Stuck in a bad way...

[tyma]

Howdy.

Went to install 9.1 on my 8.1 iMac last night. Without thinking I popped in the 9.1 CD, booted the machine, and immediately initialized my hard disk.

Lo and behold, my Rev. A iMac needs a firmware update. However, the hard drive is blank so I can't run the firmware updater.

This is further complicated by the fact I no longer have the 8.1 install media.

I do, however, have an old 10.0.3 install CD which I was able to install with (odd, it will install 10.0.3 on the old firmware, but not 9.1) - however, that still doesn't help me as the firmware updater is a Classic app.

So please tell me there's an easy way to do this without hunting down OS 8 media, installing it, updating the firmware, and then installing 9.1. Please?

Tim.

 

[DeltaMac]

10.0 updates don't discriminate much about hardware updates, as OS 9 (requiring the update already)is required for Classic, Jaguar 10.2 is much more 'needy' about updates.
You will have to install a system that will boot the iMac, older than OS 9, newer or equal to 8.1. The firmware updater will not complete without a System Folder in place, and has to boot first to that system to start the install procedure. Once the firmware is updated, then you can wipe the drive and go from there.
Not an easy way there from here.

 

[Arden]

Look for an old version of 8, like 8.1 or 8.6, and install it... you can probably get one for maybe $20-30, and then you can update the firmware and install 9.