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OS 9 on a Power Macintosh 8100/100

H

harlleysathler

macrumors member
Original poster
Oct 26, 2003
72
6
Hi all,

I have an Power Macintosh 8100/100 with 168Mb of RAM here and I want to run MacOS 9 on it. Well, I can boot it using the OS 9 CD, but when I lunch the system installer an error message, thay says that the system cannot run in this computer, is returned.

But I believe that the OS 9 can run in this computer. Can it run?

Thank you all!
 
When you say"I can boot it using the OS 9 CD", what version of Mac OS 9 are we talking about? As I recall, the Mac OS 9.0 installer CD works just fine for that system, but a 9.1 or 9.2 wouldn't.
 
I've got both a 7100 and a 8100.
They are basically the same machine as the 8100.
They support os 9.0.4 (9.1 can be installed from a CD, but not upgraded from 9.0.4 to 9.1)
The reason you can't install OS 9 with your CD is because your CD probably isn't a retail apple CD, but a cd that came with an another computer.
If you order a retail Os 9 or 9.1 you can boot and install from it.
 
I would install OS 8.6 onto it, IMO. Stable and quite a bit of software is out there for it.
 
cluthz said:
I've got both a 7100 and a 8100.
...The reason you can't install OS 9 with your CD is because your CD probably isn't a retail apple CD, but a cd that came with an another computer.
If you order a retail Os 9 or 9.1 you can boot and install from it.
Click to expand...

I agree, this is likely the reason you cant install the OS from that particular CD......it was an anti-piracy scheme that Apple used to prevent people from "borrowing" instead of "buying"
 
Macky-Mac said:
I agree, this is likely the reason you cant install the OS from that particular CD......it was an anti-piracy scheme that Apple used to prevent people from "borrowing" instead of "buying"
Click to expand...

While it may be partly an "anti-piracy scheme" it is primarily a mechanism to keep users from installing OS software components that are incompatible with their computer.

If you buy a 601-based Mac and it has a disk with it and a few years later you get a G3-based Mac you shouldn't just plop that old OS onto the new Mac. You could end up with a Mac that won't boot or not be able to use some parts of the hardware (video acceleration, sound in/out, SCSI).

This was once managed by "enablers" and later on "ROM" files were used along with hardware-specific components installed inside the System files.

There are significant differences between hardware in one Mac vs. another, especially desktops back in the earlier days of PowerPC-based Macs.

So the easiest way to keep a user from installing a unusable OS onto an otherwise working computer is to restrict the System CD-ROM. The new Restore disks do the same thing, each one is meant for a particular Mac that it came with and includes all iApps and other components for that model only to bring the Mac back to its original configuration - which should work just fine.

The retail disks are "universal" installers that include all components for all supported models and an installer that can pick and choose which hardware-specific components belong with which Mac hardware.

My dad would try to do the same thing and I tried explaining this to him, but it didn't work. I would just shut up and fix the damage he had wrought upon the poor Mac (by manually copying whole System folders and/or components).
 
Sayer said:
While it may be partly an "anti-piracy scheme" it is primarily a mechanism to keep users from installing OS software components that are incompatible with their computer.

If you buy a 601-based Mac and it has a disk with it and a few years later you get a G3-based Mac you shouldn't just plop that old OS onto the new Mac. You could end up with a Mac that won't boot or not be able to use some parts of the hardware (video acceleration, sound in/out, SCSI).

This was once managed by "enablers" and later on "ROM" files were used along with hardware-specific components installed inside the System files.

There are significant differences between hardware in one Mac vs. another, especially desktops back in the earlier days of PowerPC-based Macs.

So the easiest way to keep a user from installing a unusable OS onto an otherwise working computer is to restrict the System CD-ROM. The new Restore disks do the same thing, each one is meant for a particular Mac that it came with and includes all iApps and other components for that model only to bring the Mac back to its original configuration - which should work just fine.

The retail disks are "universal" installers that include all components for all supported models and an installer that can pick and choose which hardware-specific components belong with which Mac hardware.

My dad would try to do the same thing and I tried explaining this to him, but it didn't work. I would just shut up and fix the damage he had wrought upon the poor Mac (by manually copying whole System folders and/or components).
Click to expand...

I think its a mix.
I couldn't boot my 6100 from the OS8.0 cd that came with the beige G3, but i could install 8.0 on the G3 and copy it over ethernet to the 6100 and use it as System.

What are you planning to use the 8100 for?
OS 8.1 i probably the fastest OS on a 8100. Its no need to use a newer system software than you need.
 
Hi all,

Thank you very much for the help!

Now I understand becouse the software don't installs...

Well, this 8100 is the unique Macintosh that I have for a long time. Until I can't have another more new machine I must to do all my work on the 8100.

Currently the 8100 is running OS 8.5, but with it I can't run more recently programs and applications... (Photoshop, QuarkXPress, Illustrator, etc...)

I don't care if the computer will be slow with a more recent system, but I need that the applications work.

Cluthz, the procedure that you do wirh the 6100, is there how it work for me? If yes, is there how do it with my CD?

Thank you!

PS.: Sorry my bad english! I'm brazilian.
 
iris_failsafe said:
I think you can download the upgrades from Apples website. Upgrade to 8.6 then to 9
Click to expand...
If you want to upgrade to MacOS 9, just upgrade to MacOS 9. You gain nothing by going through the intermediate step of upgrading to MacOS 8.6.
 
cluthz said:
I think its a mix.
OS 8.1 i probably the fastest OS on a 8100. Its no need to use a newer system software than you need.
Click to expand...

It should be noted that 8.0/8.1 still had a lot of 680x0 code, while 8.5/8.6 was more optimized for PowerPC... I run 8.6 on my Power Macintosh 7100 and it runs great. It is an improvement over 8.1 performance wise as long as you have enough RAM (which is not a problem in this case).

The only reason I've ever upgraded a 6100/7100/8100 to Mac OS 9 (to 9.0.4 actually) is so that those system can run iTunes 1.0/2.0. I have SoundJam on my 7100 which runs fine in 8.6.
 
Sayer said:
......The retail disks are "universal" installers that include all components for all supported models and an installer that can pick and choose which hardware-specific components belong with which Mac hardware......
Click to expand...


well, as you point out, the retail disks were universal.....the ONLY reason to go to the added expense of making "non-unversal" disks was to prevent piracy......otherwise it would have been cheaper to just included a "universal" disk with all the computers
 
Macky-Mac said:
well, as you point out, the retail disks were universal.....the ONLY reason to go to the added expense of making "non-unversal" disks was to prevent piracy......otherwise it would have been cheaper to just included a "universal" disk with all the computers
Click to expand...
Simply not true. New computers almost always include features that are not supported by the current point release. Yet, Apple's new software functionality may be month's away. It makes no sense to for Apple to go to the expense of developing a new universal release which adds no new functionality to the installed base.
 
MisterMe said:
Simply not true. New computers almost always include features that are not supported by the current point release. Yet, Apple's new software functionality may be month's away. It makes no sense to for Apple to go to the expense of developing a new universal release which adds no new functionality to the installed base.
Click to expand...

Whenever Apple releases a new machine that requires an upgrade for some new feature, they also upgrade the "universal" OS release too........they're routinely releasing increamental upgrades

it's not a matter of "developing a new universal release which adds no new functionality to the installed base", but rather keeping the current retail OS product up to date with all of their current hardware productss.....imagine going to a store to buy a new system disk and being told that you couldn't get a retail version of the OS that would work on your machine because your computer is too new!!
 
You can run iTunes 1.0 on OS 8.6, BTW. There is a thread here talking about it as well as Google.
 
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