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Can I upgrade from OS 8.6 straight to 9.2.1?

sparkie7

sparkie7

macrumors 68030
Original poster
Oct 17, 2008
2,519
285
Ok, not having much luck trying to get the USB card in my G3 to recognise my USB2 external drives or USB sticks. So thinking of upgrading from Sys 8.6 to 9.2.1 in hope that it will recognise the USB drives.

So... can I upgrade direct from 8.6 to 9.2.1 or even 9.2.2?, or do I need to do interim installs to get up to 9.2.2?

Any advice appreciated..
 
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sparkie7 said:
Ok, not having much luck trying to get the USB card in my G3 to recognise my USB2 external drives or USB sticks. So thinking of upgrading from Sys 8.6 to 9.2.1 in hope that it will recognise the USB drives.

So... can I upgrade direct from 8.6 to 9.2.1 or even 9.2.2?, or do I need to do interim installs to get up to 9.2.2?

Any advice appreciated..
Click to expand...

wow. dude that is such an old OS.. not sure if trolling
 
not trolling bud. this is a "genuine" (in heavy southern US accent) post.
 
sparkie7 said:
Ok, not having much luck trying to get the USB card in my G3 to recognise my USB2 external drives or USB sticks. So thinking of upgrading from Sys 8.6 to 9.2.1 in hope that it will recognise the USB drives.

So... can I upgrade direct from 8.6 to 9.2.1 or even 9.2.2?, or do I need to do interim installs to get up to 9.2.2?

Any advice appreciated..
Click to expand...

I think you'll need to upgrade to OS 9 first, but that memory is lost forever along with the price of gas when I had my first car and what I wore to my prom.

I am curious though as to what took you so long to upgrade to OS 9 since it was considered to be the best Mac OS of its era?
 
What about installing a different USB card?

Would this work?

http://www.ebay.com/itm/RATOC-PCIU4-USB-2-0-Card-For-Apple-Power-Mac-G3-G4-Mactonish-PCI-USB2-Controller-/200820672716?pt=US_Internal_Port_Expansion_Cards&hash=item2ec1d848cc

$10, free shipping in the U.S., USB 2.0, says it works with G3 Blue and White Power Macs. Would that work in the OP's beige PM?

UPDATE: that probably won't work...
https://forums.macrumors.com/threads/182202/

UPDATE 2: It could work...
http://www.applefritter.com/node/23618

Read post 10. It didn't work at first but moving it to another PCI slot solved the problem.
 
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skateny said:
I think you'll need to upgrade to OS 9 first, but that memory is lost forever along with the price of gas when I had my first car and what I wore to my prom.

I am curious though as to what took you so long to upgrade to OS 9 since it was considered to be the best Mac OS of its era?
Click to expand...

seems you're right on the money, i tried a 9.2.2 installer, but it says it needs OS 9 first and you need to do the intermediate updates...

i only had OS 8.5.1 on my Beige G3, but by that time I bought a PowerBook G4 laptop and never bothered to update my G3 as it got neglected and unused. Now that I need to pull off all my old data, I need to get the USB to work lol

tom vilsack said:
You could always buy 9.2.2 (it was sold for emacs) but will work np in your G3.

Also i believe (been a long while) that in order to get to 9.2.1 you have to have 9.1...and you can't upgrade 8.6 to 9.1

http://support.apple.com/kb/DL1120?viewlocale=en_US
Click to expand...

yep youre right, I am getting a OS 9.0.4, and hopefully i can upgrade from this.

cocacolakid said:
What about installing a different USB card?

Would this work?

UPDATE 2: It could work...
http://www.applefritter.com/node/23618

Read post 10. It didn't work at first but moving it to another PCI slot solved the problem.
Click to expand...

Thanks. this is a last resort,... having to buy hardware...
 
sparkie7 said:
Ok, not having much luck trying to get the USB card in my G3 to recognise my USB2 external drives or USB sticks. So thinking of upgrading from Sys 8.6 to 9.2.1 in hope that it will recognise the USB drives.

So... can I upgrade direct from 8.6 to 9.2.1 or even 9.2.2?, or do I need to do interim installs to get up to 9.2.2?

Any advice appreciated..
Click to expand...

It is not possible to boot a PowerPC mac without using open firmware, but there is a workaround: http://www.hints.macworld.com/article.php?story=20060301112336384
 
ppcfanforever1 said:
Looks like its solved but in my experience start from the ground up, its more of a stable os that way.
Click to expand...

