OS X okay but OS 9 won't boot

dannyka

Registered
Hi all,

I've got a Beige G3 that I installed OS X on. A little while later I realized I needed to boot into OS 9. I have two disks. The first one has the OS X and the 2nd had OS 9 from a previous install.

So following directions I found on the 'net, I have tried both the Option key at startup, and selecting OS 9 for the Startup Disk in System Preferences, but no go. It gets as far as the happy mac, but then finished by booting into OS X.

Classic starts up in OS X just fine (I think), but I can't boot into OS 9. I even did a "clean" install of OS 9.1 from a CD. One thing I noticed was that when I was doing the clean install, I had to reinitialize the 2nd hard drive because it wouldn't mount under the OS 9.1 install. Does this have anything to do with it?

Any suggestions?

Thanks,
Dan
 
Let me see if I understand this. You can't boot in OS 9.

Check the Startup panel in OS X. You might have it locked. At the bottom left is the lock and it will tell you if it is locked. Click on it to unlock it. You will need to type in your password. If it won't let you do it, you will need to log in as administrator.
 
Hi Cheryl,

Unfortunately, "been there, done that".

Do you think another install of OS X might take care of it?

Thanks,
Dan
 
The second disk with the OS 9 on it... was that where the OS was originally installed or did you copy it there. If so did you copy it there after installing OS X? Possibly that drive does not have OS 9 drivers...

When you say Classic starts ok in OS X, have you tried to get the machine to boot from the Classic folder? You will need to set the Classic folder as the start-up folder in OS X system prefs.

Another trick is to boot from an OS 9 CD, Norton etc. and then see if your system folder on drive #2 has the blue happy mac icon of a recognised system folder. If not, open the folder and close it and nwith a bit of luck the icon should ::ha:: appear. If not, then there is something wrong with the finder in that folder.

Good luck!
 
If you did a clean install of 9.1 and checked "Update disk drivers" etc. in the Options tab, you should be able to boot from this system. One other thing you could try is installing each OS onto the other drive to see if both work on both drives. (I hope you don't have much data to back up, as this may necessitate scrubbing your drives.)
 
As far as I know you need OS 9.2 to work in conjunction with OS X. OS X does not work with 9.1. Get a hold of an update from 9.1 to 9.2 and that should solve your problem.

Let me know if this doesn't work.
 
You're talking complete basso out of your Nato...

OS X will "work" with OS 8. I had OS X beta and then OS X server installed on my G3 tower and I could happily switch the boots between the two.

As far as I know (i.e. reading the Apple web site), Classic needs to be at least 9.1, and 9.2 and 9.2.2 are merely enhancements to make Classic work better as a shell system under OS X
 
Classic doesn't work very well as 9.1, it works much better as 9.2+. You could have System 7 on your computer and still boot into it, but it won't run as Classic. As long as you have any version of 9, however, you can update all the way to 9.2.2 for free (find a friend if you don't have broadband).
 
Jabberwocky,

Nice play on of words with my screen name...he he. :)

It's good to know I can run OS X with system 8 or 7, but why would I want to?! He he. The only program I miss from system 6 is "MusicWorks" and it seems to have disappeared...wish I still had that.

Anyway, point taken.
 
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