How do I downgrade from Tiger to Panther?

kaedesblade

Registered
I got the older PowerMac G4. It came with Panther, then I upgraded to Tiger. But the new OS slows down my system. How do I downgrade back to Panther?

Step by step instructions are greatly appreciated. Thanks in Advance.
 
Tiger should not slowdown your computer. How much RAM and free harddrive space do you have? As for downgrading back to Panther, you have a problem because this is the OS that shipped with your computer. It is a problem if you have only a System Restore disc anyway. If you have a bootable MacOS X 10.3 installation CD, then you can do an archive and reinstall. Just slip the CD into your computer, reboot while holding down the [Apple]-[C] key. Select Archive & Install. If you have a System Restore CD, then you will probably no be able to use a retail MacOS X 10.3 CD. This is because you cannot use a version of the OS that is older than the one that shipped with your Mac. The System Restore CD can only return your computer's software to its as shipped state.

My suggestion to you is to look into actions that are less disruptive than downgrading your OS. Run fsck -fy in single-user mode. Download, install, and run OnyX. You don't burn your house down because a faucet is dripping.
 
MisterMe said:
Tiger should not slowdown your computer. How much RAM and free harddrive space do you have? As for downgrading back to Panther, you have a problem because this is the OS that shipped with your computer. It is a problem if you have only a System Restore disc anyway. If you have a bootable MacOS X 10.3 installation CD, then you can do an archive and reinstall. Just slip the CD into your computer, reboot while holding down the [Apple]-[C] key. Select Archive & Install. If you have a System Restore CD, then you will probably no be able to use a retail MacOS X 10.3 CD. This is because you cannot use a version of the OS that is older than the one that shipped with your Mac. The System Restore CD can only return your computer's software to its as shipped state.

My suggestion to you is to look into actions that are less disruptive than downgrading your OS. Run fsck -fy in single-user mode. Download, install, and run OnyX. You don't burn your house down because a faucet is dripping.

I have about 900MB ram, and 5GB hard disk space left. After my upgrade, applications like Flash, After Effects, and Illustrator take before to boot. Once I got into the application, every function I preform slows down the computer. It didnt happen like this when I had Panther installed. I tried reinstalling those applications again, same problem. But now, Illustrator refuse to even open.

How do I run fsck -fy in single-user mode? I will run OnyX in the meantime.

Thanks for your help.
 
The run fsck, File System Check:

Restart while holding down the [Apple]- keys.
You will boot into a fullscreen commandline console.
At the command prompt, type fsck -fy.
This will initiate a few minutes of activity. Let it run its course.
When the command prompt returns, type exit.
This should return you to the MacOS X GUI that you know and love.
 
Here is your problem. According to other sources I have found on the web, if your boot hard disk free space is less than the larger of 5 Gb, OR ten percent of its Capacity, then MacOSX is slowing down because it feels you don't have enough hard disk space.

You say you have 5 GB left, so it is quite possible this is the larger value and so MacOSX is slowing down. You really need to free up some hard disk space. My 160 GB hard drive reports problems and slows down when I go below 16 GB, even though in reality, this is plenty of free space left. 5GB, however, is not. Think of all the swap files and temporary space used to burn CD's and DVD's and you'll find 5GB is used up pretty fast.

Another thing you can do to speed up the machine, is to disable the widgets. You have to do this through the terminal in UNIX, but once off, this should free up some RAM. I do want to stress, however, that this is not the reason you are running slow. I am fairly certain your problem stems from not enough free space left on your boot hard disk.
 
I get this screen when I press Apple and C at startup.

I wouldn't let me downgrade to Panther.

Do you think its my copy of panther? Also I ran Onyx couple times already, same thing.

CIMG0172.jpg
 
all you need to do when booting from a cd is hold down C. If the disc is bootable, it'll boot.
 
But it won't let you simply downgrade to Panther, btw. You'd have to clean install Panther and then re-import your stuff etc. from backups. Have you only _recently_ installed Tiger? If so, it could be Spotlight trying to create indexes for your harddrives. After a while, it gets better. Also, make sure you have the latest version of Tiger (10.4.4) installed.
 
kaedesblade said:
I have about 900MB ram, and 5GB hard disk space left.

People's opinion of how much free disk space you need varies, so does Apple's. I wouldn't run a system with less than 20% free, but I like to over-compensate. Free up some disk space and it'll run a lot faster and smoother for you. You might also want to look at the RAM. Sounds like you have a weird mix of sizes, which could also mean a weird mix of brands and specs. Such a thing can (( SOMETIMES )) make a difference.

I ran tiger for well over 6 months on a G3 iBook (900MHz) doing web and graphic design work and it was more than adequate. Flash ran fine as well, even on "heavy sites" (e.g. heavy.com). I really haven't seen that great (not at all what I expected, at least) of a difference with Tiger on my new PowerBook (latest model) than the old iBook. Definitely not in running of the OS and such...now filters in Photoshop and iMovie, that's a different story. My cousin runs Tiger on his G4 400MHz Tower (Sawtooth) with 512MB of RAM—it's much more responsive than it was before with Panther.
 
Thanks for the wake-up call, mdnky. ;) ... (Explanation: I always advise users to keep as much free disk space on their system volume as they can - yet manage to have much too little left on my own system quite often. A couple of minutes ago, I decided to do a reboot and clean out the old stuff. Ha! Got rid of about 8 GB this way. Might not seem much, but I've now got five times the free space on my system drive I had before. Go figure...) ;)
 
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