Methods to make boot media for PowerPC macOS 9 – Uplaza

Sure, the iMac OS9 9.2.2 boot disk works on this Mac mini

In sure circumstances chances are you’ll wish to create bootable macOS media on trendy Macs to make use of for set up on older Mac computer systems. Whereas DVD drives are not included on most Macs, you may nonetheless use an exterior USB DVD drive right now to entry these disks.

Earlier than the Mac OS X period, Apple shipped an earlier model of Mac OS referred to as Mac OS 9.

Mac OS 9 was the ultimate incarnation of Apple’s unique Mac working system. The ultimate model of Mac OS 9 was 9.2.2. which shipped in late 1999. All Mac OS 9 computer systems used PowerPC CPUs, which have been a results of a collaboration between Apple, IBM, and Motorola.

IBM’s PowerPC 601 CPU – the primary PowerPC CPU utilized in Macs.

Earlier than Mac OS 9 there was Mac OS 8, and earlier than that, System 7 – the primary shade model of the Mac’s unique black and white Mac OS.

The model of the Mac OS earlier than System 7 was merely referred to as System 6. The truth is, the unique Macintosh OS did not have an official title – having shipped on 3.5-inch floppy disks in units included with every Mac:

The unique Mac OS wasn’t an actual working system in right now’s phrases, or as we would consider a UNIX or Linux-based OS. As a substitute it was a easy single consumer, non-multitasking OS which was less complicated and extra restricted in what it may do

System 7 shipped on a multi-floppy disk set wherein customers needed to insert a number of disks so as because the installer program prompted. Mac OS 8 and 9 have been launched on CD-ROM installer media.

Mac OS X’s retail field normally included two DVD-ROM discs, and in early variations a single retail copy of Mac OS 9 on CD – for the reason that early variations of Mac OS X additionally included a Mac OS 9 emulation compatibility layer referred to as Basic.

Some late 1990’s Macs resembling the unique iMac, eMac, iBook laptops, and desktop G3 and G4 fashions included Mac OS X plus quite a few extra Apple apps in addition to third-party DVDs.

A completely restored PowerPC-based G4 Macintosh from 1999 right now booted into Mac OS 9.2.2.

Most of those DVD or CD-ROM installer disks contained bootable variations of Mac OS. To be able to boot from an exterior Mac OS installer disk, just a few circumstances should first be met.

Merely copying a Mac OS installer information to new clean media will not work in each case as a bootable installer.

Thirty years in the past, software program got here in bins

You possibly can nonetheless make Mac OS installer boot media on a CD, DVD, or on a USB thumb drive right now if sure circumstances are first met:

• Mac OS 9: Media should comprise a System Folder and a “blessed” System file plus an installer
• Early Mac OS X: Media should comprise the proper model of Mac OS X for the pc you wish to set up to
• Later Mac OS X: Media should comprise a model of Mac OS X which matches the structure of the machine, plus appropriate model

There are a number of instruments you need to use to make bootable media for Mac OS 9 and Mac OS X. You should utilize a third-party app resembling Roxio’s Toast ($69), or you need to use a free software resembling Balena Etcher, if it helps the model of Mac OS you wish to create.

There are quite a few extra instruments accessible for making bootable Mac OS X disks resembling Set up Disk Creator from MacDaddy, or if you’re utilizing macOS 10.10 Catalina, DiskMaker X Professional., which is donationware.

In case you are utilizing macOS El Capitan via Sonoma, it’s also possible to use a command-line software discovered contained in the macOS installer app referred to as createinstallmedia.

To take action, you will must be booted into a type of variations of macOS, obtain the corresponding macOS installer from Apple, then run the next command within the macOS Terminal to create a bootable installer on one other drive:

sudo /Functions/Set up macOS Catalina.app/Contents/Sources/createinstallmedia --volume /Volumes/Untitled

The above command assumes you may have a macOS Prolonged (HFS+) quantity mounted in your Desktop named “Untitled”.

createinstallmedia will copy over all of the information have to boot the macOS installer from the amount you are copying to, in addition to a restoration partition in case something goes incorrect.

Apple has a tech word (101578) on how to do that.

When you have Toast or one of many different standard third-partyMac DVD-ROM burning software program packages, you may first make an .iso disk picture of a bodily Mac OS installer DVD or CD, save the file as a Toast file, then open the Toast file and burn it to a brand new clean DVD or CD utilizing a DVD-ROM burner drive.

Toast has particular choices in its consumer interface which let you mark the burned disk as bootable.

Toast additionally has the benefit of going all the way in which again to Mac OS 8 – and model 5.x from the late 1990’s runs on Mac OS 9. It is also broadly suitable with most third-party exterior DVD burner drives on the market.

