OS 9.2.2 and OS X on the same hard drive.

GeoMoon5

GeoMoon5

I'm Spartacus!
Hello,
I have a G3 beige Mac, logic board revision 1, 266MHZ processor, 6MB Video RAM, 416MB system RAM, 120GB hard drive, OS 9.2.2. I could be using the G5 with OS X in the next room, but it's just too much fun pushing my G3 to the limit and using applications I'm much more familiar with as I get used to the OS X ones. I've run into a snag though. I can't run QuickTime 7 on OS 9.2.2 as it's only compatible with OS X. :( As the G5 in the next room is a family computer and is used alot, I've decided that I want to try to get OS X to work on my G3 so I can boot up in OS X when ever I want to enjoy the H.264 format that QuickTime 7 offers, but I want OS 9.2.2 to still be on the computer so I can boot up in that and use OS 9.2.2 for everything else. OS 9.2.2 would run everything else faster on this computer anyway.

*What I need to know is the propper process I need to go through to make my computer able to boot up in OS 9.2.2 or OS X from the same hard drive.

*I also need to know if either of the versions of OS X available to me would work on my computer. If not, would any of them work by adding patches?

-----------------------------------------------------------------------

*Should I use either Panther or Tiger?
*Do I need to partition my hard drive? How can I do that? I don't see partitioning as an option anywhere in the settings, nore does a "Mac help" search return any results on the subject.
*Can I just install OS X on my hard drive with OS 9.2.2 already on there and the computer would sort of autimatically partition it self?
*If so, how can I then go about choosing which OS to boot to?
*Do I need to install OS X first and then OS 9.2.2?
*If so, what would be the exact process?

Please help and thank you very much for your help and reading this far! :)
 
You will unfortunately not be able to run Panther or Tiger on a beige G3 as they both require built in USB, add on cards don't work. If you can get a copy of 10.2 and Quicktime 7 is supported (I haven't checked) you might get it working.

You would need to partition the disk using disc utility, this can be done during the installation, but you would lose everything on the diesk. You will need 2 partitions, one for each OS. I would start by installing OSX to see how it runs before installing OS9

You can switch which system boots by changing the startup disk. You can do this under OSX via System Preferences>Startup disk or under OS9 via Apple Menu>Control Panels>Startupdisk.

I hope this helps.
 
You can use XPostFacto to install 10.3 or 10.4 (provided you've got the Install CDs or DVD support on the old machine), available here:

http://eshop.macsales.com/OSXCenter/XPostFacto/

Works flawlessly for the most part -- I've got Tiger running on an old 7600 machine with a G3 upgrade. Runs decently well!

I would highly recommend separate partitions, though, as if something goes wrong with the OS X install that requires you to wipe the drive you'll lose OS 9 as well. I have a 700MB partition for a bare-bones OS 9 install and a 7GB partition for Tiger. Works well.

Just partition away with OS 9's Drive Setup, install OS 9 onto the small partition, download XPostFacto and start installing OS X on the larger partition.
 
:confused: I don't see anywhere an option to partition my drive in the Drive Setup. I don't even see a ghosted out option for that. I tryed booting from the OS CD and using the Drive Setup on the CD and that unghosted most of the stuff, but still no partition option. Is this task being called something else by Apple, like how Microsoft says "defrag" and Apple says "optomise?"
 
"Partitions" should be in one of the menus at the top -- I don't have my OS 9 machine hooked up right now, but if you can tell me what the menu options are, I can tell you which one to select!
 
When I click on the menue item at the top of the screen titled "functions," the following options are listed:

"initialization options..."
"update driver"
"customize volumes..."
"test disk..."
"rescan bus"
"mount volumes"
"eject disk"


I'll make a second post listing the sub-options for each primary option.
 
" * " means there is a box to check or uncheck next to the text.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------


"initialization options..." ----->
*low level format
*zero all data


"update driver" ------> this just updates the driver.


"customise volumes..." ----->
*automount on startup
*write protected


"test disk..." -----> this just scans the disk for bad blocks and data integrity.


"rescan bus" -----> this just rescans for any new drives or volumes hooked up to the computer since Drive Setup was activated.


"mount volumes" -----> I don't know what it does. There are no sub-options for this option and it's ghosted out anyway. When I get it to unghost by selecting a zip disk drive and choose to mount it, nothing happens, so I'm guessing that what ever it does can't be done on a zip disk.


"eject disk..." -----> ejects the disk.
 
You do need to be booted from the Os 9 Install CD to be able to partition the hard drive.

I got my OS 9 machine running again, and this is the procedure:

1) Boot from OS 9 Install CD
2) Launch Drive Setup located on the CD
3) Highlight your hard drive
4) Click "Initialize"
5) Click "Custom Setup..."
6) Select a partitioning scheme and click "OK" -- or, manually size the partitions... select "Mac OS Extended" format for all partitions

Hope that helps!
 
Yes! It's working great now. Of course it was the button I dared not touch because I thought it would...well... do what the button said. Initialize the disk. Hope I can get OS X running on the partition okay. Thanks again for your help and even re-activating your OS 9 machine. :)
 
Not a problem at all... I was a little hesitant to hit that button, but then I remembered good old Mac help: Command-? and I was doing a search for "partition"... it was one of the first options that popped up...

Heh... I think OS X has given the Mac help thing a bad reputation -- I forgot how intuitive OS 9's help system was. It even drew big, red circles around the buttons I was supposed to press... nice!

Anyway, glad to hear you got it working!
 
Yeah, I tryed the Mac help and it kept trying to get me to mount the disk? Strange. No matter now, I'm running OS 9.2.2 off of partition 1 of 2 now. I don't know why, but my internet is running ultra slow now on both IE and Mozilla. I have a bad feeling an extension or two that was in use didn't copy over to the partition. A couple aliases didn't work any more either. I'm swettn' bullets here, but treking on....
 
I can say this. I installed OS X on machines that had 9.2 on them. THe OS 9 system folder remained intact. You switch between systems by Using the Startup Disk option in System Preferences of the Startu Disk control panel in 9.2

The one thing I don't remember is whether there is an Install option to Install Classic or not. I know that under Tiger, I switched to 9.2 the other day, and occasionally run Classic. Indeed I have a scanner that I can only use under 9.2 so used Classic as recently as yesterday.

jim
 
How do I make sure I keep the first part of the partitioned Hard Drive open for OS X? When I partition it into two partitions, they are labled "untitled" and "untitled 2." Do I just use "untitled" for the OS X partition? Does there have to be some sort of OS 9 instal on the same partition OS X is going on?
 
When you partition the drive, make sure that the partition you intend to install OS X on is at the top of the graphic showing the partitions... make it less than 8GB (since you have 6GB, no problem) and partition.

You do not need OS 9 installed on the actual OS X partition.
 
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