Novice trying to re-install OS9

Last night i tried to install OS9 over OSX on a Power Mac G4. It seemed to install correctly but when i tried to remove the disc it says i cant because it contains the active system software. If I loaded it onto the hard drive shouldnt it be running off of that and not the disc anymore.
most of my applications wont work (i movie, i tunes,etc) it cant find the programs to open them. any help appreciated

Hi, Jeff -
Welcome to Apple's Discussions.
When you boot the machine to a CD in order to install software, the machine will still be booted to the CD (meaning the OS on the CD is running the machine) until you select a different boot volume and restart. The machine can not switch to use a different OS until it is restarted. As long as the OS on the CD is running the machine, the CD can not be removed (ejected).
It sounds like you may not have done that. If the CD is running OS 9, use the Startup Disk control panel (Apple menu > Control Panels > Startup Disk); if it is running OSX, use the Startup Disk control pane (Apple menu > System Preferences > Startup Disk). In Startup Disk select the OS on the hard drive that you wish to use for the next boot, then restart the machine.
most of my applications wont work (i movie, i tunes,etc) it cant find the programs to open them.
That's not unusual when the machine is booted to a CD (or DVD). The OS on such a disk (the one used to boot the machine from the disk, not the one installed by it) is not complete - it is sufficient to boot the machine and to run the installer program, but has a very limited assortment of other services (such as extensions in OS 9) available.

Similar Messages

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

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.

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 onto G4 Digital Audio

Hi,
I was directed here to get better help with this topic. As the title says, I want to install OS9 onto my Digital Audio G4 tower but having little success. I have ttried various discs (9.0, 9.1, 9.2) and none let me install the OS. The best I can get is the "Welcome to Mac OS 9.1" before the bomb screen shows saying there was an unimplemented trap problem. To get that far I have to boot off of a 9.0 disc to get the Floppy and ? error before I change to a 9.1/9.2 disc to start the installer. If I try to boot from the 9.1 or 9.2 discs directly, my Mac complains that there's no bootable medium. I have tried various images and even retail discs (including one that came with the original OSX package) to no avail.
Is there anyone that can help?
Thanks,
Naoki

Make sure your 1/2 AA 3.6V PRAM battery is under 4 years old. Make sure you are in fact using a Digital Audio:
http://support.apple.com/kb/HT3082
The Digital Audio never officially supported 10.5. If you used LeopardAssist to install 10.5 on it, double check with LeopardAssist's author that didn't affect your ability to use 9 with it, since 10.5 is not compatible with Classic, but is compatible with dual booting into Classic.
If the Mac has a third party processor upgrade, the firmware may have affected its ability to use 9.
Use this article to determine which versions of 9 CD can work with your Mac, once you have identified your Mac accurately with HT3082:
http://support.apple.com/kb/HT2191
Make sure your 9 retail copy says in black text the version of 9 that is newer than the minimum shown in the article:
9(.0), 9.0.2, 9.0.4, 9.1, 9.2.1 are all retail releases in the sequence of release.
The 9 CD has an orange 9 logo with a white background, and does not Upgrade, or Dropin on it, or any Mac model on it. Lastly, verify the startup manager can see the 9 CD after being inserted:
http://support.apple.com/kb/TA27043
And the curly arrow is clicked on it. If it doesn't see the CD, then it is not compatible.

Problem installing OS9 after OSX bugger up

Hey folks.
Ive got a G4 Tower that my brother got from his work. He wanted me to stick OSX on it which i did not realising you need to install the firmware update first. So ive tried to go reinstall OS9 on the drive in order to do this...herein lies the problem:
I havent seen my genuine OS9 discs for yonks, i have no idea where they are (plus they are the discs that came with my 400MHz iMac so they might not work anyhoo) so i opted for getting a copy through...questionable means. It all works fine, ive burnt the contents to a disc and can run the installer with no problems.
I connected the tower to my iBook using target mode and wiped the hard drive remotely using Disk Utility. There was no way i could use the drive otherwise, it just came up with the OSX boot screen then eventually the no entry sign. After wiping and reformatting the drive it comes up fine in target mode. I run the installer and it puts OS9 on the target disk with no problems, the installer finishes and everything. I went back into the the installer straight afterwards to confirm it worked and it said the version i had intalled was Z2-9.0.4 or something to that effect. When i restart the tower it comes up with the flashing folder that normally comes up when there is a system folder problem. I can access all the files on the drive when in target mode, but i cant boot up from the drive even though the OS installed with no problems.
Can anyone help with this problem, i know it was unethical to use a pirated copy but where else am i going to get a copy of OS9 these days?!

