OS 9.2.1 installation question???

Hello

I have a refurbished G3 imac which came with OSX pre-installed (but not with OS9)

I want to install OS9 on the same HD so I can dual-boot. This is so I can use some old versions of music software.

What I want to end up with is OSX and OS9 on the same drive, preferably without having to create a partition (I have some design software installed on OSX for which I long since lost the install disks, so I don't want to erase anything! )

I've been told that this is possible, and that it's a simple case of booting from the OS9 CD and running the installer. I should then be able to boot from one OS to another by selecting "System Preferences/Startup Disk" (from OS X), or "Control Panels/Startup Disk" (from OS 9) and then restarting.

However.. when I run the installer and get to the bit where it asks me where I want to install OS9, it tells me:

"This version of Mac OS 9.2.1 may not be installed over the system software on the currently selected volume. Press the "Options" button to perform a clean installation"

I only have one option in the drop-down menu: "Untitled" which I assume is my hard drive.

If I choose to perform a "clean installation" will this erase anything from my hard drive or effect my being able to use OSX at all??

What should I do?

...one other thing - on the OS 9 CD there appears to be two icons for an installer, one which is diamond-shaped called "Mac OS install" and another which is rectangular called "Install Mac OS 9.2.1" ...which should I click on? Or are they both the same?


Thanks in advance for any help!

You can install os9 environment on osx (its like a emulator). I don't remember how to do this so hopefully somebody else on the forums will know how.

Try here:

http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=106294#m9

Thanks D3v1L80Y... that link explains pretty much what I thought I should do. But what I need to know is, will performing a clean installation erase anything from my hard drive?

And will I still be able to boot back into OSX whenever I need to?

The other thing you could do is buy an external FireWire drive and install and boot from that, unless you have a G3 that doesn't have firewire ports.

I have firewire ports, I just dont have any money to buy a firewire drive with!

Do I really need to do that though?

Does anyone know if performing a clean install of OS 9.2.1 on the same drive (and same partition) as OSX will erase anything on my hard drive or mess up my OSX at all ??