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Problem-Stuck in the Classic Environment

Have a Power PC, G4 Mac running OSX 10.5.8. 10.5.8 has been properly updated thru Software Update. Things worked fine for a long time. Just tried using the OS 9.2.2 Classic Environment again. It used to work before. Now there's a problem. The Startup Disk Control Panel in Classic keeps freezing with the "watch"/thinking icon before an option to select 10.5.8 comes up to restart back into OSX. Mac is now "stuck" in Classic Environment. How do I get back to my regular OSX Environment? Will I need my OSX disk to somehow restore this? Thanks.

PowerMac, Mac OS X (10.5.8), 1.75 GB RAM, 80 GB HD

Posted on Aug 1, 2013 12:40 PM

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Posted on Oct 5, 2015 4:42 PM

You're not technically running the OS 9.x "Classic" environment when you run Leopard, because it's no longer supported. Your G4 is capable of booting from either OS 9.x or OS X. If you had originally partitioned the hard drive into at least (2) volumes (with OS X on one and OS 9.x on the other), you could use the "Startup Manager" to select the desired bootable volume by pressing/holding down the Option key at startup. Otherwise, I'd suggest inserting the OS installer disk at startup and after the computer boots from it, use the "Startup Disk" setting to make the change to OS X.

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Question marked as Best reply

Oct 5, 2015 4:42 PM in response to CHinUT

You're not technically running the OS 9.x "Classic" environment when you run Leopard, because it's no longer supported. Your G4 is capable of booting from either OS 9.x or OS X. If you had originally partitioned the hard drive into at least (2) volumes (with OS X on one and OS 9.x on the other), you could use the "Startup Manager" to select the desired bootable volume by pressing/holding down the Option key at startup. Otherwise, I'd suggest inserting the OS installer disk at startup and after the computer boots from it, use the "Startup Disk" setting to make the change to OS X.

Oct 5, 2015 4:42 PM in response to CHinUT

One of the downsides to Startup Manager is that for volumes containing more than one viable OS, such as OS X and OS 9, it will offer only the one last booted to. This means if your hard drive is not partitioned and with OS X and OS 9 on separate partitions, Startup Manager can not help you get out of the one stuck in.


To force-boot to OS X, restart or boot, immediatesly press the X key and keep it held down until you know the machine has started to boot into OS X.


Note that this is a one-off event, meaning it will not change the setting in Starup Disk. If you want to continue using OS X for subsequent boots, while bootes to OS X go into System Preferences and make the appropriate selection in Startup Disk.

Problem-Stuck in the Classic Environment

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