G3 not loading OSX

Posted:
in Genius Bar edited January 2014
My problem is I have an old G3 imac 500 with a CD-RW drive. I'm trying to install OS 10.3 on with an emac restore DVD. I know this DVD works because I installed it on another G3 imac I have about a week ago. But that one had a DVD drive in it.



Do to the fact that this one lacks a DVD drive I bought an external USB 2.0 DVD+-RW drive. I was a little afraid it wasn't going to work at first. I wasn't sure if there was a way to boot from a USB drive. But sure enough holding down the C button it found it and the grey apple appears and the status pie begins to spin. However after a short time the apple logo turns into a circle with a slash through it.



Why is this happening?

How do I fix it?

Comments

  • Reply 1 of 4
    ebbyebby Posts: 3,110member
    My hunch says you already found your problem. If I recall, only the apple computers built in the last (3?) years can boot off USB. The others boot off of firewire. I could be wrong, but I think that is the case. The Symbol you see tells me your computer can't find a valid startup volume,



    <SNIP> Dumb thing to say



    I was going to recommend swaping your CD/DVD drives, but I think that is a slot loading iMac. That probably won't work. You may be able to temporarily swap the drives by keeping the case open and installing your OS, then replace the original drive and close it back up. Seems like a lot of work.



    Yea, I'm a bit rusty on my older macs. Never used an iMac either. But I hope this helps somehow.



    EDIT: Now that I think of it, didn't Apple have a option where you could return a install DVD and receive 6 install CD's? I think it cost $20, but you might want to look into that.
  • Reply 2 of 4
    MarvinMarvin Posts: 15,326moderator
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by ApplePi


    My problem is I have an old G3 imac 500 with a CD-RW drive. I'm trying to install OS 10.3 on with an emac restore DVD. I know this DVD works because I installed it on another G3 imac I have about a week ago. But that one had a DVD drive in it.



    Do to the fact that this one lacks a DVD drive I bought an external USB 2.0 DVD+-RW drive. I was a little afraid it wasn't going to work at first. I wasn't sure if there was a way to boot from a USB drive. But sure enough holding down the C button it found it and the grey apple appears and the status pie begins to spin. However after a short time the apple logo turns into a circle with a slash through it.



    Why is this happening?

    How do I fix it?



    Firstly, I wouldn't even expect a USB2 drive to work with a USB1 port. Secondly, most PPC Macs don't boot over USB. The Intel ones do but not PPC. If you hold down the alt key during boot, you will see which drives are actually bootable discs.
  • Reply 3 of 4
    lundylundy Posts: 4,466member
    Moving to Genius Bar. Thread title edited to remove flame.
  • Reply 4 of 4
    Thanks guys for your help. That was in fact the case. When I hooked the DVD-Drive up to an old LaCie firewire/IDE interface I had, the disc booted and installed just fine.
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