I think he is trying to move files from this computer to a USB hard disk. Therefore, he cannot wipe, as he would lose the files he was trying to get at.
 
MisterKeeks said:
He never said he was trying to boot, and based on his previous thread, it doesn't look like he is trying to boot from these.
Click to expand...

Yes, correct

MisterKeeks said:
I think he is trying to move files from this computer to a USB hard disk. Therefore, he cannot wipe, as he would lose the files he was trying to get at.
Click to expand...

Correct again. I am going to try a OS 9.0.4 installer on the machine, I assume this will move the OS 8.6 system onto a separate folder. And leave all the documents and apps intact?

I will then try to apply all the stepped updates up to 9.2.2, assuming all goes well at each step that is

tom vilsack said:
sparkie if you need emac version of 9.2.2 give me buzz...i could help you out.
Click to expand...

Thanks tom, but i have the 9.2.2 installer already but it says it needs OS 9 to install first.
 
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Another option might be to remove the HDD and put it in a case, I guess it's IDE? Then just hook that up to your current computer via USB.

I had to do similar when I went to sell my G4 I had not used in years, boot him up and check what was on their before deleting the HDD and re-installing the OS.
 
My memory of OS 9 is that you have to have OS 9.1 installed in order to install 9.2...and they didn't make a bootable OS 9.2 install CD, which is why you are going through all the hassle you are going through.

My other memory is that OS 8.6 won't read or boot from an external USB drive unless it was formatted with Intech's Harddisk SpeedTools (I'll spare you my traumatic memories trying to do this in 2001), but I think you would be ok with OS 9.0.4 (better USB drivers).

When installing OS 9.0.4, I think you want to do the clean install option, which will preserve the old system folder in a "previous system" folder.
 
blesscheese said:
When installing OS 9.0.4, I think you want to do the clean install option, which will preserve the old system folder in a "previous system" folder.
Click to expand...

Will I be able to make the old (OS 8.6) system bootable should I need to ?

ie. shift OS 9.0.4 to an unbootable folder. and move the old system back into a bootable one? or is this backwards OS move not possible?
 
UPDATE:

Ok I have upgraded the system to Mac OS 9.2.2

All the USB extensions seems to be there:

USB Authoring Support 1.1.2
USB Device Extension 1.5.8
USB MASS Storage Support 2.1.1
USB Software Locator 1.5.8
USB Support 1.5.5

But when I stick my Western Digital 250GB USB external drive in, nothing comes up or is recognised. Am I still missing updates?
 
sparkie7 said:
UPDATE:

Ok I have upgraded the system to Mac OS 9.2.2

All the USB extensions seems to be there:

USB Authoring Support 1.1.2
USB Device Extension 1.5.8
USB MASS Storage Support 2.1.1
USB Software Locator 1.5.8
USB Support 1.5.5

But when I stick my Western Digital 250GB USB external drive in, nothing comes up or is recognised. Am I still missing updates?
Click to expand...

I scanned back on this thread, and I think it was covered here, but I'm still not certain: Can you actually get USB 2.0 to work on a Beige Mac G3 with a PCI card? I just don't know whether or not this is possible.
 
My emac cd 9.2.2 boot's from cd and requires no pre upgrading...i believe they only made for late model emacs,but i have installed in lots of other ppc's.
 
ppcfanforever1 said:
Yes you can, i did on my powermac 9600 and i can confirm its at 2.0 speeds.
Click to expand...

is there size/volume limitations that is restricting the G3 from recognising the USB2 external? Its 250GB, maybe its too big?

tom vilsack said:
My emac cd 9.2.2 boot's from cd and requires no pre upgrading...i believe they only made for late model emacs,but i have installed in lots of other ppc's.
Click to expand...

Prior to installing OS 9.2.2 on the G3 it would always display:

"The software needed to use the USB device cannot be found. Please refer to the device documentation to install the necessary software."

But now with 9.2.2 installed this message doesn't come up anymore.

I think the OS 9.2.2 installer I used was for a G4 (full retail version) but it installed fine as it didn't stop from installing onto my G3. So not sure what I'm missing to get the machine to recognise the USB2 drive
 
PS. I tried a small 500MB USB stick disk to test the storage size issue and still no luck
 
Run Software Update. There's one called "Disc Burning" or "Authoring Support" or something along those lines that I needed to install before my G3 could see my external DVD drive (just to read!). You may be having the same issue.

Edit: I decided to stop being lazy and actually look. It's Authoring Support 1.1.9.
 
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