Hellooo.
I *just* received an ibook g3 (dual USB) that I won off ebay that came installed with OS X 4.2 (no install discs however) and without OS 9 (blargh)... SO... I grabbed my ol' USB stick, transferred the classic system folder (think it's Z-9.2.2 or sommat) from my ibook g4 running OS X 3.9 and pasted the sucka into my hardrive. After restarting, the lappie seemed to register the system folder as it would start up in the classic environs swimmingly. BUT. When i tried to BOOT into OS 9, it failed.... DRASTICALLY. This is where I break into a cold sweat just thinking about it. All I get whenever I start up is an ominous image of a floppy with a blinking "?". And i've tried: reseting PRAM, holding option to show startup discs (only shows OS 9), holding command x, booting from an OS 9.0.4 retail disc, and all the other startup commands.... to no avail. So for the time being, my brand-spanking-new computer is completely useless. Why is this happening to me? Excuse me, while I attend to my snuggie and bottle of JB.
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2010, April 22 - 1:33am
#1
iBook g3... ARGH!WAAAH!.. And the relentless crying-times that accompany it.
Comments
2010, April 22 - 2:23am
#2
sneakyboson,
I have a feeling that you did what I did to the eMac, it is now trying to boot OS 9 which is not a full, complete and compatible system with the iBook G3 because you are pulling a system specific to a G4 (maybe). I had to find a startup disc and boot off that and initialize/reinstall the system. If you have OS 8 as a bootable startup disc then I suggest you get that and whack it on.
Yes you will lose everything on the hard drive if you do what I suggest but I doubt this would be an issue for you since you just got it. Alternatively you can try the following which is not recommended... try pulling the hard drive out of the laptop and putting it in an external hard drive and plugging it into another computer. There you can at least explore it and poke around the system folders to see what went wrong.
I strongly suggest however that if you do this DO NOT try to start up on the external hard drive or you might end up screwing with that mac's startup sequence as well. Good luck with whatever solution you find.
I3loodTeeth
P.S.
2010, April 22 - 2:44am
#3
Phew, I do happen to have a 8.6 install disc lying around... But I thought the lowest compatible OS with ibook G3s was OS 9.1? Anyway, i'll give it a go. And yeah, i'll probably only rip out my HD as a very, very last resort... Not to experienced with hardware tinkering. Thanks for your advice!
2010, April 22 - 2:51am
#4
sneakyboson,
Good luck with OS 8.6, hope it works for you. As for tinkering around in a laptop's hardware I suggest you get a professional or somebody very experienced to do any changes. Laptops are extremely fragile and tempramental when it comes to touching the hardware. All it takes is a nervous twitchy finger and bam you have killed your computer.
I hate to be so grim about it but I cannot stress enough caution when it comes to laptops. I was actually doing work experience at an apple store around the time that lappy came out, I remember I was allowed to open up the case of the early iMac's (carefully because the clips had a habit of breaking easily) and also the cases for older power macs (pre G3's) but when it came to stuff like laptops they would only allow me to lift up the keyboard. Everything else inside was a definite DO NOT TOUCH, leave that to an experienced technician.
I3loodTeeth
2010, April 22 - 2:51am
#5
Haha yeah I know, you should see the state of my ipod classic after 'carefully' ripping it open (faulty headphone jack)... dent central! So is 8.6 'unoffically' supported by late (i think its a 2002) model ibook g3s?
2010, April 22 - 2:54am
#6
sneakyboson,
Not sure mate, If I were you I would do a wikipedia or google search on OS 8 and see if it comes up with a table of known compatible computers. That's what I did for OS 9 and that's how I knew which eMac or G4 to get and which one I couldn't get.
I3loodTeeth
2010, April 22 - 3:00am
#7
Hmmm... it seems to support a 'machine specific' version of 8.6 only... I think I have a restore CD around that might have an ibook install... well i'm off to check it out. Once again, thanks alot for your help!
2010, April 22 - 5:22am
#8
Argh... No luck, my driver keeps spitting out my discs whenever I try to start up from them. Gonna have to somehow get a copy of OS X somewhere.
2010, April 22 - 7:06am
#9
iBook G3 Dual USB boots fine with 9.2.1 according to Wikipedia - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mac_OS_9
Also, 9.2.2 machine specific. I have a G4 installer (MDD?) for 9.2.1, and it seems to boot on anything.
My Dual-USB iBook (600MHz) is booting OS9.2.2 only (updated from 9.2.1 with country specific update).
I would search for Mirror Drive Door G4 OS9.2.1 install CD, or do a Universal install off another compatible Mac onto USB thumb drive (formatted to HFS+) - this will take a LOOOOONG time at USB 1.0 speed. This is how I transferred a perfectly working System Folder onto a 1.25GHz G4 eMac (which cannot boot OS9) for the Classic Environment. This will probably only work for Classic Mode, but your mileage may vary...
2010, April 22 - 7:21am
#10
The dual USB iBook is the 500MHz one, it needs OS9.1 as a minimum.
After that, the later iBooks, 600MHz, 700MHz, 800MHz, 900MHz all required OS9.2.1 or OS9.2.2 as a minimum.
You should be fine with either my MDD OS9 download (from megaupload) or the eMac OS9.2.2 restore image. Both should be linked in BloodTeeth's eMac woes thread.
2010, April 22 - 1:36pm
#11
I would download your MDD image, but you said on the page where the link is that it isn't a bootable image; it requires that I boot into OS X which I can't do... Would the eMac image work as a bootable disc?
2010, April 22 - 7:53pm
#12
A set of iBook G3 Dual USB install and restore discs have come up on eBay UK today. Starts at £4.99 + £3 P+P
See them Here
2010, April 24 - 3:22am
#13
sneakyboson,
The eMac OS 9.2 disc is bootable and is a full system. Not sure how it will go installing on your ibook though, hopefully it just skips the irrelevant parts like the graphics card driver, etc. Give it a shot and good luck.
On a side note I did remember reading somewhere a while ago that apparently apple has released all classic OS software as freeware except OS 9.2.2 because of its tie to OSX as classic mode. For this reason alone I'm sure you don't have to spend money on discs at ebay, there should be downloadable image files somewhere.
I3loodTeeth
2010, April 24 - 7:23am
#14
Normally I'd agree about not having to spend money on the old discs.
But in this case,
- he/she is stuck
- these are a full set of original discs for that very model of computer
- they're pennies, about the same price as buying blank discs to burn any downloads onto
- there is nothing to stop him/her just using the discs to get the iBook going again, maybe making a copy of them, and re-selling them at a profit
Still, I've founf a local seller selling a 500MHz G3 iBook on eBay. £0.99 just now, with discs and power supply. I'll get it for my 3yo son, maybe he'll get off my Mac Pro.