How Do I Install OS 9 Disc Drivers?

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How Do I Install OS 9 Disc Drivers?

Greetings,

I need help with this, thanks for any and all assistance!

I have in front of me the second release (late 1999) Power Mac G4. It came with OS 9.0 installed and I have all of the original discs.

My mistake is that I did an erase and install of OS X Tiger without checking off the box to preserve OS 9 (I forgot the specific language). My reasoning was that the OS 9.0 installation was so completely borked that I couldn't even update it, I figured that it would be best to start from a clean disc. I also reasoned that the option for OS 9 (Classic) support would be inherent to the OS X installation and I could come back and enable it.

Now I can't reinstall OS 9 because the disc drivers are not on the disc, they were erased during the install. I read this information on a prior post on this forum.

I have the OS X installation disc running again, there are options and customizations for everything but nothing that I have seen anywhere to install OS 9 disc drivers or Classic support . . . . HELP!

So . . . . what now? This computer has to run Classic for much needed OS 9 applications. Now I can't even restore it to it's original state.

Any and all help would be very very appreciated!

Peace,
Gail

Power Mac G4, Mac OS X (10.4.11)

Posted on Jan 7, 2008 12:34 PM

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Answer 1

GailLaForest Author

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Jan 7, 2008 12:41 PM in response to GailLaForest

One question that I have about this, if I reformat the disc with a Unix file system, will the drive be visible to the OS 9 installation disc?

I have no problem pulling my Ubuntu Live boot CD out and giving that a go. Maybe there's even a way to format the drive for the Mac OS 9 file system . . . .

I'll post my results.

Peace,
Gail

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Answer 2

Limnos

Level 10

411,187 points

Jan 7, 2008 1:05 PM in response to GailLaForest

I don't think it is possible to retroactively install OS9 drivers. Probably your best bet would be to copy all the data you want off the drive, then go back and erase the drive, this time making sure you click the option to install OS9 drivers. You should then be able to install OS9 either from your original OS9 CDs or from "Classic" on Tiger.

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Answer 3

Jan 7, 2008 2:00 PM in response to GailLaForest

Hi, Gail -

If the drive had once had the OS 9 drivers installed, in theory it may be possible to re-instal them using an OS 9 Install CD of appropriate version. There is a comment to that effect in this article -
Article #106849 - Disk Is Available in Mac OS X But Not in Mac OS 9

If that does not work, you're left with the choice of re-initializing the drive again. You can do that using OS 9's Drive Setup utility, in which case OS 9 drivers are installed automatically; or using OSX's Disk Utility, in which case you would need to make sure the option to install OS 9 drivers is selected (I believe that option is on the Partitioning tab in Disk Utility).

In either case, select Mac OS Extended as the format for the drive.

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Answer 4

GailLaForest Author

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Jan 7, 2008 4:25 PM in response to Limnos

Limnos,

To reply:

"I don't think it is possible to retroactively install OS9 drivers."

I don't think so either, there is no option anywhere on the OS X Tiger disc that lets me chose anything to do with installing OS 9 or classic.

"Probably your best bet would be to copy all the data you want off the drive, then go back and erase the drive, this time making sure you click the option to install OS9 drivers."

I did this the first time that I installed Tiger, I saw the option to keep the OS 9 folder but since OS 9 was so completely screwed up on this computer I thought to do a complete fresh reinstall. I did not realize that the OS 9 disc drivers would only be available to me if OS 9 was ALREADY installed. Now that OS 9 is off the computer there is no option to install or keep OS 9 folders and/or Classic.

"You should then be able to install OS9 either from your original OS9 CDs or from "Classic" on Tiger."

There is no "Classic" on the retail Tiger install DVD unfortunately. I am not able to reinstall OS 9 because the installer does not "see" the hard drive and so does not recognize a location to install to. That began my search in the forum for a way to install OS 9 drivers so that I can reinstall OS 9.

What a mess 😟

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Answer 5

GailLaForest Author

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Jan 7, 2008 4:34 PM in response to Don Archibald

Hi Don,

The article you linked to is one that I have already seen. All goes well until I get to:
"3. Select the disk that you wish to make available."

The installation of OS 9 doesn't see a hard drive at all, there is nothing in the drop down box and the information at the bottom of the installation window says that there is no drive available to install to.

You also said I could re-initialize using "OS 9's Drive Setup utility" but since the installation disc cannot see the drive there is no drive for OS 9 to setup in.

The OS X Disk utility for Tiger does not include any mention of OS 9 if OS 9 isn't already installed prior to installing OS X. I've ran the installer twice now hoping that I have missed something somewhere but it simply has not reappeared.

Thanks for trying to help though. I'm still hoping that there is a way out of this but I'm thinking it won't be in the Apple-only camp.

I will post whatever solution I find since this seems to be an issue that comes up and I'd love to spare others the same grief this is causing me.

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Answer 6

GailLaForest Author

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Jan 7, 2008 4:46 PM in response to GailLaForest

BINGO!

Here's where things got turned around, I finally found this information after reading a gazillion articles on apple.com:

Note: You must *choose the entire disk*, not just a volume contained on it. If you are formatting only a partition of your startup disk, you cannot install Mac OS 9 drivers.

I was NOT selecting the entire disc, I was only selecting the volume or partition.

Mac OS: Disk Is Available in Mac OS X But Not in Mac OS 9 ( http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=106849)

It must be Monday . . . . .

Thanks for the replies!

Peace,
Gail

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Answer 7

GailLaForest Author

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Jan 7, 2008 4:47 PM in response to GailLaForest

I found the solution to my problem here:

Mac OS: Disk Is Available in Mac OS X But Not in Mac OS 9
http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=106849

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Answer 8

Hans777

Level 2

445 points

Jan 7, 2008 4:54 PM in response to GailLaForest

Gail,
you need to erase the disk again. Boot from the 10.4. install DVD. Partition the disk into two volumes. One partition should be HFS+ journaled with OS 9 drivers installed. The other Unix formatted. Install 10.4. onto the HFS+ volume. Thereafter boot the OS 9 disk and install OS 9 onto the HFS+ volume. It should be visible now.

Hans

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