How to reinstall OS9 on iMac DV SE (Graphite)

I have an iMac DV Special Edition 400Mhz PowerPC G3 (Graphite) with upgraded 640MB RAM from 2000. It shipped with OS9. I later installed OSX (10.2.8) around 2003 etc.

I had both OS9 and OSX all running perfectly. However, because my HD became full over the years with various software packages and versions affecting performance, I erased the entire HD and formatted it (Extended/HFS+ with OS9 drivers) to do a clean install of both OS9 and OSX. (Now before the criticism starts flooding in, yes, I know now that this was stupid and wreckless.)

Now I can only install OSX. The iMac does not recognise the original (orange cds)software restore or install discs that came with the machine. I even have the OS9.2 update disc (orange '9' on white cd) and the iMac does not recognise that either. I have repeatedly erased and formatted the HD to install OS9 in various ways but so far no luck.

Now before some of you start saying I should invest in new equipment, this is not my only mac, I also have a 2010 Macbook Pro. But I need to install OS9 on my iMac as well because I have some software packages that only run on OS9 eg SoundEdit 16.

So, is there a way to restore the original iMac software or set the machine back to factory default? You would think Apple would have covered this situation with a simple straight forward way to fix this. And I'm not the only one facing this problem as can be seen from postings on various forums. I am not familiar with Xtools or whatever it is called but I read somewhere there are 'packages' that restore the original factory settings. I also have the OSX Developer Tools cd that came with OSX. Is there any way I can use this perhaps to install OS9? Or is there is another way to install OS9? Please help me out. Any and all advice appreciated. Thank you.

Hello All

I have an iMac DV Special Edition 400Mhz PowerPC G3 (Graphite) with upgraded 640MB RAM from 2000. It shipped with OS9. I later installed OSX (10.2.8) around 2003 etc.

I had both OS9 and OSX all running perfectly. However, because my HD became full over the years with various software packages and versions affecting performance, I erased the entire HD and formatted it (Extended/HFS+ with OS9 drivers) to do a clean install of both OS9 and OSX. (Now before the criticism starts flooding in, yes, I know now that this was stupid and wreckless.)

Now I can only install OSX. The iMac does not recognise the original (orange cds)software restore or install discs that came with the machine. I even have the OS9.2 update disc (orange '9' on white cd) and the iMac does not recognise that either. I have repeatedly erased and formatted the HD to install OS9 in various ways but so far no luck.

Now before some of you start saying I should invest in new equipment, this is not my only mac, I also have a 2010 Macbook Pro. But I need to install OS9 on my iMac as well because I have some software packages that only run on OS9 eg SoundEdit 16.

So, is there a way to restore the original iMac software or set the machine back to factory default? You would think Apple would have covered this situation with a simple straight forward way to fix this. And I'm not the only one facing this problem as can be seen from postings on various forums. I am not familiar with Xtools or whatever it is called but I read somewhere there are 'packages' that restore the original factory settings. I also have the OSX Developer Tools cd that came with OSX. Is there any way I can use this perhaps to install OS9? Or is there is another way to install OS9?

Please help me. Any and all advice appreciated. Thank you.

What are you using to format the drive? An OSX disc or the OS9 disc. You may have to take the drive out and wipe it on a PC to zero it and remove the Mac firmware, then the old Imac disc will work. You use a IDE to USB adapter to hook it to the PC then nuke the drive.

I used the OSX disc to launch disk utility and erased and formatted the drive from there.
Thank you for your suggestion. I must admit it is a rather scary option for me lol.
I hope there is something easier - even a download package perhaps.

Under the OSX utility you have to check the box install OS9 drivers. Then you should be able to install OS9 from a retail install disc "not the Imac ones" in a different partition on the HD. So you have to set up like 8 gigs for the OS 9 on the HD. Someone here can tell you more how to do this as It does not always work out as OSX creates a classic environment for OS9 apps. Its much easier to start with 9 and layer on the 10.

I would have never upgraded the OS9 to ten...keep it just a music box for the music app.
I have an Imac for music production that only still runs OS9 and thats all it is used for.

The only thing I can suggest is to try to reset the PRAM on that machine to see if it will once again recognize the OS9 disks. See this LINK. Read all the way through the article as it covers various models.

EDIT: Also - please do not cross post. I have merged both your posts together here in this forum. Cross posting just adds clutter to the forums and scatters your replies rather than have them in one place.

Thanks.

SoundEDit - I remember that - but what about the open source Audacity that runs natively in OSX