System fails to recognise program files

[koos_v]

Hi all!

I have an iMac 400 (slotloading) that I'm hoping to bring back to life installing OSX. Currently, OS 9.0 is installed.

I have to update the firmware to 4.1.9 but to do so, first I need to upgrade to 9.1/9.2.

I put the upgrade on my USB stick, copied onto the iMac desktop but it doesn't recognize the "install OS9.1" file as a program file. The file shows that crap PC icon and on double-click a dialog asks me what program to use to open it. This problem occurs with every new program file I copy onto the iMac, so I conclude that the upgrade is not corrupted (or they would've all been corrupted, not likely).

I've tried rebuilding the desktop, to no avail. Maybe the PRAM battery has any part? (Not sure if it's very alive anymore)

Is there any way I can launch the upgrade program within a terminal or anything? or add an extension that'll fix this?

Thnx i.a.

 

[MisterMe]

You are using an MS-DOS formatted flash drive. MacOS 9.1 or MacOS 9.2 can be installed by drag and drop from a Mac-formatted (HFS or HFS+) removable drive. I've done that. However, I don't think that you can do that from a FAT16 drive.

Get yourself a MacOS 9.1 or MacOS 9.2 distribution CD and install that way. Everything I said above also holds true.

 

[koos_v]

Turns out my flash drive was in fact DOS formatted.
Formatting to HFS did the trick, thank you so much!