G4 450 sawtooth won't boot OS 9 anymore??

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Level 1

8 points

G4 450 sawtooth won't boot OS 9 anymore??

OK it seems nobody is interested in OS 9 any more which is a shame because the plugins and hardware that still run on it are bring used every day by studios all over the place. The thing that is weird is I was able to boot on both 9 and X for years until suddenly my machine hates 9 and still likes X. It won't boot on a 9 CD only on a X CD. The preferences pane shows all OS 9 and OS X discs available put will only boot up onto X and once when I put in an OS 9.2.2 content disk it did boot but went running back to X for some reason and refused to boot in OS 9. This is a G4 450 sawtooth which was originally built and made to run OS 9 so it makes no sense that it refuses now to boot into OS 9. Can somebody please help me to get this machine to boot into OS 9?!

I would gladly erase the X disc and format it with the original restore discs that I have with OS 9 and then upgrade with the discs I have to get back to OS 9.2.2 but I'm afraid that if I do that my machine won't boot at all because it hates 9 now and loves X. I just bought a new pram battery so I hope that helps but I doubt it. Also just to be clear I have OS 9 classic installed on this machine and it starts up and runs fine in OS X but certain programs won't launch such as ...............PROTOOLS!!!! AAGH which goes right up to the point of loading plugins and then says "unable to create a DAE Deck". I know there has to be a simple answer for this is any body out there?

I'm running OS 9.2.2 (not) and OS X tiger (unfortunately) on a G4 450 with a protools expansion chassis hooked up and digidesign quiet drive (which isn't very quiet) everything appears to show up fine on and work on the desk top and digi init and Quicktime all show up when launching OS 9 classic after booting from OS X. This machine was built to run OS 9 ......OS 9 not OS X but now it has decided never to boot in OS 9 again! Can somebody please tell me why?

Posted on Jul 25, 2014 8:16 AM

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Answer 1

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a brody

Level 10

82,941 points

Jul 26, 2014 11:02 AM in response to Chris Winham

The Sawtooth G4 will only run Mac OS 9 discs that look like:

http://www.wap.org/journal/macos9/OS-9c.jpg

with either 9.0, 9.0.2, 9.0.4, 9.1, 9.2.1 in fine print on the left.

No system specific Mac OS 9 disc will work, nor update, nor dropin.

Booting off Mac OS 9 on the hard drive if you erased and installed Mac OS X requires installing Mac OS 9 drivers first:

Mac OS X: About the "Install Mac OS 9 Drivers" Option in Disk Utility

Make sure you are indeed talking the Sawtooth (AGP PowerMac), and not the earlier revision known as Yikes (PCI PowerMac):

Power Mac G4: How to Differentiate Between Models

The Sawtooth is the first one to support the startup manager for booting:

Use the Option key, when possible instead of 'C' key to boot discs

And that's handy because it works on multiple partitions, showing you the last operating system that Startup Disk Control Panel or System preference selected to boot.

Classic mode, sadly does not support Mac OS 9 extensions very well. You have to boot directly into Mac OS 9 for specific extensions, which may answer a Protools in Classic mode issue.

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Answer 2

Chris Winham Author

Level 1

8 points

Jul 27, 2014 10:16 PM in response to a brody

Thanks for the tip on what the OS 9 cd should look like for that model. I bought it used and there were a bunch of OS 9 CD restore and Install discs included but none of them look like that. They were all the gray OS 9 discs and they certainly did not have the look of the big orange 9 so that is something interesting because I just assumed they were the original install and restore discs that came with this machine. That being said the start up manager is there and when you hold down the option key after the chime on stratup you see the different possible start up disc options, but unfortunately any option that has an OS9 system folder will hang on the gray screen after starting and if there is a disc in the drive it ill show up but it will not work unless it is an OS X disc if it is an OS 9 disc it will hang on the gray screen just as the OS 9 partition does.

But in a later post you asked to clarify the question so let me try again to simplify that.

I have an old G4 that has been a dual boot machine (can boot into OS9 and or OSX) for years it has been able to boot into either of the two partitions one running OS 9 and the other running OS X but for some reason it will not boot into OS 9 any more. Can any body tell me how to get this machine to boot into OS 9 again. Is there a known solution?

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Answer 3

a brody

Level 10

82,941 points

Jul 28, 2014 3:43 AM in response to Chris Winham

Check Apple menu -> System Preferences -> Startup Disk, and see if the System Folder for Mac OS 9 is visible there.

If it is not, then the system folder may have lost its blessing.

To double check if that's the problem see if at least Classic runs in Apple menu -> System Preferences -> Classic.

If Classic does run, then the Mac OS 9 drivers have not been installed, and you'll have to clone your system to a second hard drive

with Superduper or Carbon Copy Cloner and then reformat the hard drive with Mac OS 9 drivers as mentioned before, and then clone the information back.

If Classic doesn't run see this article:

Mac OS X: Classic doesn't start, Mac OS 9 not installed or recognized

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Answer 4

mdmcxyz

Level 1

5 points

Jun 18, 2015 10:57 PM in response to a brody

Hi, I'm glad I found this post. I am in a similar sit. I have AGP G4, OS 9.2.2 + OS 10.4.11, with a Sonnet 1.2 Encore Processor. I used to be able to use Classic or boot up from OS 9xx at will or using the Option Key. However, the last few years, when booting in OS 9xx, the screen would go very weird, sometimes finish booting, sometimes freezing, showing a huge array of a Mac face with crack through the middle. I have stripped it back down to the orig stuff, Firmware is 4.2.8fl, and OS 10.4.11 and Classic work fine, but I can't boot up from OS 9xx only, and NOW my Option key function does not bring up anything.

I have tried booting from my OS 9.2.1 cd like your pic, and all I get is a grey screen with a grid......this happens now whenever I try to: select the OS 9.2.2 folder in Startup disk in OS10.x.x. Has my Startup manager gone kaput? Is that hardwired on the motherboard? When it WAS working a day ago, I could boot up from OS 9xx and the screen would look like it was going to crash (as described above) but then clear up, and boot up. ALL my music software, midi, etc. is in OS 9, and I am dead in the water now. Sorry this is long. This is all I can do now: Startup in OS 10.4.11, use Classic, all hd's, cards, processors working fine, RAM good, I can erase disks and install OS 9 drivers, but I haven't touched my main hd yet, cause it's the only one working. What I CAN'T do: Startup Manager does not work at all (Option key at startup), and I can't boot up from OS 9.2.2, even though Classic seems to work.

Is Startup Manager reparable, or is it on the motherboard, which might be the problem?

A Brody, are you still out there? I would appreciate any/all suggestions.

Michael

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