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Zoom · Mar 2, 2003, 06:51 AM

I've got a Sawtooth G4 with two hard drives. I want to dabble in OS X so I'm going to install jaguar on the secondary drive (a 60GB 7200 drive, Maxtor I believe).

I've got some questions before I do it.

First, this drive has my MP3 collection on it. It was formatted with at least 9.1, probably 9.2. Should I be worried?

Second, I've got an ATi Radeon Mac Edition card (32MB). I haven't found any conclusive evidence that it's supported under OS X. (The Apple page refers to an ATi Raden "VE" Mac Edition... what' that?) Do I need to put back the original video card? I don't even know if I have it.

Third, here's a list of third-party hardware I've got. Anyone know of problems with any of these under OSX?

Canoscan 670 scanner
Logitech QuickCam Pro 3000
LaCia FW 24x CDR
Epson Stylus Color 740

I've got lots of software, but I think most of it will run in OSX or under Classic.

The plan will be to try OSX out on the second drive with all my peripherals and software, and if it works okay, then upgrade the main drive.

The installer just forces me to reboot, which sucks. Can't I run it under OS9 to install on the secondard hard drive?

ngrundy · Mar 2, 2003, 07:48 AM

Originally posted by Zoom:
The installer just forces me to reboot, which sucks. Can't I run it under OS9 to install on the secondard hard drive?

Can't comment on the rest of it but with regards to the installer rebooting the system that is what it is ment to do. It is just setting the boot volume. You select the drive to install on and all that other fun stuff once the system is running the installer off the CD.

Millennium · Mar 2, 2003, 09:27 AM

Originally posted by Zoom:
First, this drive has my MP3 collection on it. It was formatted with at least 9.1, probably 9.2. Should I be worried?

No worries. OSX can handle this.

Second, I've got an ATi Radeon Mac Edition card (32MB). I haven't found any conclusive evidence that it's supported under OS X. (The Apple page refers to an ATi Raden "VE" Mac Edition... what' that?) Do I need to put back the original video card? I don't even know if I have it.

That video card should work fine.

Third, here's a list of third-party hardware I've got. Anyone know of problems with any of these under OSX?

Canoscan 670 scanner
Logitech QuickCam Pro 3000
LaCia FW 24x CDR
Epson Stylus Color 740

I know the last two items you mentioned work. I don't know about the first two.

The installer just forces me to reboot, which sucks. Can't I run it under OS9 to install on the secondard hard drive?

Nope. OSX does things with HFS+ that OS9 doesn't understand. These things are not harmful to OS9, but the installer needs to run under OSX so that it can perform these actions; OS9 wouldn't know how to do it. Thus, the need for a reboot.

Zoom · Mar 2, 2003, 10:53 AM

Originally posted by ngrundy:
Can't comment on the rest of it but with regards to the installer rebooting the system that is what it is ment to do. It is just setting the boot volume. You select the drive to install on and all that other fun stuff once the system is running the installer off the CD.

So I guess my point is that it shouldn't force you to install while running the OS from the CD. It's very slow. I have a drive I can run from while I install on the other. I'd like to be able to do that. Or do you need to be running OSX in order to install OSX??

cpac · Mar 2, 2003, 11:42 AM

I think the above poster's point was that yes, you need to be running OS X to install OS X.

Zoom · Mar 2, 2003, 01:27 PM

Originally posted by cpac:
I think the above poster's point was that yes, you need to be running OS X to install OS X.

Yeah, missed that when I was replying to the other one. Thanx.

Zoom · Mar 2, 2003, 02:35 PM

So, I'm in the middle of upgrading. I took the plunge! (I've actually had OSX on my iBook since I bought it, but I've been waiting to upgrade my desktop for HW/SW reasons.)

Does anyone know - is there any reason why I need to run from the main (original Apple) hard drive? That is, if I settle into this and have no reason to return to OS9, are there any problems running from a secondary, third-party drive all the time? Or should I go ahead and upgrade the main drive, too, and run from there?