Installing OS 9.1 or 9.2.1 or 9.2.2

Hi, Enigmacode. The 733MHz Digital Audio G4 (Model #M7681) was shipped with OS 9.1, and the 733MHz QuickSilver G4 (model #M8359) was shipped with 9.2 (later with 9.2.1). If you have the Digital Audio 733 or the QS 733 that was shipped with 9.2, a retail OS 9.2.1 CD will boot and install on it. If you have the late-production QS that was originally shipped with 9.2.1, Apple unfortunately hasn't made it clear whether that one can use a retail OS 9.2.1 installer or not. There is no retail OS 9.2.2 installer disc, so if a 9.2.1 disc won't suffice, the only source for a bootable OS 9 is an original disc that was shipped with the Mac model in question.

See this article, and pay special attention to the numbered notes at the end.

Hi, Mike -

I assume that ANY Replacement Hard Drive that I might buy, will NOT solve this problem.

Correct. Changing a hard drive will not have any affect upon what OS the machine can boot to; that ability is a function of the hardware, specifically the main logic board and the processor on it.

Your QS 733MHz model, provided it was not one of the 'Education' models, should have no problem using a retail OS 9.2.1 Install CD. Even if it is one of the special-priced 'education' models, it probably can use that CD.

Basis - the CPU speed and form factor (M8493) cross-referenced with this Apple KBas article -
http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=42739

It can also use the original Software Install install CD that came with it, which had a model-specific version of OS 9.2.

Either of those disks can be used to reinitialize and reformat the drive you now have, provided the drive is healthy. To do that, boot to the CD and run Drive Stup from the Utilities folder on the CD.
Using Drive Setup

When asked, select Mac OS Extended as the format.

Once the drive has been formatted, quit Drive Setup and (while still booted to the CD) install the OS - double-click the item Mac OS Install, follow the prompts, and accept a standard install.

Note - it is not advisable to post serial numbers in public forums such as these. However, there appears to be an error in the number you posted - I entered it on Apple's Support mainpage (lower right, About Your Support Coverage section), and it came back as 'no info available'.

Edit -

Confirming, there is no full-install OS 9.2.2 CD suitable for that model - all such CDs are model specific to the machine they shipped with; there has been no retail OS 9.2.2 Install CD released.

You can often get retail OS 9 Install CD's at sites like these -
http://store.yahoo.com/hardcoremac/index.html - Apple Reseller
http://www.welovemacs.com/software.html

EBay is another possibility.

Regardless of the source, be sure to get a retail Install CD - those are white, with a large gold 9 on them; the retail OS 9 Install CD's have a universal installer; model-specific Install CD's do not.

After installing OS 9.2.1, you can download and install the OS 9.2.2 download update from here -
Article #75186 - Mac OS 9.2.2 - Download and Info

Be sure to download the language version that matches the language version of the installed OS 9.2.1.

Hi, Mike -

Your plan sounds quite workable.

Your QS 733MHz model is already pre-equipped to accept a second internal hard drive. Make sure it is ATA (or PATA), and not SATA.

The only additional item you may need to get is a set of four screws to mount the drive in the drive sled which should already be in the machine. A small package of those probably came with the machine, but were probably lost (not unusual). They are quite standard - most computer repair shops will sell you a few for not much, maybe even give them to you. Or, you can look for short (1/2 inch or so) flat-head 6/32 machine screws at a hardware store. I'd try a computer repair place first.

You can set the jumpers on the second drive to Slave, with the jumpers on the first one set to Master - or vice versa. Which is set to which is mostly not important - those are just addresses to a Mac, and confer no priority. Do not use Cable Select jumper settings; Macs earlier than the MDD models do not handle CS well.
Power Macintosh G3 and G4: IDE Master and Slave Support and Configuration

Exception to jumpering - if the machine is configured as the Target machine in a Firewire Target Disk Mode setup with another Mac, only the hard drive jumpered as Master will appear on the Host machine's desktop.
Article #58583 - Firewire Target Disk Mode

When formatting the second drive using OSX's Disk Utility, be sure to select the option to install OS 9 drivers. If that is not done, then when the machine is booted to any OS 9 it will not be able to 'see' that drive.

One of the (several) advantages to having each OS on its own drive is that you can use the other drive as a full-time on-line backup drive for each.

Hi, Mike -

"When formatting the second drive using OSX's Disk Utility, be sure to select the option to install OS 9 drivers. If that is not done, then when the machine is booted to any OS 9 it will not be able to 'see' that drive"

Ok let me get this clear; so then even though, I will be installing OSX in it's 'own' separate Hard Drive, I will still need to choose the option to install OS 9 drivers?
Even though, (I assume), OS 9.2 should have it's own drivers?

The OS 9 drivers that OSX's Disk Utility needs to be instructed to install are drivers that are placed onto the hard drive itself. The presence of those drivers determines whether OS 9 will be able to mount the drive (make its icon visible on the desktop) and thus be able to have read/write access to it.

OS 9's Drive Setup installs drivers (ones which OSX is able to use without any difficulty) onto the drive automatically - if you've ever used Drive Setup, you may recall that one of the options in its Functions menu is to Update Drivers. In addition, an OS 9 Install usually includes an (attempt to) update the drivers on the hard drive as part of the standard install process, unless that function is intentionally disabled.

OSX's Disk Utility does not always install the OS 9 drivers by default (which is one of the things that I find very odd in the way that utility was programmed), and so, if it is desired that the drive be accessible when the machine is booted to OS 9, it is necessary to ensure that those drivers are installed.

This Apple KBase article discusses that briefly -
Article #106849 - Disk Is Available in Mac OS X But Not in Mac OS 9

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And as I understand it, this system (733 Quicksilver), will only see a 120 Gig Maximum size HD.

Yes. Actually, the limit is 128GB, but the closest standard drive size is 120GB. Drives larger than 128GB will appear as being only 128GB. This is a hardware limit of the buillt-in controller for the ATA bus.

It can be got around by installing an appropriate PCI card to which larger drives can be connected.

...and so, if it is desired that the drive be accessible when the machine is booted to OS 9...

This will generally be the case on any machine that has a bootable OS 9 on one drive and OS X on another — because to be able to switch Startup Disk settings from OS 9 to OS X, OS 9 must be able to access the other drive and see OS X on it. If the OS X drive didn't have OS 9 drivers installed, OS 9 wouldn't see anything on it.

Hi, Mike -

Having no experience with replacing graphics cards in computers, I can't offer any comments in that regard; and defer to someone who does know something about that.