Q: I can't get OS X to show up as an option for a start up disk in OS 9.

Hold alt key at bootup, is OSX & 9 an option there?

Do you have  OS X on the same volume as OS 9?

Hopefully, you have them onto separate hard drives.

Worst-case scenario: Shut down the computer. Open the computer and unplug the power going to the hard drive with OS 9 installed. When you restart, the computer has only one choice to boot.  On startup, if the computer indicates it cannot find a startup disk you may have to reset  the PRAM.

When you're booted into OS X, go to "System Preferences",  "Startup Disk" and choose your OS X volume.  After that, shut the computer down plug the OS 9  hard drive back in and restart your computer in OS X.

I don't see how added hardware would defeat holding down the alt key at startup. But, if that is so you're going to have real problems switching from one OS to the other.

Can you explain your B&W G3 configuration?

If that is the case, your options are extremely limited.

The simplest way that I can think of would be to remove  the OS 9 drive and encase it in a external FireWire drive.

Just a caution, the original  6 gig hard drive is very old. I'm surprised it hasn't failed by now. Have you backed it up?

With the OS 9 drive encased outside the computer, just turn on the machine 1st and the FireWire drive after that. After the machine boots  up in OS X choose OS 9 and reboot.

If you have the OS 9 hard drive as a FireWire disk, even if the FireWire  drive (with the six gig IDE drive installed) is left on, the computer will boot from the internal drive first. Also, when you shut down the computer, the FireWire hard drive should spin down… Maybe

I  am a fanatic about backing up drives and I probably have six or seven obsolete IDE FireWire  drive cases laying in pieces in a box somewhere.  I put one together not too long ago so I could use an old 200 gig IDE as a backup boot drive for one of my old G4 computers.

I don't know if any of that helped, but there it is.

I'm thinking (maybe) while typing here.

The find starup disk does a scan for valid OS's.  You scan didn't find OS X.  What does the scan look for when identifiying an OS?  I do not know.

Can your read from the OS X disk when in OS 9?

It would be an interesting experiment to copy over OS 9 to the OS X disk.  I think you need to copy over just the system folder.  Does the scan find OS 9 on the OS X disk.  [ When I do the system level scan, I find all sorts of OSs.  I find OS 8 for some reason. ]

This is the option key startup manager. Sometimes if volumes don't appear in Startup Manager (what you get when you hold down the Option key at startup), you need to reset the Mac's PRAM, NVRAM, and Open Firmware. Shut down the Mac, then power it up, and before the screen lights up, quickly hold down the Command, Option, P, and R keys, until the Mac has chimed twice more after the powerup chime.

Then, before the screen lights up, hold down Command-Option-O-F until the Open Firmware screen appears. Then enter these lines, pressing Return after each one:

reset-nvram

set-defaults

reset-all

"The reset-all command should restart your Mac. If so, you have successfully reset the Open Firmware settings."

http://support.apple.com/kb/TS1812?viewlocale=en_US

If OSX & OS9 are on the same partition, does holding the x key at startup work to boot OSX?

When the x key does work, it only works if both are on the same partition.

Did you reinstall some OS9 thing lately?

I remember there was some download for OS9 that enabled Startup Disk to choose OSX, since the original OS9 didn't have that option.

What info/version/size is your Startup Control Panel in OS9?

In Disk Utilty, see if OS9 drivers are included on the OSX partition.

try using XPostFacto to set the startup OS

http://eshop.macsales.com/OSXCenter/XPostFacto/Framework.cfm?page=XPostFacto.htm l