Need Help with Classic/OS X

[mytabbycat]

Hi, I've always had Macs and refuse to ever get anything but a Mac. I've been pretty out of the loop for the past few years and just got an older iMac, which is a step up from my old iMac. It came with OS X 10.1, but I will be getting 10.3 in a few days, and then I'll be getting DSL because I have to have 10.3 in order to get the DSL. Anyway, I have a 9.0.4 OS disc from my other computer. I know it's possible for me to download a few updates and turn that into 9.2 and I then I wouldn't have to purchase a 9.2 disc. My question is whether I'll be able to do that in any way on the new computer so I'll have the Classic as well as 10.3?? When I put my OS 9 install disc in, it says I need OS 9.1 or later to start Classic. So I guess there is no way I can install 9.0 somehow and then download the appropriate files to turn it into 9.2? Basically, I'd love to avoid spending anymore money to purchase 9.1 or 9.2, but I don't know if that's possible.

 

[disconap]

What model imac are you talking about? The easiest route will likely be this: install OS9 on your older imac (ignore if it's already installed), update it to 9.2.2, then copy the system folder (and anything else you want to keep) to an external drive or dongle (you can fit the system folder at the very least on a 256mb or larger dongle). Then just copy those folders onto your OSX drive (NOTE: make sure your OS9 system folder is named "System Folder"), go into system preferences-->classic and select that folder as your os9 folder. That should work.

Note that this may violate your user agreement (if it is a single-user license), especially if you still run OS9 on your older machine. I believe the license is for one machine, though, so if you're not using OS9 on your older machine, it should be ok. You won't need to do anything else if you only want to use it in classic mode; to be able to have the option to boot into OS9, you need to bless the OS9 system (and you may need to install it on a separate partition, though I'm not sure about that)--google "bless OS 9" or something similar and you'll find instructions. If it's a G5 imac, you won't be able to set it to boot into OS9, but it will work fine in classic mode within OSX.

 

[mytabbycat]

My old iMac is a 350mhz one and the newer one is the 600mhz graphite one. I was hoping not to have to download anything on the old one since it's going to be very slow to download, but I guess I'll have to try that and then transfer that to the new computer. Thanks for the advice