Q: iMac G4 won't boot from FireWire HDD
Hi everyone, I recently got a 1st generation iMac G4 with OS 9.2. I updated RAM to 768 mb and now I'd like to install Tiger on it. I found my old Tiger DVD but it looks like the DVD drive in to the iMac doesn't work properly. When I put in the DVD, it spins a little bit and than is expelled. After a few attempts, I was able to make the iMac read it, and open the installer, but when I pressed the Restart button I got an error saying that the CD (??) could not be set as startup device. It was indeed grayed out in the Startup Disk Control Panel. I don't know whether the problem is the DVD drive or the disk itself (which looks a bit scratchy).
On the Internet I found out that I could try to boot via FireWire on an external HDD. I had the .dmg of the Tiger DVD I did when I bought the original disk, and with the Restore option I put the image on the drive (1 TB, FW400 MyBook, previously formatted in a single partition using Apple Partition Map) so that it can be recognized by OS9 as a bootable DVD. And indeed it is. The problem is that, again, when I press the restart button in the Install Mac OS X program I get the same error massage saying: "Startup Disk was unable to select the install CD as the startup disk (-2)". This time, though, I can manage to manually set the external drive as the startup disk, but when I reboot I get the "question mark icon" (which usually means that the Mac is unable read the partition selected), and then it reboots in OS9. I cannot understand if the partition I created is not bootable, or if the drive is not read by the open firmware on boot. If I boot with the option key depressed, the only boot option I get is the internal HDD, and I can't manage to see the external HDD: I tried to change cable, change ports, press refresh button multiple times, but it doesn't see the FireWire drive. I also tried to reset NVRAM (which brought back to life the internal speaker), open firmware and PMU, in this order, but this didn't solve the problem.
So what else can I do? Thank you for your help, I hope my English was good enough for you to understand the problem :)
Dario
iMac, Mac OS 9.2.x, iMac G4 800 MHz
Posted on Mar 29, 2013 5:20 AM
If the reason you cannot install directly using that disc is because the G4 iMac's optical drive is flakey, and you have some other Mac with an optical drive and FireWire, you can try it this way...
Start up the Intel Mac (not the G4 iMac) in FireWire Target Disk Mode
http://support.apple.com/kb/HT1661
The G4 iMac should be started up normally, connected to the Intel Mac over FireWire. Insert the Tiger disc into the Intel Mac's optical drive. See if it appears on the G4 iMac's Desktop. If it does, see if the G4 iMac can use the Intel iMac's optical drive to run the installation.
NOTE: Depending on the Mac model in FireWire Target Disk Mode, its optical drive is not always accessible in this way to the "host" Mac.
Posted on Mar 29, 2013 7:08 AM