PowerMac G4 does not boot

[Toppa G's]

I have a bit of a problem - I am trying to use a PowerMac G4 with OS 9 (I have some old ICC profiling software for a legacy color print device I'd like to use). However, after a series of issues, I decided to restart using the OS X partition purportedly on the computer. Mistake. The computer promptly restarted with the prohibitory sign glaring back at me. The kicker - there is no internal optical drive - just a DVD-RAM drive and Zip drive. My external CD/DVD drive refuses to be recognized, so that's out.

Any ideas for making this work? I have basically all of the OS X CDs from 10.0 to 10.3 - I may be able to get my hands on an OS 9 CD if necessary, but without an optical drive I think I'm out of luck.

Thanks for reading - here's to a solution!

 

[banjomamo]

try looking into booting the OS from an external firewire drive.

 

[spinne1]

I have a bit of a problem - I am trying to use a PowerMac G4 with OS 9 (I have some old ICC profiling software for a legacy color print device I'd like to use). However, after a series of issues, I decided to restart using the OS X partition purportedly on the computer. Mistake. The computer promptly restarted with the prohibitory sign glaring back at me. The kicker - there is no internal optical drive - just a DVD-RAM drive and Zip drive. My external CD/DVD drive refuses to be recognized, so that's out.

Any ideas for making this work? I have basically all of the OS X CDs from 10.0 to 10.3 - I may be able to get my hands on an OS 9 CD if necessary, but without an optical drive I think I'm out of luck.

Thanks for reading - here's to a solution!

Uh, a DVD-RAM drive IS an optical drive. You use it to read your OS X CDs and boot from them.

 

[Toppa G's]

Uh, a DVD-RAM drive IS an optical drive. You use it to read your OS X CDs and boot from them.

Oops - I didn't realize I could just stick a disc into that drive. Thanks!