Wallstreet and Tiger: no OS X 8GB "limit", issues if 512MB RAM installation

Question

Since I felt that I could improve the performance of my [Wallstreet with Tiger|http://discussions.apple.com/thread.jspa?threadID=1390427&tstart=30], I decided to give a try to the break of the 8GB barrier as already reported in this forum so taking the occasion to substitute the 4200rpm 80GB disk with a 5400rpm one.
Again, acknowledgements to jpl, Tinkerman and others I do not recall for the helpful messages in the forum showing, if not else, that all this is possible. Unavoidable acknowledgements to the XPF developer too, of course.
I must admit that, while this time I was expecting a rapid installation after the method set out last time, actually I spent hours with any kind of issues of OS 9 either not installing or not booting even if from a disk cloned from the past working one. I was starting to think to some failed areas in the new disk but it appeared working in any other circumstance so eventually I realised that I was operating not only without the original CPU (Sonnet Crescendo 500MHz G4) but with 512MB of RAM and someone else already reported this as potential source of problems. Actually I realised it when, during one of the numerous serial attempts, the PowerBook remained with a black screen and suddenly produced the frightening "breaking glass sound", i.e. issues with the memory. Well, that was thrilling since I did not realise immediately what it was and I never heard it before...
So this time the method was the following:
- old disk removed from the Wallstreet and installed in a Firewire enclosure
- created three disk images on another recent PB G4 from the three partitions of the old disk (OS9, OS X, documents)
- new disk in FireWire enclosure, connected to the recent PB G4
- created two partitions in Utility Disk: 1GB HFS+, therestGB HFS+ Journaled
- installed new disk in Wallstreet
- reduced Wallstreet RAM to 256MB
- installed OS 9 from CD (and upgraded till 9.2.2) in the first 1GB partition together with XPF 4
- removed the disk and reinstalled in the FW enclosure
- cloned the old OS X disk image from the recent PB to the second big partition of the new disk
- reinstalled on the Wallstreet, started in OS 9, set XPF options as last time (Use Old NDRVs), boot in OS X
- copied all content of former third partition for documents in Documents
- restored the RAM to 512MB
Therefore the result is OS 9 in the first 1GB partition and OS X in the second 73GB and something partition. XPF mildly complained about the disk not having been formatted on OS 9 but setting OS 9 as helper was enough to satisfy it.
I am not 100% sure, say 95, but I have the feeling that, even after reducing the RAM to 256MB, the method to clone the old OS 9 partition to the new one did not work in the sense that the Wallstreet remained stuck at the question mark. Definitely it did not work with 512MB.
Summary (nothing new, just confirmations)
- OS X does not require to be installed in the first partition
- others (Tinkerman?) reported that this partition has to start in the first 8GB and not being included
- OS X partition can be more than 8GB
- watch out the RAM amount during installation (here it worked with 256MB but others reported 192 as maximum)
Hope this will help someone else.
Regards,
Giulio

Answer 1

Another installation procedure (still, similar to the previous one).
- reduce RAM to 256MB (some says 192 is better but now for me it was not feasible)
- with OS 9 CD: partition the disk,1GB/around 75GB, both HFS+ (there were few hiccups and I had to try more than once since the initialisation was failing and eventually I got a sort of ghost 5KB partition "for free")
- install OS 9 from CD to the 1GB partition
- update OS 9 to 9.2.2 through the installers
- mount disk in external enclosure connected to another system: initialise the around 75GB partition as HFS+ Journaled and cloned the old OS X partition to such partition (or install it for the ones that do not have such OS X partition ready)
- reinstall the disk into the Wallstreet and set up XPF (Use Old NDRVs); curious enough, here for the first time it said it could not boot from the second big OS X partition since it was "extending beyond the 8GB" or something similar still just choosing OS 9 as helper solved the issue
- restore the maximum RAM
- reboot in OS X
The OS 9 installation was done with the USB PCMCIA inserted and the USB mouse inserted in it. I do not know whether this was the solution (since also the previous time I selected all the USB additional extensions during OS 9 installation) but this time at the 9.1 update the mouse was recognised, not before, and it kept working since.
The Wallstreet just boots in OS X each and every time unless instructed to do differently through XPF.
The magnetic sensor issue still occasionally shows (apparently it needs "some time" or the Wallstreet just boots/wakes up nicely if just switched off or set to sleep). I will try to create some magnetic shield as already reported somewhere. Alternatively removing the two bays and waiting some five minutes or so does the trick.
What remains a bit unclear to me is the use of a magnet close to a hard disk, something I would consider the source of all evils if not properly done. I will study more, test and hopefully solve the issue.
Thanks,
Giulio