IMac G4

Hi bluestar14, and a warm welcome to the forums! 🙂

See Tom's, (Texas Mac Man), great info on where/how to find/get Tiger...

http://discussions.apple.com/thread.jspa?messageID=9755670&#9755670

Or Ali Brown's great info on where/how to find/get Tiger...

http://discussions.apple.com/thread.jspa?messageID=10381710#10381710

That Software that says it requires at least OS 10.4.x, may or may not work in 10.5

Not a Firmware issue with OS9, but some OS9 Discs are Machine specific, or more likely yours requires a Machine specific one.

Do have more info on the G4 model? Like am ML number on it or such?

What is the other Mac you have & what OSes does it have?

os 8 disk, but when booted up from, it shows a gray screen and sits there

I don't think any G4 ever booted to any version of OS8.

and os 9 nine disk boots, but then the drive makes a busy noise

Is it really booting or the computer is just trying to read it? Which drive is making noise, the optical drive with the disc or hte hard drive?

and the question envelope with a purple screen comes on....

Do you mean question mark? Question mark means the computer can't find a valid system from which to start. If you're using a disc that came with another computer that won't start yours unless it is an identical model.

It would help to know exactly which model iMac G4 you have. Some would boot to OS9.2.2 but required a higher version of OS9 than you'd ever find on a retail installer disc. In other words it has to be 9.2.2 on the disc, not 9.0.4 or even 9.2.1. You'd only find 9.2.2 on the installer discs that came with that computer.*

It will boot to OSX, if you have a set of OSX installer discs (the exact versions of OSX supported depend upon the your model iMac).

Edit: Oh, optical drives always make a lot of noise when used for booting. The computer is intensively searching the disc for an operating system and isn't finding one.

* Another edit: Depending upon your resources you cold make a 9.2.2 boot disc for that computer from a lower version.

For information on your Mac (model, date of production, etc) then enter your serial number at this site. Information, based on the serial number, will be shown. http://www.chipmunk.nl/klantenservice/applemodel.html or last 3 characters of S/N at this site http://www.everymac.com/ultimate-mac-lookup/

 Cheers, Tom 😉

Welcome To  Discussions bluestar14!

If you prefer you can find the exact model the iMac G4 is, on the Apple Site from This Page.

In the text field to the right of Search Tech Specs enter the Serial Number of the iMac and press your Enter key.

Your iMac G4 will be displayed.
Click on it.
Post a Link/URL here to the page that is displayed.

EDIT: Too late! But how did you originally upgrade to Tiger 10.4.x?

ali b

bluestar14,

"...why won't the mac os 9 disk boot,..."
"...(i have 9.2.1)..."

Your iMac G4 had OS 9.2.2 & Puma 10.1.2 pre-installed when manufactured.
So the OS 9.2.1 disc is not the original restore disc for your iMac.
As previously posted you cannot use Model Specific discs.

Additional info in these links.
Using OS X Install CDs/DVDs On Multiple Macs
What's A Computer Specific Mac OS X Release
Software Update, Upgrade: What's The Difference?

How did you originally upgrade to Tiger 10.4.x?

ali b

P.S. just how could you make that 9.2.2 disc?(i have 9.2.1)

If I were in your situation I'd try to find a similar machine onto which I could install a copy of 9.2.1. Then use the free downloadable updater to update it to 9.2.2. Then I'd put a copy of that onto a disc or external hard drive and try booting from it.

The bottom line is, OS9.2.2 is pretty tolerant of being copied. There are issues of specific machine requirements, but frankly through the years since OS7 I have swapped OS copies between machines (where I worked had a site license but the hard part was actually getting tech. support to come by your office with an installer disc, so I'd just move my hard drive from computer to computer as I upgraded machines) without running into any machine specific issues.

is there any way to get restore disks from apple?

It's unlikely Apple will still have restore discs but you can always try contacting Apple Support (not sales). They will only have restore discs for the OS versions that were originally supplied with the computer, i.e. not Tiger. If you want Tiger you will have to buy a retail set, hard to find and still very costly.

[Texas Mac Man: Sources for Tiger|http://discussions.apple.com/message.jspa?messageID=8977232]

[ali brown: Sources for Tiger|http://discussions.apple.com/message.jspa?messageID=8814687]