I can't install OS 9 & OS 10 on my iMac

OS 9 cannot boot an 800 MHz G4 iMac made after June 2003. Those models came with Software Restore discs that included a special version of OS 9 to use with the OS X Classic emulator.

If you have the 800 MHz model of the immediately previous model it requires 9.2.2.

Hello. I have a two part question. First, we have an imac G4 1.0ghz, 256mb ram, 80g hdd. We want to add another 1gb of ram. Do we put that in the slot in the base of the unit or inside it? Do we have to remove the inside one when we add the 1g outside? we are using the 10.3 o/s. second, we are trying to reinstall the o/s from the orignal dvds. We receive a panic error message saying "Help we're hanging here" and no one seems to know what that means. I was told by a neighbor it could mean a bad hdd or memory chip? Thanks for your info I'm not familiar with macs.

If you already have 256 MBs installed inside, then the 1 GB module is installed in the base slot. If you want to upgrade to 2 GBs, then you must first remove the 256 MB module and replace it with another 1 GB module. Maximum RAM supported is 2 GBs.

If the kernel panic occurs when booting from an installer disc before the installer loads, then there's a hardware failure. Could be bad RAM but could also be a motherboard problem. It's possible it's a hard drive but that isn't as likely if the panic is nearly immediately after the computer starts.

If you have the Apple Hardware Test CD that came with the computer you can run the hardware tests to see if anything pops up. If it does you will have an error code reported. Note what that is so you can tell the service tech about it.

It was built in April 2003. According to the information I have that model required a version of Jaguar and did not come with OS 9. I'm assuming that it cannot boot OS 9. If it did boot OS 9 it would require a bootable disk with 9.2.2. But if you have a bootable 9.2.2 disc and it won't boot the computer then the computer cannot boot OS 9. That means you need the special version of OS 9 that would be included on your Software Recovery discs that came with the computer and would be installed using the Install Additional Software installer.

Yes, it applies to yours based on the data I have that shows it did not have OS 9 shown as a bootable system for it.

Running Classic is not the same as how OS 9 would be installed. You have some machines that can boot OS 9 to install it and others that must use a special version of OS 9. But both can be used with Classic. Classic is just the OS X emulator. The emulator is only usable on non-Intel machines running Tiger or earlier. Leopard does not support Classic regardless of hardware.

"SheepShaver is an Open Source PowerPC MacOS run-time environment. That is, it enables you to run PowerPC Classic MacOS software on your computer, even if you are using a different operating system. However, you still need a copy of MacOS and a PowerMacintosh ROM image to use this program. SheepShaver is distributed under the terms of the GNU General Public License (GPL). "
http://gwenole.beauchesne.info/en/projects/sheepshaver

Installing Mac OS Classic on SheepShaver is a struggle. There is some instability once you have completed the installation.

Hi thanks for the info, not sure if we have that cd. Can I download it?