Problems restarting in OS 9

S

sesweitzer

Registered
Running 10.2 on a G4 and when I change the startup system to OS9 and reboot, I get either the disk with question mark or the folder with the question mark.

Have tried to boot from an OS 9 system disk but it wants to initialize my hard drives.

Tried the option key on startup and get the restart icon and an arrow icon and a spinning clock but no systems to choose between. Neither button works.

Reinstalled OS 10 and got things running again but when I again tried to restart in OS 9 had the same problem.

Unfortunately, I have a couple important programs that will only work when I boot to 9.

Help
 
Try running Disk Utility on your drive and zapping the PRAM when you start up.
 
This is not usually enough if he is having trouble with the hard drive.

1. Best bet is DiskWarrior. You should keep a DiskWarrior CD with bootable system on it to run repairs. 99% of the time it will fix the drive and you will be back in business.

2. Stubborn cases need the extra utilities in TechTools Pro

3. Unless you are suicidal and don't care about your files, DO NOT use Nortons. Nortons' "Features" are best avoided. I say that from long experience confirmed by reports from others on how it trashed their drives.
 
I agree that DiskWarrior can be indispensable in cases such as this. It's available as a downloadable purchase from Alsoft.

I also will second the warning about Norton Disk Doctor. Beware of this utility.

-- Steve
 
Thanks, I'm in the process of making a bootable OS X disk and will put Disk Warrior on it - already running the OS 9 version and have just upgraded to OS X version.

Will let you know the results.

Steve
 
The OS9 version works fine with OSX, just boot off the OS9 system on it. The problem is with your OS9 partition anyway.

btw care to share the secret of creating a bootable OSX CD? I need one to run other installers and rescue apps only mountable in OSX. Tried creating a temporary volume and copying the contents of my installer CD then adding my utilities. But it doesn't boot.

This is the one thing that makes running OSX so hairy. Without OS9 to fall back on you are stuffed.
 
The program I used is called BootCD and you can get it here
http://www.charlessoft.com/
be sure to read the instructions - you can add various applications to the disk (I added Disk Warrior).

It takes forever to boot and I went nuts trying to log on, until I broke down and carefully read the instructions - the logon is "root" and the password is "bootcd" - I'd been trying to log on using my root password.
Good luck


PS - ran Disk Warrior last night and it found a lot of problems - over 100 overlapping files. Now that the drive is fixed, I'm ready to try to boot to OS 9 (just ran out of time last night). Report to follow.
 
Final update - followed the helpful advice and after running Disk Warrior and fixing a bunch of problems, everything booted fine.

Thanks to all for your help.

Steve
 
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