Installing OS9 on a Powerbook G4 1Ghz

OK, I have the original DVD for my G4 Powerbook 1Ghz. The powerbook has OS X 10.4.5 installed, as well as many OSX applications. OS 9, nor OS 9 in classic mode are installed on the Powerbook.
When I open "Install Applications & Mac OS 9" on the DVD (I am not starting up from the DVD as per the instructions on the DVD), and click on the hard drive to install the software, it tells me that the choosen volume contains software that is newer than the software I am installing and says it will replace the newer software with the older. (Fine with me, as far as OS 9 goes) I click continue to install the software and it tells me I cannot continue becaues there is nothing to install. I have checked in OS X System Preferences, Startup Disk and there is only OS X 10.4.5. OS 9 is not there. What can I do to get OS 9 installed on this powerbook without initializing the hard drive and starting over? I do not want classic mode.

Hi, Chuck -
...it tells me I cannot continue becaues there is nothing to install.
Perhaps this Apple KBase article may help -
Article 301719 - Mac OS X 10.3, 10.4: "Nothing to install" alert message

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Installing OS9.2 on Powerbook 1 Ghz Titanium

I am trying to install OS 9.2.1 on my G4 Titanium Powerbook. It has 512 mb RAM and is a 1 Ghz. It currently has OS 10.4.5 on it. I do not have the original OS 9 install or restore disk.
I have tried installing OS 9.2.1 from a G4 9.2.1 install disk as well as a retail version OS 9.2.1 disk. It starts up fine from the disks, but when I ckick to install the OS, it bombs with both disks.
I also tried not booting up from the disks, but just putting them in and trying to install from there. It tries to go into classic mode, but I do not believe Classic is on the computer because it says it cannot find it. I also do not have the original OS 10 install disk, but do have a copy of the install disk someone burned.
Any ideas? I really need OS 9 on this computer.

Hi, Chuck -
Your model is of the last series of the TiBooks. Unfortunately, although that model can (sometimes) boot to a OS 9.2.1 Install CD, it can use only the model-specific version of OS 9.2.2 that originally came with it.
In order to install a bootable OS 9 on it you will need to acquire a set of the original disks that came with it. You can sometimes get replacement originals from Apple's Customer Service, by phone. The number for that (and other Apple numbers) is on this page -
http://www.apple.com/contact/phone_contacts.html
If you do not need a bootable OS 9 on the machine, and need it only for use as Classic (Classic is a full install of OS 9.1 or later, used within OSX as a program to provide an environment in which to run many OS 9 programs), then you can copy an OS 9 System Folder from another machine.
Some users have also successfully copied the System Folder from an OS 9 Install CD for use as Classic - note, though, that those System Folders have a very limited assortment of control panels and extensions, and some services may not be available.
Also, a non-bootable OS 9 System Folder will not be upgradeable - all OS 9 upgrades (download updaters) run only when the machine is booted to OS 9.

PowerBook G4 1Ghz (Nov 2002) - can i install a 160gb Hard Disk inside?

Hi
I have a PowerBook G4 1Ghz (Nov 2002). I want to upgrade the internal 4200rpm 60gb drive to a 5400rpm 160gb.
Can my PowerBook address the full 160gb? Or is it limited to only addessing 128GB of it.
This page seems to says any mac introduced after June 2002 will be fine with drives over 128GB, but it seems like it's just refering to desktop macs.
http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=86178
Can anybody confirm that it will work?
Thanks!

