g4 will not load!!!! please help!!!

I got one for you guys!!! my mac quicksilver 733(os 9.2) was running fine for about 5 yrs...them BOOM!!!! the hd crashed!!! I went out and bought a new hd and went to reload it. When i go to start it from the hd it stops about a 1/4 of the way on the startup screen...I have 3 other g4s with 10.3.8, so i took one of those hds and it works!!! the only problem is that, i need 9.2 to run my pro tools rig and it will not run in classic mode!!!! I got a friend to put 9.2 on a hd and it load without extentions but if i let it boot up nomally it loads the desktop screen, the mouse works but will not let me highlight or click on anything.....The sad thing is i called mac, they dont make the software anymore and get this....he said "Mac forums would know better than us"!!! so please help out!!

How large is the replacement HD? Officially your PM G4 does not support HD's larger than 128gigabyte (but unofficially some folks have had luck with larger drives). So "maybe" you're running into a HD size limit issue.

- Nick

Lol I had this problem with my first Mac and made sure never to buy a drive bigger than 120... To answer you it's a 80 gb... Btw am I in the right forum... Cause I know it says no os questions but I don't know what the problem is!!?!?! If I'm not, I'm sorry and can a moderator put me in the right forum thx

cdugas said:

Lol I had this problem with my first Mac and made sure never to buy a drive bigger than 120... To answer you it's a 80 gb... Btw am I in the right forum... Cause I know it says no os questions but I don't know what the problem is!!?!?! If I'm not, I'm sorry and can a moderator put me in the right forum thx

Click to expand...

Good to hear there are no HD size issues. The next thing to check out is something called the "Master-Slave" HD setup in a Powermac G4. Here's an Apple article explaining it:

Power Macintosh G3 and G4: IDE Master and Slave Support and Configuration

...basically you have to set the "jumpers" on the drive as "Master" or "Slave"...then the computer should recognize the drive properly. Usually the label on the HD will say which pins to "jump" to get the Master or Slave identity.

Hopefully this will solve things.

- Nick

p.s. By the way. Your question is in the right place. Its a desktop hardware question...and an HD in a desktop is hardware. So good to go!

Lol I tried master and cable select both resulted in same problem !!

cdugas said:

I went out and bought a new hd and went to reload it. When i go to start it from the hd it stops about a 1/4 of the way on the startup screen...

I got a friend to put 9.2 on a hd and it load without extentions but if i let it boot up nomally it loads the desktop screen, the mouse works but will not let me highlight or click on anything.....

Click to expand...

After re-reading your original post...I guess I'm a little confused as to what exactly is happening:

1. How was this new HD formatted?
2. What OS is installed on it?
3. How was the OS installed?
4. What exactly happens during startup? The 1st quote above says two things:

a. "When i go to start it from the hd it stops about a 1/4 of the way on the startup screen...
b. "...if i let it boot up nomally it loads the desktop screen."

Both situations can't be true. It's either booting up 1/4 of the way...or it's booting up to the desktop...which is it?

- Nick