TMO Quick Tip – Launching Classic From a CD

If you are using a PowerPC-based Mac, like a PowerBook G4 or a Power Mac G5, you can take advantage of the Classic environment to use older applications that don’t run natively in Mac OS X. Most Mac users, however, aren’t relying on Classic-bound applications nearly as much as they used to. For those that rarely uses the Classic environment, but don’t want the Mac OS 9 System Folder taking up hard drive space, you can move the necessary files to a CD and run Classic from there. Here’s how:

• Put a blank CD in your Mac and give it an appropriate name. I called mine “Classic.”
• Drag your Mac OS 9 System Folder from your hard drive to the CD. It’s the folder with an orange 9 on it.
  Copy your Classic System Folder to a CD.
• Drag the CD to the Burn symbol in your dock to burn the System Folder to the CD.
• After the CD finishes burning, drag the Mac OS 9 System Folder from your hard drive to the Trash. You may have to authenticate before you can move the folder.
• Empty your Trash.
• Make sure your Classic CD is still in your Mac and mounted on your Desktop.
• Launch System Preferences. You can find it by selecting Apple menu > System Preferences.
• Choose the Classic Preference Pane.
• Select the Start/Stop tab.
  Chose the System Folder from the CD.
• Choose the System Folder from your Classic CD in the Select a system folder for Classic list. When you get the warning dialog that says Selected volume not writable, click OK.
• Select the Advanced tab.
  Your Mac OS 9 preferences should be in your home folder.
• Check Use Mac OS 9 preferences from your home folder.
• Quit System Preferences.

  Be sure your Classic CD is in your Mac before you launch any applications that require the Classic environment. If it isn’t there, Classic can’t launch.

  This is a great way to free up some extra hard drive space if you rarely use the Classic environment, but it’s not a good idea if you still rely on Classic all the time. First, Classic launches slower from a CD than a hard drive; and second, if you need to modify the Mac OS 9 System Folder for any reason, you’ll have to copy it back to your hard drive first, and then burn a new CD after you make your changes.

  An alternative is to copy your Mac OS 9 System Folder to a different hard drive, but CDs are cheap, durable, and don’t take up much space.