[G4] MDD Classic help

[Ronald Steinke]

On 13 Jun, 2007, at 2:14 PM, Ben Smith wrote:

> I have just got a MDD 867DP with a faulty HDD, I have replaced the  
> HDD with a new Seagate 250GB and upped the ram to 2GB, my problem  
> is that I have not got the original install disks, I have installed  
> 10.4.9 but I cannot install classic as the 9.2.1 retail CD does not  
> have the right ROM file.


Your problem sounds quite weird. I have never found that a retail OS  
install CD would need any additional ROM file, unless you are trying  
to use a machine specific CD like a iMac or eMac install CD set and  
not a true retail CD.

It seems to me that you might be going about the OS-9 installation  
improperly? Have you tried to start from the CD by holding the "C"  
key down during bootup? Insert the CD while the Mac is running,  
restart with the CD inserted, and hold the "C" key down until you see  
a desktop with a lot of CD images as the background. Then, you will  
be booted to the CD.

If your Mac does start up from the CD, you should then start the  
installation process - BUT - you need to select the "Clean Install"  
option in order to install OS-9 without being forced to erase the  
drive or be stopped by the effort of overwriting the OS-X installation.

Also, consider doing a custom installation of OS-9. You don't need  
all the files that are installed by the "Easy Install" process, so  
you can eliminate the parts that you know for certain that you can do  
without because OS-X will be handling those chores for you when the  
Classic environment is launched. Stuff like internet connection  
programs, color-sync, printer drivers, modem drivers, etc, can be  
eliminated without interfering with the normal operation of OS-X.