Sidebar Sidebar
Become a MacRumors Supporter for $50/year with no ads, ability to filter front page stories, and private forums.

iMac G3 Install OS X Help

ilikecorn500

ilikecorn500

macrumors member
Original poster
May 16, 2011
62
0
Hello everyone,

I recently acquired a 1998 Bondi Blue iMac G3, and would like to install Mac OS X Panther. First off, do I need to install Mac OS 9 before you install OS X, and/or are there any firmware updates needed for it?

My second question is: I have the .iso for Mac OS 9 burned to a CD, but when I put it in the CD drive, it says: (see attachment) "This disk is unreadable by this computer. Do you want to initialize the disk?" I also tried to put in an audio CD, and got the same message. Does this mean that the CD drive is broken? Yes, I burned the image to the CD with Disk Utility. I have also tried booting from the disc itself with the C key.

My third question is: If the drive is broken, is it possible to boot from a USB flash drive? Or, if it's not, how can I get the iMac to read the disc?

Any help is appreciated. :apple:
 

Attachments

  • Photo 1.jpg
    Photo 1.jpg
    346.6 KB · Views: 840
You do not need Mac OS 9 in order to run OS X.

(Unless you plan on using classic apps or games, then by all means keep OS 9 on it.;))


The disc drive may or may not be broken.

When you close the tray, does the disc sound like it is spinning, or does it not even try and spit the initialization message?


I know from experience with a PowerBook G3 that the disc drive wouldnt even try and I'd get the same message, but repeatedly opening/closing the tray would sometimes fix it into reading.



As far as booting from a USB flash drive, I don't quite remember if older Macs were capable of doing so, I only remember booting machines from Firewire.
 
cjbriare said:
You do not need Mac OS 9 in order to run OS X.

(Unless you plan on using classic apps or games, then by all means keep OS 9 on it.;))


The disc drive may or may not be broken.

When you close the tray, does the disc sound like it is spinning, or does it not even try and spit the initialization message?


I know from experience with a PowerBook G3 that the disc drive wouldnt even try and I'd get the same message, but repeatedly opening/closing the tray would sometimes fix it into reading.



As far as booting from a USB flash drive, I don't quite remember if older Macs were capable of doing so, I only remember booting machines from Firewire.
Click to expand...

Okay, cool. One less thing to install. :)

The CD does sound like it's spinning, and it takes about 15 seconds for the initialize message pops up. I tried repeatedly ejecting and pushing the tray back in, but got the same message. I checked to see if I had all the extensions installed for the CD drive (saw a list on an Apple forum post), and I do. Hmm.

I will try to boot from a USB drive, but I did just read that bootable USB drives started with the slot-loading iMac G3s. :( It won't hurt to try.

I found a replacement CD drive on ebay for $15 so if I don't find a solution I'll probably just buy that.

Thanks for your help!
 
cjbriare said:
As far as booting from a USB flash drive, I don't quite remember if older Macs were capable of doing so, I only remember booting machines from Firewire.
Click to expand...

Macs starting with the slot-loading G3 iMac and Sawtooth can boot from a USB drive.
 
if you do decide to purchase the disc drive on ebay, make sure the bezel matches the color of the machine. :rolleyes:

A friend of mine had an orange tray on a green iMac a few years back.



Luckily they are much easier to install than the slot load iMac disc drives.
 
cjbriare said:
if you do decide to purchase the disc drive on ebay, make sure the bezel matches the color of the machine. :rolleyes:

A friend of mine had an orange tray on a green iMac a few years back.



Luckily they are much easier to install than the slot load iMac disc drives.
Click to expand...

I'm pretty sure I can remove the front part off the tray and replace it with the one from my iMac, but either way, the drive I'm looking at is from a Bondi Blue iMac.
 
Intell said:
Macs starting with the slot-loading G3 iMac and Sawtooth can boot from a USB drive.
Click to expand...

My quad can't through the alt
menu. I had an OS X dmg that I dded (not added, it was cloned using dd) to a USB disk and it was not shown. I tried Open Firmware, but since I know absolutely zero fourth I couldn't figure it out. I then put the PowerMac into target disk on my PB and cloned the USB to a HDD partition and booting it worked perfectly by holding alt.
 
Last edited:
rabidz7 said:
My quad can't through the alt
menu. I had an OS X dmg that I dded to a USB disk and it was not shown. I tried Open Firmware, but since I know absolutely zero fourth I couldn't figure it out. I then put the PowerMac into target disk on my PB and cloned the USB to a HDD partition and booting it worked perfectly by holding alt.
Click to expand...

Mac's can't boot to a DMG without a special helper program that only works on Intell based Macs. Thus why it wouldn't show up in the boot menu. Your lack of OpenFirmware knowledge probably exacerbated the problem as well.
 
Intell said:
Mac's can't boot to a DMG without a special helper program that only works on Intell based Macs. Thus why it wouldn't show up in the boot menu. Your lack of OpenFirmware knowledge probably exacerbated the problem as well.
Click to expand...

