New HD for blue & white g3 - won't boot now

[mac-blair]

Hi - I have a blue & white G3, 400 mhz (rev.1 I think), 448 megs ram. I had a hard drive installed on my computer with OS 9.2 but it's been very unreliable (crashing constantly), freezing, etc. and I decided to replace it. I bought a drive on eBay that has OS 9.2 and OS 10.3 already installed (fresh install). It's only a 4 gig hd, but I figured that since I also have an external firewire drive that I use only for data, it might be a good chance for me to start fresh with OS 10.3.... the problem is, I unplugged my original hard drive from inside the blue & white, then plugged in the new hard drive and it gave me the flashing question mark.

So, I booted from a cd and was able to change the startup disk to the OS 10.3 Panther option (it does show that OS 9 and OS 10.3 are installed on this new drive). Then, when the mac is restarted, it shows the OS X screen with the apple in the middle, then doesn't go any further - it just stops. Changing the start-up drive to the OS 9.2 one produces even lesser results - just a grey screen with nothing.

Am I forgetting to do something? I was under the impression that I'd just plug this drive in and everything would boot up properly like it was brand new. Guess I don't have much experience in this department. Can someone suggest what I might be doing wrong?

Any help would be GREATLY appreciated.

Thanks,
Blair. (editor@sodapopdreams.org)

 

[beatle888]

well your better off than i am...i wont even go into it.


ok, first. 4 GIGS is not alot. you see osx uses your drive to page information. it writes a file to your disk to retreive info it feels you might want to access again. my computer was soooo slow when i only had 5GIGs left...i was like what is the DEAL. so i cleaned up my system and freed up a bunch of space and it ran like new.

now. what you COULD do is zap the pram. the pram stores your startup disk settings. maybe it needs to be wiped. you do this by starting up the computer and holding down the command+option+p+r keys and let the start up sound CHIME for three times.

now i just have to tell you, doing this (resetting pram) is when MY problems started. however apple DOES tell you to do it...im sure my situation has something else as the fault but im just letting you know. also, ive zapped the pram many times and it was fine.

also, pram holds some other basic settings too like the time so make sure you reset those.

also, make sure you firmly attached the cables and what not.

i'll come back and see how it went.


oh yeah, put in the installer cd and run the disk utility to repair the permissions and try assigning the startup disk a FEW times.

also, i read that you should only have one folder named "System" and the other (i think os9) should say "System Folder". apple has instructions on how to rebless the system folder if you need to. i'll find it if you need help.

have a good night.

 

[CanadaRAM]

Do you have the Panther install CD's?

If not, go and buy some so you can maintain your machine.

Otherwise, initialize the hard drive and install your own OS 9 that came with your Mac.