right update time:
i downloaded both of those updates (9.1/9.2.1) Went through the whole installation prcoess again starting with 9.0.4. That installed ok, straight afterwards i installed the 9.1 update. That had a small complaint about not being able to access a 'About Apple Script' file. It seemed like a non-core file so i just told it to carry on, which it did and it said the installer finished properly with no problems, and after checking in the installer app it said it had Z2-9.1 installed. Then i did the 9.2 update. Again it went smoothly, it had one hicup where it said something about a drive file not being right '-- Mac Help Guide.img' or something along those lines, again it seems like an unimportant file so i tell it to carry on. It comes up with a box saying something cannot be installed, i tell it to skip and it carries on. Eventually it finishes the installation, saying some software has not been installed, but it finishes none the less. Afterwards i go back into the installer and check to make sure it has worked and it says it has Z1-9.2.1 installed and when i went to install it again to make sure it asks if i want to remove/overwrite it or add more to it.
From this surely one would assertain that 9.2.1 has been installed on the machine. I went into the machine's system folder afterwards, looked up all the important files such as System, and it says that it is version Z1-9.2.1. HOWEVER when i go to restart the machine it comes up with the flashing question mark again. I dont get it! From accessing the machine through TD mode it says that it has 9.2.1 installed, if thats the case why isnt it loading the system folder properly?!

Installing OS9

I'm trying to install OS 10.3. I'm currenty using OS 10.2. The problems i'm having are as follows...
When installing 10.3 the error message appears "no firmware"
When trying to install the correct fireware 4.1.9 the error message appears " can't install fireware because of classic is not running" my computer does not have classic, but comes with the OS9 installation disk.
When trying to install OS9 I'm getting the error " A valid destination volume can't be found. To continue the insallation process. mount a valid volume for software insallation...
Greatfull for any help.
Cheers
davo21

Hi, Davo21, and welcome to Apple Discussions. When OS 10.2 was installed, the option to install OS 9 drivers on your hard drive was not selected. The absence of those drivers makes the drive impossible for OS 9 to see (including the OS 9 that's running your computer when you boot to an OS 9 installer disc), so the installer can't find anywhere to install the OS.
You will have to reformat (initialize) the drive using OS X 10.2's Disk Utility, being sure this time to select the "Install OS 9 drivers" option when it is offered. Don't bother to install 10.2 again; just quit the installer after reformatting the drive. Then install OS 9.1 and run the firmware updater. (It may be possible to run the firmware updater in OS 9.2.x if that's what your installer disc provides; I'm not sure). Then install Panther.

Install OS9 on a G4 (867 MHz computer)

I'm trying to install Mac OS9 on a G4 (867 MHz) computer. It is currently running OS 10.3.9. (I'd like to keep OSX on the machine as well.)
I tried booting the computer from a generic OS9 install cd - the one that is white with a large gold 9 on it, in order to "perform a clean installation."
The computer won't even recognize the cd! It stalls on boot up and eventually just goes to the OSX start up. It recognizes any other cd/dvd, but just not this install cd. After a few minutes the computer will "kick" the cd out. I've tried a # of install cds, and it does it to every one of them.
Any ideas!?
ps. I've even tried to re-boot the machine from the restore cd's that came with this machine and the computer won't recognize these disks either.

