Problems Installing OS 9.x on G4 Cube with 10.4 clean installed

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Problems Installing OS 9.x on G4 Cube with 10.4 clean installed

I just wiped my old G4 Cube clean and installed 10.4. Now I want to install OS 9.2 (from my original OS 9 CD, then upgrade it to 9.2) so my preschooler can play old kid's games and CD's. I can't seem to boot from the OS 9 CD at all. I get a flashing question mark. Is there a way to get OS 9 back on this Cube?

If I can't use the install CD, can I copy the OS 9 System Folder that's on my G4 tower, and would I need to burn it to DVD or could I do it remotely?

Posted on Nov 11, 2011 10:30 AM

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Answer 1

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Texas Mac Man

Level 8

46,869 points

Nov 12, 2011 5:57 PM in response to spookie_HarrysBrokeMom

Are you using the Install/Restore disc that came with your Cube? Initially, the Cubes had OS 9.04 or 9.1 installed. Generally, you can't install an OS lower than that initially installed. If you are trying to use an OS 9.0 installer, that may be the problem.

Another possibility. When you "wiped" the hard drive, did you reformat AND check to install OS 9 Drivers. You can check if OS 9 Drivers are installed - Under the Apple in the Menu, select About This Mac and then click on More Info. Then click on the ATA under Hardware. The info on your hard drive is listed. By the OS 9 Drivers it should say Yes.

You could copy the OS 9 System folder from your G4 & transfer, using a USB thumb drive, to the Cube. This would enable you to run OS 9 apps in classic mode, however, many games don't work properly in classic mode. They work best when booted into OS 9.x

 Cheers, Tom 😉

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Answer 2

Nov 12, 2011 10:43 PM in response to Texas Mac Man

Folk posting in these forums have noted several times in recent years that after doing a firmware update to older Macs, such as is suggested to prep them for OS X, the machine is no longer able to boot to their original OS 9 Install disk. This usually seems to affect original OS 9 versions older than OS 9.1.

If you can locate a retail OS 9.1 or 9.2.1 Install CD (all retail OS 9 CDs have a white label with a large gold 9), that would probably work.

*****

As Tom indicated, copying the OS 9 install from your G4 would probably work okay as Classic.

However, if you need to boot the Cube to OS 9 it would probably not work. By default, an OS 9 install is tailored to the hardware on the machine it is installed onto, becoming specific to that model - such are rarely able to boot a different model (with its different hardware).

There may be a solution for that, however - all retail (white label) OS 9 Install CDs can do a Universal Install, which is capable of booting any Mac which can boot to that OS 9 version. Many original Software Install CDs for OS 9 can do the same.

If you have an external hard drive (firewire would be best) available for temporoary use, you could do a Universal Install of OS 9 on it, then copy that to your Cube.

As I recall, the download updaters for OS 9.1 and 9.2.1 can be set to retain the Universal Install configuration of an earlier version OS 9.

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