Mac OS 9 booting on: Mac mini G4 (Detailed Posts)

[FBz]

Yes, as Opualuan mentioned… remove the optical drive and the screws holding the two halves together.
Once the mini is powered down and drive removed, that “frikken laser” can’t get ya.
Besides it’s always interesting to open one - as you never know just what you’ll find.

And if it doesn’t work afterwards… well you'll already know what to do.


                                          Recently discovered here in an otherwise 100% pristine condition Quicksilver. (I just had to share.)

[chatulim]

Yes, as Opualuan mentioned… remove the optical drive and the screws holding the two halves together.
Once the mini is powered down and drive removed, that “frikken laser” can’t get ya.
Besides it’s always interesting to open one - as you never know just what you’ll find.

Well, I opened it up... Didn't seem too dusty. I blew out what I could see (using a Giottos rocket bulb-blower), gave a few extra blasts of air to the lens, put it all back together, and... it still doesn't read any disks. It does take a few more seconds before spitting them out, but it never gets to that high-speed spinning stage.

I guess I could try replacing the optical drive. What type of drive do I need -- ATAPI? SATA? Something else?

[DieHard]

I guess I could try replacing the optical drive. What type of drive do I need -- ATAPI? SATA? Something else?

Apple part number will be printed on top, then just go to eBay, should be dirt cheap, also decide if you want to burn DVD, most are "combo" which read DVD and burn CD, but some are "superdrive"

[gregbuchner]

I guess I could try replacing the optical drive. What type of drive do I need -- ATAPI? SATA? Something else?

How fast did you "burn" the CD? Sometimes older devices work better with optical disks that are burned at a slower speed. I didn't have a problem with my G4 Mini burning at full speed, but I did on an old PC with a DVD drive when I was installing Ubuntu. At 16x burn speed, it would not boot, two different discs. Burned at 4x, it booted right away.

[IIO]

i´ve never tried it but i think any flat optical drive will fit into the mini, no need to buy outdated apple stuff.

what you need is IDE, and with some luck you can still buy those new from private persons.

SATA would only theoretically work, since there is no space to put an adapter.

external is an option, too (maybe anyone can comment if you can also boot from fw drives into OSX installer DVDs on the mini?)

[chatulim]

How fast did you "burn" the CD? Sometimes older devices work better with optical disks that are burned at a slower speed. I didn't have a problem with my G4 Mini burning at full speed, but I did on an old PC with a DVD drive when I was installing Ubuntu. At 16x burn speed, it would not boot, two different discs. Burned at 4x, it booted right away.

The drive won't read any disc -- even factory-pressed original Apple Install discs.

[gregbuchner]

The drive won't read any disc -- even factory-pressed original Apple Install discs.

Yea, I'd say the drive was bad. The optical drive needs to be ATAPI if I remember correctly. OWC sells some for the early Intel Mini's, but I don't know if they would work in a G4 mini. Placement of connectors might be off. You might have to find a donor G4 Mini or see if an external optical drive would work.

I think I'm in a different predicament. I don't think the Ethernet port on my G4 Mini works.

[DieHard]

i´ve never tried it but i think any flat optical drive will fit into the mini, no need to buy outdated apple stuff.

1) Anything modern will have the wrong interface connector

2) anything that is not a "slot loading" drive will not work

3) Anything too WIDE, will not work

So, not that many options I am afraid, if anyone one here has every found info about a 3rd party drive that works in the G4 mini OR has changed it themselves with a non-apple drive, please post models here...let's not leave out speculation since this thread is for reference

[ssp3]

Geez.. If one is not a cheepskate, what's the problem with posting WTB post in the appropriate section of the forum?
I am sure there are many members here with spare CD/DVD drives.

[FBz]

The original in the 1.25 GHz Mac mini was likely the Model CW-8124-C (678-0508B) aka: the “Combo 8124A” manufactured early in 2005. Some other (later/ newer) models will also work. Like the faster, dual-layer read 8X DVD RW/CD-RW “SuperDrive” that was offered as an option for a mere $100 increase in the mini’s original base price. That would be the Super 845CA (678-0503G) also known as the UJ-845-C.

At least the above two are what’s in the G4 Mac minis here. And maybe ssp3 has one of the above, not being used at present?

external is an option, too (maybe anyone can comment if you can also boot from fw drives into OSX installer DVDs on the mini?)

