for its time, (64 MB RAM, 1 GB HDD, I added an Ethernet card), but came with OS 9 on it, and I would rather it run in Mac OS 8.5 (I have an 8.5 install CD I purchased in the '90s) but I can't find the Installer CD, so I was going to try 7.5 or 7.6.

Regardless of what system I use, the CD will a) not boot or b) boot the Mac but not install or c) boot, install, but the Performa won't boot from the new system. I've wiped the drive, reset PRAM, etc. (as much as one can do w/o OpenFirmware) but still haven't gotten this baby to run anything but OS 9.

Is there any trick to this?

[Cheryl]

It could be several reasons for your problem. First, that Performa came with 7.5.1 on it. Nothing earlier will run on it. The newest you can go on it is 9.1.

You are already maxed out on the RAM. 64 MB is the most that it can take.

Check those CD's you are using. You can not use a CD that is imprinted with a specific model. Those are made for that model. You need a general OS CD, in order to boot, and install with.

Next - how are you formating that drive? The big drives need HFS + and if memory serves right, OS 8.5 was capable of handling that.

If you really want 8.5 on the machine, you will need to find that general install CD.

By the way, OS 9 is the most stable of them all. Staying with 9 wouldn't be so bad, unless you don't have the updates for some of your programs and those can be downloaded.

[rhale1]

I do have a hardware-specific 7.5.3 install, but I have tried various other installers that DO install, its just that it says the system cannot boot this macintosh. It is HFS+. I don't remember for sure if System 7 will use HFS+, as I think it was a OS 8 thing.

I do know OS 9 is the most stable, but it runs insanely slow, and all its used for is internet, Word, AIM, and some old classic games.

[rhale1]

Oh, and the Hardware specific install CD is for my (now dead and gone) PowerMac 5400, not the Performa.

[Cheryl]

The installer is seeing the Ethernet... which is why it will not install or boot with anything lower than 8.5. A non hardware specific CD of 8.5 or 8.6 should work.
The reason why OS 9 is slow is because of the memory (and processor speed). Once you have an operating system on it, go to the memory control panel and turn on Virtual Memory. Make it go to 256, then restart the computer. You should notice a difference.

[rhale1]

Originally posted by Cheryl
The installer is seeing the Ethernet... which is why it will not install or boot with anything lower than 8.5.

Ah... That's the problem. I was wondering about that. The Apple Ethernet Card I have will work with system 7, and I have the drivers for it. Do you think removing it and then installing the OS, then finally installing the Card & Drivers the "System 7 way" would work?

[Arden]

HFS+ first saw light of day with 8.1. You can not use anything earlier than 8.1 on an HFS+ hard drive. You either have to get a general 8.1 or later installer, or reformat for HFS to use an older system.

[rhale1]

Thanks to both of you! I'm going to backup the drive and reformat and remove that Ethernet and see how that works. I usually can figure all of this out, but for some reason this Performa is eluding my Mac knowledge. I've probably been spoiled by my iMac/iBook and OpenFirmware for zapping PRAM and such .