Desperately seeking an obsolete Mac OS

I asked this question of the Dallas-area members in another thread recently, but no luck... and now I'm in some trouble here, so I hope you don't mind me bringing it up to the whole Lounge:

Do you have, or do you know anyone who has, an old Mac OS 9 installer?

What I've got is two computers: my newish Mac Mini, running OS 10.4.8... and my old Mac G3, running OS 8, a machine so ancient it doesn't even have USB ports.

But my entire professional life is on that old G3, and I've got no chance of getting a real job without my portfolio! So I broke down and bought a router and some cables to hook up the G3 to the Mini and transfer all my writing and graphics (and my half-finished novel) over to the new machine.

But once I got it all hooked up and got that poor old G3 to whir its little hard drive up to speed one more time, I still couldn't make the transfer. My Mac expert friend finally figured out that the G3's OS is so far out of date that my Mini's OS 10.4.8 can't even communicate with it!

So now I have to upgrade the G3 to Mac OS 9 before I can extract my files -- and thereby hangs my question.

If you have the old OS 9 installer and could lend, rent, or sell it to me, I would be so very grateful!

I've been watching for it on eBay, but the prices seem to get out of my reach very quickly... so I thought I'd ask here before I start scrounging nickels off the sidewalk.

I have a friend who does computer online tech help, and I sent him a message asking him about it. He may not see the message until next Monday, though.

Thank you both! Laureen, the G3 is running OS 8-something -- let me hit up that screen and see --

OS 8.6. I think it was current about the time they discovered fire.

Most computer places can transfer the files from a harddrive to disks for you, that may be easier if you can't get the disk

Really? Even such old ones? Oh, that would be great! We do have an Apple store here -- I'll try them in the morning. Thank you!

Originally Posted by icklemiss21

Most computer places can transfer the files from a harddrive to disks for you, that may be easier if you can't get the disk

Click to expand...

I agree! Would definitely do this. Hope you get it sorted out.

I heard from my tech friend, and he has OS 9.2.2, but he may not be able to find it. He is checking with some of his friends. As I said, it may take a while.

The idea of having the Apple store strip your hard drive is about as good as any I've heard.

I hate to resort to Apple -- it makes me nervous to put my private files in their hands. So Mike, thank you for asking your friend! I hope that works out!

I would call Apple for elaborate instructions if this doesn't make sense, but you should be able to hook both computers up to each other with a double sided USB cord and then you'll need to boot the old G3 into target disk mode by holding the T key while starting it up. On your newer Mac, it will then see your old G3 as an external hard drive essentially, allowing you to copy the files you want. I was able to do this when Gus spilled water all over my old Mac and it wouldn't start up anymore. I put it in target disk mode and got all of my files off.

I just saw this, I will ask my DH when he gets up. My Dh is a Mac lover and has a lot of stuff so we might have it. Hope you can get it taken care of.