Tested external last night with this ramshackle thrown-together abberation and it all worked connected to a mini… using a properly burned disc. Option-key booted with the v.9 disc inside and the FW optical drive powered up, before boot attempt. BINGO.

*

ALSO: Attempted dragging the contents of the properly burned v.9 disc to a partition on a 128 GB drive, located inside one of those FW400 enclosures offered by mustagcoupe and that option-key booted TOO (for installation from that) connected to a mini. http://macos9lives.com/smforum/index.php/topic,6861.msg52552.html#msg52552 (Don't forget to format and partition drives in such FW400 enclosures with Drive Setup 1.92 for use with OS 9!)

So, various Firewire routes are also possible. 

[ssp3]

If Mini can boot from USB, one can always try the method I outlined here:
http://macos9lives.com/smforum/index.php/topic,6742.msg51333.html

I am really surprised that nobody have picked it up.
Same trick works with FireWire drives, by the way.
There's no need to deal with burning discs, half-dead, full of dust slimline DVD drives and all that cr**. Unless you're a retro collector and want everything stock, of course.

[IIO]

if there are any important limits we should really collect them, write them down, and find weird workarounds, like we did for the "SSD" topic.

1) Anything modern will have the wrong interface connector

IDE drives more modern than ATA133 and newer than 2005? in dont think so.

there are some with 44 pin connectors though, probably rare, but possible to run into one if someone does not know what to look for.

there is a bunch of reasons for having a working internal drive, but there are also 20 dollar drives in the "slim external DVD burner" category.

haven´t yet seen one in a proper macmini design, but there are white or silver ones.

on the pro side you can add a second SSD if you remove that noisy, stinky combo apparatus.

[DieHard]

What I was saying was that any "modern" CD/DVD will NOT work in the mini, I was also stating that obviously a "slot loading" drive is needed since it has to work with the mini casing, so IMO pickings are very slim (no pun intended)...

You inferred that there were a lot of options for drives and that one did not have to stick with the ancient apple stuff, in this case I disagree and asked if you knew of any 3rd party drives (that work internally) and if so, to please enlighten us.  I wanted to clarify before someone bought a POS off ebay thinking it was a "no brainer" and "get almost anything laptop size" it is not easily swapped with non-apple drives.

On the bright side the correct drive is very easy to replace will only cost between 10 to 15 US dollars on ebay.

Of course there are external boot options as mentioned, but having a working optical drive is real nice in the mini to install/authorize disks, etc.

[chatulim]

Geez.. If one is not a cheepskate, what's the problem with posting WTB post in the appropriate section of the forum?
I am sure there are many members here with spare CD/DVD drives.

I am not in the USA. After adding international shipping fees this kind of purchase can become a think-twice kind of thing.

[chrisNova777]

while it sucks the original drive doesnt work this is an easy problem to bypass, you can share a cd/dvd drive from another mac on your local network very easily.. or you can simpl just plug in LITERALLY ANY USB DVD DRIVE will be compatible, the same way USB FLOPPY DRIVES are very compatible + easy to find.

[ssp3]

I am not in the USA. After adding international shipping fees this kind of purchase can become a think-twice kind of thing.

You can always find them on ebone in Europe and UK. 20 to 30 EUR/UKP in most cases.

(If you don't find any, feel free to PM).

[jackoverfull]

The G4 Mac Mini won’t boot from USB without some open firmware gimmicks.
It will from FireWire, but good luck in finding a FireWire dvd drive in this day and age.

[chrisNova777]

https://www.ebay.com/b/FireWire-400-CD-DVD-and-Blu-ray-Drives/131542/bn_826818

[ssp3]

The G4 Mac Mini won’t boot from USB without some open firmware gimmicks.

Indeed. I just tried to boot mine from USB stick and from SSD drive on generic SATA to USB adapter. No go. I didn't try the OF route, though. What are the commands?

It will from FireWire, but good luck in finding a FireWire dvd drive in this day and age.

If one has bootable FireWire enclosure, there's always the "Fake CD" trick I mentioned a few posts back. Than one works.

[gregbuchner]

Indeed. I just tried to boot mine from USB stick and from SSD drive on generic SATA to USB adapter. No go. I didn't try the OF route, though. What are the commands?

I don't know the commands, but I do remember why it won't boot from USB. Mac OS 9 resets the USB bus during boot up, so that messes up any attempt to boot from USB.

I think I still have a FireWire case with a CD burner in it. Just haven't used it in long, long time.