I just got my Power Mac G3, and I was attempting to install Mac OS 9 on it, I copied the files onto the primary hard drive needed to install Mac OS 9, and I went to boot from it, and got a error something like "This media can only be booted on the original disc, not if copied to a different destination."
I clicked "Restart" and held down the option key, the happy mac appeared, but then the screen went blank slowly, and I get the question mark folder. Same thing happened with a eMac, but I tried to install Apple Hardware Test on there. It's not the hard drives, they still seek fine. Anyone know a solution? EDIT: I went with the CD-R solution and it worked! Thanks for all your help! Now all I have to do is get Mac OS 10 on there and get a VGA to HDMI and I'm done! By the way, the data on the Maxtor drive got wiped, so it will be a pain to get the old version of Photoshop back...
Almost forgot, I'm planning on removing the Maxtor drive...
One last thing: I'm planning to install a floppy drive in it...
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2013, May 11 - 3:09pm
#1
Power Mac G3 won't find startup disk *FIXED*
Comments
2013, May 11 - 7:35pm
#2
Did you copy those files off a Install Disc?....If so you need to boot off the Install Disc to install the system....Leave them on the CD Media that those came on and boot from that CD Media....
2013, May 11 - 8:01pm
#3
Could you elaborate a little more? From where did you copy the installation files? It sounds like you copied the System Folder from an installation CD, why not boot from the CD instead? Is it a beige G3 or blue G3? I don't think the option key works on beige G3's. If you have the CD, did you try starting up presisng the "C" key?
2013, May 12 - 1:47am
#4
I had all the files on a usb drive, and I don't have a Mac OS install disk AT ALL. (I tried to make one but the mac doesn't want to boot from it.)
2013, May 12 - 4:40am
#5
Do you have another machine running OS9? I would copy the system and finder from that installation and try to boot from them instead of the ones you copied. How did you try to make your CD? In the old days (i'm talking about 1999) the toast images that were floating around were perfectly bootable, i am assuming that the images here are bootable as well.
2013, May 12 - 11:16am
#6
If you have all needed files to install, be sure the medium is read only - r/w wont work.
As said above, a CD made from ISO with e.g. IMGBurn on Windows would be best.
I recall a G3 bootdisk, but I will have to look for it.
2013, May 12 - 11:41am
#7
+1 on using ImgBurn for burning Classic/PPC OSX Mac CD/DVD media (ironically). But you also need to know beforehand that what you burn to hardcopy, is actually capable of booting your Mac model to begin with.
2013, May 12 - 1:02pm
#8
Sadly I did not keep the G3 bootdisk. Maybe because I had no use for it.
Someone else may have stored it locally.
To know the exact type of PPC750 machine may help indeed.
I think they all could boot OS8 to 10.2, but the experts here will know. 
I would try with a System Software Recovery Disk3 and take a good look at Max1zzz´s awesome server for an image if SSR-3 should fail.
2013, May 12 - 1:29pm
#9
I do happen to have a Mac OS 8 (PowerMac G3).iso from WinWorld, but what I'm trying to say is:
My boot destination is misconfigured.
2013, May 12 - 2:26pm
#10
With the old world Macs, there wasn´t much to misconfigure.
At boot the Mac would query floppy - CD - HDD for a valid system by default. (I never had ZIP)
Maybe try a Disk Tools 8 floppy to be sure the thing is working from here: http://ubuntuone.com/6agDd3R72Az9pASJ2AInd9
If you have no working Mac to write the floppy, emulators can do that too.
In case you did not read here, thats the idea. http://support.apple.com/kb/TA22552
2013, May 12 - 6:54pm
#11
Have we established which PMG3 you have ? Since you transferred the files using USB it sounds like it's a B&W.
If it's the Blue & White, it also has Firewire.
The simle fact is that you are going to have to run the OS9 installer somewhere if you cannot grab an installed OS9 from somewhere else. So your options are )in order of preference):
* Load a working OS9 folder from another G3 or G4 Mac (I used my MDD System Folder to get my old B&W G3 going again)
* Restore your OS9 Install CD image onto a Firewire device (like one of the early iPods) and boot off that, holding down 'F' at boot time.
* Burn the OS9 Install CD image onto a CD and boot from that.
Spending a few bucks on one of the original iPods (mine is a 3rd gen 30GB bought from new), will save your bacon many times, just having that FireWire boot capability. I had foolishly disposed of my last Firewire-booting 3.5" external drive, I had more firewire-capable external drives (all WD MyBook), but I found out, you can't boot from them, so when my PMG5 started playing up, I was at a loss to get it going again (my only DL discs are DVD+R, which although I can mount, I can't boot from. So after days of trying with the WD drive, out came the old iPod - almost unused since I bought the 1st gen iPod Touch - partitioned the drive inside, restored the OSX 10.5 disc image, plugged in, held down F and magic.
2013, May 24 - 4:55am
#12
I've seemed to found a FW to FW cable, is it possible of booting another mac to the mac I want to get working again?
2013, May 24 - 7:38am
#13
I'm gonna say yes, assuming the other mac has a compatible OS version for your G3.
2013, May 18 - 5:13am
#14
I do have my dad's 3 old iPods (one of them I tried to fix).
2013, May 24 - 7:22pm
#15
The MacOS 9.0.4 retail cd boots all the beige-G3 as well as the b&w plastic towers; just be sure to download a valid 9.0.4 dmg or iso to burn to a cd; then u can boot and install a fresh copy of 9.0.4 and the updates to 9.2.2
On TPB there is a known-good image.
2013, May 29 - 4:53pm
#16
Can I burn it to a CD-RW?
2013, May 30 - 11:38am
#17
Not anything I know boots from CD-RW, use CD-R (disk-at-once | disc-at-once/96)
2013, May 30 - 6:12pm
#18
Ditto, I do remember reading about my Macs not being able to boot from CD-RW.
It was in a long list of stuff that CD-RW was not suitable for, like CD Audio.
2013, June 3 - 5:09pm
#19
My FW cable arrived, but it's not reading the HDD from the iPod. I'm currently using my USB cable to put Mac OS 9.0.4 on there.
2013, June 6 - 12:11pm
#20
I finally got my CD-Rs today, also 6 donuts for breakfast. And don't forget the milk
2013, June 7 - 8:55am
#21
Best of luck TCK!
(I mean with the donuts).