Toast Titanium 5 from Roxio.

You can too make .iso information from Mac OS DVD or CDs utilizing macOS’s Disk Utility, then import them into Toast and burn them. Nevertheless, in some instances, not all the knowledge required for booting from the burned disk shall be preserved.

There are additionally a wide range of installer builder scripts accessible on-line resembling gibMacOS which let you construct Web Restoration USB installers.

If you wish to burn a DVD or CD boot disk however your Mac would not have an inside DVD drive, there are a lot of exterior USB DVD-R drives accessible in the marketplace at cheap costs. Apple nonetheless sells their very own Apple USB SuperDrive ($79) on-line on the Apple Retailer.

When you have an older Mac which runs the model of Mac OS X which you wish to make a boot disk for, there may be one straightforward method to make bootable media: create a brand new disk partition or .iso file, set up the model of Mac OS X onto it you need, then copy that model’s Mac OS X installer onto the brand new partition.

You possibly can then make an .iso CD/DVD picture from that quantity utilizing Disk Utility, then use Disk Utility to make a brand new bootable installer disk from the unique set up.

This works for each USB thumb drives, and CD’s/DVD’s as Disk Utility’s goal disk when copying. In case you’re utilizing a USB thumb drive because the copy goal, the Mac you propose to put in onto should be capable to boot from USB.

While you boot from the newly copied Mac OS X quantity, you may run the installer from there and goal the amount you need for set up.

Word that normally Apple solely helps older machines as much as sure variations of Mac OS X or macOS. After the cutoff model of the OS, newer machines cannot run older variations of macOS with out use of particular third-party instruments, which modify macOS in reminiscence at boot time.

Examine to guarantee that the Mac you’re focusing on for set up helps the model of macOS or Mac OS X you’re creating the bootable installer disk for.

Mac OS 9’s retail packaging.

Bear in mind that Apple nonetheless helps two disk codecs for native macOS volumes: APFS, and macOS Prolonged (HFS+). For contemporary Macs, Apple dropped help for putting in onto and booting from HFS+ volumes.

So in case your Mac or model of macOS would not help HFS+ booting, you may’t boot these machines utilizing an HFS+ installer disk.

Earlier than you make your installer media, confirm that the Macs you wish to goal for set up help the format you are going to construct the installer media disk onto.

Newer variations of macOS solely enable bootable set up onto APFS volumes.

If you wish to make bootable media for Mac OS 9 you may have a number of choices:

• Burn a direct copy of the Mac OS 9 set up CD utilizing a utility resembling Toast
• Picture the Mac OS 9 set up CD to a disk picture file, then burn it to disk utilizing a DVD-R burner drive
• Burn a duplicate of the Mac OS 9 set up CD within the Finder from a disk picture
• Picture an present Mac OS 9 set up together with the installer information onto a USB thumb drive
• Boot an older Mac right into a NetBoot server, run the OS 9 Installer in Basic, then set up OS 9 onto an exterior partition

The fourth and fifth choices are a bit trickier than the primary three, however they’ll work if you happen to make use of somewhat voodoo.

Utilizing this technique, you will first receive a duplicate of the unique Mac OS 9 retail CD, or one of many bundled Mac OS 9 installer disks that got here with a Mac which may boot OS 9.

The ultimate model of Mac OS 9 Apple shipped was 9.2.2, though 9.0.x or 9.1 may go relying in your {hardware} since updaters are nonetheless accessible. Older machines just like the eMac and the final of the native OS9 G4 towers required 9.2.2.

So, do your homework earlier than you begin blowing via disks.

After getting the installer CD and a DVD-R drive, insert the installer CD and run the app you’ll use to make a CD copy.

In most CD/DVD duplication software program you may choose the unique CD because the supply, and a second drive which can comprise a clean CD-R or DVD-R disk because the vacation spot. On this case you will want two drives – one for every bodily disk.

There are a number of causes chances are you’ll not wish to use this technique — specifically direct optical disk-to-disk copies are sluggish and unreliable. Most CD-R/DVD-R burners depend on a relentless stream of information from the supply to burn the vacation spot disk.

In case your supply drive cannot sustain or is slower than the required switch price for the vacation spot burner, the copy will possible fail and you will have an unreadable vacation spot disk.

Typically CD-R/DVD-R disk burning is sluggish and liable to errors, so you do not wish to try something which could make it harder.

A significantly better method is to picture the supply disk first to a disk file (.iso, .toast, and many others), save that file on a quick stable state or RAID drive, then burn the picture from there to the vacation spot disk.

