Installing Panther on a blank hard drive

Okay, iMac G3 333MHz (Rev D.). 20GB hard drive. Blank.

Story is, it was given to my boss by a customer of our shop, with the original 6GB hard disk, and asked him to remove their personal information before "getting rid of it". Knowing I wanted a Mac, my boss gave it to me. Instead of wiping the 6GB drive, he swapped it for a spare 20GB we had lying around.

I was not given the original OS discs, which I believe to have been OS 8.2

I tried installing Panther (10.3.2) from retail discs kindly given to me by a member of the forums. After poking about with trying to get it to boot from CD (turns out it's cmd-shift-option-delete, not c, for this particular Mac) but all I get is a blank screen. Which is only slightly better than the flashing ?/Mac symbol. I left it for a few minutes and came back, but still nothing. Not sure the CD drive is even accessing it during the blank screen phase.

Now, admittedly, I did follow the suggestion my boyfriend gave me of installing it before we've upgraded the RAM from 92MB to either 320MB or 288MB. Might it be disagreeing with the tiny amount of RAM - in which case I'll stop being silly and install it when it's been properly upgraded - or is this an unrelated problem?

The system requirements for Panther:
PowerPC G3, G4, or G5 processor
Built-in USB
At least 128 MB of RAM (512 MB or 1 GB recommended)
At least 1.5 GB of available hard disk space
CD drive

The ram may be the problem. You would need to upgrade to find out, however. But try reseting the PRAM and then try starting from the cd again.
Hold cmd-option-O-F during startup.
You'll see the open firmware boot screen (grey with black text)
type nvram-reset (enter)
type reset-all (enter)
The iMac will reboot.

Make sure to update the firmware as well, when you're able.
http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=86117

Have you still got the system 8 disk in there

if so, boot it into 8 and download the cd update and firmware updates, run these in system 8 before you try installing panther - the updates can be installed before the new ram arrives

http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=58174#iMac333

Soulwar: thanks, I will try this before I go to bed tonight, the RAM's being installed tomorrow evening ^^

louishen: yes, I think my boss still has the original disk (I didn't let him throw it out yet just in case). I did read in a couple of places about the firmware needing updating but hoped it wasn't necessary due to the hassle of moving the hard disks around. I'll do that if installing the RAM doesn't help =) just hope he hasn't got rid of it!


Edit:
Upon doing as Soulwar suggested, I got the following on the firmware boot screen:
Firmware build 3.0.f10
Built on: 03/05/99

Ouch! Never updated? I can't tell if that's the 3rd May or 5th March, but it doesn't really matter I guess O__o I think I'm definitely going to need the original disk back and do those firmware updates!

Sorry for double post - I have the original hard drive back, but it's a damaged version of OS 8...I can't do a thing with it. I've tried transferring the firmware updates over using CD-Rs, and they're not being recognised even though they're finalised.

No Internet Explorer =/

Can't find a command line anywhere.

You might want to check ebay for OS9. Install it on the new HD, and update the Firmware and the CD update. The Firmware has to be updated with the OS on the HD.

Thanks to louishen again for the OS 9 discs!

However, the iMac is now:

• Not even loading Finder within OS 8 on the old hard drive
• Not booting from CD when I try to install it on the new hard drive

Now, I know for a fact that the CD drive is operational, while within an OS.

However, it sits there making whining and normal accessing noises consistently while I try to boot from the CD. Eventually it gives up and flashes up the Mac/? folder icon.

Sigh.

Is there anything else I might be able to do if nobody can suggest anything? One of my lecturers suggested a netboot. Can I do that with assistance from my boyfriend's (relatively) new Macbook? I really don't want to give up.

Try reseting the PRAM again. Sometimes it can fix cd's from not mounting.

Netboot and then using that to image the computer with a Panther disk image might work. (but will probably be too complicated to easily implement.) Normally I would suggest using firewire target boot but I believe that that iMac does not have firewire ports (I had that same model 10 years ago.) Honestly I would suggest purchasing a new macintosh, you'll be much, much happier. The Mac Mini starts at $599 and will be SOOOO much faster than that machine, but you will need to provide your own keyboard, mouse, and monitor. But that model of iMac is 10 years old, and won't do anything particularly well...I know, I have one and I've had to boot it up recently (OS 9.2) and the thing barely plods along.

All that being said, try resetting the PMU, I'm pretty sure its located where you install the RAM on that model (it's a little button.)
Also, make sure that the RAM is securely pushed into place, I had a similar problem on a G5 tower in a lab I manage, and it turned out that the RAM was incorrectly installed, it might have been displaced when the hard drive was replaced.

Yup, my iMac doesn't have Firewire =(

My parents have promised me a Macbook if I get a distinction on my college course this year...so I will be getting a fully operational Mac sometime in September or something. Thing is, since I got given the iMac G3, it's become my personal project and I absolutely must get it working xD

I don't plan to do much more than programming and web browsing on it ;D

Thanks for your suggestions, I'll try them out this weekend =)