I'm just wondering why the 667 won't recognise them?
The ATA controller used in those logic boards is not 48-bit LBA compliant. The first Powerbook LBs that had such a controller were the 867MHz and 1GHz boards used in the later DVI Tibooks. Other Macs introduced around the same time also had controllers that allowed the use of internal ATA drives larger than 128GB. So yes, the second part of your post is probably correct.
But be aware that after upgrading to a faster LB, you may no longer be able to boot to the discs that were shipped with your Powerbook or to those that were shipped with any other Powerbook, including a factory 867MHz or 1GHz Tibook. If that's the case, as it has been for some others who've reported here, it will leave you without any way of reinstalling a bootable OS 9.2.2, in case you ever want to. OS X 10.2.3 or higher can be installed from a retail installer disc set. But there's never been a retail OS 9.2.2 disc, and the DVI Tibooks won't boot to anything lower, so no retail OS 9 disc is usable with any of those models. This mattters less and less to most people as OS 9 recedes into the past, but it's something to be aware of.

Stumped!!! How do I install OS9 on a G4 QS 2002 with SCSI???

OK, this has got me beat! and I've been working with all manner of macs for 20 years! My experience of post-ADB, post-Serial Port, post-SCSI II, 'modern' macs of the 21st century is limited to powerbooks though [blush]
So, here's the quandary; In an earlier post I described how I'd purchased a G4 Dual 1Ghz Quicksilver 2002 with a Build-to-Order Apple SCSI option in order to run my Digidesign pro Tools gear in MacOS 9.2.2. Well, the boot drive is a 72GB Seagate Cheater attached to the factory installed UL3D ATTO card. I've installed OS X 10.4.4 successfully, but try as I might I cannot for the life of me figure out how I'm supposed to install OS9. When I insert the install CD and click on the installer it wants to load Classic, but doesn't find it! Duh! So no problem I think, I set the CD as my start-up volume and restart. This time I'm greeted by the OS9 desktop, but no bootup drive to install OS9 onto! Drive Setup can see the device, but says it cannot be mounted. Does is require ATTO drivers? That's crazy, I thought OS9 was built on SCSI. I can't find ATTO drivers online, or figure how I would install them before installing an OS.
So next problem, I restart and hold down Option, but the USB Apple keyboard doesn't seem to like key combinations because about 20 times in a row I keep rebooting back to the CD drive. My old ADB keyboard was never this unresponsive. Furthermore, how on earth do you force the CD to eject of these button-less towers? I finally managed it by holding the mouse down, but that only works in certain circumstances.
OK, so I figure I need to drag and drop an entire OS9 System Folder from my other G4 QS via an external drive over USB. That was successful, and now Startup Disk in the system sees an OS9 startup option as well as an OSX on the SCSI boot drive. so I figure I'm in business and select OS9 and restart. Now I'm in a whole world of pain! I'm greeted with the flashing '?' icon at boot up because clearly it cannot find the system. Well, you'd think that after a while it would just give up and start from OSX which is obviously sitting there waiting. Well NO! It just flashes forever. No amount of reboots will get it off this. I tried all sort of key combinations, but they don't seem to work, until cmd-x seemed to do it. However a couple of hours were wasted. It's also annoying not having a good old-fashioned restart button on my keyboard.
So anyway, how did Apple expect me to install OS 9 on this if their own installer CD doesn't even see their factory installed boot drive?

Well, I can confirm that that worked, however it was not as intuitive as it should have been, and can easily be overlooked.
Basically when you install Tiger and click on the Options box it allows you perform a 'Clean Install', and 'Erase Disk' etc where you are given only one option for formatting: Unix or HFS+ Journaling. At no point does it present you with an option to install OS9 drivers, and neither does it install them by default!
In order to install the OS9 compatibility you have to dismiss the OSX 10.4 installer script and open Disk Utility from the Utilities menu where you can perform the exact same task, but this time with an additional check box to install OS9 drivers! And irony or ironies, this time it's pre-selected by default! Talk about convoluted and counter-intuitive...
Anyway, thanks for the help Tom. That saved me another couple of nights

How to install os9 on separate partition alongside os 10.3?

