G4 1.25 (MDD 2003) Not Booting 9.2.2

[Mardeec]

My Power Mac G4 1.25MHz (MDD 2003), M9145LL/A, dual boot 10.4.11 and 9.2.2 was working fine until this problem surfaced.  Any ideas on what I can do next?  Here are the details…

It boots and runs fine in Tiger, but when I hold the Option key at start up and try to boot to 9.2.2, all I see is the floppy disk icon with a blinking question mark.  The blinking question mark is in sync with a fast double click sound coming from the hard drive. 9.2.2 is on partition #1. 

I tried booting with the MacTron Bootable Rescue CD & Disk Repair (Toast CD Image) (http://macos9lives.com/smforum/index.php/topic,3176.0.html) and the OS 9.2.2 Universal Install Image (http://macos9lives.com/smforum/index.php/topic,2109.0.html), and get the same results with both disks.  If I insert the CD while booted in Tiger, it mounts.  When I try to boot by holding down the “c” key during startup, the machine boots to Tiger and I see this message:

Disk Insertion - The disk you inserted was not readable by this computer

When I try to boot with either CD by holding down the Option key, I see the CD as an option. If I select to boot from the CD, the 9.2.2 boot process begins and the startup progress indicator gets all the way to the right when I see this message: 

The Finder could not start up because a serious problem has occurred:
System error -18
To start up, use the CD or floppy disks that came with your computer

And a few seconds later, this message appears:

The application "Finder" has unexpectedly quit.

In Tiger, I ran FirstAid/Disk Repair on the OS9 partition and got the results “HFS volume checked. No repairs were necessary.”

The machine has 2Gb RAM and a 80Gb hard drive with a 2007 date code.  It’s been a few years since I did the dual boot configuration, but I’m pretty sure I installed Tiger first (from the retail DVD) at which time I partitioned the HD.  I can’t remember if I added 9.2.2 via CD or target mode.

My first thought was that the hard drive is shot, but Tiger runs fine.  The flakiness with the optical drive makes me think there’s more to the problem.  This problem may have started right after I tried to boot from the 9.2.2 universal install image CD.  I’m studying this recent thread – “Changed Startup to OS9 on Power Mac G4 MDD FW400 - Stuck with Blinking Question,” (http://macos9lives.com/smforum/index.php?topic=5911.0), but so far haven't been able to extract a solution to my situation.  I've attached pictures of the full error messages. 

Thanks for any suggestions you can offer!

[FBz]

Hey M.

Remove all but basic necessary cards, peripherals etc. and run AHT Extended tests for the MDD before blind “shotgun approach”. AHT might just reveal the problem.

http://macos9lives.com/smforum/index.php/topic,822.0.html

You could check all connections, re-seat RAM and blow the case out too.
Then re-test.

That ‘clicking’ from 1st partition boot does not sound promising.
Have you another bootable drive to test in place of the 80 GB?

[Mardeec]

Fury, thanks so much. I wasn’t aware of Apple Hardware Test, but sounds like the best place to start.

I do have another hard drive that will fit this machine, but it’s one that was given to me, I’ve never used it, and don’t know it it’s operational.  If AHT reveals the drive is bad, it may be time for an SSD.

Thanks again!