installing 10.2 on a G3 with 9.1

[ilw-00]

I use system 10.2 with a G4 laptop.  Jaguar was installed when the computer was new and I love it.  My son uses system
9.1 on a G3 laptop.  He would like 10.2 installed.  The machine is not new, he doesn't want to empty his hard drive before the installation and wants to use system 9.x at some times and 10 at others.  He added enough memory.  He has plenty of space on his hard drive.  Currently the G3 is working without difficulty. Should he expect any difficulties?
Any special precautions? Thank you. ilw-00

[csonni]

I'm not sure what G3 laptop he has (Pismo, Lombard, Wallstreet...), but I have a G3 400 mhz Pismo and OS 10.2.6 runs fine- mind you, it's not a speedster, but it does fine for me- rock stable, as you probably already know for yourself.  I personally like wiping the drive clean.  But since that's not an option, I don't see why he can't install without formatting.  I'm not sure if any of the older G3 Powerbooks require that OSX reside on the first 8 gigs of the drive.  You might want to check into that.  Another thought is whether or not it's wise to install OSX on the same partition as OS9.  If he doesn't have it partitioned, than he would have to install it on the same since he doesn't want to format.  I believe there are utilities out there to partition a drive without formatting.  I'm not sure if all this is any help- just my thoughts as a amateur Mac user.

[kelly]

It really would help to know which laptop it is.

http://new.lowendmac.com/pb2/index.shtml

[ilw-00]

Thank you.  It is a 400 MHz G3 with 1 MB Cache  6GB HD. ilw-00

[kelly]

Well. We're getting there.

It's either a Pismo.

http://new.lowendmac.com/pb2/pismo.shtml

Or a Lombard.

http://new.lowendmac.com/pb2/lombard.shtml

OS X would do better if it's a Pismo.

That 6 GBs with stuff on it is going to be a tight fit for OS X.

Some interesting comments here.

http://new.lowendmac.com/macdan/03/0321dk.html

If you can say for sure what Model it is I can find more.

PowerBook G3 Computers: How to Identify Different Models

http://docs.info.apple.com/article2.html?artnum=24604

[ilw-00]

Hi,
Thanks for the info.  It appears to be a PowerBook (FireWire), Pismo.  What next?  Thanks again. ilw-00

[RHPConsult]

ilw-00:

I have  Pismo on which 10.1 - -> 10.2.6 have run like tops (with the one recent problem that my "Genie" has "retired from active service" and I know not why).

I replaced my 6 gig drive with a 40 gig IBM Travelstar (piece of cake) and have boosted the ram to 640 MB (2d piece!) in anticipation of installing Jag. The OEM drive works nicely now as an external firewire drive., in a case from OWC.

The 8 gig limitation on installing X.x refers only to beige G3s.

I got and followed good advice to wipe my drive and partition it, so that X is on one and 9.2.2 resides on another, while my Docs safely rest on the third.

Why not wipe it and start fresh? Has he never backed up? No big deal

Prediction: He'll find that Classic, which should be set to load when he boots Jag, will probably take care of anything he believes he'll need 9.2 for. I was sure I'd need to boot into 9.2, but the seamless way that Classic slides into play when I'm using older files/apps is quite remarkable.

Good luck to him. Reassure him that in 6 weeks he'll look back on the whole thing as a no-brainer, non-event.

This advice from the Oldest Goat: If I can do it anyone can . . . with some help from my TS Friends, that is.  

[ilw-00]

Thank you. It was a piece of cake. He did back up his hard drive and then partition the hard drive.  I can now see the next step getting a larger hard drive.  Thank you all again. ilw-00