Hi - I would like to know how to install os9.2.2 on a separate partition (with os10.3 on the other) so I can boot in REAL os9 (not classic) to use pro tools free which will not run on classic - (my old g3 I used this for has died) - I have recovered the hard disc contents and what I really want to do is just copy the entire 0s9 system (without having to reinstall it) to a partition - I know how to reboot the machine into os x (hold down x key during start up), but;
1) - can I boot the os 9 partition and if so how?
2) - will this work? - I remember someone telling me it was possible a few years ago, I just can't remember who -
any help greatly appreciated
Thanks!
James

Hi, l. No Aluminum Powerbook can boot into straight OS 9, so you'll have to a) use Pro Tools Free in Classic mode, b) get an older OS-9-bootable computer to run it on, c) buy the real Pro Tools to run on your top-of-the-line computer, or d) use some other application instead.
No Mac has ever been able to boot into an older OS version than the one(s) that were installed on it at the factory.
OS 8 & OS 9 hardware compatibility matrix
http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=25114
See Note 9 at bottom of article. There is no workaround.

No destination disk seen when trying to re-install mac os on powerbook g4

I wiped my drive clean and want to re-install mac os. When it gets to the screen with "select destination" there is no drive displayed. Please help!

Again, you haven't said which model powerbook you have, so I don't know what version disc(s) you have. DU is on the installer OS X disc. Boot from your OSX installer disc by holding the C key down while powering up and inserting the disc. Once it has booted you'll have to go through a few steps to reach DU. I don't recall exactly what they are but you're looking for utilities. The link I gave you should walk you through from that point, though there are some options you might want to choose (like installing OS9 drivers) depending upon your model powerbook.

Want to install OS9 with an external CD drive

I have an eMac OSX10.4.11
They internal CD drive has died and I'm using an external drive connect by firewire.
I want to install OS9 but the computer doesn't recognise the external CD drive when I hold c and restart.
Any suggestions please

Besides the great advice from Limnos so far...
Is your eMac capable of booting OS9? One of the 1GHz models couldn't, any after that couldn't, and the ones that could need the special Install Disc that came with them.
At the Apple Icon at top left>About this Mac.
Then click on More Info>Hardware and report this upto *but not including the Serial#*...
Hardware Overview:
Machine Name: Power Mac G5 Quad
Machine Model: PowerMac11,2
CPU Type: PowerPC G5 (1.1)
Number Of CPUs: 4
CPU Speed: 2.5 GHz
L2 Cache (per CPU): 1 MB
Memory: 10 GB
Bus Speed: 1.25 GHz
Boot ROM Version: 5.2.7f1

Is it possible to install 9.1 on powerbook running only 10.4.9?

I have an old program i want to use and found my 9.1 and 9.2.1 upgrade disc. Can install OS9 without messing things up??

Hi, Tom -
If those disks once worked on that machine, then yes. If those disks are from before you got the PB, they may or may not be usable - it depends upon the specific model PowerBook you have. This Apple KBase article can help identify it by Apple designation -
http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=88248
If your model is the one Apple designates as a PowerBook (17 inch), then the OS 9.1 Install CD and the update disk for OS 9.2.1 are not usable. That model PB can not boot to OS 9, any version. It can use it as Classic. However, the only source to install it is from the original disks that came with the machine; the combination installer on those disks has the ability to install a model-specific Classic-only version of OS 9.2.2.

I have a Titanium PowerBook G4 (1GHz) running OS 10.4.11. Is it worth upgrading to OS 10.5?

I have a Titanium PowerBook G4 (1GHz) running OS 10.4.11. Is it worth upgrading to OS 10.5? (I also have a newer desktop running Lion and an iPhone 4 running IOS 5). Thanks.

