I had a hard drive corruption which required me to reformat my hard drive. Since I did this and re-installed OSX, the Mac will not boot into OS9.<br><br>It won't boot from the HD or from any of the CDs I have. I'm using the original G4 installer CDs and the Mac will not restart from them, no matter what I do. It won't boot into OS9 from any other disk, including Norton Utilities or Disk Warrior CDs.<br><br>The machine is a 450Mhz G4 (blue case) with a 20Gb Quantum HD, partitioned into 2 volumes - one of 11Gb as the OSX (v10.3.8) partition and one of 9Gb as the OS9 (v9.2.2) partition.<br><br>Prior to the crash, the machine ran perfectly well and would boot into either OS, no problem. Now I can't even start it in OS9 from a CD.<br><br>I've tried all the usual stuff, including booting whilst holding Cmd-Shift-Option-Del. It doesn't even get to the smiley Mac face. I've also zapped PRAM - up to as many as 15 chimes, before releasing the keys.<br><br>No matter which bootable OS9 CD I try (and I've got about 5 or 6, including the original system installers that came with the Mac, Disk Warrior and Norton Utils) the machine just locks with a 'white screen'.<br><br>Yet it will boot into OSX from a CD, so the problem doesn't appear to be CD-Drive related.<br><br>The machine will boot from an OSX installer and I've used the Disk Utility to reformat the HD as a single HFS+ extended volume, including OS9 drivers. I can install the OSX system on this disk and the machine functions normally - including showing correct time and date etc.<br><br>Even when I have done this the machine still will not boot from any other CD. Ideally, I want to boot into OS9, reformat everything and start from scratch BUT IT WILL NOT DO IT!!<br><br>Please, please help, this is driving me nuts!!<br><br>Many thanks.<br><br>

I don't know what your hardware situation is, but make sure your keyboard is connected *directly* to your Mac, and not through any kind of hub- then hold 'C' while the machine is booting and the installer CD in the drive..<br><br><br>[color:red]5.19.05 - The 'Jedi Slaughter' tour begins!</font color=red>

Thanks Pete, but I already tried that (I think I forgot to mention the C key in the description above).<br><br>The machine will not boot from *any* OS9 CD, no matter how I try and do it.<br><br>

If I had to guess, I'd say that when you were installing OS X you didn't select the option to install OS 9 drivers. Without those, your machine will never be able to boot into it. The only option if that's the case is to erase the hard drive and reinstall, making sure you choose to put the OS 9 drivers on there.<br><br>

That's only booting from the hard disk, not the CD.<br><br>But acornFlyer, you said it was a G4 (blue case). The blue case is a G3, not a G4. Did it have an upgrade card installed? That may have something to do with it not being bootable.<br><br>

I don't think he means the blue&white. The first G4 towers were a blueish color. I had a sawtooth. <br><br><br>Try booting from the OS X CD and reformat the hard drive and zero all data. Then try to install OS 9 and boot.<br><br>

Is it the original, Apple-supplied optical drive? <br><br>Do you have more than one, or a slave/master situation?<br><br>

Hi Michael - done that. G4 boots from OSX, but will not from OS9.<br><br>Hi Bryan - it's the original apple-supplied HD. It's the master drive. There is a slave attached and the G4 won't boot to OS9 from that either.<br><br>Is there any way the Mac could have lost it's ability to recognise OS9? And if so, how would I fix it?<br><br>

No, not the hard drive, the CD-Rom drive. <br><br>Question...are you have trouble booting from the CD-Rom or installing OS 9 on the hard drive? I think the two seem to be getting confused here. <br><br>Booting from the OS 9 CD involves inserting the CD-Rom, holding down the C key and restarting. <br><br>Installing OS 9 onto a Hard drive that already has OS X is a little tricky, but it can be done. It looks like it won't let you, but you have to click options and select "clean install," then ignore the warning about replacing an newer OS with an older one (it won't bother your OS X installation.)<br><br><br><br>

The CD-ROM is the original Mac item. I'm sorry if I've failed to explain the problem properly, but the machine will no longer boot into OS9. <br><br>Full stop. <br><br>Not from a CD (and I've tried the original installer CDs that came with machine, plus half a dozen other OS9 installers) not from the master or slave HD and not via the network.<br><br>I've tried every key combination in the book, I've reformatted the HD (with OS9 drivers and non-journaled) I've performed 3 or 4 clean installs and it still freezes when it begins to go through the boot procedure.<br><br>It's like the machine has 'forgotten' it has the ability to boot into OS9. It will boot into OSX cleanly, from CD and from the HD, so I know it's not a HD, CD Drive or IDE controller problem.<br><br>It just hangs on OS9. I'm wondering if it might have anything to do with the firmware, although I've reset that and got no joy either.<br><br>It's the strangest situation I've ever encountered in over 15 years of Mac use and I'm at a loss as to what to try next.<br><br>I appreciate all the suggestions, so if there are any more ideas, please keep them coming.<br><br>Thanks,<br><br>Phil<br><br>