Why won't powerbook g3 initialize cd?

Walter,

Do you wish to write to a CD? Normal PowerBook G3 (original and Series) models did not have drives that could burn CDs. If you insert an empty CD-R, the computer does not recognise a disc like that, and a message about initialising (which cannot be done) will appear.

Jan

Walter, Your earlier post was moved to the PowerBook forums here:

PowerBook

This forum is for Macs older than 1998; the G3 PowerBook barely squeaks by but gets to go in the other forum. You will likely get more views if you post in the other one.

If you wish, I can have these two moved also so they are all in the same place. Please let me know.

Is it the original PowerBook G3 or possibly one of the later models?

http://support.apple.com/kb/HT2287

All the models have PC Card slots. One way would be to use a standard CompactFlash card in an inexpensive PC Card adapter for CF. That CF card would act as a removable "hard drive". If the other computer does not have a built-in card reader for CF, an external USB reader could be used.

For a model with built-in USB ports, you could alternatively use a USB flash memory stick for transfers.

One can connect two computers via Ethernet (for example, via the LAN ports of a switch/gateway/router).

A PowerBook (FireWire) model could also be used for FireWire target disk mode.

http://support.apple.com/kb/ht1661

Finally, the hard drive could be removed from the PowerBook and then connected to a USB adapter for IDE/ATA (one example below; you may find similar devices in a local computer store). The adapter would allow you to read the contents of the hard drive on another Mac.

http://www.newertech.com/products/usb3_universaldriveadap.php

Jan