I upgraded my PowerBook G4 from 10.4 to 10.5 and from 512MB to 1.25GB RAM and thought it was well worth it. It's still in perfect condition, has a SuperDrive and the battery holds a full charge.
I use the following programs every day and they encouraged me to upgrade (clean install!) Leopard 10.5, it's worth the $130 to me:
iPhone requires 10.5, as previous poster stated above- the most important reason that I went to 10.5
Twitterrific 3.24 will run on 10.5 and is the oldest functioning Twitterrific client for 10.5 that will work due to the OAuth requirements, however it will not run at all on 10.4 so 10.4 can no longer use any version of Twitterrific (logging in with older version will fail due to the OAuth requirements which were not present in the older 10.4 versions)
Current version of VLC 1.1.xx is not supported under 10.4
Current 10.x version of iTunes is not supported under 10.4
Safari 5 requires 10.5, will not run at all on 10.4
Echofon requires 10.5, no version of Echofon will run at all on 10.4
Google Earth will not run at all on 10.4

Partition external hard drive and install OS9

I have a Lacie external hard drive, 350 GB, and would like to partition it and install OS9 in one of the partitions so that I can run some of the applications I have that won't run in OSX. What do I need to do. How much space should I partition the volumes into, and how many. Do the applications need to be in the same volume as OS9. I also want a volume for backup using "Time Machine" of OSx (leopard) which is in my internal drive in my iMac G5 with 80 GB., and another for backup of files that are in my internal hard drive.

Hi, falcontech -
Welcome to Apple's Discussions -
Bad news, perhaps.
Your G5 is not OS 9 bootable; no G5 is.
In addition, Leopard (OSX 10.5) does not support Classic (OS 9 used as a program while the machine is booted to OSX).
In order to make use of OS 9 as Classic, you would need to also install a bootable version of OSX 10.4 (Tiger) or 10.3 (Panther), boot the machine to that and then use Classic. Depending on which model it is, your iMac G5 model originally came with a version of either OSX 10.3 or OSX 10.4; its original disk set also can install Classic.
As far as partition sizes go, I would allow at least 20GB for the OSX/Classic partition. Although Classic (OS 9) is not fussy about whether its programs are on the same volume as OS 9 is, it would make little sense to have them elsewhere. Among other things, having the OS 9 programs on the same volume as OS 9 would make responses a bit faster since seeking would be restricted to just one volume.
As far as the remainder goes, your needs would best determine the partition sizes.

Can I install os9 on an external drive from mavericks

Can I install OS9 on an external drive from Mavericks? I'm running Mavericks 10.9.4 on both my MBP and 27" iMac. I have my original OS9 install disc. I'd like to install OS9 on an external drive so I can use some classic apps that I'd like to use.
I tried to install directly to an external drive, but when I click on the Mac OS Install icon, I get the message "You can't open the application "%@" because it may be damaged or incomplete." The icon for Mac OS Install is the generic page with an A. Figuring that Mavericks doesn't recognize the app. Then I restarted and held down the C key - no luck.

I understand, but was hoping I boot off an external drive in 9. Thanks for your response and I apologize for my late response.

Photoshop CS2 opens but wont perform any task (open jpgs, create new jpgs etc). Other CS2 progs such as indesign are fine. MAC shop, couldn't fix, said I should ty install op system 4 Powerbook G4-dont have discs- can I get them?other solution? OS 10.4.11

Photoshop CS2 opens but wont perform any task (open jpgs, create new jpgs etc). Other CS2 progs such as indesign are fine. MAC shop, couldn't fix, said I should try install op system 4 Powerbook G4-dont have discs- can I get them? or other solution? Am using OS 10.4.11 Thanks for any help

Hi
I actually dont think its Lion (sorry i put that as couldn't remember) as not on that computer at the moment, its at home, I am at work. I know CS2 is compatable with whatever OS I am using because I can using CS2 indesign etc and I was able to use CS2 photoshop until I updated the Camino browser (I believe this is when it stopped working). I have CS5 but it wont work at all on my Powerbook G4.
I can send a message later with the OS I am using and maybe you can suggest other help? They told me in the MAC shop to try and get the installation discs. They also said I would be able to get these via Apple's 'media replacement programme' which I cannot find anyway! To be honest, I am not even sure getting the install discs will work but I'll try whatever I need to try and get Photoshop working on it again!
Thanks

