ERROR MESSAGE on iMAC during Boot Up

[Digital Dreamer]

On the process of trying to install a new hard drive on a iMAC G3, I get the following error message on boot up. It's the first thing that shows up on the desplay.

BOOTr, unknow word
Failed to boot
Apple iMac Open Fireware 3.0.f3 built on 12/02/98 at 10:25:41
Copyright 1994-1998 Apple Computer Inc
All Rights Reserved
ok
0 > _

At first I thought that it was not dedecting the new hard drive (Seagate 40Gb @ 7200 RPM), but when I installed the orginal drive (Western Digital 6Gb) back the, the same above error message continued to show.

The orginal Western Digital 6Gb still has a working copy of OS8.6 on it.

What is going on with this iMAC?
How do I go about fixing it?

Also how does one go about upgrading the firm were? Will I be needing a USB Floppy Drive for this.

And finally, did there any way that I can check where or not a hard drive is MASTER or SLAVE with out having to manually open up the iMAC and physically looking at it.

[Digital Dreamer]

:black: GOOD NEWS :black:
I took the (what I think) is the BIOS battery out for about a 30 minutes. And after that I was able to get this Mac to boot up again.

And then after that, I installed the Seagate 40Gb Hard Drive (as a MASTER), and the OS X set up CD is detecting the new drive.


Now some one was telling the that I might have to update the firmware on this computer. How do I got about doing this ?

BTW, i am still leaving the OS8.6 intact on the other drive until I am satified that I got OS.X installed and working.