PowerMac G3 Blue and White downgrade help

[KalebPi]

Hi, new to the forum and very new to older Macs. Basically, I have a PowerMac G3 Blue and White 350MHz and it has OSX 10.3 installed on it. My goal would be to downgrade it to either 8.6 (or the best version of or, after poking around the site, 9.22. I looked around the forum and elsewhere and I really can not find anything comprehensive telling me exactly what I need to do to get this done. I am pretty good with computers. If anyone could point me to a guide or two on doing this. Or if you wanted, to tell me here. that would be amazing. I got a copy of Myst and some games I played as a kid as well as older versions of photoshop I would love to play around with.

And if you are curious/need to know this has the original GPU installed as well as a Radeon 7000 Mac32m

Thanks for any help! And let me know if you need any other information.

[DrNo7]

Hi KalebPi,

Welcome to the forum !

You have a lot of possible ways to reach your goal and the right one for you Will depend on your personal preference. You can either:
* boot the OS 9 disk, format the whole HDD and usd the installer to get a fresh OS 9
* replace the HDD (or plug a second one) and install OS 9 while keeping 10.3
* or if you are adventurous, you can re-partition the current HDD to have both OS without direct interferences (because OS 9 and OS X on the same partition is just looking for trouble)

Either way, the common starting point will be to burn the OS 9 disk image to a CD at slow speed and then you boot on the CD by pressing C when you turn your mac on (or Alt if you want to see the boot drive selection screen).

Have fun and let us know if you hit a snag

[Bolkonskij]

Welcome to the forums, KalebPi!

If you refer to "downgrading" in the sense of keeping all the OSX data while reverting to an older OS, that's not possible. Backup any data important to you before the next steps.

Then get a Mac OS 9 install CD, e.g. downloading it from the forums or the Macintosh Garden. Burn the image to a CD and boot from that CD-ROM into the installer. Choose your settings accordingly.

Technically, you can run OSX and OS9 and OS8.6 side-by-side by working with multiple partitions, so you can have the "best of two worlds". Hold down the Apple / Option key during boot to access a boot manager sorts of.

Though I'm not sure there is much merit in running 10.2 or 10.3 on a Blue & White :-)

EDIT: DrNo7 was a few mins faster! He's absolutely correct :-)

[FBz]

Very good info above, but I’ve two questions:

(1). Do you have a Rev.1 or a Rev.2 motherboard?
       A Rev.2 will allow more than 1 HD or SSD. (Master/Slave)

Hint: Look for these CMDs…




(2). And which HD(s) or SSD(s)?
      (i.e. Kind, Type, Model and total MB/GB capacity / capacities.)

Care to burn your eyes out with more info on the B&Ws….

http://macos9lives.com/smforum/index.php/topic,6127.0.html
http://macos9lives.com/smforum/index.php/topic,6231.0.html

Y’all didn’t really think I’d just let this one go by?
(Okay, that’s three questions.)

[KalebPi]

Hi KalebPi,

Welcome to the forum !

You have a lot of possible ways to reach your goal and the right one for you Will depend on your personal preference. You can either:
* boot the OS 9 disk, format the whole HDD and usd the installer to get a fresh OS 9
* replace the HDD (or plug a second one) and install OS 9 while keeping 10.3
* or if you are adventurous, you can re-partition the current HDD to have both OS without direct interferences (because OS 9 and OS X on the same partition is just looking for trouble)

Either way, the common starting point will be to burn the OS 9 disk image to a CD at slow speed and then you boot on the CD by pressing C when you turn your mac on (or Alt if you want to see the boot drive selection screen).

Have fun and let us know if you hit a snag

All right, I will be burning that OS 9 disk and replacing OSX. Thank you very much! A lot of the "guides" were just a bit complex and mostly talking about other things at the same time, so you laying it out helps a ton.  I'll report back if it catches fire or something. ha

[KalebPi]

Welcome to the forums, KalebPi!

If you refer to "downgrading" in the sense of keeping all the OSX data while reverting to an older OS, that's not possible. Backup any data important to you before the next steps.

Then get a Mac OS 9 install CD, e.g. downloading it from the forums or the Macintosh Garden. Burn the image to a CD and boot from that CD-ROM into the installer. Choose your settings accordingly.

