06-12-2005, 07:01 PM

I have a B+W G3, 400mHz, with 512 mb of memory, 9gb hard drive, singly partitioned, that was running OS 10.3.9. My problem arose when I tried to run an application that only ran in a Classic (OS 9) environment, which I didn’t have installed. I tried to instal by placing the OS 9.2.1 disk into my machine. I first tried to run OS from the cd, but since the cd couldn’t be written to it wouldn’t allow me to run OS 9 this way. So I dragged the system folder from the OS 9 cd to my hard drive. The folder copied over ok, but this is where the problems started. I decided a restart was appropriate. Upon trying to restart I first got the blinking Mac folder with a question mark, then it progressed to a disk with a blinking question mark. My computer would load if I put the OS 9 disk in, but then my hard drive was not recognized. I tried to run Disk First Aid, but it did not acknowledge my hard drive. Upon opening Drive Setup, it saw the drive, but it was unrecognized and wouldn’t mount, but could be initialized. I tried to boot from an OS X cd and and the disk with a blinking question mark remained. My machine would boot from the DiskWarrior 3.0.2 cd and it recognized my drive and didn’t find any major changes. Also, I booted from my TechTool Pro 4.0.1 cd and it saw the hard drive and didn’t find any major problems. After trying both of these my machine still would just get to the disk with the blinking question mark. I have tried to hook up an external drive with both systems 9 and 10 on it and my machine would only load system 9 and failed to recognize the os x partition on that hard drive. ANY IDEAS?

06-12-2005, 07:38 PM

try holding option during startup, you will be given a screen to choose what os to boot, choose your os x installation and delete that system folder you copied, or open start up disk prefs and set the os x installation as the startup disk.

06-13-2005, 01:02 AM

Thanks for the suggestion. I tried holding option at startup and got the same results as well, the mac folder with a blinking question mark, followed by a disk with a blinking question mark.

As for loading off of the OS 9 cd and going in and picking out a startup disk, my hard drive isn't recognized by disk first aid and will not mount, but only initialize in disk setup.

I also tried holding down X while booting and got the same results, the mac folder with a blinking question mark, followed by a disk with a blinking question mark. I put in my OS 10.3 cd and nothing happened except the disk with a blinking question mark.

I tried starting up from my 10.3 cd while holding down X while booting and I got the same results.

06-13-2005, 09:43 AM

have you tried booting into safe boot mode? try holding shift during start up.