dual booting 0s9 and osx on two HDs

Question

dual booting 0s9 and osx on two HDs

Hi all,

Got a question, not sure if its OS9 related or hardware related though...

Ive got a Digital Audio G4 Power Mac with 2 HDs in, 1 running OS9 and 1 running OSX.

When i boot into OSX the 2nd HD (with OS9 on) shows up on the desktop and i can access it no problem, however, when i boot into OS9, the OSX HD is no where to be seen, its not on the desktop, nor can i access it by going to Startup Disk in the control panels. The only way i can boot into it is by holding down alt while turning on the machine and selecting the disk that way.

Since both disks can be seen while in OSX id assume that theres no problem with regards to the master/slave part on the PATA cable (im using 1 cable that supports Master/Slave/Cable Select) and have the drives set accordingly.

So is this an OS9 thing? does it not like separate HDs in the machine, or is it a hardware thing?

Cheers chaps!

Posted on Apr 10, 2012 4:39 PM

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Answer 1

Jeff

Level 6

12,058 points

Apr 10, 2012 6:39 PM in response to Aaron Cottrell

You shouldn't have any problems with dual drives running OS X and OS 9 in your G4, but you should be using master & slave configurations. The DA G4s don't support Cable Select, if the drives are connected to the onboard IDE controller. When booted in OS 9, is the OS X drive listed in the System Profiler? If so, if you run Drive Setup and select the OS X drive, is the "mount on startup" option checked?

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Answer 2

Apr 10, 2012 10:22 PM in response to Aaron Cottrell

In order for OS 9 to be able to mount ("see") a hard drive unaided, the hard drive must have had OS 9 drivers installed. OS X's Disk Utility does not install OS 9 drivers by default, usually not even in early OS X versions.

It is quite possible that the drive containing OS X was last formatted using Disk Utility and the option to install OS 9 drivers was not selected. This would explain what you have described.

There is one possible solution, if the drive had ever had OS 9 drivers installed on it previously (possible if the machine was originally used just for OS 9). Boot the machine to OS 9. Run Drive Setup. If the OS X drive is selectable in the Drive Setup window, do so. Then select Update Driver from the Functions menu in Drive Setup if that choice is available. If this works, OS 9 drivers will be re-installed on the drive and it will then become 'visible' to OS 9.

Notes -

• Odds are against this working, but it occasionally will. It is a non-destructive action, meaning whether it works or not the data on the drive will not be affected.

• Do not click the Initialize button in Drive Setup - completing that action will result in the loss of all data on that drive.

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Answer 3

Apr 11, 2012 3:53 AM in response to Aaron Cottrell

Cheers for the help guys!...

ive got it set so the OS9 drive is on Master and the OSX drive is Slave.

As far as im aware the OSX drive should have OS9 drivers on it, it can run Classic from its OS9 folder anyway...

It still doesn't recognise the drive though :-/

Interesting to note, i bought a Sonnet Tempo expansion card which arrived today. I was hoping on adding some more drives to give it more space. The drive that ive installed with the card i had in the machine before and it worked with OS9 fine. I put 10.4 on the drive in order to have 9 and X available.

(the OSX drive i was refering to earlier came from my dad's iMac G4 which randomly died a few months ago. I put the drive in the tower so that we could still access all the data on the drive) So what ive got is the OS9 drive and the iMac's OSX drive connected via the on-board IDE controller, and the spare OSX drive connected via the PCI card.

If i boot into OSX using the drive connected via the card, it can see all the other drives fine and i can access them with no problems...

So im thinking that backing up the iMac HD and doing a clean install of it would be the best way to go from here on, i want all the drives to be 'seeable' and accessable regardless of what system in running...

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Answer 4

Limnos

Level 10

411,109 points

Apr 11, 2012 9:08 AM in response to Aaron Cottrell

Check the expansion card's system requirements and that it does work under OS9.

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Answer 5

Apr 11, 2012 11:43 AM in response to Aaron Cottrell

As far as im aware the OSX drive should have OS9 drivers on it, it can run Classic from its OS9 folder anyway...

OS 9 drivers are not required in order to use an OS 9 install as Classic under OS X. When using OS 9 as Classic, it is being used as a program, not as an operating system. OS X is still running the hardware; all interfacing between Classic and the hardware is handled by OS X.

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Answer 6

Apr 11, 2012 3:24 PM in response to Aaron Cottrell

Got it sorted, basically i copied the contents of the iMac HD over to the spare one (which had the OS9 drivers on) then erased the disk and formatted it with the OS9 drivers in Disk Utility, and it works fine!

Thanks for the help everyone!

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