You're in a Catch 22, the reason you can't install OS 9 is because you have to have an OS 9 system installed to run the OS 9 installer. The only way to do it is to boot from the CD. When booted from the CD it will be running OS 9 so the installer can run.
The hard drive also has to have certain OS9 drivers for it to install, which means an earlier version of OS X, like Panther maybe, reformatting, and selecting to install the OS 9 drivers.
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Latest addition 2010 Mac Mini server
I was just curious about OS 9 that's all. I've been exploring and studying Apple technology lately and just wanted see what OS 9 was like.
Instead of trying to get OS 9 to load onto a modern CPU you might find it easier to go to EBay or a swap shop or even your town dump pick over area and grab an elder Macintosh.
If you really want to see and feel the experience of OS 9 complete with Chooser a nice Mac SE20 is the perfect box. That little screen is necessary to see how much good stuff was crammed into that operating system.
Come to think of it OS 9 won't run on a Mac SE20. You have to go with OS 7.55. You're not missing much using that instead of OS 9.
Read through this page which discusses "Chubby Bunny" - a free opensource SheepShaver emulator that already has the Mac ROM installed. It's very easy to work with and has OS9 already installed. Double click the app and OS9 launches. Simple.
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#423793 - 04/12/0912:55 AMRe: Free versions of OS 9 to download??
[Re: Reboot]
trey Custom Title (50 characters max)
Registered: 01/03/03
Posts: 5104
Loc: The Wizard's Balcony
I do miss the old Mac OSes. Not that I'd want to go back to using them on a daily basis at this point, but I wouldn't mind having a couple of machines around to run Photoshop 6.0 on OS 9.X. And FinderPop, who can forget FinderPop!