Can't boot from other than MacOS 9 partition!

digital_llamadigital_llama
Posted:
in macOS edited January 2014
Okey dokey.



So the day MacOS X.1.5 came out I went through the update control panel to install. The update downloaded and installed.



I clicked restart and got the white OpenFirmware-like screen with just a black "_" in the top left corner.



So damn... I restarted into MacOS 9, and all is well. I break out the MacOS X CD and pop it in to re-install. I get the same screen. For giggles, I pop the MacOS 9 cd in there. Same thing!



Here is my set up:

Macintosh G3 (beige) 233

LG 16x10x40x CD-RW (same as Lite On and previously booted)

Western Digital Caviar 40gb HD.

4GB for MacOS X

4GB for MacOS 9

32GB for files etc

160MB RAM



I just moved, and it started up fins when I was setting everything up. I also recheck all the connections and jumper settings.



Any thoughts?



Did the 10.1.5 update kill any hopes of using OS X again?



[ 06-11-2002: Message edited by: digital_llama ]</p>

Comments

  • Reply 1 of 9
    cubedudecubedude Posts: 1,556member
    Well, I think the easiest solution would be to boot into OS9 and backup any important files, and the reformat your OSX partition. This isn't the most convenient solution, but it is probably the simplest.
  • Reply 2 of 9
    digital_llamadigital_llama Posts: 6member
    I did that too.



    Even with that I can't boot up off of ANY CD.
  • Reply 3 of 9
    cubedudecubedude Posts: 1,556member
    You can't boot off a CD? Wow, you're in deep. My next solution would be to use Firewire Target Disk Mode to reformat and install OSX. This requires another Mac, though. You can find instructions on the Web, since I can't find my manual right now.
  • Reply 4 of 9
    digital_llamadigital_llama Posts: 6member
    yup, especially since I don't have firewire in my 4-5 year old Mac



    I'm gonna try to dig up my Apple approved CDROM drive and see if that works.



    Is there anything in the 10.1.5 update that coulda trashed the CD-RW? I can still read and burn in OS 9.



    Just no boot for me
  • Reply 5 of 9
    antaisceantaisce Posts: 54member
    1.Try resetting the pram.

    2.Remove all external periphials and pci cards.

    3.If the first 2 did not help, reset the board (pull the battery)
  • Reply 6 of 9
    kevin bkevin b Posts: 1member
    I'd been struggling with the same symptoms for the past 2 days.



    It happend in the middle of the day after I had powered down and unplugged my iMac and moved the power cable to another power strip.



    I couldn't boot from any Mac OS X partition.

    No Mac OS X cds and none of my two Mac OSX partitions. The only place I could get to was my OS 9.2 partition and the OS 9.2 CD.



    After trying all kinds of scans from 9.2 and booting into single-user mode, which also froze just before the "localhost" prompt, I began tracing back through my steps.



    I powered down the iMac and moved the power cable back to the original power strip.



    And now my machine goes into all the Mac OS X partitions just fine.



    I can't say for sure that the power strip was to blame because I can't recreate the condition, but you may want to try unplugging the machine and plugging it in somewhere else.



    Please let me know how it goes.



    KB
  • Reply 7 of 9
    digital_llamadigital_llama Posts: 6member
    I'll try that.



    The main differnce we have is that I can't even boot a MacOS 9 CD!



    Hopefully it is some weird voltage issue. I'll try it out tonight.



    And for the record, I rebooted after the update, but did not change any connections anywhere near the computer.
  • Reply 8 of 9
    pastapasta Posts: 112member
    First, you need to put the Apple CD-ROM back in, that's probably why you can't boot off of a CD.

    Second, zap your PRAM.

    Third, unplug all external peripheral devices.

    What model machine is it?

    Do you have more than one physical hard drive, or are you working off of multiple partitions?
  • Reply 9 of 9
    pastapasta Posts: 112member
    [quote]Originally posted by pasta:

    <strong>First, you need to put the Apple CD-ROM back in, that's probably why you can't boot off of a CD.

    Second, zap your PRAM.

    Third, unplug all external peripheral devices.

    What model machine is it?

    Do you have more than one physical hard drive, or are you working off of multiple partitions?</strong><hr></blockquote>



    Guess I should've read your post a little closer. OK, the LG drive definitely is a problem for booting. Although you can get these drives to boot sometimes, it's not supported and is usually the first thing to go wrong. I've installed an LG 24x burner on a beige G3 before, and it initially allowed booting, but when one of the HD's failed the drive would no longer allow me to boot. Now, regarding the HD and your OS X partition...

    There's obviously something corrupt on your OS X partition. Your OS 9 partition is booting, so it's 99.9% safe to say that it's not a hardware problem. Therefore, something's probably gone corrupt on your OS X partition. If you have any utilities, such as Drive 10 or NU 7, try booting off of one of these (after you replace the original CD drive) and diagnosing the OS X partition. Odds are probably better than 50/50 you can repair the partition with one of these products. If you're unable to do so, then I would suggest the following:

    Put a second hard drive in the machine. Install OS X on the primary drive. Install OS 9 on the secondary drive. Make sure you use a compatible IDE drive cable. Most of the IDE cables these days are ATA/100 or better, which won't work properly with your machine. Hope this helps...
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