This makes knowledge throughput a lot quicker and dependable and takes a lot of the likelihood for errors on the learn aspect out of the equation.

You can too burn a duplicate of a Mac OS 9 installer CD from a picture file within the macOS Finder. To take action, copy a picture file of the Mac OS 9 installer CD to your Desktop in your Mac.

Subsequent, Management-click on the picture file and choose Burn to Disc from the popup menu. This may deliver up Finder’s disc burning window.

Choose “Burn to Disc…” within the Finder.

Insert a clean CD-R disk into your DVD-R drive, choose the burn settings, then click on the Burn button.

Recording will begin, because the Finder copies the contents of the Mac OS 9 picture file onto the CD-R disk.

Verification will start after burning accomplished, at which level Finder will eject the disk (except an error occurred). You can too flip off verification within the settings window earlier than burning if you happen to like.

Some customers have reported booting issues utilizing the Finder to burn bootable OS 9 disks, however usually it ought to work.

The Finder’s burn choices window.

Word that in Mac OS 9 and earlier many information used particular forks referred to as useful resource forks. The burning/copying software program you employ should both be capable to make copies on the bit-level, or else pay attention to easy methods to learn and write useful resource forks to and from disk volumes.

Useful resource (.rsrc) information are used as enter information when constructing traditional Mac OS software program. These information get copied at construct time together with compiled code and knowledge right into a single app file containing two forks – a useful resource fork and an information fork.

Sources have each a kind and a numerical ID to allow them to be positioned and run by the app at runtime.

All totally lowercase useful resource varieties are reserved for Apple’s use.

Compiled is normally saved in a useful resource fork as a useful resource of kind ‘CODE’ (all sources in Mac OS 9 and earlier have a four-character code to indicate their kind).

If, throughout copy a few of the Mac OS 9 information have their useful resource forks eliminated or broken, the OS will not boot. The installer information may also turn out to be broken.

Useful resource fork harm or elimination can happen throughout file copy if the software program doing the copy would not find out about useful resource forks.

In principle, upon getting an accurate disk picture file of a bootable Mac OS 9 disk or installer disk, you may then picture that quantity to a USB thumb drive if sure circumstances are met (see beneath).

This makes a precise copy of the unique disk onto the thumb drive, the place all its contents are preserved intact.

On this situation, the goal Mac should be capable to boot from USB for the USB thumb drive to work.

Apple’s unique useful resource fork editor – ResEdit.

Going all the way in which again to early variations of Mac OS, Apple included sure particular settings on the System Folder and System file within the System Folder which marked a System Folder as bootable.

This was added as a result of in some instances customers would copy System Folders, or System information, mixing and matching information, and the Finder or System would not acknowledge the System file as a bootable file.

When this occurred it will render any constructed installer disk un-bootable.

To resolve this downside, Apple added the idea of a blessed System Folder and System file. To ensure that any given System Folder and System file for use for booting, it must be marked as blessed or else the system will not boot.

For instance, in some instances in Mac OS 8 or Mac OS 9, if you happen to drag the System file out of the System Folder, then again in, or into one other System Folder, it will not be marked as blessed and the system will not boot.

To treatment this downside, you need to use the bless command to reset the blessed state of a System Folder or file.

The Bless command can be utilized by the Startup Disk pane of macOS’s System Settings app to vary the Startup Disk. Bless can solely be run as the basis consumer.

Bless may also inform the Mac’s firmware to search for a NetBoot distant server in addition from on power-on. You should utilize the Data Mode of Bless to print the presently blessed System Folder or system in addition from.

To learn extra concerning the bless command and easy methods to use it, in macOS’s Terminal kind:

In Mac OS 9 and earlier, one of the crucial widespread causes {that a} newly constructed Mac OS 9 installer disk will not boot is as a result of the System file or folder would not have the proper Bless settings.

Some CD/DVD burning software program resembling Toast will make certain the proper Bless settings are made earlier than burning the vacation spot quantity.

After getting your newly constructed Mac OS 9 set up disk, connect or insert it into your traditional Mac, reboot, and maintain down the Possibility key on the keyboard. This may show a quantity choice menu from which you’ll choose your newly constructed installer disk.

In case your installer disk would not seem within the boot choice display screen, it most probably means the System Folder did not get blessed correctly, or that a number of information within the System Folder are broken.

When you boot into your Mac OS 9 installer disk, you may run the Mac OS 9 installer from there.

The Mac OS 9 installer runing from a Mac OS 9 boot CD.

When you have the Mac OS 9 emulator SheepShaver put in, you may check your new Mac OS 9 installer disk through the use of it as a Startup Disk in SheepShaver.

