Help! Unable to boot from USB Drive or Mac OS 9 Install CD

[mditullo]

Hello,

Just joined this forum and am looking forward to getting back into Mac OS 9 on a Bondi Blue iMac G3 I recently picked up.  This machine has Mac OS 8.6 installed, and I'm trying to wipe it with a fresh install of the universal Mac OS 9.2.2 disk image from MacOS9Lives.  I successfully burned a disk image and am using an external USB CD drive connected to the iMac (the internal slot loading drive is unable to read this CD-R).

- When selecting the MacOS9Lives CD from the Startup Disk selection, and clicking restart, the machine still boots in Mac OS 8.6.

- Restarting and holding the C key it still boots in Mac OS 8.6

- Restarting and holding the Option key it still boots in Mac OS 8.6

I can't break this cycle and boot from the CD and restore the system.  Anyone have any other ideas?  I was successful at restoring a Blueberry iMac G3 with the same CD-R.  Having the same issue with not being able to boot from a USB thumb drive that has Mac OS 9.2.2 installed.  You can read more about my attempts here in this thread. http://macos9lives.com/smforum/index.php/topic,3940.msg41978.html#new

Thanks so much in advanced! 
- Matthew

[IIO]

this machine probably doesnt support the boot manager (option), but that you can select it in the controlpanel and then it boots into another system sounds fishy.

however it should run 9.2.2. (i just had to look it up)

[macarone]

>You can read more about my attempts here in this thread.
> http://macos9lives.com/smforum/index.php/topic,3940.msg41978.html#new

Summation:

USB installs: Problematic

CD installs: Problematic

Firewire: WORKS  whether Target Disk Mode or external FW HD. Whether from an installer OR drag/drop.

That is one of beauties of OS 9. Just drag a "blessed" folder, re-bless it in the new location, and it works,
The important requirement is that the drive it is on must be formatted HFS+ with OS 9 drivers.

That has been my experience on several different computers. Your mileage may vary.

[mditullo]

Thanks for the quick replies!

This machine does not have FireWire unfortunately.  Is there a way I can partition the drive without going into Boot Manager?

I’ve heard of “blessing” the drive, but have never done.  Is there a resource online that shows steps to do this?

Thanks again!
Matthew

[macarone]

>This machine does not have FireWire unfortunately.

My apologies! I hadn't looked up the specs on your particular iMac (Bondi Blue)

Not only doesn't it have FireWire, but the Hard Drive and Optical Drive are on a singe ATA bus connected as Master/Slave.

Manufacturers of optical drives always advise that their drives must be connected as a Master drive. That may be the reason you are having problems with the CD drive.

From a description of the Bondi Blue:
     "Aimed at the low-end consumer market and designed with the internet in mind,"
It was designed as an appliance, not as an upgradable, expandable computer.

If you are interested in doing serious work using OS 9, I believe you would do better by finding a G4.

Just backing up the hard drive to a USB "stick" will be agravatingly slow on this computer.

If you really like the "look and feel" of this model, condsider finding an iMac (Summer 2001) which has both FireWire and Ethernet, a much larger hard drive, and much more RAM. It still has the problem of the hard drive and optical drive being connected on the same ATA bus in a Master/Slave configuration.

[mditullo]

>This machine does not have FireWire unfortunately.

My apologies! I hadn't looked up the specs on your particular iMac (Bondi Blue)

Not only doesn't it have FireWire, but the Hard Drive and Optical Drive are on a singe ATA bus connected as Master/Slave.

Manufacturers of optical drives always advise that their drives must be connected as a Master drive. That may be the reason you are having problems with the CD drive.

From a description of the Bondi Blue:
     "Aimed at the low-end consumer market and designed with the internet in mind,"
It was designed as an appliance, not as an upgradable, expandable computer.

If you are interested in doing serious work using OS 9, I believe you would do better by finding a G4.

Just backing up the hard drive to a USB "stick" will be agravatingly slow on this computer.

If you really like the "look and feel" of this model, condsider finding an iMac (Summer 2001) which has both FireWire and Ethernet, a much larger hard drive, and much more RAM. It still has the problem of the hard drive and optical drive being connected on the same ATA bus in a Master/Slave configuration.

Thanks for all the info.  Do you think if I obtained an official Mac OS 9 install CD I'd have better luck? 

The CD drive in the iMac seems to work okay with regular CD-ROM discs, it just doesn't like CD-Rs.  Using an external USB CD drive I can get the CD-R to mount, but am unable to boot from the CD. 

I picked this computer up for $25 locally, and am planning to dive in for nostalgia purposes and keep me busy while home so much during the COVID-19 pandemic.  Not looking to do anything super heavy on it.  Ideally I'd love to have a latter model iMac DV, but with high shipping costs on Ebay it doesn't seem like it's in the cards.

