Downgrading from 10.5.5 on MDD

[rpschultz13]

Hi,

 What a wealth of knowledge there is here. So grateful.

 I just bought a Dual 867 MDD that has 10.5.5 on it (eBay, $150!) and I want to run OS 9. I found the universal 9.2.2 installer, and since mine has (2) FW400 ports, should be no problem (I think).

Questions:
1) Can I install from a USB stick??? If not, how?
2) Should I wipe the drive, or reformat it for any reason? If standard, it's a 60GB.
3) Should I install 9.2.2 first, then OX 10.4?
4) Any other suggestions?

Thanks!
Ryan

[refinery]

1) Can I install from a USB stick??? If not, how?

No. PPC machines cannot boot from USB. You'll need to burn a CD or use an external firewire drive you can write the installer disk image to.

2) Should I wipe the drive, or reformat it for any reason? If standard, it's a 60GB.
3) Should I install 9.2.2 first, then OX 10.4?

Depends on the drive. I have found that you have to use OSX to format SSDs before they will work properly in OS9. Standard hard drive, it doesnt matter.
As for order of installation, doesnt matter, up to you. (However, as I just mentioned, I would suggest booting the machine of the OSX installer disk and formatting the drive regardless of which OS you do first - if you're going to use an SSD)

4) Any other suggestions?

Get a low capacity SSD (~120GB or less) and a Startech IDE-SATA adpater:
https://www.amazon.com/StarTech-com-Drive-Optical-Adapter-Converter/dp/B00EOJNGC2/ref=sr_1_3?crid=1K7JNTEJH4FZM&keywords=startech+ide+to+sata+adapter&qid=1554407125&s=gateway&sprefix=startech+ide+%2Caps%2C180&sr=8-3

makes a world of difference on these old machines.

[rpschultz13]

Hmmm, good suggestion about the SSD. OWC has some drives that work without the star tech adapter. Do you have a recommendation? Cheaper is better, 60Gb is probably plenty.

I have a FireWire time machine drive I can boot from. This is good, I cN leave the original 10.5.5 drive alone and just add a new drive for OS9.

[refinery]

i personally have used some off-brand "Wintech" and also some Intel 320/520 series. They have all worked fine. In fact, they're so cheap, I have two in my MDD, and use Retrospect to run a weekly backup between the two in case one fails.

https://www.ebay.com/sch/i.html?_from=R40&_trksid=m570.l1313&_nkw=intel+520+60GB&_sacat=0

[rpschultz13]

FYI, you CAN boot from a USB stick on PPC... I installed Tiger from it this weekend. Just have to format it correctly, go into options and select Apple Partition Map or something like that.