SheepShaver was up to date in January 2024 to work with macOS Sonoma. There’s additionally a model of SheepShaver for Home windows.

The unique Mac OS 9 retail CD is pretty easy. It accommodates a blessed System folder, an installer folder, just a few Learn Me’s, and few extra installer tome information.

By imaging and copying the unique CD, you’re making positive you may have all the unique information wanted to each boot into OS 9, and run its installer from there.

When you have an older Mac which runs each Mac OS X, consists of the Basic Mac OS 9 emulator, and may distant boot right into a NetBoot server, you need to use Basic to construct a Mac OS 9 installer disk. This strategy just isn’t for the faint of coronary heart and it is not performant. But it surely works.

To make use of NetBoot your Mac should have a New World ROM in it. NetBoot is not supported on any Mac which accommodates a T2 safety chip, or an Apple Silicon CPU.

To make use of this technique, first you will have to boot into an accessible NetBoot server over a community.

NetBoot works by serving a standardized disk picture model of Mac OS from a server over a community to an area Mac able to booting the identical model of the OS.

Besides right into a NetBoot server, Restart your Mac and maintain down the Possibility key on the keyboard. When the boot choice menu seems, wait just a few seconds for the pc to scan for NetBoot servers.

If any seem, click on the one you need, then click on the precise arrow in addition into that server.

Booting could take some time because the OS is transferred over the community. Typically any Mac booted from NetBoot shall be slower than an area boot. So be affected person.

Additionally word that the Basic setting should already be preinstalled onto the model of Mac OS you are booting into over the community.

And if efficiency wasn’t already an issue it could be now since you’re now additionally going to run the Basic setting from the System Preferences pane within the remote-booted copy of Mac OS you booted into!

This may grow to be extremely sluggish, except you may have a particularly quick community (quicker than most residential fiber connections nowadays).

Utilizing Basic from a NetBoot server means you are booting the OS over the community, then working a Mac OS 9 emulator on prime of it.

Assuming you may have the time to spare, nonetheless, upon getting Mac OS 9 working within the Basic setting, you may construct a Mac OS 9 installer disk simply as if Mac OS 9 was working on the native machine.

NetBoot additionally helps Mac OS 9 immediately so in case your previous Mac can boot Mac OS 9 domestically, it will possibly additionally NetBoot immediately into Mac OS 9 from a NetBoot server. Doing this might pace issues up a bit versus working Basic in Mac OS X from a NetBoot server.

When you have an older model of Mac OS X Server (which is now discontinued), you need to use Server’s System Picture Utility to make NetBoot pictures.

Apple’s unique iMac launched in 1998. The second of the New World ROM machines.

In case you discover your newly created Mac OS 9 installer disk will not boot there are just a few straightforward methods you may nonetheless run the Mac OS 9 installer. First, and most clearly, you may boot your Mac OS 9 machine immediately into the Mac OS 9 retail CD from its CD/DVD drive.

As soon as booted into the CD drive, you may copy the installer elements of the CD to an exterior USB thumb drive formatted as HFS+.

Whereas this USB drive will not be bootable it’ll can help you run the Mac OS 9 installer from any Mac OS 9 machine just by inserting it right into a USB port.

There’s nothing that claims the Mac OS 9 installer has to be run from the boot drive. This situation is beneficial for instances the place you have already got a working Mac OS 9 machine and solely want the installer to put in onto a 3rd disk.

The truth is, assuming all of the installer information are current and of their appropriate places, the Mac OS 9 installer will run fairly properly from a non-boot drive.

One other method to run the Mac OS 9 installer is to create two new HFS+ partitions on a USB exterior drive, set up a clear copy of Mac OS 9 onto one quantity from the OS 9 set up CD, then run a disk copy program to picture the OS 9 CD onto the second quantity.

By doing this you find yourself with a pristine new copy of OS 9 you may boot into, however you may nonetheless run the installer from the second partition to put in onto one other disk.

It is extremely unlikely the newly put in exterior copy of OS 9 will not boot except the goal machine would not help that model of Mac OS 9. It’s because throughout set up the Mac OS 9 installer is aware of easy methods to bless the newly put in System Folder so it’ll boot.

You possibly can then switch this exterior USB drive to a different Mac able to booting OS 9 and boot into it. As soon as booted, you may run the installer from the second exterior partition, erase the goal Mac’s inside drive and set up onto it.

There are a lot of methods to construct a contemporary installer disk for older Macs, and we have solely touched on just a few of essentially the most simple methods right here.

In a future article we’ll additionally discover extra superior methods to construct older installer disks on trendy Macs together with the usage of the Terminal instructions dd and ditto.