Appreciate your help and responses!

[teroyk]

Do you think if I obtained an official Mac OS 9 install CD I'd have better luck? 

Some CD-R brands doesn't work well or at all with old drives.

[ovalking]

I picked this computer up for $25 locally, and am planning to dive in for nostalgia purposes and keep me busy while home so much during the COVID-19 pandemic.  Not looking to do anything super heavy on it.  Ideally I'd love to have a latter model iMac DV, but with high shipping costs on Ebay it doesn't seem like it's in the cards.

Given that, what do you hope to achieve by updating to OS9? It's not sufficiently different to OS8.6 to put too much effort into IMO.

I will be sticking with the quicker and leaner OS8.1 on my original iMac...

[teroyk]

I will be sticking with the quicker and leaner OS8.1 on my original iMac...

Does USB ports work fine with original iMac with OS8.1??

[mditullo]

If you are interested in doing serious work using OS 9, I believe you would do better by finding a G4.

I took your advice and just won an auction for a Titanium PowerBook G4.  It’s the mid-2002 ‘ivory’ edition with 800 MHz.  Seems like great specs for running Mac OS 9.

It’s coming with a clean install of 10.4 Tiger on a 40gb hard drive.  My plan is to partition this drive and install 9.2.2 on the second half.  I no longer have my old 10.4 Tiger install CD.  Would I be able to boot from the Mac OS 9 Lives install CD and create a partition that way?  That’s my plan anyway.

[mditullo]

I picked this computer up for $25 locally, and am planning to dive in for nostalgia purposes and keep me busy while home so much during the COVID-19 pandemic.  Not looking to do anything super heavy on it.  Ideally I'd love to have a latter model iMac DV, but with high shipping costs on Ebay it doesn't seem like it's in the cards.

Given that, what do you hope to achieve by updating to OS9? It's not sufficiently different to OS8.6 to put too much effort into IMO.

I will be sticking with the quicker and leaner OS8.1 on my original iMac...

Excellent point.  I just won an Ebay auction for a Titanium PowerBook G4 and plan on using this machine as my Mac OS 9 workhouse.  Since I only paid $25 for the Bondi iMac, and it’s in pretty decent cosmetic shape, I’ll hold on to it as a keepsake and backup OS 8 machine. 

Thanks, and cheers!
Matthew

[mditullo]

I will be sticking with the quicker and leaner OS8.1 on my original iMac...

Does USB ports work fine with original iMac with OS8.1??

USB ports are working okay on this Bondi iMac with Mac OS 8.6.  No problem reading a thumb drive, an external CD drive, Apple keyboard and Mighty Mouse.  The only peripheral that was unsuccessful is a mechanical keyboard.

[ovalking]

Does USB ports work fine with original iMac with OS8.1??

Good question, because USB normally requires 8.6.
I don't think I've actually used it with anything except keyboard/mouse... so I just tried a known good memory stick in it.
Seems like functionality may be limited as it reports 'the software needed to use the device xyz cannot be found'.

I failed in previous attempts to get USB working with 8.1 on other machines, so not sure how they did it on the original iMac. Perhaps the System Enabler 462 file?

[mditullo]

Anyone know if it's possible to create a partition on a drive with 10.4 Tiger while booting from the Mac OS 9 install CD?

[GaryN]

Possible? Probably not. Even if it could be done, it's a baad idea.
The UNIX-based Tiger and OS9 speak different languages so using one to revise the partition map and/or directory of the other is just asking for it.
They get along in Classic only because the Classic Enabler runs OS9 in a sandbox inside OSX and arbitrates between them.

If you want 10.4 and OS9 in different partitions on the same volume, you'll have to initialize and partition the drive first before installing either OS. You should do this with the Tiger Disk Utility… not OS9.

[mditullo]

Possible? Probably not. Even if it could be done, it's a baad idea.
The UNIX-based Tiger and OS9 speak different languages so using one to revise the partition map and/or directory of the other is just asking for it.
They get along in Classic only because the Classic Enabler runs OS9 in a sandbox inside OSX and arbitrates between them.

If you want 10.4 and OS9 in different partitions on the same volume, you'll have to initialize and partition the drive first before installing either OS. You should do this with the Tiger Disk Utility… not OS9.

Thanks. I was able to find a Tiger install DVD and had success!

[ziggy29]

I will be sticking with the quicker and leaner OS8.1 on my original iMac...

Does USB ports work fine with original iMac with OS8.1??

My experience with 8.1 is that USB works with some types of devices, but specifically NOT storage devices and not “out of the box” — some additional driver installs are necessary.  All USB devices work for me in 8.6.