Alternate way to install Mac OS 9.1 (possibly even 8.x.x)

If you ever had to do a fresh install of the Mac OS (7.5-9.1) on your 6100, you probaby down-right-left HATED it when you had to boot off the slow internal 2x CD-ROM drive (stock). Even if you have a G3 card installed on your 6100, you'd still have to wait through the initial Mac OS install process in order to take advantage of your G3 card's driver software.

Well wait no longer!

I've just figured out an alternate way to install or reinstall your Mac OS (8.x or 9.1) onto your 6100 while having the luxury of running with the G3 upgrade card enabled! What's more is that from this point on, you can ALWAYS do an 'accelerated' clean install with this process!

Forget what Apple said about absolutely needing to boot of the CD to install Mac OS 9.1... For some reason, this method allows you to completely bypass that restriction!

All you need is a Zip or Jaz drive with a corresponding Zip or Jaz disk.

Here's the basic process...

• 1) Simply restart your 6100 using the bootable Mac OS 9.1 CD (this may or may not work with Mac OS 8.x)
• 2) Insert your Zip Disk or Jaz Disk
• 3) Do a "Base Install" of -ONLY- the "Core System" software onto the Zip/Jaz disk
• 4) When the installation's complete, install your G3 card's drivers onto the Zip/Jaz disk
• 5) CONGRATULATIONS!!! You now have a G3-accelerated bootable Zip/Jaz disk!

From this point onwards, you can now boot off this disk and then insert your Mac OS 9.1 CD and install/reinstall the Mac OS onto your main hard disk........ but only this time, it's noticibly MUCH FASTER!

If for some reason the "Core System" installation does not fit the 100 MB Zip disk, you can simply use the Iomega Tools software to create a "Rescue Disk" of the working Mac OS 9.1 installation currently on your hard disk. Just be sure to install the G3 card's drivers onto it once you're finished.


Here's an extra tip.
After installing the Mac OS onto your Zip 100 disk, I would imagine you have a good 20-25 MB of free space left on it. What could you do with that space? Well, here are some suggestions of usefull software to include:

• 1) "ADB Renewer 1.1" - You absolutely need this if your mouse isn't working if booting off of the Zip disk... while you're at it, you may also want to install this onto a floppy disk if the ADB connection on your 6100 is fried like mine is (after all those accidental "hot-swapping" incidents).

• 2) "Disk First Aid" - If you have a non-Apple hard drive installed in your 6100, chances are, you'd need to be able to diagnose and correct any problems on the disk as they arise.

• 3) "Drive Setup 1.7.3" - You use this to format your drive according to whatever partitioning needs you have.

• 4) "Apple HD SC Setup 7.3.5" - Now... if you need to install Mac OS 7.5.x or 7.6... or even Linux.... this is the one you'll need.

Here's YET ANOTHER extra tip.
If your ADB bus is fried like mines is and is also acting flakey (works poorly or intermittently stops working every once in a while.....ON IT'S OWN), it would really help if you put an alias of the "ADB Renewer" program in the Startup Items folder in your System Folder....... for both the Zip Disk and your main Hard Disk.