power mac g3 desktop

[dave james]

Hi there
am a new member and trust my thread will make sense to you.
My Biege desktop G3 was stored for three years while moving to France.
It runs with OP system 8.6 or rather it did !.
On start up it makes the correct noise,a sort of Dongg sound which i have read is a positive,the hard drive whirs and the screen comes up with a small floppy with a question mark in, I Have read the books ,i then rebooted with the original 8.6 disk holding down C as instructed,this booted up and i had the 8.6 icon in the top right of the screen.
I double clicked on this and the window opened,showing me a 1 to 4 schedule
on continuing it states select a destination Disk,this i cannot do becourse ,1 there is no disc itemised and 2 the window is greyed over.
Have followed all the rellevant instuctions in the Bible ! but it all comes back to the fact my Hard Drive has done a runner,The G3 is so important to me as i am a retired Pro photographer and my Drum Scanner will only operate on the G3 with the 8 to 9 operating system,any further rellevant detail will be sent immediatly should it be of assistance,
Please excuse my rambling but this is so important to me ,
Thankyou for your time.
Dave James

 

[chscag]

You're trying to resurrect a machine that was built circa 1998 - 1999. I'm not sure if there are any service providers who would work on it. Therefore, any work would have to be done by you.

It sounds like you need to replace the hard drive and then reload the operating system from your original media. I take it the original operating system came on 4 floppy disks? I looked up your machine using Mac Tracker and it showed some of those models with a CD drive.

Anyway, the hard drive would be the place to start. Also make sure the original install media is still useable.

Regards.

 

[hughvane]

The G3 Beige has a CD-ROM, and 8.6 was achieved with incremental updates from 8.0. I believe the Apple website still provides old OS updates. See also Classic Mac OS Downloads and Updates.

I removed the HD from my old G3 Beige before recycling the computer. It is not a difficult job. It was a 6 Gb Maxtor, which I used as external storage for a while, but almost any small hard drive (suggest 80 Gb or less) will do.

If I can be of further assistance in respect of your G3, please PM me.

Further Info: AppleCare Support - Older Software Downloads
Old Version for Mac Downloads - OldApps.com

 

[dave james]

Power Mac G3

Hi Fellas
Thanks for your quick replys,apologies for not describing more fully in my earlier thread,yes the machine has a floppy drive a Zip drive and allso a CD drive,
Hughvane thanks for your offer of further assistance which i appreciate ,but ime not sure what Pm stands for ,please let me know,
There is plenty of room for a new HD but i would have to load it with 8 to 9 operating system is that a problem do you think.
Cheers for now Dave

 

[hughvane]

PM - Private Message. Click my forum name, and look for the PM link.

Meantime, Re HD - open up your G3. Press upward the two plastic lugs beneath the CD and floppy drive bays, and then smartly pull the top half of the casing toward you. Then you need to lift the hinged section of the innards and prop it with the plastic leg. Thereafter you can get at things like the HD, the RAM, and so on. Incidentally, your G3 will operate better with maximum RAM - which is 768 Mb, in 3 x 256 configuration.

Once a new HD is installed, go through the boot from CD routine that you tried in the initial stages. If it doesn't allow you to install a fresh OS, you may need to take the bare drive out again and take it a Mac tech, along with your OS install CD.

 

[Mac SK]

Make shure the jumper on the new drive is set the same as the old drive. Many new hard drives come preformated for OS 10,you will need to reformat it with
Drive Setup on the OS install disc.