Need a copy of Mac OS 9 in the SF Bay Area
February 10, 2014 1:35 PM Subscribe
I need a copy of Mac OS 9 to install on a Powerbook G4. The Powerbook currently has Mac OS X 10.4.3 installed, but it doesn't have a Mac OS 9 System folder and I need to run a program in the Classic environment. I don't have the OS install discs. I am in the San Francisco bay area. Is there anyone out there willing to sell me a copy of OS 9 that will install on the Powerbook? I need to get the copy today, and am willing to drive to anywhere in the bay area to pick it up.
This post was deleted for the following reason: Heya, this is more of a local craigslist thing than something that you can use Ask Metafilter for. -- cortex
Best answer: I just did this a couple days ago!
You can download OS 9 directly from Apple. Here are the instructions I used:
Download the following directly from Apple: NetBoot for Mac OS 9 -- be warned it is a 500 MB file.
You will end up with a file on your desktop "NetBoot9.dmg" Double click to open, then open the "English" folder, inside you will find the "NetBoot.pkg" file. CTRL-click or right click on this file and select "Show package contents..." open the Contents folder, then the Resources folder. Inside the "Resources" folder there is a file named "NetBoot.pax.gz". Drag this file to your desktop.
Double click the "NetBoot.pax.gz" file. Tiger will decompress it into a folder named "NetBootInstallation" on your desktop. However the privileges on this field need to be modified for you to open it. Right / CTRL- click and select "Get info". Under ownership and permissions change the "You have" from "No Access" to "Read only". Now double click on the NetBootInstallation folder and see that there are two .img files inside. Applications HD.img and NetBoot HD.img. There is also a Mac OS ROM file which is quite handy. Drag the NetBoot HD.img to your desktop and double click to mount it. Inside the mounted NetBoot HD you will find "Applications (Mac OS 9) and System Folder. Drag both to the root level of your laptop's hard drive (next to your Applications/System/Library/Users Mac OS X folders). Then unmount the NetBoot HD so it doesn't get identified as a boot drive by Classic. Trash the NetBoot HD.img and the NetBoot.pax.gz files from your desktop. You may want to burn the 500 MB NetBoot9.dmg file to CD/DVD in case you need it again in the future.
Open System Preferences in Tiger and open the Classic preference pane. It should identify your Mac OS 9 system folder and you should be able to select it and start from it. If your hard disk was formatted with the OS 9 drivers it may even boot the computer from it. If you do get it to boot you have to log in using NBUser as the username and netboot as password (this can be removed if you want, let me know)
Classic will tell you that the version of quicktime is outdated and that there are some files that need to be updated. Go ahead and let the changes occur. You may also download a more recent version of quicktime for classic from http://support.apple.com/kb/DL510 and update to quicktime 6.0.3 and stop the annoying message.
posted by steinwald at 1:42 PM on February 10, 2014 [1 favorite]
You can download OS 9 directly from Apple. Here are the instructions I used:
Download the following directly from Apple: NetBoot for Mac OS 9 -- be warned it is a 500 MB file.
You will end up with a file on your desktop "NetBoot9.dmg" Double click to open, then open the "English" folder, inside you will find the "NetBoot.pkg" file. CTRL-click or right click on this file and select "Show package contents..." open the Contents folder, then the Resources folder. Inside the "Resources" folder there is a file named "NetBoot.pax.gz". Drag this file to your desktop.
Double click the "NetBoot.pax.gz" file. Tiger will decompress it into a folder named "NetBootInstallation" on your desktop. However the privileges on this field need to be modified for you to open it. Right / CTRL- click and select "Get info". Under ownership and permissions change the "You have" from "No Access" to "Read only". Now double click on the NetBootInstallation folder and see that there are two .img files inside. Applications HD.img and NetBoot HD.img. There is also a Mac OS ROM file which is quite handy. Drag the NetBoot HD.img to your desktop and double click to mount it. Inside the mounted NetBoot HD you will find "Applications (Mac OS 9) and System Folder. Drag both to the root level of your laptop's hard drive (next to your Applications/System/Library/Users Mac OS X folders). Then unmount the NetBoot HD so it doesn't get identified as a boot drive by Classic. Trash the NetBoot HD.img and the NetBoot.pax.gz files from your desktop. You may want to burn the 500 MB NetBoot9.dmg file to CD/DVD in case you need it again in the future.
Open System Preferences in Tiger and open the Classic preference pane. It should identify your Mac OS 9 system folder and you should be able to select it and start from it. If your hard disk was formatted with the OS 9 drivers it may even boot the computer from it. If you do get it to boot you have to log in using NBUser as the username and netboot as password (this can be removed if you want, let me know)
Classic will tell you that the version of quicktime is outdated and that there are some files that need to be updated. Go ahead and let the changes occur. You may also download a more recent version of quicktime for classic from http://support.apple.com/kb/DL510 and update to quicktime 6.0.3 and stop the annoying message.
posted by steinwald at 1:42 PM on February 10, 2014 [1 favorite]
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posted by EatenByAGrue at 1:37 PM on February 10, 2014