Question about formatting and OS9

[KawaiiAurora]

Hey,
I have a PowerBook G4 1Ghz 17" Al which is one of the first macs that's not supported by OS9. The unofficial OS9 DVD for unsupported Macintoshes and it works well on my PowerBook G4 but due to OS9 drivers, I can't install it..

Does anybody know if formatting the disk from OS9 and then partitioning it with disk utility would keep the OS 9 drivers on the hard drive? There is no OS 9 drivers option in disk utility in the OS X 10.4 install DVD I have so I can't do that. I'm asking because I recently formatted the computer and I don't want to give it another format for nothing.

I know it probably doesn't exist but is there an extension or something to read hard drives without OS9 drivers but not have OS9 boot from them? Maybe via FAT32?

Thanks,
Aurora

 

[eyoungren]

Why not just boot from a Panther install disk, open Disk Utility and then format the drive with OS9 drivers.

Jaguar was the OS these Macs shipped with originally so it's not like they can't boot from a Panther disk.

 

[KawaiiAurora]

Why not just boot from a Panther install disk, open Disk Utility and then format the drive with OS9 drivers.

Jaguar was the OS these Macs shipped with originally so it's not like they can't boot from a Panther disk.

As I thought, the Panther disk utility doesn't give me the option to install Mac OS 9 drivers on the partition tab

 

[eyoungren]

Hmmm. Maybe you'll need to connect the Mac via TDM to another Mac capable of using both OS9/OSX.

 

[KawaiiAurora]

Hmmm. Maybe you'll need to connect the Mac via TDM to another Mac capable of using both OS9/OSX.

Don't have any Firewire cables sadly.. Don't feel like nuking the HDD for nothing tho :/

I think it'd be better to just stick with Classic

 

[amagichnich]

I don't think there are OS9 drivers for partitions, just for the disk itself. So if you don't have to keep an OS X partition I recommend the following:
Start up with Panther or Jaguar and format the disk with something OS9 can't handle at all. Say MBR and FAT for example. Then startup from OS9 ('OS9 lives - the well tempered Mac OS (2013)' I assume?). As it can't read the disk the drive setup pops up (or you have to start it manually from the apple menu) and asks you to initialize the disk. After initialization you can format the disk with two partitions, install OS9 on one and OS10 on the other one.
I hope this helps...

It didn't work with my 1.67 PB though but that's how I got my PB1400 to dualboot Mac OS 8.6 and System 7 / Mac OS 7.
[doublepost=1499119473][/doublepost]

I think it'd be better to just stick with Classic

I personally dislike classic as it is a weird inconsistent mix of OS9 and OS X. Better have a pure OS9 and OS X seperately
[doublepost=1499120467][/doublepost]I just reformatted my drive and the disk utility log indicates that even though there is no seperate checkbox even OS 10.5 installs OS9 drivers

I'm sorry that it's german but it basically says:
- prepare for partitioning
-partition scheme Apple partition table
-Mac OS 9-driver installed
-1 volume created

So the OS9 driver is partition related after all and shouldn't be the problem

 

[KawaiiAurora]

Yeah, I know that you can't have OS9 drivers for a single partition. I may try doing nuking the HDD from OS9. What do you mean that it didn't work on your 1.67 PB? What did it do?

 

[amagichnich]

Yeah, I know that you can't have OS9 drivers for a single partition. I may try doing nuking the HDD from OS9. What do you mean that it didn't work on your 1.67 PB? What did it do?

As mentioned above OS X seem to install the drivers itself, even for a single partition. That's the log after I resized a partition and created a second one.
System freeze some seconds after a seldom successful startup. But I didn't expect anything else from that PB. It's a really weird one sometimes. It can't use USB powered HDDs for example

 

[KawaiiAurora]

As mentioned above OS X seem to install the drivers itself, even for a single partition. That's the log after I resized a partition and created a second one.
System freeze some seconds after a seldom successful startup. But I didn't expect anything else from that PB. It's a really weird one sometimes. It can't use USB powered HDDs for example

Almost took the leap of faith but Drive Setup only saw 128GB of my 160GB HDD when I went into the options section when I was going to initialise the drive..

