FAQ: How do I restore Classic?

[Craig R. Arko]

OK, this is one of the most commonly asked questions in this forum. Apparently Apple is asked this a lot too.

Apple KnowledgeBase article: Install Mac OS 9 to use Classic applications.

Apple KnowledgeBase article: Mac OS X 10.2, 10.3: How to Perform Mac OS 9 Clean Installation With Restore CDs.

Apple KnowledgeBase article: Software Restore: How to Use Restore Discs With Mac OS X 10.2 or Later.

These should get you started. I'm sure there are more. Please post additional links to useful documentation about this here as well. If you have specific questions create a new thread to ask them, please.


PS - There is also my favorite method: burn my configured and working Classic OS 9.2.2 System Folder to a CD. While it won't help you the first time, afterwards it makes life much easier, in the event a restore is ever needed again. You just Finder copy it back, and then do a permission repair, if needed.


edit - changed first article link - 3/2/2005

[Ursa Minor]

Okay, now I'm confused. I've just bought Panther and I'm about to do an erase and clean install (because I've had to repair my hard drive too often, and I want to try this option). I don't have any need to boot into OS9, but I do run Classic applications. Is this message saying that to get the Classic environment that 10.3 runs, I need to do a separate installation of 9.2 from my Restore disks? I thought that the Panther CD would have included everything needed to run Classic (though probably not to boot into OS9).

[Craig R. Arko]

The restore disc has the OS 9 install; the Panther discs do not. Panther has the Classic resources to support using an installed OS 9 (9.1 or later) System Folder as the Classic environment, but does not provide that System Folder.

[Ursa Minor]

So if I want things to work right after I wipe my hard drive, I should first install OS9 (and from reading Apple's articles, it looks like it would be preferable to use the separate OS9 install disk that I have, rather than my computer's Software Restore disks, which I think would install 9.1) and *then* do a 10.3 installation being sure not to erase everything.

I hope I have that right. Thanks.

[b1hgaa88]

After reading the relevant Apple Knowlege articles I am still at a loss as to how to reinstall "Classic" on my 12" PowerBook G4 (1 GHz model). I bought this with OS X10.2.8 installed, and before I upgraded to Panther it would happily boot up in Classic mode when needed. However, with Panther the only way it will boot into Classic is from my Maxtor external drive, which has a complete OS 9.2.2 system that I had previously used on my old iMac (from which I could boot into either system of course).

My Panther disquettes do not seem to have any means of loading Classic, and when I open Disk Utility (from my Panther install CD) to "Fix OS 9 Permissions" as indicated in Apple article ID: 107383 this is greyed out.

My PowerBook HD contains two system folders as follows:

"System" - which contains one folder called "Library", which in turn includes (among other things) a folder called "Classic" (but this is empty).

"System Folder" - which contains (among other things) three files as follows:

"Classic"
"Classic Support"
"Classic Support UI"

That's it.

When I open Classic Systems Prefs it shows the Classic stuff on my Maxtor external drive, but my PowerBook internal Macintosh HD is greyed out and a dialog appears under the cursor saying, "No valid system folders for Classic".

Do I have to actually install a new Mac OS 9.2 on my HD to rectify this? I do not want to start from the external drive since it is slow, and also because I need a Classic version when I'm on the road.

How can I straighten this out? I should have thought Panther came with its own version of Classic but installing Panther with "Archive and Install" only seems to have dumped the Classic I had before.

[Phil St. Romain]

The System Folder IS your Classic folder on your Powerbook. Why it's greyed out is hard to know for sure. Your Panther installation CDs does have Classic on it, so it would be installed in an Archive and Install job.

[elbimbo]

When I "archived and installed" Panther in one of our iMacs (G4 1ghz), the Classic System Folder also disappeared. I tried reinstalling from an OS9 CD but it turned out that this was one of the Macs that was made to install only OS X.

What I did, as someone suggested from this forum, was to drag a copy of the System Folder from another iMac into this one that lost its System Folder. You cannot use Classic as a Startup Disk using this technique but you can run it to open programs that work only in Classic.

Hope this helps.

[b1hgaa88]

Can one do a "Custom Install" of Classic off the Panther CDs? This should be possible though I haven't yet found a way to do it.

[DeltaMac]

Quote: Originally Posted by b1hgaa88 Can one do a "Custom Install" of Classic off the Panther CDs? This should be possible though I haven't yet found a way to do it.

No, not possible to install Classic from the Panther install CD set. Panther has Classic support components, which require an existing OS 9 System Folder. If you have OS 9 on an external HD, that System Folder could be copied to your internal drive, then the Classic pref pane WILL show a valid System Folder.

note for b1hgaa88:
You can easily reload OS 9 from your original Restore DVD (came with your system), simply follow the directions in THIS ARTICLE , which is also one of the articles in the first item in this thread. That article refers to your exact Powerbook 12"...

[Gary54]

The first one

[Craig R. Arko]

*Sigh* It looks like Apple has reorganized the KnowledgeBase again.

These look like an example of the current instructions, but a search of the Apple KB for 'install classic' yields many pages of hits.

[ale]

I wanted to reinstall os 9.2.1, how do I do this? can it be done without formatting and losing OSX?

thanks.

[kayoteq]

Blessed off= cursed?

