Here is how to install Mac OS 9 from a USB drive - how I did anyway

[timmyfangs]

This is one of those topics that I searched Google for and read countless pages on and seemed like there was no answer for. Well, there is. Here is how I installed Mac OS 9 on my broken PowerBook G4 667Mhz DVI that has a broken CD drive. This is just what worked for me for the Macs I have. YMMV.
What you need:
-A Mac of some sort with USB running OS 9 already. Sorry, there is no way around this.
-A USB thumb drive. Mine was 8GB.
-Mac OS 9 iso image. I used the 9.2.2 Universal 2002 from MacintoshRepository.org
-A Mac OS 9 CD to make it easier
-Toast. I used 4.1.2 from MacintoshRepository.org

Okay, here you go.
1. Boot into the Mac running OS 9.
2. Load up the OS 9 CD or mount the OS 9 iso.
3. Connect USB thumb drive.
4. Using Drive Setup, initialize the USB thumb drive to Mac OS Extended.
5. Install OS 9 on the thumb drive as if it were a HDD.
6. Copy the OS 9 iso and Toast installer to the USB drive.
7. Unmount the USB drive and put it in the Mac you want to install OS 9 on to make sure it will boot OS 9 from the USB drive.
8. If all goes as planned, You will boot into OS 9 from the USB drive. This is the biggest hurdle.
9. Install Toast onto the USB drive. NOT THE HDD.
10. Use Toast to mount the OS 9 iso. I had to go to Utilities/Mount Image(or whatever it is. Something like that.)
11. There you go. Open up the mounted OS 9 install disk and install to the HDD.
12. Reboot when you're done and enjoy!

[DieHard]

Great Post Timmy !

But if you have (2) Macs as described, another alternative is booting the one with the bad optical in FW target mode, and then connecting it to the good mac via FireWire will do an OS 9.2.2 install in less than 5 minutes

So we put our first victim in FW (FireWire) target mode connect it to a working TI Powerbook G4, and run the famous "Diehard Instant DAW" Apple recovery (available right here from our site); and in less that 10 minutes we have a restored PowerBook G4... [/size]

[IIO]

when i first posted the german version of my article about "what is possible and what no (more)" i got quite some feedback from readers who had doubt that you really boot from a stick.

in my "opinion" (i have never made serious tests) you only need to do 3 things:

1. the stick should not have a second ROM partition with some windows bullshit on it (some do - i have one of those which does not work)

2. it must be set up as HFS+

3. the mac which should be booted from the stick must have usb built-in, it wont work in an old world G3 with PCI usb and the like.

everything else is drag and drop (as long as the machines are all the same or you use a MacOS9 older than 2002)

i would be cusrious to learn about exception where this does not work.

[devils_advisor]

Great Post Timmy !

But if you have (2) Macs as described, another alternative is booting the one with the bad optical in FW target mode, and then connecting it to the good mac via FireWire will do an OS 9.2.2 install in less than 5 minutes

So we put our first victim in FW (FireWire) target mode connect it to a working TI Powerbook G4, and run the famous "Diehard Instant DAW" Apple recovery (available right here from our site); and in less that 10 minutes we have a restored PowerBook G4...

Thats my prefered method

[timmyfangs]

Great Post Timmy !

But if you have (2) Macs as described, another alternative is booting the one with the bad optical in FW target mode, and then connecting it to the good mac via FireWire will do an OS 9.2.2 install in less than 5 minutes

So we put our first victim in FW (FireWire) target mode connect it to a working TI Powerbook G4, and run the famous "Diehard Instant DAW" Apple recovery (available right here from our site); and in less that 10 minutes we have a restored PowerBook G4... [/size]

I was posting this for those that don't have a second Mac with Firewire. I have two original iBook clamshells 300Mhz, the PowerBook G4 667Mhz DVI(busted CD drive), and my mid-2010 MacBook running latest High Sierra Beta. So, I didn't have the option to do Target Mode. But, it worked! Now in the PowerBook, I've got to replace the optical drive and speakers(possibly put in an SSD as well) and it'll be great. I just replaced the motherboard. But, now the PowerBook lives!
I hope this tutorial helps someone in my same position from flipping out because they can't figure it out. Thanks for the positive feedback!

[MacOS Plus]

  I appreciate that you posted your method.  I might try this out just for the sake of the learning experience.  A bootable OS 9 USB key would be a very useful diagnostic tool to keep around anyway.  I've never actually tried it before, but I've got tons of old USB keys lying around that will never get used for anything else anymore, particularly the lower capacity ones.  This is a great idea for giving them a purpose other than e-waste.  I'd must rather use that as a boot for drive recovery software than a CD (or floppy).

[timmyfangs]

I had tried simply doing a 'dd if=xxx of=xxx' type thing on OSX and it got to the OS 9 screen then said nope. So, I figured since it wanted to be complicated, I'd try it this way and it worked.
I can only speak for this working on a PowerBook G4 Titanium 667 Mhz DVI and OS 9.2.2.

[mditullo]

Hiya folks,

First time posting here. I recently had an itch to use Mac OS 9 and I was able to source two iMac G3s off my local Craigslist for very cheap.

Models are the tray loaded Bondi blue iMac and the slot loading Blueberry iMac (not the DV version).  The blueberry iMac had Mac OS X installed.  I was able to download the MacOS9Lives universal 9.2.2 iso and burn an image to a CD-R.  That worked like charm to erase and restore the Blueberry iMac to Mac OS 9.2.2.  This machine seems to have a lot of hardware issues and I'm hesitant to use it a ton.

The Bondi iMac currently has Mac OS 8.6 installed and is working like a champ.  When I insert the MacOS9Lives CD-R it says the disk is not compatible with the machine and asks me to initialize it.  So I was very excited to find this thread.  I took a 8gb USB thumb drive and installed a copy of Mac OS 9.2.2 on it using the Blueberry iMac and the MacOS9Lives CD-R.  I also transferred the OS 9 iso and Toast files to the USB thumb drive.  Everything has been running smoothly up until this point.

For the life of me, using the Bondi iMac, I'm unable to boot off the thumb drive for some reason.  I've tried using Control Panels>Startup Disk to restart with no success.  I've tried holding the Option key at startup and get stuck on a screen showing a folder with the Mac logo icon and nothing happens.

Am I missing something?  Am I doomed?

I must admit it's probably been around 2003 since the last time I've been using Mac OS 9 or earlier.  Any advice or tips is much appreciated.

Thanks and cheers!
Matthew