Boot problem after installing OS X onto iMac

[Horatio_too]

Hi

Got some largely self-inflicted problems with a Graphite 400MHz iMac DV SE, now stuck in OS 9.0 after an upgrade to OS X.

The story:-

We are in the UK, and the machine belongs to a neighbour who wanted to get onto broadband using British Telecom (BT). Only problem was that BT insist that Mac users have OS X and at least 256Mb of RAM, whilst my neighbour's iMAC was OS 9.0 and 128Mb.

No problem, I said, I'll help out by upgrading to 1Gb of RAM and install OS X for you, which I duly did (via an interim OS 9.1 upgrade to allow the OS X installer to run).

Note that for the OS X upgrade, I just followed the on-screen prompts, which resulted in OS X being installed onto the SAME partition as OS 9.0. and 9.1.

The machine worked fine under OS X and I was on the verge of returning to my neighbour... then curiosity crept in !

I should say at this point that I am computer-savvy, but most of my experience is with PCs, with only the occasional trip into the land of Macs, so Mac knowledge is rather shakier than I would like.

However, the upgrade had gone fine, the PC had passed BT's on-line check for being a suitable spec, everything was fine - except that Classic mode was playing up. Not a major problem, as my neighbour only occasionally used Appleworks 5, but I thought that I'd be "nice" and try to resolve the issue...BIG mistake !

Put it down to naivety, madness or whatever, but I thought "I'll just check whether the machine can still boot into OS 9" and so, from within OS X, specified that the machine should boot from the OS 9.0 folder.

Naively, I assumed that there would be a reciprocal option in OS 9.0 to allow me to again specify booting from the OS X folder once I was done - WRONG !

As such, I am now stuck with the machine back in OS 9.0. If anybody can help me get it back to booting into OS X, then I will be VERY grateful.

Many thanks in advance,

Horatio_too

 

[bobw]

Try holding the X key down while booting, then read This.

 

[Horatio_too]

Hi Bobw

Many thanks for the swift reply.

Tried following your advice, (dragged but all that I appear to get is the same Startup Disk Control Panel that I already had.

This gives me the choice of Network Disk, MAC OS X Install DVD and Macintosh HD as the options.

Unfortunately, however, OS 9.0, OS 9.1 and OS X were ALL installed to the Macintosh HD disk, which is a single partition.

Unless I am being thick (quite likely, I admit), then what I think that I want is a way of telling the iMac which System Folder to boot from, rather than which partition or disk ?

Thanks once again

Horatio_too

 

[Horatio_too]

Dear All,

The issue now appears to have been resolved. Thus:-

1. Downloaded the latest copy of Startup disk from the Apple website, which did the trick (The copy of Startup Disk from the OS X install CD did not do the job for me).

2. However, because the migration had been 9.0 -> 9.1 -> 10.4 all on the same partition and I had then asked the iMac to boot from 9.0, as far as the iMac was concerned, the copy of Startup Disk needed to be placed in the Control Panel under Previous System Folder (because, as far as this machine was concerned, 9.0 was the "previous" system and 9.1 was the "current" version).

Thanks once again, now all I've got to do is get Classic working properly under 10.4 !

Kind regards

Horatio_too