When starting up from the Mac OS 9 Installation CD (by pressing the 'c' key during startup), a dialog box may appear stating that the computer's hard disk is unrecognizable and asks if you would like to initialize (erase) it.
Products Affected
- Any version of Mac OS 9
Solution
Apple has identified an issue with a limited number of hard disks that result in this message when starting up from the Mac OS 9 CD. The files and directory structure on these drives are not modified or damaged in any way. To resolve the situation:
1. Click Cancel in the dialog box.
2. Restart from hard disk, making sure the Mac OS 9 CD is still in the computer.
3. Open the Startup Disk control panel and select the Mac OS 9 CD. See Figure 1.
4. Close the Startup Disk control panel.
5. Restart the computer with the Mac OS 9 CD, and proceed with the Mac OS 9 installation.
Since the Mac OS 9 CD has been selected as the startup volume the "c" key should not be pressed at startup. After installing Mac OS 9 you should open the Startup Disk control panel and select the internal hard disk as the startup volume.
Figure 1 Startup Disk control panel showing Mac OS 9 CD selected as startup disk.