iBook G3 Corrupted OS X

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Level 1

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iBook G3 Corrupted OS X

I have an iBook G3 with firewire and that is about all I can tell you. When I bought it off of ebay it came running Mac OS 9.2. Stupid me decided that I should take a copy of Mac OS X off of an iMac G3 and copy that to the HDD of the iBook. I then attempted to boot off of the OS X folder I put on my HDD. The system immediately kernel panicked. Both OS 9 and OS X are on the same partition so i need to somehow set OS 9 as the startup disk. I have looked at numerous other forums (I have been trying to fox this for about a year now) and found commands for doing this in Open Firmware. The command was:

boot hd:\wherever your installation is\

It did start booting OS 9 but just hung there and never fully booted.

Is there any way to delete something off of the HDD with open firmware? If I could delete the OS X folder that should solve my problem. Another possible fix would be force booting into OS 9. How would you do this?

I have tried resetting the nvram, pram, holding option on startup, and holding 9 on startup.

I do not own the restore CD and am afraid to buy them because I do not know which ones I need. Are they the orange ones? Could somebody link them please? I do not own any other mac with a cd burner so I have to use Windows to burn cd's. I found this program called TransMac which let me make a bootable disc for my iMac G3. I tried to make an OS 9 disc but the iBook refused to boot it.

Any suggestions are welcome!

Thanks in advanced!

iBook, iOS 9.2

Posted on Feb 14, 2016 3:36 PM

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Answer 1

Best reply

a brody

Level 10

83,011 points

Feb 17, 2016 4:20 AM in response to Panpooper

iOS is not the operating system on iBooks. The operating system before Mac OS X was simply called Mac OS.

Use this tip to better identify your iBook:

http://discussions.apple.com/docs/DOC-6413

And this article to determine which system you need:

Mac OS: Versions, builds included with PowerPC Macs (since 1998) - Apple Support

Note, you can get the retail 10.3.5 for any iBook g3, and 10.4.6 for those with Firewire.

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Answer 2

Panpooper Author

Level 1

4 points

Feb 17, 2016 4:19 AM in response to a brody

Thank you for the response.

The iOS 9.2 was a mistake. I meant Mac OS 9, sorry.

I'm aware of the version I need and now the disc I could buy but are there any other options?

When buying the Panther or Tiger discs, could I erase my HDD and then still install them? Do I need a specific disc for a PPC Mac?

I have an iMac G3 running 10.4.11 if that would be any use.

Thanks

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Answer 3

a brody

Level 10

83,011 points

Feb 18, 2016 8:16 AM in response to Panpooper

Without knowing which iBook G3 you have, I can't answer that question. That's why I provided the tip above. Once you can answer the exact age and model of iBook, then we can look at the discs that came with it and determine what other discs may be usable with them. The iMac is immaterial until we know which iBook it is.

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Answer 4

Panpooper Author

Level 1

4 points

Feb 18, 2016 3:05 PM in response to a brody

I was able to find the model iBook I have.

My iBook is the iBook G3 366mhz Firewire clamshell as found here: http://www.everymac.com/systems/apple/ibook/specs/ibook_366.html

Thank You for all the help Brody!

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Answer 5

a brody

Level 10

83,011 points

Feb 18, 2016 4:31 PM in response to Panpooper

As the other article indicates,

Mac OS: Versions, builds included with PowerPC Macs (since 1998) - Apple Support

Your model came with 9.0.4 and no Mac OS X version.

There is also another caveat though before you can even upgrade to Mac OS X 10.2 or later.

Mac OS X: Available firmware updates - Apple Support

That firmware update can be found here:

iBook_FWUpdate_4.1.7.smi.bin

Now it may not install unless you get 9.1, or 9.2.1 retail. Regardless of which operating system you get for Mac OS 9, the installer disc must look like:

And not say Update, Upgrade, Dropin, or OEM on it. It must say 9.1 or 9.2.1 in black on one side.

Once you have the correct disc, you can download the updates from

9.1 to 9.2.1 to 9.2.2 from here:

http://ftp.iinet.net.au/pub/apple/US/Macintosh/System/

And try the firmware above each time you progress a step higher if needed.

Once your firmware is updated, then you can install either 10.3 or 10.4 retail as this tip explains:

10.3 Panther

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