OS10/OS9 problem

[chichcom]

I have an eMac which normally allows you to choose between using OS 10 and OS 9. You can restart the computer in OS 9 by clicking on the start up options in OS 10 and vice-versa, but this morning, when I was trying to swap into OS 9 it started up and got as far as showing me all the little icons at the bottom of the screen as it started but when it moved to the desktop page it didn't open up fully but stopped giving me the desk top with nothing on it but the time in the top left corner. The time was accurate to when it opened but frozen at that point. I can't get it to go any further than this and cannot therefore open up in either OS 9 or OS 10. In other words, I'm unable to do anything.

Has anyone any ideas how I might get round this. I am having to use an older mac in the meantime which hasn't got any of the things I need to access on it.


Many thanks.

 

[zeyhra]

You can restart holding down the option key which will give you a gray screen, and will show you all the bootable disks. From there you should be able to boot back in to OS X. Do you have anything set to launch on startup in the OS 9 system? That's a possible cause for the freeze at startup, as is the possibility of an extensions conflict. Did you install any new hardware or software the last time OS 9 did work, or netween the last time OS 9 worked and this time?

 

[chichcom]

Thanks for answering. I don't think I did put on any more software. The only thing I think I might have done is close down OS10 to go into OS9 while it was trying to print some photos. It closed anyway. Option key is the one with the apple on it, right?

 

[zeyhra]

Option is the one next to the apple. it says option on the bottom of the key and alt in the upper left corner of the key.

You could also try rebooting into OS 9 with the shift key down. This will boot it with the Extensions off. If it fully boots into OS 9 with the Extensions off, then your problem is an Extensions problem.

 

[chichcom]

Thanks. I'll give it a try. Mine doesn't say option but dows say alt. It has a funny squiggle at the bottom. Grateful.