Power Macintosh 5400/6400: International Mac OS 8.1 Issue

We have several Power Macintosh 6500/225 computers with the Apple Video-in card in our lab that we are trying to install non-US or localized versions of Mac OS 8.1. We do the following steps for each computer:

1. Boot from the Mac OS 8.1 CD
2. Launch Drive Setup 1.4
3. Select Macintosh HD
4. Click Initialize
5. Click Custom Setup
6. Partition Drive (to 1 or more partitions)
7. Select Extended Format
8. Click OK
9. Click Initialize

We expected to see a dialog box saying, "The selected disk can be used as the startup disk only for PowerPC computers." Instead, we get a dialog box with no text accompanied by a continuous beep and the computer freezes.

- Is this a known problem?
- How can we workaround this problem?
Yes. Apple is aware of this issue and is working to correct this issue in a future release of the Mac OS. This issue can occur when installing localized (non-US) versions of Mac OS 8.1 on any Power Macintosh 5400/6400/5500/6500/20th Anniversary Macintosh with the Apple Video-in card installed from any locked media (ie. CD-ROM disks).

For non-US versions of Mac OS 8.1, the "Simple Beep" sound that is included in ROM is overridden with a localized name depending on which localized version of Mac OS 8.1 the user is installing. This is done for compatibility reasons for other system software items that look for a localized name for "Simple Beep". An example is the Monitors & Sound control panel. The routine to override this sound is not working properly on the computers mentioned above.

This issue has been confirmed on the following localized versions of Mac OS 8.1:

C- Canadian
D- German
N- Dutch
DK- Danish
H- Norwegian
T- Italian
F- French

To work around this issue, international customers who need to reinitialize their hard drive with Mac OS Extended format using Drive Setup should do the following:

- Create a Disk Tools floppy disk using the Disk Tools image included on the Mac OS 8.1 CD.
- Make sure the Disk Tools floppy disk is unlocked, startup the computer from this disk.
- Use the Drive Setup on the floppy to format the hard drive as a Mac OS Extended volume.
- Restart the computer from the Mac OS 8.1 CD and install system software as normal.
Published Date: Feb 18, 2012