Pismo G3 that wont boot from OS9 CD but OSx Disc - Help

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2012, September 26 - 2:58pm

Haemogoblin

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Joined: 2012 Sep 26

Pismo G3 that wont boot from OS9 CD but OSx Disc - Help

Hey everyone!

I've only just joined MG, was sad to see the forum on Everymac has gone. Was Hoping someone on here might be able to help.

My old Pismo hasn't been used in about 12months and i booted it up recently and realised i didn't have Os 9.0 installed to run classic software through OS x. Well i've since tried everything, i've even taken the hard drive out and tried to boot from a gold edition OS9 disc and a 9.1 update CD. It refuses to boot from them.

I'm wondering if at some point, i've replaced the drive and the generic PC drive isn't compatible with the G3. Is there any way of finding out? I've read some places that there is a chip fitted to stock apple drives to make them boot. Then i've read other places that you need to use wire to ground something which enable PC drives to boot inside Mac laptops.

I thought i'd come on here in hopes of finding other pismo users that can help

James

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2012, September 26 - 6:00pm

Mulder

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Joined: 2012 Jan 29

This isn't a drive problem; if it were, then your Pismo wouldn't boot from OS X, either.

Your Mac can boot into OS 9, but it has to be the right version that's installed. Apple made install/restore discs that were generation-specific to each hardware configuration. So even if you had a different Mac model, if the basic hardware and firmware were the same, then that generation of discs would allow you to boot and install from it.

If you don't have your original discs, you won't be able to install or boot from Mac OS 9; you've got to get those specific discs that came with your model. The best places to look are eBay, Craigslist, and even your local Apple Authorized Reseller, since they usually keep those discs, especially if they have to repair or service those old systems. They should be willing to make you a copy of the whole set for a reasonable fee (no more than $10 per disc).

2012, September 26 - 6:23pm

(Reply to #2) #3

Haemogoblin

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Joined: 2012 Sep 26

Hi there Mulder

I was lucky today, after i posted to the board. I went through some old discs my brother left with me when he left to live in Australia. I found a disc labelled "my Os 9 backup". I thought i'd nothing to loose and discovered to my surprise that the damn thing worked. The machine now has OS 9 installed, just upgraded to 9.1.

I tried the original disc i have while in os 9 and it threw back telling me it's not for this system. I thought OS disc's with the gold "9" on, where generic?

James

2012, September 26 - 7:22pm

(Reply to #3) #4

Mulder

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Joined: 2012 Jan 29

Mac OS 9 discs with the gold-colored '9' are generic — and they aren't. When Apple started producing Macs that were designed to boot into OS 9 or Mac OS X (the transition to OS X), they needed to produce hardware that would let you use both OS's.

Because of that, each different generation of hardware was different, and that required them to modify Mac OS 9 so that it would install and boot those systems. This required different video drivers, among other things. So they also needed to produce OS 9 discs specifically for those systems and ship them as part of the install/restore disc set.

Your system should have shipped with that disc as part of the OS X version that came with it, since Apple never provided them separately as something you could buy.