It was a dmg that was restored directly to the USB, not just copied there.
 
On the tray loading iMac's I think that you have to boot from the first 8 gig of space on the hard drive. If the hard drive was upgraded you would have to repartition it before installing OSX. When you boot the panther install cd just run disk utility before installing. Also, iMac firmware 1.2, afaik, is the newest for tray loading imacs (http://support.apple.com/kb/DL1263) Here is an older MR post with more info about upgrading (https://forums.macrumors.com/archive/index.php/t-682549.html)
 
cuttius said:
On the tray loading iMac's I think that you have to boot from the first 8 gig of space on the hard drive. If the hard drive was upgraded you would have to repartition it before installing OSX. When you boot the panther install cd just run disk utility before installing. Also, iMac firmware 1.2, afaik, is the newest for tray loading imacs (http://support.apple.com/kb/DL1263) Here is an older MR post with more info about upgrading (https://forums.macrumors.com/archive/index.php/t-682549.html)
Click to expand...

I don't think I have to run Disk Utility, because the hard drive is only 4 GB. And I had a feeling there was a firmware update.
 
Okay, so I got the new CD drive, and it works. But, when I click the Restart button in the Install Mac OS X window, it greys out, the window flashes, and it does nothing else. I also tried booting from the disc, but it just shows the 'flashing Finder icon and question mark inside a folder' icon at startup, then boots into OS 8. I installed the latest firmware update, 1.2, and that worked fine. Also, when I eject the disc, it says that there is a problem with the disc and some information may have been lost. Any ideas?

I should probably just get the retail CDs from my friend. :p
 
ilikecorn500 said:
Okay, so I got the new CD drive, and it works. But, when I click the Restart button in the Install Mac OS X window, it greys out, the window flashes, and it does nothing else. I also tried booting from the disc, but it just shows the 'flashing Finder icon and question mark inside a folder' icon at startup, then boots into OS 8. I installed the latest firmware update, 1.2, and that worked fine. Also, when I eject the disc, it says that there is a problem with the disc and some information may have been lost. Any ideas?

I should probably just get the retail CDs from my friend. :p
Click to expand...

Does the DVD look like this:
installdvd.png


Or this:
$(KGrHqJ,!osE63YPzdvHBO4!dBHOjw~~60_35.JPG


Or this:
Blank-DVD-DVDR-.jpg
 
rabidz7 said:
Does the DVD look like this:
Image

Or this:
Image

Or this:
Image
Click to expand...

They are CDs, not DVDs. The ones my friend has are the retail Mac OS X CDs. They are either 10.2 or 10.3 (not Leopard, lol). The ones I burned were just blank CDs. Is it possible that they're not working because I burned them at the max possible speed?
 
ilikecorn500 said:
They are CDs, not DVDs. The ones my friend has are the retail Mac OS X CDs. They are either 10.2 or 10.3 (not Leopard, lol). The ones I burned were just blank CDs. Is it possible that they're not working because I burned them at the max possible speed?
Click to expand...

They should be fine, but there is always the chance that the CD will be burnesd corrupted, the maxburn does increase that very small chance.
 
ilikecorn500 said:
Okay, so I got the new CD drive, and it works. But, when I click the Restart button in the Install Mac OS X window, it greys out, the window flashes, and it does nothing else. I also tried booting from the disc, but it just shows the 'flashing Finder icon and question mark inside a folder' icon at startup, then boots into OS 8. I installed the latest firmware update, 1.2, and that worked fine. Also, when I eject the disc, it says that there is a problem with the disc and some information may have been lost. Any ideas?

I should probably just get the retail CDs from my friend. :p
Click to expand...

Back to this, does the flashing question mark folder mean something? I ran Disk First Aid on the CD I burned and it came up with some errors: Reserved fields in the catalog record have incorrect data; MountCheck found minor errors; Invalid BTree Header. Do these mean anything?
 
Flashing question mark means OpenFirmware cannot find a bootable disk to start an OS from.
 
Possibly, but likely not for those errors. The system file may have become unblessed, you'll have to rebless it.
 
The system file is a file that lives within a classic Mac OS System Folder. It is basically the kernel of a classic Mac OS. If it becomes unblessed, OpenFirmware won't see it as a bootable file and not load it. I do not know of a way to rebless a classic Mac OS system folder within a classic Mac OS, only via Mac OS X. But this doesn't mean a way may not exist.
 
Intell said:
The system file is a file that lives within a classic Mac OS System Folder. It is basically the kernel of a classic Mac OS. If it becomes unblessed, OpenFirmware won't see it as a bootable file and not load it. I do not know of a way to rebless a classic Mac OS system folder within a classic Mac OS, only via Mac OS X. But this doesn't mean a way may not exist.
Click to expand...

Is it the System Folder on the CD that needs to be reblessed, or is it the on in OS 8 on the iMac?
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Register on MacRumors! This sidebar will go away, and you'll see fewer ads.
Top Bottom
Back