Can I select whether to boot OS 9 or OS X during startup?

Question

Can I select whether to boot OS 9 or OS X during startup?

I have an old iBook, and it has both OS 9.2 and OS X 10.2 installed in Macintosh HD.

I know I can change the OS I want to start my computer up at Startup Disk in SysPreference (OS X 10.2) or in Control Panel (OS 9). But I can't select whether to boot OS 9 or OS X when I'm starting up my computer. Consequently, I have to boot to the current OS and change the startup disk first. In that case, that's a big matter because my iBook is pretty slow. Its CPU can only run at 300MHz.

My working language is Chinese in OS X, but I also have a lot of program to use in OS 9. Thus, If I turned my computer off last time, I will waste a lot of time to wait my computer starting up to the current selection and to select the new startup disk.😝

Can I select whether to boot OS 9 or OS X when I'm starting up my computer? So that I will no longer need to wait.

Excuse me please if my poor English made any misunderstood to you. Have a nice day! 😊

iBook, Mac OS 9.2.x

Posted on Nov 15, 2017 1:18 AM

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Answer 1

Best reply

Don Archibald

Level 10

101,623 points

Nov 16, 2017 6:24 AM in response to paizhangppppp

Maybe.

If both OS 9 and OS X are on different volumes (partitions of the hard drive), then you can use Startup Manager at boot to select which one you want to use. To do that, as soon as the startup chimes sound press the Option key, keep it held down until the Startup Manager screen appears. This is a rather plain (blue or grey) screen with icons representing each of the available bootable volumes. Select the one you want, and press Return.

How to choose a startup disk on your Mac - Apple Support

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If both OS's are on the same volume (partition), then it gets a bit more complicated. Startup Manager can't be used in this configuration, because it will recognize only the most recently used OS on any one partition. But, you can use that characteristic to your advantage.

Set Startup Disk control pane(l) to OS 9 in both OS's; start with OS X's, restart so it is in OS 9, then be sure OS 9's is set to OS 9. This means that whenever you then boot the machine normally, it will always boot into OS 9.

Now, to boot into OS X when you want to - as soon as the startup chimes sound, press the X key and keep it held down. This is a one-off instruction to the Mac to boot using the first available instance of OS X that it finds, and will not change the setting for Startup Disk. You can release the X button as soon as you know the machine is loading OS X.

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Answer 2

Nov 16, 2017 6:24 AM in response to Don Archibald

Thank you very much. That's really helpful to me!

I set the startup disk to OS 9, than tried to use X key to load OS X. It works! 😊

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