I can't boot panther install cd on my PowerBook G4

I have the Mac OS X 10.3.0 Install CDs, and I am trying to install it on my PowerBook G4 5,6. My PowerBook G4 came with 10.6.7. I can't find the original discs. When I try to install Panther on my PowerBook G4 it shows the gray apple for a second the it show a Gray X with a circle around it. Is there any way I can get panther on this PowerBook G4. I know it is an old OS but I love old OS's. I don't have another PowerPC Mac that can run Panther. I just have an iBook G4 from Mid 2005. It can old run 10.4.3 or later. And is there anyway I can update the 10.3.0 Install Disc to 10.6.7?
Thank You

A quick look at Mactracker.ca (get the app if you can run it - it has lots of info on old Macs) shows 10.3.7 as the lowest OS for that Mac.
You need to find it's original install disks or OS install disks with 10.3.7 or higher. If you had a Mac that can boot into 10.3.0 you could install via target disk mode onto the PowerBooks HD, but that is a kludge since the install will be setup for running based on the other hardware (may have different drivers etc). Upgrade it to the last 10.3 release & it may be bootable, sometimes this can work.
10.5.8 is the maximum OS that Powerbook will run, you cannot run 10.6 on any PowerPC Mac because 10.6 was the first Intel only OS from Apple, sorry.
Also see everymac.com for info on specs.

I want to install 10.4 on my eMac which is running 10.5.8 so that I can install OS9. (Don't ask.)

I want to install 10.4 on my eMac which is running 10.5.8 so that I can install OS9. (Don't ask.) The eMac is the very last one which was produced for the education market. What I need is an idiot's step by step guide to un-installing 10.5.8 and then just as detailed instructions to install 10.4 and OS9 and also which installs first. I need to be able to use programmes which go back as far as 1994. I have a Mac with Lion so 10.5.8 is not necessary to me. Spec for the eMac can be found at this link: http://support.apple.com/kb/SP44. Perhaps 10.4 is not the best OS to install along with OS9. I shall be grateful for all the advice I can gert.

I'm not quite sure of some of the terms you have used - a bit technical for me: "use a Mac formatted drive or FireWire Target Disk mode" - What are these?
And I'm not quite sure what these are: "move the items 'Applications (Mac OS 9)' and 'System Folder' to the eMac's internal drive, open the Classic pane of System Preferences, and specify that system."
It is at this point I need the idiot's guide.
Obviously I do NOT just insert the OS9 disc and double click on the installer? Up to this point I have understood you very clear explanations but now it seems as my knowledge is lacking.

Cannot install OS9.2.1 system anymore.

Hello,
I've read some posts that some can't install OS9.2.1. I had OS9.2.1 installed before and now I can't seem to install it using the c key. I get a gray screen.
My gigabit G4 dual 450 with 1.5RAM and 60GB drives allowed me to boot up into 9 so I could run my old apps and dis-continued filters.
Any suggestions. Thanks.
Mark

HI, PB -
The option in OSX's Disk Utiltity to install OS 9 drivers applies only to installing them on a hard drive.
Yes, in the absence of those drivers the machine can not be booted to OS 9 on that hard drive; and, that hard drive can not be mounted when the machine is booted to any OS 9, including OS 9 on another bootable hard drive or to a bootable CD.
However, it has nothing to do with the machine being able to boot to a CD. Additional volumes are mounted after the machine has nearly completed booting to the OS on the boot volume, not before - so no files, or their lack, on a non-boot volume can affect booting. If this were the case, then a G4 could not boot if there were no hard drive - but they can, and do.
I suppose it could happen that if a dual-drive machine had the Master drive without OS 9 drivers but the Slave drive with them, then booting to an OS 9 CD might choke at the end of the booting process - trying to read an ATA bus with a visible Slave but no visible Master might confound the OS. However, I've seen no reports of that (although I may have missed them).

Installing OS9 on a Powerbook G4 1Ghz

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