So, I finally thought of upgrading my mini's 40GB HDD (Fujitsu) with a 512GB SSD (
Super Talent) and suddenly Mac OS 9 and Drive Setup (both 1.9.2 and 2.1) won't even
see the "disk". I cannot get to even initialize or partition it, under OS 9. I also tried Hard Disk SpeedTools 3.6 (from an external FW disk) and same symptoms.
Other relevant info:
- Mac OS X Tiger sees, formats and partitions the SSD just fine;
- This exact SSD works with OS 9.2.2 on a G3 Wallstreet (RIP) (although it only sees its max size as 128GB, since it's a G3 Mac);
- I tried making OS 9 see it on the mini by formatting the SSD on Tiger another 2 times, the first with "Install Mac OS 9 Drivers" selected and the second time not selected. Same results.
- Just in case, I tried partitioning
every partition with no more than 60 GB, but the drive is still not seen in OS 9 on the mini.
When I format the SSD with the V8's install image (using OS X's "restore" on disk utility) and/or when I mount the image and drag, from OS X, the contents into another partition, when I "alt-boot", I see 1 OS 9 boot option appears (although nameless), but when booting from it, I get the same symptom I did as when I tried booting OS 9 on the mini from a 1TB LaCie FireWire external hard drive: a diskette icon with a question mark in it.
The install image is the one called "Macintosh HD", by the way.
I never used partition sizes greater than 192GB for OS 9. I also tried partitions lower than 128 GB. No use. OS9 on mini won't see the drive, and OS9 on mini won't boot if otherwise installed on the drive.
Any ideas? Thoughts?
The one thing I realized I did not try yet (on both my internal SSD and my external FW drive) is to use HFS as opposed to HFS+, which I'll attempt shortly, although I'm not optimistic about that working out. Other than that, considering the same drive works on another OS-9-equipped Mac, is to try another version of the hacked Mac OS ROM or, worse yet, try inspecting the ROM to see what's wrong (which I completely lack the skill to do as of now).
I also wonder if maximum drive size could have anything to do with it. Or if it's because it is specifically a "Super Talent" drive.