Crashed my G4 trying to boot 9.2

[Steveoinpa]

I was messing around with the preferences and managed to switch the boot image to OS9
now the computer will not boot it starts to boot OS9 then screen goes black,
I think if I can switch the preference back there is still 10.4.9 on the hard drive

also I was unable to boot from the CD 9.2 , it does the same thing start to show boot screen then goes blank
and hangs.

This is a G4 867mhz model
Sorry I dont speak mac very well, I am good with PC's and have a unix background

Steve

[Protools5LEGuy]

Check the small 1/2 AA battery on the 867. It should be 3.6V. If not, buy a new one.

Reset PRAM until you hear at least 3 bongs on a row.

Try to boot any system. Check date and time.

If it goes blank  again, try booting with a minimal extension setup.

[Protools5LEGuy]

You can press alt key while booting. The Mac will find all bootable partitions/drives to boot from. There you could choose what OS to load.

[Steveoinpa]

I tried zapping the pram, and holding down ALT, I only see two choices the CDROM and "untitled
the disk is set to try and load os9 and it fails hangs, the cdrom does the same thing
I will check the battery, but I was wondering what happened to the 10.4.9, can I not switch back to it?

[Protools5LEGuy]

I think pressing X forces to boot Mac OSX

[Steveoinpa]

Argh.. I tried loading linux last night
now its all hosed, is there a reason I cant boot from CD into 9.2 and load that?
Also I cant open the CD door, not even from the boot prom how do you open it when its empty?

Sorry mac nubie here

[nanopico]

When you boot the machine hold down the mouse button.  This will force the carom to eject before open firmware hand's off or loads an os.
If this doesn't work at all there might be an issue in the firmware so it's not initializing hardware correctly which could hang the boot at odd points.

[Jakl]

Maybe the CD/DVD Drive may not be an original one and may not be able to boot the mac from it.
You may need to start up from another computer via firewire or from an external hard drive preferably firewire HD.
Otherwise get another CD/DVD Drive that is compatible with a Mac. I think MActron pointed to an LG not so long ago.

heres the thread;
http://macos9lives.com/smforum/index.php?topic=958.0

I've had many problems with replaced CD/DVD drives in the past not being able to boot CD's & DVD's in G3's and G4's - I mean generic off the shelf CD/DVD drives.

[Steveoinpa]

Thanks guys I am starting to think there is something odd about this G4
I may be in the hunt for a spare
I need to invest in more mac like hardware like another firewire drive
I imagine those are all over ebay the older ones..
can I get a more modern drive that will run USB and firewire is it backward compatible?
I tried the USB is must 1.0 really slow

[Custos]

Try booting 9.0 not 9.2  if you can get 9.0 to install then osx will still be on the hardrive and you could also upgrade to 9.2. Now if you were only booting linux there should be no files affected. if you tried to install linux (on purpose or accident) it might have reformatted the hard drive.  To open the cd drive you need to wait for the chime then hold down the mouse button till it opens. Also be sure to hold down c when booting os9. another thing you can try is take an old pc cd drive and use it.

[Steveoinpa]

OK where do I find 9.0, I have only these original mac CD's BTW I have a whole package
with all the additional discs, also a version of OSX, I did try and install linux pretty sure
I used the blank drive but it did install some kind of boot loader, which does not work
also the linux does not boot it complains about something and dies.
I really dont care if I have to wipe the drives, I need to learn how to install the OS from scratch
anyway

[Steveoinpa]

I found Panther 10.3 and the machine booted from the CD, I am installing now
Nice guy I bought the system from sent me all the original discs

[Custos]

macintoshgarden.org then go to the operating system category and you'll see few os9 disks

[Custos]

http://macintoshgarden.org/apps/mac-os-9x-project-replace-existing-page

use this its non hardware specific so it should work.

[mrhappy]

I've used the MacTron restore /OS disc MANY times now and it's AWESOME!! It takes about 35 seconds to install a fresh OS 9.2.2 along with MANY other diagnostic/utilities and other useful items!!!!!

http://macos9lives.com/smforum/index.php?topic=1657.0

[Steveoinpa]

Thanks for the images, I am afraid I dont know what to do with Toast images or sit files
I have a PC here do I burn them like ISO files?
in other words do I need a MAC with Toast to make them work?