Upgrade power mac 6500/225 running 8.5 to 9.1(poss?

Question

Can anyone tell me if I can upgrade my power pc 6500/225 running 8.5 with upgraded memory to 96MB to run 9.1. If so, what are the steps to take.

Answer 1

Hi, stacks -
Welcome to Apple's Discussions.
According to Apple KBase Article #25114 - Mac OS 8, 9: Compatibility With Macs your machine is supported for OS 9.1.
You will need to acquire a retail OS 9 Install CD in some version, then update it to OS 9.1 using download updaters (if necessary).
You can often get retail OS 9 Install CD's at sites like these -
http://store.yahoo.com/hardcoremac/index.html - Apple Reseller
http://www.applerescue.com/
EBay is another possibility.
Regardless of the source, be sure to get a retail OS 9 Install CD - those are white, with a large gold 9 on them; the retail OS 9 Install CD's have a universal installer; model-specific Install CD's do not.
In case you need the updaters -
Article #75103 - Mac OS 9.1 - Download and Info
Article #120030 - Mac OS 9.2.1 - Download and Info
Article #75186 - Mac OS 9.2.2 - Download and Info
Since you want to end up at OS 9.1, I would suggest obtaining a retail OS 9.1 Install CD - you would not then need to use any download updaters for the OS itself, although there have been several incremental updates to some of the component software.
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The steps -
• Boot to the OS 9 Install CD.
• (Optional, but recommended) Run the utility Disk First Aid from the Utilities folder on the CD. Let DFA examine your drive, and allow it to repair anything it finds wrong (if it can). Doing this can prevent some errors caused by problems with a drive.
• Run the installer (Mac OS Install).
• On the second page of the installer select to do a Clean Install. This will not erase anything in the drive. Instead, it will install a brand new, 'clean' System Folder, rename the old one to Previous System Folder, install a set of standard OS 9 utilities and a couple of folders, and little else.
Article #58176 - Mac OS 8, Mac OS 9: Performing a Clean Installation
• Follow the prompts, accepting a standard install of the OS. The installer will select the correct OS files needed by your machine.
• Once it is done, test boot to the new OS.
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As soon as is convenient and provided you have an internet connection available to the machine, run the Software Update control panel that is part of OS 9. You will be offered a list of updates applicable to OS 9 which were released after the OS itself was released. This can include updates to things like QuickTime, CarbonLib, OpenTransport, and other services and software.
Suggestion - do not allow the Software Update control panel to download and install those for you. Instead, note their names, then go to the Apple download site and download them and install them manually. In addition to being able to keep the installers, you will avoid any issues which Software Update sometimes has it does that work.
It would not hurt to rebuild the desktop file after the software install process.
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Before starting, though, check to see what format your hard drive is. OS 9 runs best when the drive is formatted as Mac OS Extended (also called HFS+); this format also makes much better use of available disk space, particularly when drives get into GB sizes.
If your drive is formatted as Mac OS Standard, the normal way to reformat it is to use OS 9's Drive Setup utility (it's in the Utilities folder on all OS 9 Install CDs) to re-initialize and reformat the drive. Note, though, that this will erase everything on the drive, so back up anything you do not want to lose before doing it.
There is another way, one that does not erase the drive. Alsoft, the makers of the DiskWarrior disk utility program, also make a utility named PlusMaker which can convert a drive's format from Mac OS Standard to Mac OS Extended without erasing it.