Switching between OS

Question

Switching between OS

I've been given a Power Mac G3 and I'm trying to set it up for my niece. I was trying to update all the required softwares and it couldn't do all the updates as it ran out of space on the Startup section (or something like that). I looked into Startup section and noticed that the system has two OS (OS x and OS 9.2). To see what the OS 9.2 was, I switched systems from the OS X to OS 9.2 but I now cant seem to find out how to switch back to the OS X and/or how to delete the older OS to free up space on the hard drive. PLEASE HELLLPPPPPP....

G3, Mac OS X (10.2.x)

Posted on Mar 12, 2008 7:39 PM

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Answer 1

Niel

Level 10

726,701 points

Mar 12, 2008 7:44 PM in response to Amateur Mac User

Open the Startup Disk control panel in the Apple menu, and then delete the Mac OS 9 folders from the Mac OS X Finder.

(30475)

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Answer 2

Limnos

Level 10

411,091 points

Mar 12, 2008 10:10 PM in response to Amateur Mac User

If you think you may need to run any OS9 generation applications under Classic you should not get rid of the OS9 folder, otherwise Classic will not be available. You can get rid of OS9 but if you are running into a space issue on your drive it will not save you all that much space -- maybe a couple of hundred MB. You should have more than a couple of hundred MB free on a drive if you are running OSX because OSX makes lots of temporary files. If you have that little space on your drive you may run into troubles (e.g., crashes) because OSX won't be able to run properly.

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Answer 3

Mar 13, 2008 1:37 PM in response to Niel

Do I delete the 9.2 folder when Im in OS X or OS 9.2 because I'm stuck in OS 9.2. Every time I start the system now OS 9.2 boots up and I cant seem to find how to switch back to OS X...

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Answer 4

Limnos

Level 10

411,091 points

Mar 13, 2008 1:54 PM in response to Amateur Mac User

You have to do it while booted from OSX. I don't think the computer will let you trash a system file while you are booted from it.

I don't know exactly what generation G3 you are using. You can try going into the Startup control panel and see if OSX appears there. Or you may have an application called XPostfacto on your computer which will let you specify the startup system. On some computers holding down the X while booting selects OSX. Holding Option-Command-Shift-Delete (all 4 keys) may also cause the computer to select a different boot system. Some of these may apply to newer computers so I'm not sure which is right for you.

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Answer 5

taerchen

Level 5

5,430 points

Apr 1, 2008 12:40 PM in response to Amateur Mac User

If you are "stuck" in OS 9, then go to the Apple Menu/Control Panels/Startup control panel. When you open that, you should have a choice there to indicate which operating system you want to use at startup. If you select the OS X and then restart your Mac, you should then start up in OS X.

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