iMac G3 not booting from CD

CharlieJ

CharlieJ

R.I.P bobw
Yesterday, I found a iMac G3, went home, opened it up it looked ok so I plugged it in and hoped for the best. On the screen it had the finder icon and the question mark, my face filled with joy :D.
I put the disk in and restarted it while holding c but it continued to display the finder icon with the question mark.
Is there another way of booting the iMac up via CD?
Or how else can I install Tiger?

Help would be much appreciated.

Thanks
Charlie
 
What model iMac is it?
You may have to install a Firmware upgrade, which requires OS 9 to be installed first.

Is the Tiger disc a DVD?
Does the iMac have a DVD drive?
 
bobw said:
What model iMac is it?
You may have to install a Firmware upgrade, which requires OS 9 to be installed first.

Is the Tiger disc a DVD?
Does the iMac have a DVD drive?
Click to expand...
I dont know what model it is. it is a Blue one.

I dont have an OS9 Disk :S.
were can I get one?

The Tiger disk is a DVD.

I Believe the drive is DVD. it is a laptop size and it says 24x speed.
 
CJ MAC OSX IPOD said:
I dont know what model it is. it is a Blue one.

The Tiger disk is a DVD.

I Believe the drive is DVD. it is a laptop size and it says 24x speed.
Click to expand...

If by 'laptop size' you mean a tray, instead of a slot-loading drive, then you have an older iMac, and not a DVD drive. Tiger is available in a CD set.
 
DeltaMac said:
If by 'laptop size' you mean a tray, instead of a slot-loading drive, then you have an older iMac, and not a DVD drive. Tiger is available in a CD set.
Click to expand...
So if I get OS9 and install the firmware will the Drive be able to install tiger from the DVD although it is a CD drive?
(Ive never had a CD drive)
 
No. A CD-ROM drive only reads CDs. You need a DVD-Rom, or a combo DVD/CD-R, or DVD burner, which will all also read CDs, and also do the other things that those drives will do, such as read DVD disks. Your iMac will not read other types of optical media, no matter what you update. The firmware update mentioned is for better compatibility with OS X, among other things.

You COULD use an external DVD drive for this, but your old iMac can't boot OS X on a USB drive, which is your only connection choice for an external drive.
 
I've just had a brain wave!
Take the iMac Harddrive out and put it in my powermac as slave and install it via the dvd :P will this work?
 
Yes, I have done exactly that successfully. Some think that puts drivers, etc. for the wrong Mac on your install, but I'm not convinced, and it does work when put back in to the original iMac. You'll get a few apps that you can't use, such as DVD Player. You can simply trash those kinds of apps.
Apple says that Tiger requires a minimum of 256MB memory. Some older iMacs were sold with as little as 32MB or 64MB. Tiger won't boot with that. I have one as a work system with only 160MB. It only uses a couple of apps, and is OK - just don't expect any great speed. I have booted a lot of 128MB Macs with Tiger, and everything works for testing, but I don't recommend it for anything usable. Try for 256MB. Some older iMacs (the ones sold as Bondi-blue, for example) can have up to 384MB - good luck finding memory that will work - you must find PC-66/PC-100 - the current PC-100/PC-133 is difficult to get to work. Your experience may vary.... :)
 
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