[Mastrap]

OK, here the deal:

A couple of weeks ago Claasic decided not to start up any more. Error 127 (which I believe is a file system error) and a bomb. Tried to boot into 9, same problem.

1. Zapped all the usual preferences. Nope.

2. Zapped some of the more unusual preferences. Nada

3. Looked at my extensions. No luck.

4. PRAM, rebuild desktop, etc, etc. Nothing.

Bought disk warrior. Surely this would get the f@cker. Disk warrior came back with the usual list of stuff but nothing that sounded like it could stop 9 from starting up. Anyway, I let it do it's stuff.

Still the same error persists. 127, when hitting restart it changes first to an address error message and then bombs and freezes.

All the time X is running like a charm.

Now, my question is:

Can I just dump 9 and then re-install it? I did a test run on my old iBook, however software restore informed me that it would wipe my disk first (you must be kidding) and installing 9 didn't work because it detected X and refused to install over it (good).

The only alternative it offered was to give me a clean install but I am scared it might bugger up X.

Is there anything I can do?

Many thanks for your help. I still need Classic because I can't afford to upgrade Photoshop right now, also I use REAL player a lot to listen to the radio.

[pdjr]

This is why I like to keep 9 and X on separate partitions. By the way, "software restore" does indeed wipe the hard drive. "Restoring" does not equal "re-installing." A clean install will work fine, but you will need to move your third-party extensions to the new system folder.

[Mastrap]

Originally posted by pdjr:
<STRONG>This is why I like to keep 9 and X on separate partitions. By the way, "software restore" does indeed wipe the hard drive. "Restoring" does not equal "re-installing." A clean install will work fine, but you will need to move your third-party extensions to the new system folder.</STRONG>

I am sorry to be dense but just to reassure myself: I can do a clean install of 9 without touching X?

Thanks for your help.

[Cipher13]

No need man.

Delete the Finder, Finder Preferences, System Preferences, and System file.

Rename your old OS9 System folder to something else.

Install another copy of MacOS 9 (it won't touch the old one). Drag the Finder and System file from that to your old system, delete the new one, rename the old one back to System Folder (not necessary), and rebless it (open it, drag the Finder out, then back in), then select it via Startup Disk, reboot, and all will be well once more.

BTW, is it 9.2? If so, that's what chewed your drive.

On second thought, copy the damn files from the CD. It might work. If not, you'll get an error saying you can't boot from it, blah blah. That happens when you copy the System Folder directly; but in this case, it's just two files. Do that straight after deleting the other files, before trying the process which starts with renaming the System Folder.

Try that, and you'll save yourself a LOT of trouble!

If it doesn't work, eh, boot off the CD and do it the first way.