 

[amagichnich]

Almost took the leap of faith but Drive Setup only saw 128GB of my 160GB HDD when I went into the options section when I was going to initialise the drive..

That's weird... you are still trying this on the G4 PB? 128 is the G3s limit...
You made me very curious now, maybe I'll give it a try on my iBook tomorrow

 

[KawaiiAurora]

That's weird... you are still trying this on the G4 PB? 128 is the G3s limit...
You made me very curious now, maybe I'll give it a try on my iBook tomorrow

Yep, still on the Al 17" 1GHz.

Maybe we can manually format the drive via Terminal in an OS X boot DVD/CD?

Looks like it's doable via disk utility: http://www.manpages.info/macosx/diskutil.8.html

 

[amagichnich]

I used the Utilitys Floppy Disk (7.5) to boot the powerbook and that's what drive setup looks like there.

Maybe format the drive in OS9 as two partitions, then boot with OS X DVD and hope that it recognizes the drive properly
[doublepost=1499186052][/doublepost]Oh, one question I forgot to ask: You plan on dual booting X and 9, right? If not and 9 should be the only OS then forget everything I said

 

[KawaiiAurora]

I used the Utilitys Floppy Disk (7.5) to boot the powerbook and that's what drive setup looks like there.
View attachment 707201
Maybe format the drive in OS9 as two partitions, then boot with OS X DVD and hope that it recognizes the drive properly
[doublepost=1499186052][/doublepost]Oh, one question I forgot to ask: You plan on dual booting X and 9, right? If not and 9 should be the only OS then forget everything I said

Yeah, I plan to boot OS X 10.5 (and maybe 10.4) and OS9. I'm still concerned about the 128GB limit tho.. Don't want to waste 32GB I think I'll try with disk utility via terminal

 

[eyoungren]

Yeah, I plan to boot OS X 10.5 (and maybe 10.4) and OS9. I'm still concerned about the 128GB limit tho.. Don't want to waste 32GB I think I'll try with disk utility via terminal

Two ways around this.

Partion as two drives or Intech HiCap driver (supports OS9).

 

[KawaiiAurora]

Two ways around this.

Partion as two drives or Intech HiCap driver (supports OS9).

Surely not gonna buy a driver for something that should work out of the box. Drive Setup only sees 128GB, even when I choose to do multiple paritions. I think I'll save myself the hassle and be content with Classic environment as sound is wonky on OS9 (only works if headphones are plugged in and then both speakers and headphones output sound). Maybe I'll try looking for some cheap laptop locally if I decide to dabble with OS9 more or I'll just use it via a USB pen drive

Thanks

 

[velvetcave]

Hello all,
I have a question I`m really hoping someone will be able to help with.
I have a powerpc G4, I used OSX Tiger and os9 as a dual boot system (different operating systems on different drives). I`ve used this for years without a hitch. Recently the system has developed an annoying habit of crashing every hour or so, after replacing all peripheral components I have finally come round to replacing the computer. I transferred the hard drives from my old system to the new, OSX fires up fine, and I can see the drive that the os9 sits on, but it wont boot from that drive. I tried startup disk, disk utilities, holding down alt etc. Nothing.
Hoping it`s something simple, and hoping someone can help.
Cheers.

 

[KawaiiAurora]

Hello all,
I have a question I`m really hoping someone will be able to help with.
I have a powerpc G4, I used OSX Tiger and os9 as a dual boot system (different operating systems on different drives). I`ve used this for years without a hitch. Recently the system has developed an annoying habit of crashing every hour or so, after replacing all peripheral components I have finally come round to replacing the computer. I transferred the hard drives from my old system to the new, OSX fires up fine, and I can see the drive that the os9 sits on, but it wont boot from that drive. I tried startup disk, disk utilities, holding down alt etc. Nothing.
Hoping it`s something simple, and hoping someone can help.
Cheers.

What's the system you're using? It may not support native OS 9 booting. Please do another thread to get your question answered properly tho