Installing Mac OS 9 Drivers on OS X disk

MDLarson

MDLarson

Registered
Hey, I have a G4 with two hard drives:

60 GB - Mac OS X 10.2.5
20 GB - Mac OS 9.2.2

My OS X drive has been my primary drive for a long time, and I'm only now getting around to setting up the smaller one for OS 9. Originally I elected to NOT install "Mac OS 9 Disk Drivers" when I installed Jaguar, because I was planning on keeping these disk completely separate. I realize now that this was a mistake, because I cannot choose the OS X disk as a startup disk in OS 9. I tried opening the OS 9 Disk Utility, but it cannot mount or update the drive. I also tried booting with my Jaguar CD, but it appears as if I can only install the badly needed drivers if I completely wipe the drive clean. ACK! What can I do?

I suppose I can turn off the computer, disconnect the 20 GB drive and leave the 60 GB as the only option to return to OS X, but that doesn't really solve the bigger problem - only a temporary fix.

Please don't say I have to reformat the entire drive to make this work! :(
 
Originally posted by edX
sorry Matt, you have to reformat to install the drivers.
Click to expand...
ACK! Dang it all... I told you not to tell me that! :D

I posted my problem over at Apple's support forum (Discussions > Mac OS X > Installation and Setup.) The folks over there said it couldn't be done because the OS 9 drivers were actually placed on a little itty bitty partition all on its own. And therefore resetting up the partitions equals data loss. Oh well.

The good news is...
In my attempt to simply reinstall the OS 9 drivers, I booted up off my Jaguar CD. After realizing I couldn't install, I quit the installer and it helpfully told me that I can hold the Option key down during startup to select an OS! This is great! That's all I really wanted!

Anyway, hope this helps, and... thanks Ed! :)
 
Hey sweet, that was my 500th post! "Woot!"

(I never used that word before, so I figure now is the time to start, haha)
 
Originally posted by dlloyd
You didn't know that? *incredulous* :)
Click to expand...
Nope! :) But I did know that if you hold Command-Option-Shift-Delete during startup on older systems it force boots off the CD. And yes, I know now-a-days it's just the C key. :p
 
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