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rdwhipp · Mar 5, 2008, 12:42 AM

I bought a 15” flat panel iMac in Aug. 06 from PowerMax of Portland OR. and am very happy with it. I get no reply from them with this question.
LCD iMac G4/800 DB 512/60/SD/56K 15"TFT

OS 9 was uninstalled and we now find we need it for an older application that is only offered for pre OSX.

I would like to reinstall the proper OS9 so I can run Classic with this machine. The software disks that came with this machine are eMac with OS 10.3.5 and an update disk for OS 10.3.9 which is the current OS I am using. No OS9 is included.

How do I get classic up and running?

Big Mac · Mar 5, 2008, 12:48 AM

The easiest way is to copy a working System Folder from another disk.

rdwhipp · Mar 5, 2008, 01:50 PM

I've been looking for Big Mac for about 3 months now. I've had lengthly instructions on how to go about getting Classic to work on my machine and was advised by more than one to be sure that the correct version of OS9 be installed or grave things would happen. I was to inquire from my vendor for this info. Months of no answers later I found this forum and Big Mac.
Messing with my computers OS software is like walking a mine-field for me. I bit the bullet, copied the System Folder from an older OS9.1, CD version 1.2, disk I had saved from my first iMac, went to my System Prefs and clicked the OS9 folder and after the computer found and listed it, chose the System Folder I'd just installed. Classic now works as it should.
Many thanks Big Mac.

peeb · Mar 5, 2008, 02:02 PM

For computer advice, Big Mac is pretty good.

ibook_steve · Mar 5, 2008, 03:54 PM

Use the OS 9 Software Update control panel to update to the latest (and last) version: 9.2.2.

Steve

Sherman Homan · Mar 5, 2008, 05:18 PM

What ibook_steve said, there is also a QuickTime update (6.0.3)
Apple - Support - Downloads - QuickTime 6.0.3 for Mac
You know that you aren't going to Leopard and still run System 9, right?!

ibook_steve · Mar 5, 2008, 06:14 PM

What Sherman means, in case it wasn't clear, is that Leopard does not support running the Classic Mac OS (no more Classic preference pane.

Steve

Big Mac · Mar 5, 2008, 06:17 PM

Originally Posted by peeb

For computer advice, Big Mac is pretty good.

Thank you very much for the compliment, peeb. As long as we stay away from each other in the PL, we can get along pretty well. And glad I was able to help you, rdwhipp.

rdwhipp · Mar 5, 2008, 06:38 PM

All advice appreciated. Thanks all.......

Eriamjh · Mar 6, 2008, 06:02 PM

OSX machines that came from Apple came with system disks that could install OS9. If you can't locate one on eBay, the above methods are pretty much your only choice, although you may need OS9 driver's installed on the HD to boot OS9 (you don't for running classic within OSX).

Even if you had a true retail OS9 system disk, you can't run a classic installer with classic installed because you need classic to install classic! You can't even install while booted to OS9 from the disk because it will not let you install it because "a newer version of the operating system is already installed".

The original disks bypass this problem by basically copying a system folder to the computer, the same thing suggested above. Maybe you can mount and extract the OS9 system folder from your eMac disks?