Hi, jlehrer -
1) Software Restore CDs are definitely model-specific. If the ones you have available are for a different model G4, they will not work on your G4 867MHz machine.
Perhaps an important issue - Software Restore CDs are intended to revert the drive to its original as-shipped configuration. Although it is possible to use them to re-install without erasing the drive in the process, it is very easy to accidentally do just that.
2) System Profiler should have that info available, in the Hardware Overview section on the System Profile page. These pages from http://www.apple-history.com may help -
G4 QS '01
G4 QS '02
G4 MDD '02
The education version of the G4 QS '02, the 867MHz model, is not specifically mentioned on those pages for some reason, but would share the same basic criteria as the other G4 QS '02 models, including needing the version of OS 9.2.2 it shipped with.
Apple KBase Article #25114 - Mac OS 8, 9: Compatibility With Macs can be very useful, too, in determining what OS Install CDs may be used on various Mac models.

I have Win7Pro64, tried to Un-Install Firefox control panel, no luck, tried running helper.exe from Uninstall folder and it says "Not a Valid Win-32 Application" What gives?? Just want to update to 3.6.4 and that didn't work either so I'm trying to remove

Running Win7Pro64. Tried to update to 3.6.4 and it failed. It said to download the whole program so I did. Tried to install and says that the "License File" is missing. SO I go to un-install 3.6.3 myslef with Control Panel. All that did was remove Firefox as a listed program in control panel, all of it is still there in Explorer and it runs fine. So I go to use Helper.Exe under the Uninstall folder of Mozilla Firefox and when I click that, it says "Not a Valid Win-32 Application" What's up with that?? All I want to do is remove 3.6.3 so that I can clean install 3.6.4. I tried installing 3.6.4 two different ways with failures both times. I tried to remove 3.6.3 using two different ways, and that also failed both times.
== This happened ==
Just once or twice
== I tried updating to 3.6.4. It failed both with the update and the full download, so tried to un-install 3.6.3 in control panel, then helper.exe with no luck.

You don't want to update to 3.6.4, trust me. Stay with 3.6.3. If you need to download it again you can find it here:
http://releases.mozilla.org/pub/mozilla.org/firefox/releases/3.6.3/win32/en-US/

Jabber for Windows - periodically tries to re-install and fails

Jabber 9.1
CUCM 7.1.3
Windows 7 32 bit
Cisco Presence 8.0.2.10000-30
Jabber for windows - periodically tries to re-install and fails. After install Jabber works for awhile but then when trying to open another program(Outlook, IE Explorer) it tries to re-install. If I go to the directory where the install files are and do repair it works. This seems like a conflict with another application.
I see this in the Windows application event log:
Detection of product '{4EB9D7DD-65B5-44ED-B877-CE3EF9B4530F}', feature 'Cisco_Jabber_Files', component '{7CB949BE-2270-4992-9C4C-8FDDB90F6FE2}' failed. The resource 'C:\Program Files\Cisco Systems\Cisco Jabber\JabberMeeting\DesktopShare\atgpcdec.dll' does not exist.
Jabber 9.1
CUCM 7.1.3
Windows 7 32 bit
Cisco Presence 8.0.2.10000-30

Hi,
Do you have WebEx Productivity plugin installed on the machine? I can reproduce this problem after exiting Jabber, creating a One-click meeting from Outlook and restarting Jabber. Please provide further information to help me open a defect.
- What was the version of Jabber on this machine prior to 9.1.0?
- What is the version of the WebEx productivity tool plugin (if it is installed)?
- Is there a particular sequence that you can follow to reproduce it everytime?
Thanks,
Maqsood

HT1923 I'm trying to re-install itunes on my laptop & I am getting a message that has stopped the re-install & it says: "Service 'Apple Mobile Device" (Apple Mobile Device) failed to start. Verify that you have sufficient privileges to start system servic

I'm trying to re-install itunes on my laptop & I am getting a message that has stopped the re-install & it says: "Service 'Apple Mobile Device" (Apple Mobile Device) failed to start. Verify that you have sufficient privileges to start system services." The diaglogue box gives me the options to abort, retry, or ignore; when I tried retry and ignore the re-install process stays stalled & the dialogue box comes back & I don't want to abort & start this all over to probably end up with the same issue; what does this mean & what do I do?

