News, info, and opinion by Mac users, for Mac users.

August 29, 2008

geekery

The clone, the boot, and the Mac

Posted Aug. 29, ’08, 11:29 AM PT by Kate Marshall
Category | Geekery

bootcamp.jpgI once learned the hard way that when a Mac OS 10.3 Panther disc is inserted into a MacBook, the computer suffers a kernel panic and general lack of “doing anything useful.” But my 10.5 disc could travel from MacBook to Intel-based iMac to a MacBook Pro without causing a system-wide “abandon ship!”, which is nice to know. And with some fine-tuning, who knows what you could do?

The real fun comes when trying to clone older versions of Mac OS (why hello, Classic!), but victory is still out there! For instance, here’s what happened when an OS 9 disc, a clamshell iBook (god, why didn’t those come in purple?), and a CRT iMac all party together:

This procedure also works with the Classic Mac OS, though I find one must be more careful with version numbers than in OS X. Through time I ended up with a clamshell iBook and CRT iMac and only one set of OS 9 discs for an even older clamshell iBook that no longer functioned. I could install the system on the iMac, as it was the only one that could boot from the discs. Then, after updating the system to 9.2.2, I would copy the contents to the iBook, which would work flawlessly. Unfortunately, when I tried to clone the system to my eMac, I ended up with no sound or 3D graphics. I suspect that the problem lies in an old ROM file in the System Folder that predates the eMac.
Bah, it’s always the old ROM files in the System folder, ain’t it?

But seriously though, I see this as another example of the Mac rightfully dancing around going, “I am so great! I am so great! Everybody loves me, I am so great!”


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