Dual boot - OS 9.2.1 and OS X 10.4 on a Power Mac G4

Hello,

I have a problem with a vintage Mac.

A few weeks ago, I bought a Power Mac G4 (466MHz, Digital Audio). I took out the 30GB drive that had come with it and replaced it with a new, 80GB one. Then I did a clean install of Tiger 10.4.6, updated it to 10.4.11 and installed apps. Everything ran fine.

Then I had this crazy idea to try OS 9. I took the original 30GB drive from my drawer, installed it as a second (slave) hard drive. Erased and renamed it under Tiger.

I inserted my OS 9.2.1 CD into the drive (universal CD not bound to a specific Mac) and restarted while holding down the C key. Nothing happened - the computer didn't start to boot from the CD - and Tiger started up as usual. Tried to boot while holding down the Option key and the only bootable drive that appeared was my 80GB Tiger drive. The DVD drive is OK as it can still boot from my Tiger install disc.

Am I missing something? Or could you direct me to a website/forum dealing with Classic Mac OS and old Macs?

Did you set the jumpers on the original drive from master to slave when you reinstalled it? The positioning of the jumpers for slave are different to the master drive.

harryb2448 said:

Did you set the jumpers on the original drive from master to slave when you reinstalled it? The positioning of the jumpers for slave are different to the master drive.

Click to expand...

Yes, I set the original drive (intended for Mac OS 9) to slave mode.

I also tried disconnecting the Tiger drive and setting the original drive to master mode. The computer still didn't boot from the CD.

What about resetting the PRAM? Or shall I try to get hold of a different copy of Mac OS 9.2.1 and try it?

Sounds like it is the 9.2.1 disc. Is it a full retail install and not a disc that came another machine? If not suggest looking for a 9.2.2 full retail install. Otherwise you may have a dodgy optical drive.

Interesting coincidence. Today I fired up my G4 that also has OS9 loaded with Tiger. I used Startup to restart into OS9 and it would not start, just spinning sand dial icon. It also would not see the tiger DVD I had to fight to get into the DVD drive. Nada zip cooperation. Only when I shut it down completely then restarted, holding the C, did the DVD get seen and start in Tiger. There seems to be something odd in the Tiger/OS9 setup as OS 9 started perfectly from within Tiger.

Bottom line, I would bet you need to install OS 9 first, then install Tiger as there is something very odd in the setup IMO.