[longbottle]

I hosed my OS X install with an install of DivX 5 and wanted to reinstall... unfortunately, it didn't want to take, so I need a way to force a boot into 9 so I can move all my installed apps onto my file server. Then I can wipe the drive and do a clean install of 9 then X. (I presume that's the proper order to do it in... if I'm wrong, please correct me) I've looked for and tried the startup key combonations everyone's talked about, but to no avail. Right now, all I can do is boot into a crippled install of X, in which nothing works properly. Even the control panels don't work (which means I can't tell the machine to boot 9, of course) if there's no way to force the machine to boot 9 from the drive, perhaps some kind soul could make a bootable CD image for me so that I might rescue my apps/data? My hardware is the Graphite iMac (600MHz, 256MB, 40GB, CDRW drive). Thanks in advance.

--Longbottle

[trash80]

boot off your OS9 CD, then you can set the OS9 volume as your boot OS using the startup disk control panel, reboot and you're in business

[trash80]

oh yeah maybe you haven't got your CD anymore

you can try openfirmware i suppose

hold down cmd-option O-F at boot and you should enter a text environment

type printenv to get a listing of various smeg, look for boot-device and see what numbers are after the hd: i would think that the first number is your MacOS drive but i haven't used OF for ages so this could all be nonsense

anyway i think you can type boot [harddrive number] but i think you are best doing some research into openfirmware first

maybe if you just type mac-boot or bye and see what happens

[Big Mac]

If you had your operating systems on different partitions and/or drives, you could hold down option while booting to get the graphical boot selector. However, if you cannot do that, the easiest way by far is to boot from any bootable OS CD (OS 9 or OS X) and then use the Startup Disk pane to select your OS 9 installation.

I was going to suggest as another resort using command+s when booting into OS X to get into single user mode. Even if OS X seems corrupt, you should still be able to boot into command+s. The thing to do after getting there would be to run fsck -y repeatedly, until it says the volume appears OK.

[longbottle]

Originally posted by trash80:
boot off your OS9 CD, then you can set the OS9 volume as your boot OS using the startup disk control panel, reboot and you're in business

The only OS9 CD I have is the First of the "restore disc" set that ships with the newer machines... bootable, yes... but the only thing you can do with it is format the drive and restore the facory "new machine" image... not helpful, since I lose all my data that way anyway. There's the 9.2.2 Update CD I got with the 10.1 update set... but it's not bootable, I tried to start up from it, and it didn't work.

[longbottle]

Originally posted by trash80:
oh yeah maybe you haven't got your CD anymore

you can try openfirmware i suppose

hold down cmd-option O-F at boot and you should enter a text environment

type printenv to get a listing of various smeg, look for boot-device and see what numbers are after the hd: i would think that the first number is your MacOS drive but i haven't used OF for ages so this could all be nonsense

anyway i think you can type boot [harddrive number] but i think you are best doing some research into openfirmware first

maybe if you just type mac-boot or bye and see what happens

I have played with OF, and since both 9 and X were on the same partition (it came that way, and I never changed it) it doesn't help me much to muck about inside it.

[longbottle]

Originally posted by Big Mac:
If you had your operating systems on different partitions and/or drives, you could hold down option while booting to get the graphical boot selector. However, if you cannot do that, the easiest way by far is to boot from any bootable OS CD (OS 9 or OS X) and then use the Startup Disk pane to select your OS 9 installation.

I was going to suggest as another resort using command+s when booting into OS X to get into single user mode. Even if OS X seems corrupt, you should still be able to boot into command+s. The thing to do after getting there would be to run fsck -y repeatedly, until it says the volume appears OK.

That's what I figured... but none of the bootable CDs I have allow me to choose the system folder to start up from.

When I say "corrupt" I mean "somehow did not install properly" I think I may have done something wrong. (this is my first mac system software install of anything higher then 8.1) X boots up all right, but I can't get access to any of the panes in system prefs... it's just completely empty. I suspect I should have reinstalled 9 first, rather then X, and that's what's causing X to behave so oddly.

Do you think I would have luck asking around in a local users group for someone to let me borrow / make me a boot CD? If you think I'd have luck that way, I'll have to try that next... because other than that, I'd have to phisically remove the IDE drive and put it in a working system to save my apps / data.

[Big Mac]

Originally posted by longbottle:


That's what I figured... but none of the bootable CDs I have allow me to choose the system folder to start up from.

When I say "corrupt" I mean "somehow did not install properly" I think I may have done something wrong. (this is my first mac system software install of anything higher then 8.1) X boots up all right, but I can't get access to any of the panes in system prefs... it's just completely empty. I suspect I should have reinstalled 9 first, rather then X, and that's what's causing X to behave so oddly.

I highly doubt user error is what screwed up your installation. Installing OS X on a machine without 9 is no crime; you simply have no classic compatibility layer to run non-native apps from. It just sounds like a reinstall is in order.

Do you think I would have luck asking around in a local users group for someone to let me borrow / make me a boot CD? If you think I'd have luck that way, I'll have to try that next... because other than that, I'd have to phisically remove the IDE drive and put it in a working system to save my apps / data.

Yes, I was going to suggest that you go to an Apple reseller or a user group and ask if you can borrow someone's OS 9 CD. I did make an error in my last post to this thread, however; note that you can't access System Preferences from any OS X boot CD at this point in time. You do need an OS 9 CD. Your system hardware isn't malfunctioning, just your software. It definitely wouldn't be worth your while to get access to your iMac's drive (a very delicate and complicated procedure). If worse comes to worse you'll have to buy a copy of OS X 10.1.3, which comes with an OS 9 CD. You could also hook up a firewire drive and boot off of that - don't forget that option. There are many things you could do, but the easiest solution by far is to obtain an OS 9 disk.

[longbottle]

Originally posted by Big Mac:


I highly doubt user error is what screwed up your installation. Installing OS X on a machine without 9 is no crime; you simply have no classic compatibility layer to run non-native apps from. It just sounds like a reinstall is in order. [/B]

Whatever happened, it's certainly not functioning properly... and I suspect that a full wipe of the drive is what's needed. (dratted restore discs... such a pain when you need an actual install CD, no matter what platform!)

Yes, I was going to suggest that you go to an Apple reseller or a user group and ask if you can borrow someone's OS 9 CD. I did make an error in my last post to this thread, however; note that you can't access System Preferences from any OS X boot CD at this point in time. You do need an OS 9 CD. Your system hardware isn't malfunctioning, just your software. It definitely wouldn't be worth your while to get access to your iMac's drive (a very delicate and complicated procedure). If worse comes to worse you'll have to buy a copy of OS X 10.1.3, which comes with an OS 9 CD. You could also hook up a firewire drive and boot off of that - don't forget that option. There are many things you could do, but the easiest solution by far is to obtain an OS 9 disk. [/B]

(sigh) oh well... thanks. Now I'm off to hit the user's groups up for a OS9 CD.

On a related note, how hard is it to make a bootable CD? I've done it a few times for my PCs, but I'm not sure if it's as simple with macs as I've been led to believe it is. Do I just burn a copy of the system folder to a CD?