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midwinter · May 30, 2003, 12:55 PM

OK. So a friend called a little while ago to tell me that she'd installed OS X on her iMac, but that it couldn't find a classic folder. She needed my help.

So we dug around through her hard drive, which contained a "System" and a "System Folder." Her startup disk gave her the option for an OS 9 boot. But the classic preference pane wouldn't find the folder.

I asked her to select the OS 9 startup from the startup disk and restart.

I followed along with her on my G4.

As her iMac booted, it got to the happy mac screen and then stopped completely. No disk movement. Nothing.

When mine got to the happy mac screen, it brought up a flashing question mark.

We both rebooted holding down the option key. Hers gave her the OS 9 disk. Mine gave me NOTHING (I have four disks).

We both booted to the OS X (jaguar) CDs, only to find that there was no way to change the startup disk from there.

We both booted from the OS 9 disks, only to find that there was no way to change the startup disk.

This has happened to me before, but I can't remember how I got out of it. At the moment, we're both just reinstalling OS X (archive and install).

Does anyone know how you get out of this catch-22?

Cheers
Scott

quandarry · May 30, 2003, 01:22 PM

have you tried holding the option key down when starting up...should give you a choice of systems to start up from...

also if you've booted from os 9 disk just dig around for your start up control panel in your system folder...

midwinter · May 30, 2003, 01:25 PM

Originally posted by quandarry:
have you tried holding the option key down when starting up...should give you a choice of systems to start up from...

also if you've booted from os 9 disk just dig around for your start up control panel in your system folder...

Option key on my G4 showed NOTHING (very odd). Option key on her iMac showed only the OS 9 folder.

Booting from the OS 9 disk allowed her to get into the startup disk pref, but it didn't show the OS X volume.

I just finished an archive and install, and I'm back to normal. But this is a horrible, windows-ish catch-22

Cheers
Scott

Spheric Harlot · May 30, 2003, 01:49 PM

The option key will show all boot VOLUMES. Meaning, bootable disks. It will not show multiple systems per disk.

Holding down X should force a boot into OS X.

Have you tried re-blessing the OS 9 System Folder? Drag the Finder out onto the desktop. Then drag it back into the System Folder. That ought to do it.

-s*

midwinter · May 30, 2003, 03:29 PM

Originally posted by Spheric Harlot:
Holding down X should force a boot into OS X.

Have you tried re-blessing the OS 9 System Folder? Drag the Finder out onto the desktop. Then drag it back into the System Folder. That ought to do it.

-s*

I didn't know about the first one. *KICKS WALL SEVERAL TIMES*

I didn't know about the second one. *KICKS WALL SEVERAL TIMES*

My friend just called to say she's on her THIRD install of OS X (the second gave her the option to shut down or restart and she clicked restart, which gave her the option to shut down or restart and she clicked restart, which gave her the option to shut down or . . .). I may get to put some of this to use.

Thanks Spheric!

chris v · May 30, 2003, 10:53 PM

Maybe the two of you should go in halfsies on a Disk Warrior CD.

The only occasions on which I've had trouble with the machine finding valid OSes was when there was some sort of directory or volume wrapper corruption. DiskWarior has fixed it every time.

CV

Apfhex · 12:47 AM

I actually had a similar problem recently, however my problem was more severe.

I was defragging with PlusOptimizer, when it froze for no apparent reason. Upon reboot, I was presented with the OS 9 blinking quesion mark. So I tried everything I knew of...

Holding X at startup would do NOTHING, and holding Option presented me with no options (no pun intended, but har har anyway). The computer would NOT boot from my OS 9.2 CD...so the only way I could startup at all was with my Jaguar Install Disc, which as midwinter said, doesn't allow you to change the startup disc! I ended up with an archive and install (preserving my Home folder) and had to go about installing various software updates.

While it's true that I /was/ defragging when it crashed, which is bad, I'm still mystified why I couldn't boot from my OS 9 CD. I should probably get DiskWarrior too (but I wish they'd make an X native PlusOptimizer), but I'm convinced that my install of OS X was still bootable, if only I could have reached any sort of Startup Disk control panel.

Spheric Harlot · May 31, 2003, 11:30 AM

Originally posted by chris v:
Maybe the two of you should go in halfsies on a Disk Warrior CD.

misc · May 31, 2003, 11:47 AM

I believe there is a startup disk selector somewhere in the OS X installer.

midwinter · May 31, 2003, 11:49 AM

Originally posted by misc:
I believe there is a startup disk selector somewhere in the OS X installer.

That's what I thought, too. But I couldn't find it.

misc · May 31, 2003, 11:51 AM

Originally posted by midwinter:
That's what I thought, too. But I couldn't find it.

It has gotten me out of some jams.. I'll look later if you want.

Appleman · May 31, 2003, 12:04 PM

Originally posted by misc:
I believe there is a startup disk selector somewhere in the OS X installer.

Not on the Jaguar install disks.

Old Toad · May 31, 2003, 12:38 PM

What version of OS 9 are you running? When you install OSX you should install 9.2 first and then OSX.

I may be preaching to the choir, but have you run "Repair Disk Privileges" from the Disk Utility application? You should run it after (and before) any installation.

Hope this has been helpful. Good Luck.