Upgrading G3 350 B&W and G4733 Quicksilver from OS 9.2.1 to 10.4 Tiger

Question

Hello again evryone...quick question.....Is there software that will install 10.4 Tiger on the two above mentioned computers (while running OS 9.2.1), or do they have to already running OS 10.3 or a version of X in order to do the install? I have a 10.4 (gray) install/restore DVD that opens on an external DVD drive very nicely, but when I click on the (install) button, I get the following messages: "The document 'install mac os X' could not be opened because the application program that created it could not be found". (could not find translation extension with appropriate translators.) When trying to boot the G4 from the G4 install/restore disk, I get an error message "startup disk was unable to select the install CD as the startup disk" -2 (invalid queue element)
I just updated the firmware for both the G3 and the G4, and both run flawlessly on OS 9.2.1????? Can anyone please shed some light on this? I've seen a couple of comments that I have to be running 10.3 first.....will a "full install" version of 10.4 boot from OS 9?.....many thanks in advance.........

Answer 1

One thing you should think about is the RAM requirements for 10.4 are much more than for OS 9. You may need about 512MB RAM for a minimal system, and more is better. You can find out how much each machine has using the Apple System Profiler, or from About this Mac... more info, under the apple menu bar item.
The 350MHz G3 may be pretty sluggish in 10.4, it will run, but won't be as responsive as in OS 9 with the limited CPU, RAM, and VRAM of the original machine. The Quicksilver G4 should be able to run 10.4 fairly well with enough RAM, go for 1GB or more if you can, is the max 1.5 or 2GB in those machines?
Check out the historical articles on www.lowendmac.com for those particular machines specs and for other useful reference information and possible hardware upgrades.
When making a major OS upgrade from OS 9 to 10.4 all your peripherals (printers, etc) will require new drivers, which may or may not be available. Check the vendor support pages for the 10.4 drivers, (if the company is still in business). You may discover that upgrading the OS will render older third-party hardware you have been using inoperable on top of making the whole computer feel really underpowered. So be prepared for upgrading the hardware, and external devices, and other third-party apps that you have depended on for newer versions as well. With 10.4 some OS 9 apps will still run in the Classic emulation environment, but some will require booting into OS 9.
You can install OS 10.4 right on top of OS 9 and continue to dual-boot the machines into either. But the disc space requirements for OS X will be greater than OS 9, what size drive do you have and how much free space do you have? Those older drives were fairly slow, and since you have limited RAM capabilities the hard drive will be in continual use for virtual memory when you launch several apps and switch back and forth causing some slow downs.
If you lack the hard drive space you could possibly install 10.4 on an external FW drive and boot from that, or install an additional internal hard drive.