How to revert OS X 10.4.11 to OS X 10.3.5
How to revert OS X 10.4.11 to OS X 10.3.5 with out loosing existing files?
PowerMac G4 Fire Wire 800, Mac OS X (10.4.11)
What if I used the computer system restore disc? Would that wipe out all the files?
Apple Event: May 7th at 7 am PT
12 replies
Why would you want to do this?
OS X Tiger OS X 10.4 is much better than OS X 10.3
You would need to an external FireWire hard drive to backup all your Macs data using a data cloning app.
There are two.
Carbon Copy Cloner or Super Duper
What are the specs of your PowerMac G4?
Year, CPU speed and amount of RAM?
| Machine Name: | Power Mac G4 |
| Machine Model: | PowerMac3,6 |
| CPU Type: | PowerPC G4 (3.3) |
| Number Of CPUs: | 2 |
| CPU Speed: | 1.42 GHz |
| L2 Cache (per CPU): | 256 KB |
| L3 Cache (per CPU): | 2 MB |
| Memory: | 2 GB |
| Bus Speed: | 167 MHz |
| Boot ROM Version: | 4.6.0f1 |
| Serial Number: | XB31202WNP |
The reason for this adventure is because I've had this Mac for years with Tiger, but no OS 9. This is the way the guy sold it to me off of eBay. He assured me it would run OS 9. What he didn't say was only in Classic mode. At the time of the sale he and I hadn't a clue what Classic was. I've been searching literly for years trying to figure out how to install OS 9 Classic. Only very recently I found a guy on eBay who had the original restore discs. So affter I upgraded to Tiger w/OS 9 Classic installed I just found out that a lot of classic OS 9 games and even early PPC games don't run right with Tiger as the OS. After much research I've discoverd Panther would solve all these problems.
The problem is that if you use this Mac for any Internet use, you are going to even more limitations on 10.3 than you maybe running into on OS X Tiger 10.4
If you downgrade, anything that has been updated for OS X 10.4 will no longer work on 10.3 Panther and finding other apps that are compatible with OS X 10.3 will be even more an excersize in futility.
Do you really need to run old OS 9 games?
You could make your G4 more up to date and working, somewhat better on the Internet by installing OS X 10.5 Leopard.
You can still find updates for 10.5 Leopard. It will at least have your Mac G4 at the maximum OS that it can run.
Ssomething to think about before you decide to attempt this.
You have a dual CPU G4!
You can contact Apple at 1-800- MYAPPLE and ask for retail software sales to see if they still have retail OS X 10. 5 Leopard discs. Tell them you have purchased an older iPad or iPhone.
If they do not have these retail discs any longer here is one source for the OS discs
I just think you are going to make things even more difficult for yourself if you downgrade the OS.
There are plenty of games for OS X.
If you actually use this Mac, you a going to make you Mac use even more difficult just because you want to play a bunch of old, obsolete games.
PLus, I also forgot to mention, dude, you also have a FireWire 800 Mac!
You could also STILL use brand new high speed external FireWire 800 hard drives and CD/DVD optical drives!!!
Forget the OS 9 games, dude!
Get this Mac up to it's full potential! I had a Single CPU 1.25 GHz G4 MDD that I used for almost 10 years!!
This Mac will still be fine for most things and on the current Internet with some limitations, but you might be able to get around those if you ask questions in these forums.
Here's the spec page on your G4 http://www.everymac.com/systems/apple/powermac_g4/specs/powermac_g4_1.42_dp_mdd. html
It will not boot into OS 9 and can only run classic mode in OS 10.4 and below. Panther, OS 10.3 will not allow you to boot OS 9.
It's true that most OS 9 games will not operate properly in classic mode. That's because the game software wants to control the Mac, but it can't because you're not booted in OS 9.
If you want to run the games, get an old iMac that will boot OS 9.
