Installing OS 9 on Tiger Mac

MacAndy · Jul 7th, 2005, 10:42 AM

Hi,

One Mac I have to update here in the office is for the bookkeeper who is using an old grape iMac. We have a G4 450 I am going to give him - the big toys are for the studio ;-) - and so I did a complete scrub and installed a fresh copy of Tiger.

But, one component of the accounting software apparently requires OS 9.

OK, I figure it shouldn't be a problem to install OS 9.

Big problem. First, Tiger won't let the installer run because it needs OS 9. Duh. So I searched the subject and found a thread in which someone stated they restarted with OS 9 and did a clean install. Which I did. I now have a very happy G4 with OS 9 on it, and Tiger is nowhere to be found. Argh.

So, what is the correct procedure for installing OS 9 on an OS X Mac?

thejst · Jul 7th, 2005, 10:58 AM

I would think that you have to partition the drive into 2 parts one for X one for OS9 and reboot accordingly...

MacAndy · Jul 7th, 2005, 01:00 PM

My G5 at home runs both but it came installed that way. So was hoping I could set up this old G4 in the same way. Sigh.

Bosco · Jul 7th, 2005, 01:32 PM

	Quote:			Originally Posted by MacAndy
	My G5 at home runs both but it came installed that way. So was hoping I could set up this old G4 in the same way. Sigh.

I assume you're talking about Classic? That's fine but you may want to boot in OS 9 for the best performance.

Best way I've found to run OS9 and X on the same Mac is to use a seperate partition for each. The OS9 to be doesn't have to be very big (by today's standards). 10 GB is plenty.

The advantage is that you can run utilities and make changes in one OS and not run the risk of corrupting the other. Especially if you like to run Norton in OS 9.

And if you need to reinstall one of the OS's you can leave the other alone.

Jul 7th, 2005, 02:45 PM

If they are both on the same partition ... if you hold down option when you boot you should be able to boot back into OSX and be ok from there (make sure to set the startup disk in OSX once your in).

MacAndy · Jul 7th, 2005, 04:28 PM

I have OS X on my G5 with the OS X "System" and Mac OS 9 "System Folder" folders on the same drive, no partitions, and can run native and classic apps when needed. That is what I hope to do for this user.

iMatt · Jul 7th, 2005, 11:18 PM

Yes, they can be on the same partition.

Now that the machine has 9 only and you accidentally zapped Tiger in the process of installing it, installing Tiger again, this time without wiping the drive first, should leave that OS 9 System Folder intact and usable both for booting and for running Classic.

MacAndy · Jul 8th, 2005, 11:15 AM

EXCELLENT - thanks for confirming this process BEFORE I tackled it, OS X and OS 9 working simultaneously on the G4 now. He'll be so happy to venture in OS X land. Now to fill him in on all the unix-based OS nightmares that await him! ;-)