Technically, you can run OSX and OS9 and OS8.6 side-by-side by working with multiple partitions, so you can have the "best of two worlds". Hold down the Apple / Option key during boot to access a boot manager sorts of.

Though I'm not sure there is much merit in running 10.2 or 10.3 on a Blue & White :-)

EDIT: DrNo7 was a few mins faster! He's absolutely correct :-)

Oh no, I do not care about the data or OSX, ha so I will be burning that OS 9 disk and installing. Thanks for your help! I may do the OS9 and OS8.6 side-by-side in the future to!

[KalebPi]

Very good info above, but I’ve two questions:

(1). Do you have a Rev.1 or a Rev.2 motherboard?
       A Rev.2 will allow more than 1 HD or SSD. (Master/Slave)

Hint: Look for these CMDs…




(2). And which HD(s) or SSD(s)?
      (i.e. Kind, Type, Model and total MB/GB capacity / capacities.)

Care to burn your eyes out with more info on the B&Ws….

http://macos9lives.com/smforum/index.php/topic,6127.0.html
http://macos9lives.com/smforum/index.php/topic,6231.0.html

Y’all didn’t really think I’d just let this one go by?
(Okay, that’s three questions.)

(1) Sadly it's a Rev 1

(2) It is a Quantum Fireball EX 3.5 series 8.4GB IDE hard drive

(3) I will make sure to see an eye doctor

Thanks for asking about the revisions, I did not know that was a thing. I just watched a video saying that Rev 1 in OSX could corrupt IDE drives randomly, so that's good I am downgrading it haha (upgrading for me really)

Now in this video [youtube]https://youtu.be/GQ0Th7hf-nI?t=353[/youtube] He talks about some software he used to flash this SATA card. Would you or anyone know of this software since he doesn't seem to say what it is? I will be doing that do the same or a similar card sometime.

Thanks again!

[FBz]

That guy down in Houston Texas is still selling Rev.2 boards - but he's raised his price to $39.99.
Still, might be worth it.

https://www.ebay.com/itm/201180632758

[DieHard]

That guy down in Houston Texas is still selling Rev.2 boards - but he's raised his price to $39.99.
Still, might be worth it.

Yeah.. his sales are slowing down..last reported sale "29 Jan 2022 at 8:44:48AM PST"
He should have kept them at $29.99 or at least add "make offer"

[FBz]

Update:
Seller has revised his listing to include the “Make Offer” option.

Don’t know if this means that Forum members can note their
membership here along with their offers to guarantee a lower
price acceptance, but it’s worth a shot.

From earlier today:
“Yeah.. his sales are slowing down..last reported sale "29 Jan 2022 at 8:44:48AM PST"
He should have kept them at $29.99 or at least add "make offer”.”  -DieHard

That’s interesting. I bought one on Jan. 24 for $29.99 and
mopar300m bought one on Jan. 29 (possibly after the price
increase to $39.99?). *Not defending the increase, but some
do come with a CPU and heatsink.

Dropped seller a note after the increase asking ‘bout the
increase and he offered to sell me another one at the original
low price. Maybe all members here should get that lower price?

Have just now written another note to seller suggesting the
“make offer” option (especially for anyone mentioning their
membership here) along with their offers for possible lower
pricing. AND I’ll post back any news.
(See Update at top.)

[KalebPi]

Yeah, ill def think about doing that! thanks for the links and info!

[FBz]

Thanks to Señor DieHard for the insight / suggestion.
And if you do make an offer, do let us know how that goes.
Be sure to mention you’re a member of MacOS9Lives with any offer!

Good luck!

[DieHard]

Yeah, ill def think about doing that! thanks for the links and info!

I am sure you can get it for the $29.99 and it is well worth it.  It is a very easy and inexpensive replacement, and it will make a world of difference in the storage arena.  Also, it's a fun job that will give you a lot on insight onto maintaining and working on your G3.  Here is the "no brainer" guide to replacement

Power Mac G3 Blue & White Service Source & Troubleshooting Guide
http://macos9lives.com/smforum/index.php/topic,3214.0.html

[Mat]

If you do not need any programs or drivers that need Mac OS 9.x, I'd suggest to use Mac OS 8.6 (at least as option as you said). It was the most stable and fastest Mac OS I ever used. And at a G3/350 is makes much more fun than 9.2.2. So if you can avoid carbonized programs, go for it!