Platinum G3 won’t boot with anything but Mac OS X

So I’ve got a project I’m working on that requires some seriously old-school hardware and software, so I pulled my 1997 platinum Power Mac G3 out of the closet. Sure enough, it still works! Unfortunately, I need to boot it into Mac OS Classic so I can access the A/V personality card.

When I turn it on, the Mac boots into Jaguar and I discover that, once upon a time, I upgraded the hard drive to 40GB (wow!) and partitioned it four ways: Mac OS X v.10.2.8, Mac OS 9.2.2, Mac OS 8.5 (why not 8.6, I don’t know), and Mac OS 8.1. All four partitions seem to be functional, but no matter what I do, I can’t boot from any but the Jag partition.

I try inserting the 8.1 install CD that came with the computer; it says it won’t work on this computer. I try inserting a retail 9.2.1 CD; it boots fine, but I can’t use the Startup Disk control panel because my only ADB mouse is broken and there are apparently no USB drivers on the CD. I can use the Startup Disk system pref in Jaguar, but selecting any of the Classic partitions only gets me as far as the happy Mac before it reboots itself right back into 10.2.

Anyone have any clue?

just hold option down upon boot, you may still be able to scroll the various OS partitions using the arrow keys

Memory is failing for things this old, but I think that the old beige G3s would only boot from partitions in the first 8 GB of the HD.

Thanks, Dex. Unfortunately, that doesn’t work; holding option just boots it into some form of Classic (I can’t tell which one), as previously described. It’s probably a limitation of the minimal Old-World support in Mac OS X.

Thank you as well, P. That could be. I know that the entire Mac OS X partition has to be within the first 8GB, but I suppose it could be all of them. Can anyone confirm this?

It rings a bell. Can't do any better than that I'm afraid.

I can confirm the bell ringing.

8 GB Partition Issue Impacts OS 9, RAM for G3 iMacs, Success with Open Firmware Hack, and More

Welp, that cinches it. Thank you so much for the info!

Well, crap.

I wiped out the hard drive and created five partitions: 3.9GB for Mac OS X v.10.2.8, 2GB for Mac OS 9.2.2, 1GB for Mac OS 8.6, 1GB for Mac OS 8.1 (that‘s 7.9GB, right?), and the rest as storage for whatever. I’m still having the same problem. :brick:

Any other thoughts besides just wiping the whole hard drive and going with a single OS 9 partition?

Do you really have the time to fool around with all this partitioning and multi-booting? It didn't sound like you were doing this for fun.

In Disk Utility, check that Mac OS 9 Drivers are installed. If the disk lacks a Classic drivers partition, it cannot boot into any classic OS.

Select the hardware drive icon, then the Partition tab. The checkbox (greyed out) will show if the driver partition is present.

Your Classic system folder might not be blessed, but the standard answer requires a working mouse. On the OS 9 install CD, boot into Finder. Then drag the Finder app icon out of the HD's System folder to somewhere else. Then drag it back into the closed System folder. I think the System folder responds by acquiring a rainbow Apple icon.

You can also bless a classic system folder via OSX Terminal command, but I don't know it by heart.

True enough, Blaze, and thanks to r50 for all the suggestions. Thankfully, I finally got it up and running. I booted from the Mac OS 9 CD and launched the Startup Disk control panel, then selected the 9.2.2 partition. I guess it just needed to be in Classic, to stay in Classic. I guess I know what to do, next time! Thanks again to all! :)

Doh! I had forgotten about blessing the system folder. Oh the pain.