Mac G4 finder and question mark and won't read hard drive

macuser1232 · Aug 4, 2012

Hi,

I just purchased a Mac G4 and when I start it up I get the finder logo and a blinking question mark. I am almost positive it is because the Mac can't find the system folder but I have tried putting multiple hard drive's in it and the Mac G4 can't read any of them. I tried holding the option key down to see and there was no hard drive icon visible. Also the cd drive won't work because when I stuck a Linux cd into it and held down "C" it didn't do anything.

harryb2448 · Aug 4, 2012

No CD drive and from the sounds of it a faulty logic board. Can you send it back?

macuser1232 · Aug 4, 2012

harryb2448 said:
No CD drive and from the sounds of it a faulty logic board. Can you send it back?

I got it for $9.99 at good will. You can get awesome stuff there

. And it looks like the CD drive is good. I don't know. And really? A faulty logic board? How? Is it because there is nothing on the hard drive? Is that why it won't show when I hold Option on boot up?

Stretch · Aug 4, 2012

I wouldn't jump on a faulty logic board yet. I'm guessing it came with no restore DVDs. Is the Linux distro you downloaded for PPC architecture? Most are for Intel CPUs so they won't work on the iMac G4.

Without knowing exactly what model it is, I'd recommend trying to find a 10.3 or 10.4 retail install DVD, but this won't be a cheap purchase as they are no longer produced. Ebay and Craigslist will be your best bet for them.

macuser1232 · Aug 5, 2012

Stretch said:
I wouldn't jump on a faulty logic board yet. I'm guessing it came with no restore DVDs. Is the Linux distro you downloaded for PPC architecture? Most are for Intel CPUs so they won't work on the iMac G4.

Without knowing exactly what model it is, I'd recommend trying to find a 10.3 or 10.4 retail install DVD, but this won't be a cheap purchase as they are no longer produced. Ebay and Craigslist will be your best bet for them.

Yeah I noticed they weren't cheap. I am looking into buying 10.3 or 10.4 but I want to use 1 of the 3 hard drives I have. And in order to use one of them I need to fully erase them but i'm not really sure how. How would I erase a hard drive if it's not inside any computer?

harryb2448 · Aug 5, 2012

Put it an external case, connected by Firewire.

You G4 can handle two hard drives so use that. The IDE cable has second power and IDE connectors. Either internally or externally, when you get the DVD up and running, boot holding down 'C', leave installer and into Utilities in the Menu Bar, select Disk Utility and from there highlight the drive/s and hit the Erase button. Then into Partition and under Options select Apple Partition Map.

Back to Installer and proceed. You will have to consider the cost of Tiger, say about $50.00, an IDE optical drive new around $40.00. IS the machine worth spending that much money on when you can get a much later G5 for about $150.00.

And the reason it was in the thrift store may be self explanatory.

Good luck and fingers crossed for you. You are going to learn a lot about computers.

macuser1232 · Aug 5, 2012

harryb2448 said:
Put it an external case, connected by Firewire.

You G4 can handle two hard drives so use that. The IDE cable has second power and IDE connectors. Either internally or externally, when you get the DVD up and running, boot holding down 'C', leave installer and into Utilities in the Menu Bar, select Disk Utility and from there highlight the drive/s and hit the Erase button. Then into Partition and under Options select Apple Partition Map.

Back to Installer and proceed. You will have to consider the cost of Tiger, say about $50.00, an IDE optical drive new around $40.00. IS the machine worth spending that much money on when you can get a much later G5 for about $150.00.

And the reason it was in the thrift store may be self explanatory.

Good luck and fingers crossed for you. You are going to learn a lot about computers.

So this is how I install the OS? Or erase my hard drive?