Cheers, Tom 😉
Listen guy, here's the deal and I'm being forth coming. Yea right it is high end for a G4, but realistically speaking it ***** on the Internet. It's doggedly slow going surffering. The memory is maxed out at 2 GB. There's no way to add more memory. So I bought a late 09 Mini Dual core 2.53 GB with 4 GB of memory and this thing is annoyingly slow. Now I have a new late 2012 Mini i7 Quad, 4GB. Now I'm up with the times. This is more like it, but there's a trade off. No OS 9, no Rosetta that runs PowerPC software, just Intel software that Apple demands you deal with. You have no choice with Apple progress. Do you see where this is going? If you want it all there's a speed penalty. If you want a little more you lose an OS , but gain a little more compatibility, If you should go full throttle your up with the times, but now you've lost two OS's and you have a fast computer. This is were I sort of envy the PC. Microsoft doesn't care what kind of computer you use. It can be as old as the hills or brand spanking new. I have a copy of Windows Premium 7 on a home built computer that will blow the doors off of most Mac Pro's. And here's the kicker, I can literally run any version of widows on this computer. 64 or 32 bit no one cares. From Windows 98se to OS 8 no one cares. That's the point, Who cares what hardware you use. The only advantage I like about the Mac is its' a little more stable and it has a great interface. That's it!
I assumed that this was your primary Mac.
Many people, like me up to a less than a year, ago, are still using older Macs Both G4 and G5, so my bad.
My 1.25 Ghz G4 ran OS X 10.5 pretty well on 2 GBs of RAM, upgraded 256 VRAM video card, 3 internal HDs and lots of PCI FIreWire and USB 2 cards It was heavily upgraded and it ran pretty well on the Internet. If the videos weren't wrap in Adobe Flash code and I was watching Internet video that had 720p versions, I could watch these on my Mac with only mild issue. 1080p video, of course, was out of the question on this old a Mac.
It was a great Mac for me for a long time.
Like you, I finally bought a used 2009, 27 inch iMac because I finally got tired of fighting issues with newer video codecs on the Internet and I couldn't stream Netflix from my older PowerPC Mac.
The CPU is three times faster ( 3.06 Ghz), video is the same as I had a 256 VRAM video card in my G4 and the iMac is loaded with 16 GBs of RAM.
I can't update the OS past OS X 10.6.8 Snow Leopard , though, because I have a lot of PowerPC software that still runs under Rosetta as I have a lot of older, still expensive software that I can't afford to update to Intel versions.
So, I completely understand where you are coming from.
The reason OS X is a lot more stable than Windows is that Apple places limits on legacy hardware support so it doesn't have to sacrifice stability and security by trying to keep up with 10 year old or more obsolete hardware.
This is Windows Achilles heel, IMHO.
| ... affter I upgraded to Tiger w/OS 9 Classic installed I just found out that a lot of classic OS 9 games and even early PPC games don't run right with Tiger as the OS. After much research I've discoverd Panther would solve all these problems. |
Both Panther and Tiger would need to run the same Classic emulation layer for OS 9 games on a FW800 G4. Only the earlier FW400 G4 models can actually boot into OS 9.
You might be able to find some updates for OSX native versions of software if you are lucky, check the developer support web sites for updates. (like Oni from Bungie, for example) But unfortunately many good OS 9 games were built to operate only on a booted OS 9 system and do not work under Classic mode, even though the native OS9/X Carbon libraries were built to ease this transition for developers for some time before OS X was released. Some of those old OS 9 games may be considered primitive by modern standards, but remain enjoyable nevertheless. Nanosaur, for example, Diablo 2, Tie Fighter/X-wing, and some flight simulators like Fly!2K and F-18 Hornet.
Consider SheepShaver to run Classic games on your Intel Mac:
[click on image to enlarge]
Here is a recent post that I assembled that explains running Classic on Intel in more detail:
With the newer Intel Macs, you have to run a Classic emulator such as SheepShaver, which requires you to extract the Mac ROMs from your older Classic Mac and then install Mac OS 9.
A related program is Chubby Bunny, which comes bundled with all of that included.
More information on SheepShaver:
http://www.emaculation.com/doku.php/sheepshaver_mac_os_x_setup
and
http://www.everymac.com/mac-answers/mac-os-9-classic-support-faq/run-macos-9-on- intel-macs.html
and more information about Chubby Bunny:
http://www.macwindows.com/OS9_on_Intel_Mac.html#092408b
and
http://hackthemac.blogspot.co.uk/2008/08/chubby-bunny-old-virtual-machine.html
How to revert OS X 10.4.11 to OS X 10.3.5