G3 Hard Drive problem

J

joe mama

Guest
My sister has a iMac G3 DV 400MHz cpu w/128MHz RAM that ran with OS9

When it boots up it displays the 'System File Missing' '?' I booting off the Install and the Restore CD and it still cannot find a hard drive. I looked under the disk utilities and no HD icon is present. I also looked under the Apple System Profiler, Devices and Volumes and it is not there. It does not even mention ' Internal ATA 1' It shows the CD ROM connected to 'Internal ATA 2'

One of the half dozen times I booted off the CD, the desktop did show folders from the HD, but that only occured once and has not re occured.

I do not know if this is a HD problem or a problem with Internal ATA1. If It is a HD I could install a new one, but it does not appear to be a very easy task on this iMac. If it were easy I would put in a new one just to narrow down the problem.

If it is the Internal ATA 1 that has a problem, could I set her machine to boot and run off a firewire HD and just leave the internal HD?
 
OP
J

joe mama

Guest
initialized HD

I thought I had the problem with the iMAC DV fixed. A few days after my last post I booted up with the Install CD and could see the hard Drive. I could initialize the Hard Drive and re install OS9. When I re-booted from the HD the system worked.

However, after the system was on for about one hour, I tried to restart again and was back to the original problem Cannot find System Folder on the HD. The problem seems to be related to thermal conditions in the iMac. I just booted it up again after a day of rest and it booted right from the HD.

My question remains the same, could it be the HD or the Internal ATA? If this box were easy to work on, I would just switch out the HD and answer my own question. But opening up an iMac is a bit toughter than most box computers.
 

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