iMac G3 333MHz troubles

[bigbee64c]

Since I'm new here I'll do a quick intro...

I love breathing life back into older computers and consoles. I guess you could say it's just a side effect of my console collecting. Why trash them when they can be fixed/upgraded? Needless to say, my computer collection is catching up with my console collection.

Back to the subject I picked up a cute little "teal?" 333Mhz iMac with a 6GB HD and 32MB RAM run MacOS 8.6 over the weekend. I dissembled her and cleaned her up nice. It booted just find until I started messing with it today It was out of an Elem School and I was cleaning up unneeded apps (so I thought). There was a TON of WAV files on the thing. They went 1st. I must have deleted something important b/c now when I try to boot it, a small folder comes up in the center flashing back and forth between the Mac face and a Question mark.

Did I kill the OS? What's the problem? Any ideas? If I killed the OS, any suggestions on a Linux replacement? The only Mac OS disc I have is 10.5 for our MacBook Pro. I wouldn't mind going back with Mac OS 9 if someone had a copy on the cheap. Not really wanting to put much more $$$ into the machine.

Open to suggestions...

B

 

[Hugh]

Since I'm new here I'll do a quick intro...

I love breathing life back into older computers and consoles. I guess you could say it's just a side effect of my console collecting. Why trash them when they can be fixed/upgraded? Needless to say, my computer collection is catching up with my console collection.

Back to the subject I picked up a cute little "teal?" 333Mhz iMac with a 6GB HD and 32MB RAM run MacOS 8.6 over the weekend. I dissembled her and cleaned her up nice. It booted just find until I started messing with it today It was out of an Elem School and I was cleaning up unneeded apps (so I thought). There was a TON of WAV files on the thing. They went 1st. I must have deleted something important b/c now when I try to boot it, a small folder comes up in the center flashing back and forth between the Mac face and a Question mark.

Did I kill the OS? What's the problem? Any ideas? If I killed the OS, any suggestions on a Linux replacement? The only Mac OS disc I have is 10.5 for our MacBook Pro. I wouldn't mind going back with Mac OS 9 if someone had a copy on the cheap. Not really wanting to put much more $$$ into the machine.

Open to suggestions...

B

You are getting the question mark and folder because it can't find a bootable system folder. You must of deleted something out of the system folder by mistake.

You going to get your hands on a Mac OS install disk. Mac OS 8.6 to Mac OS X 10.4. You can't use your gray disk that came with your MacBook because it is set for that machine, not to mention it can't go that high in Mac OS X.

Try ebay to see if someone is selling a MacOS 8.6 though 10.4 disks. Make sure you do not get any Mac OS X gray disks, these will not work. They only work with the model they came with.

As for Linux distros, I can't help you there. The ones I played with still required you to have Mac OS installed, and you tell it to boot in to Linux during boot up. I never could get it to work. The one I was trying was Yellow Dog Linux. Maybe someone from here can help better with that question then me. :/

Hugh

 

[bigbee64c]

You are getting the question mark and folder because it can't find a bootable system folder. You must of deleted something out of the system folder by mistake.

You going to get your hands on a Mac OS install disk. Mac OS 8.6 to Mac OS X 10.4. You can't use your gray disk that came with your MacBook because it is set for that machine, not to mention it can't go that high in Mac OS X.

Try ebay to see if someone is selling a MacOS 8.6 though 10.4 disks. Make sure you do not get any Mac OS X gray disks, these will not work. They only work with the model they came with.

As for Linux distros, I can't help you there. The ones I played with still required you to have Mac OS installed, and you tell it to boot in to Linux during boot up. I never could get it to work. The one I was trying was Yellow Dog Linux. Maybe someone from here can help better with that question then me. :/

Hugh

That's what I was afraid of DOH! If nothing else, It's been a learning experience for me. I've never own any Apple stuff outside of my wife's MacBook Pro, but I've owned many PC and

's. It's hard to wreck a

unless you've got the soldering iron out

I had read somewhere that the machine would only run up to 10.3. I'll look into OS 9 maybe or maybe even 8.6. Like I said, I don't want to put much more money in the thing, am I'm not a fan of pirating. I do not plan on upgrading the RAM any so 10.X is out of the question.

Thanks You.