Go to Control Panel > Add or Remove Programs (Win XP) or Programs and Features (later)
Remove all of these items in the following order:
iTunes
Apple Software Update
Apple Mobile Device Support (if this won't uninstall move on to the next item)
Bonjour
Apple Application Support
Reboot, download iTunes, then reinstall, either using an account with administrative rights, or right-clicking the downloaded installer and selecting Run as Administrator.
The uninstall and reinstall process will preserve your iTunes library and settings, but ideally you would back up the library and your other important personal documents and data on a regular basis. See this user tip for a suggested technique.
Please note:
Some users may need to follow all the steps in whichever of the following support documents applies to their system. These include some additional manual file and folder deletions not mentioned above.
HT1925: Removing and Reinstalling iTunes for Windows XP
HT1923: Removing and reinstalling iTunes for Windows Vista, Windows 7, or Windows 8
tt2

I am trying to re-install itunes. I get error message "Verify that you have access to that directory"

I am trying to re-install itunes.
I removed all Apples software, and restarted.
still get error message: "Verify that you have access to that directory"
(as administrator)
now what?

Thanks so much. This definitely worked. I'm sorry I did not think of using IE. I use Foxfire exclusively so seldom even think of IE as an alternative.

MAC Mouse and Keyboard Do Not Work, when I am trying to re-install the OS using "Command R" option

I am trying to re-install MAC OS 10.8.2, but when I hold "command R" I am asked for the firmware password, but the keyboard and mouse do not work.
If I only select "option" during the boot up process it will ask me for the firmware password, keyboard and mouse work, but I can only select the HD option.
Can someone advise what is the problem here, and your resolution.
I have tried different commands "option + command + R' with no luck.

I tried what was provided on the link, but it is not working.
I hold it down, before the gray screen and the chime, but it only prompts but the firmware password.
I tried based on the specific order in the support document and at a random press and hold.
No go any other thoughts?

I am trying to re-install ITunes on Windows XP. When I do this, all I get is the "save" or "cancel" message, not "run". What am I doing wrong?

Because of getting the message that I had to uninstall Apple Mobile Support Device and ITunes, in order to get my ITunes to be usable, I did that. While trying to re-install ITunes, all I get on the message is the choice to "save" or "cancel". It will not give me the "run" choice. What am I doing wrong? This should be fairly simple to reinstall, I thought.
I am running Windows XP on a desktop computer using Firefox.

Thanks so much. This definitely worked. I'm sorry I did not think of using IE. I use Foxfire exclusively so seldom even think of IE as an alternative.

Since updating yesterday iTunes will not open/sync/recongnize my iPhone. No error messages, ive tryed un/re-installing it but the same thing occurs.. Anyone! Please can you Help? Thank-you

HELP!! my iTunes will not respond to connection via usb, it does not reconize it or sync it, no purchased, wont re-charge etc, when it used to work Yesterday
and i did an update... ive tryed un/re-install and its the same problem... how ever on my other computer its fine...... Please HELP !! Thank-you

Hey!
Glad to hear that you and your family made it through relatively unscathed! I think we all need to take better care of our wonderful planet, because I think we are upsetting Mother Nature!
I have the Windows Installer Clean-Up screen up and tried to upload a screen cap for you, but IE immediately shuts down every time I try. So I'll have to transcribe the screen for you:
I see the following:
(All Users)
(All Users) [1.2.0.10]
Those are the top two lines. The following lines after that are programs he has installed on the machine like Acrobat, Adobe, Autodesk Inventor, and such and they all have a name and program number in brackets.
And I now again have the obligatory Apple programs installed and listed again:
(All Users) Apple Application Support [1.5.1]
(All Users) Apple Mobile Device Support [3.4.0.25]
(All Users) Apple Software Update [2.1.2.120]
(All Users) Bonjour [2.0.5.0]
Please note that iTunes is NOT LISTED.
Everything else 'appears' to be normal, I'd say.
Take care, and I'll see you on the flipside! According to my clock, it's 4:11am Thursday morning there!
See ya!
- Austin

Novice trying to re-install OS9

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