Need new HD and OS for PowerBook G3 Series

Hello. I am a computer tech but I am gonna be honest, I barely know anything about Macs. Recently I was given a Mac PowerBook G3 Series notebook, on the bottom it says 14.1TFT/266MHz-1MM. It also says it has a CD drive but all it has in here is a floppy drive. Anywho, I was given this and there is no hard drive in it. What I'd like to do is get this up and running again and just tinker around with it and learn something. Will I be able to use just any basic IDE notebook drive? Or does it have to be made specifically for a Mac? Also, for the operating system, can I just get like OS 9, somehow put it on floppy disks, and install it that way? Or am I going to have to find a CD drive for it?

Sorry for being such a newb, I know that annoys some people in forums like these. Just looking for a little information. Thanks.

-Chris

Welcome to the forums.

You can buy the CD module for that on an auction site. It is swappable with the floppy.

You can run OS X on that machine, it should take up to Jaguar 10.2 just fine.
You would want to have the maximum RAM for that though. I wouldn't bother with OS 9. Whichever you choose, you will need a CD for installation. Again, you can find either of these for sale on eBay and the like.

Yes, you can put any notebook IDE drive in there. There is no such thing as a "Mac" hard drive or a "Windows" hard drive.