Seriously, though, all I did was use my olde Classic 9.2.2 from my older mac on a partition on the main drive (699k so I can burn backup cd)

But my Classic dissapeared from the list after browsing a scsi drive I had connected to browse files (the drive had os9 system folders) , and my solution was to reboot from the Classic partition, then reset startup to osx and reboot. The classic partition would show up on the panel's list again, after some panic.
my panic, not the kernels..

So what, other than the rebooting, can I do to ensure that the Classic mode doesn't lose the 9 partition again?

Pardon my ineptitude, I've only had X since thursday...didn't have a X-capable mac until last tuesday, so this newWorld is new to me..

[drohr]

After performing a fresh install of MAC OS10.2.4, how would you enter "OS 9" or "Classic OS?"

Thanks for any help (i'm a pc user)

Drohr

[elbimbo]

Assuming you have Classic in your system, you can activate it by going to System Preferences (click blue Apple on top-left corner to locate this) and click Classic. When a dialogue window appears, click the Start button.

If a software that runs only in OS 9 is installed in your Mac, Classic will open if you activate the program.

[williamtothemax]

Okay, I'm with a student newspaper, and we need help asap
We were donated two slightly used computers with OS X,
and we here (unfortunately) still use Adobe Pagemaker 6.0

In order to install Pagemaker on these computers, I needed to get
classic to run. (Or at least that is what it kept telling me)

Neither of the computers had a system folder of OS 9, so what I did was (after somebody suggested this online, not sure if it was the right thing to do) I copied the OS 9 system folder off of another computer which ran on OS X, put this system folder on the ethernet network we have here, and downloaded this system folder off of the network and onto one of the newl donated computers.

I then placed the system folder on one of the two hard driv
es on the mac.

The Mac did not recognize the folder as a system folder, so once I again I looked online (and now I know this wasn't the right thing to do) and what I did was I went to 'Systems Preferences', then to 'Startup Disk', and then based on the advice I got off the internet, I chose the OS 9 folder as my startup system, and restarted the computer.

Now when I turn the computer on, all that comes up is a blank screen with a little image of the smiling Finder icon in the middle. Nothing happens even after waiting a really long time. I can't open the cd tray either.

PLEASE HELP
Thanks!

[elbimbo]

You put the System Folder on the Harddrive where your System is. And yout don't have to boot on Classic to run Pagemaker. You still boot on OS 10 and you can run Pagemaker from there. If I were you, I would junk that Pagemaker and try InDesign. Pagemaker is of a bygone century and you won't learn anything using that anymore. Go to the Adobe InDesign forums (http://www.adobeforums.com), register and ask a question on how you could acquire at least an InDesign 2 license. Someone might give you a license for free or at a minimal cost. Just tell your story about Pagemaker.

Now, to open the CD tray, reboot your Mac and press the mouse while it is booting up. That will allow open the tray and you can then use your OS 10 CD to repair your disk and permissions, then select OS 10 as your startup disk.

[Visaoni]

Hm... I'm probably missing something stupid, but then again it is 5:00 AM.

Anyway, I have 10.3.9 without Classic installed. Long story short, my iBook got replaced after they stopped shipping them with Classic. From my original iBook I do have the full set of 10.2 disks, so I tried the software restore disks from there. Once the installer finishes up and opens up the first page of the software restore process an alert pops up and tells me the software restore disks aren't for my version of OS, which was predictable.

The thing is, I only got the basic set of 3 Panther install disks, I never got the disk with the additional programs and the hardware test because I bought Panther before Classic stopping shipping with the computers and as I said, they replaced my laptop after that as well.

The only thing I can think of is to downgrade to 10.2, install Classic, and then upgrade back to Panther - which honestly doesn't sound like a very good solution, even at 5:00 AM. Now I do have the Tiger install disks for another computer, but I never could get it to work on this computer. It meets all the requirements, just after choosing a language it gets messed up. So perhaps downgrading and then upgrading back to 10.3 would help with that (or at least it would seem so this early in the morning) and net me Classic, so it would be worth it.

[elbimbo]

Hi Visaoni,

Don't go back to OS 10.2. Installing Classic is fairly easy. All you have to do is to locate another Mac running on OS X that has Classic also installed. Copy the entire System Folder (not System but System Folder) from that Mac and place that copy into the hard drive of your new iBook. Before running the Classic from your iBook, however, trash everything from the preferences. You need to do that to prevent your iBook from searching for servers that the source Mac may have been connected to.

[locogus]

Hi.
Here's my problem short: I have an original iMac lime G3 266. I have been running OS 9.0.4 for quite a while. Someone bought me the Panther a couple of years ago and, at the urging of my lovely wife, I just upgraded to the Panther. It runs perfectly, but when I try to start any old programs I get an alert saying that there is no OS 9 installed and that I have to install at least OS 9.1 or later (preferably 9.2.2). Now, I know that I probably screwed up by installing the Panther before I upgraded the 9s, and when I downloaded and tried to install the upgrades from the Apple site (9.1, 9.2.1 & 9.2.2 respectively) I could not install them because it says that I have no OS 9 on to do it with. I have the install discs for the 9 and the Panther.

Now here are the questions: Is it too late to try to build up the OS to 9.2? Can I just buy/install a copy of 9.2 and not go through the chain of
upgrades?

Any advice would be greatly appreciated.Thanks