MAC OS Panther to MAC OS 9

[Glitchologteam]

Hello there people. Ive recently bought an old Imac with Mac OS 10.3 Panther on it. I want to complety reformat the computer to instal MAC OS 9 instead (For games) and remove administrator thing (Since this computer came from an old school computer labs. Do anybody know how to do that (Or if its possible for that matter)

THANKS

EDIT: It is those Old IMac Computer which have different color for the shell

[boatofcar]

What are the specs of the computer? If it has an Intel processor, it's not possible.

If it's a PowerPC machine, you just have to find some OS9.2 CDs, pop them in, and hold down the C key when you restart the machine. The machine will boot from the CD.

Oh, and it's Mac, not MAC. Not an acronym

[Jorpho]

Well, which iMac are we talking about here? According to http://support.apple.com/kb/HT1835 and http://support.apple.com/kb/HT2191 , not all iMacs that can run Panther can run OS 9.

You may also enjoy http://lowendmac.com/misc/08mr/compl...-mac-os-9.html . And perhaps http://www.os9forever.com/ .

[Glitchologteam]

What are the specs of the computer? If it has an Intel processor, it's not possible.

If it's a PowerPC machine, you just have to find some OS9.2 CDs, pop them in, and hold down the C key when you restart the machine. The machine will boot from the CD.

Oh, and it's Mac, not MAC. Not an acronym

Holding the C Key wont work, even if I have the original MAC OS 9 CD

The computer itself was made in 1999 and and I cannot check the spec since I do not have the ''administrator privileges'' which I don't know how to disable

[buzz_n64]

I've been trying to run os 9 "classic mode" on my Mac for forever! Any help would be great. I want to run both, it is possible. I have a G4 tower with 1GB ram, running at around 450MHz, and 160GB HDD.

[Glitchologteam]

Ive successfuly tried to boot from the apple 9.2 CD with another keyboard (probaly because my other keyboard for my EMAC (made in 2005) was too new for that old system)

About Mac OS 9 Classics

For some reason my CD do not work very well with my EMAC with Tiger 10.4 on it (I cannot acess this computer so I can'T check my spec yet)

[theclaw]

If I'm not mistaken, some Macs need machine specific OS 9 discs of now-incredible scarcity.

[Jorpho]

If I'm not mistaken, some Macs need machine specific OS 9 discs of now-incredible scarcity.

My understanding is that while there are machine-specific disks that will only work with specific machines, there are nonetheless "universal" disks that will work with all machines.

Apparently hacking a machine-specific disk image to work with all machines is a relatively trivial matter of changing a single byte.

[NayusDante]

I have a 450mhz iMac and it had 10.3.9 on it when I obtained it. OS9 does install on it natively, and tends to run a lot better than classic mode does.

[boatofcar]

My understanding is that while there are machine-specific disks that will only work with specific machines, there are nonetheless "universal" disks that will work with all machines.

This is correct. If holding the C key down while booting doesn't work, there maybe be something wrong with the computer on the firmware level, as the boot keystrokes are embedded at the very base level of the firmware.

[buzz_n64]

This is correct. If holding the C key down while booting doesn't work, there maybe be something wrong with the computer on the firmware level, as the boot keystrokes are embedded at the very base level of the firmware.

Wait, if I also try this, will it remove 10.3.9 or allow me to use 9 as well?

[Berserker]

Restoring a G3 iMac I got off of Craigslist to OS 9 after wiping off some older version of Ubuntu that was on it when I got it is about the extent of my experience with working on PowerPC Macs, but I did learn a few things from it.

The first thing you should know is that these machines will only allow you to install a version of Mac OS that's equal to or higher than the version that the machine shipped with. 9.2 should be a safe bet for the machine you have, but this is still something worth knowing for future reference.

Secondly, and this has already been touched-on here, but there are a few different kinds of Mac OS discs - Retail discs, which contain the full OS and are installable on any compatible machine, the machine-specific discs mentioned above which are only compatible with the exact type of system they shipped with, and upgrade discs, which are installable on any compatible machine but don't contain the full OS.

The last thing to know is that to install OS X on these older PowerPC machines, one typically has to upgrade the firmware, which incidentally makes it incompatible with OS 9. This is probably what's been done to your system. You can't downgrade to an earlier version once this is done, but you can reset the firmware to whatever version it was shipped with, so that's probably what you'll have to do.

[boatofcar]

What are the specs of the iMac? (If you can't get to the desktop, check the computer's serial number.)

[kedawa]

You can tell what model it is by the style of optical drive (tray or slot) and color of the shell. Generally speaking, you can't install any OS that's older than what the machine shipped with, but if You have a 9.2 or 9.2.1 install disc, you should be able to install it on any G3 mac.

[Glitchologteam]

I thought ive posted a message about the fact ive sucessfuly booted mac os 9.2 on this old IMAC. Everything is fine on it, including diablo II and a 1 TO external Drive i use for it and the other MAC OS X

Thanks for your help everyone

About the C Button: The C button was not working on my old mac but was working with my newer mac. Ive used a windows keyboard to make it work.