Hard drive woes...

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Hard drive woes...

I received A G3 to rebuild for my parents (replacing their wintel 486). Im trying to swap the tired 12 GB hard drive for an 80 GB one (which is the same model I use in my G3). The problem is when I go to install OS X it fails as its writing the first packet. I have it jumped as SINGLE/MASTER as its the only one on the cable. I ran Disk Utility on it and got multiple errors. But they always were different even after I "repaired it". So I figured maybe a bad Hard drive. Took it back got another one and same problem. So I took the Hard drive from My mac and put it in. It wouldnt work either. It would start to boot os X (as I have it on my computer) and then crash (little black box would appear). So for the heck of it I tried putting OS X on the old 12 GB Disk and it worked... So my question is how do I get the 80 GB to work with this G3 when it would work for mine? Do I need to partition it and fool the computer? Any help would be Greatly appreciated. Here are the specs by the way

THe one I'm inquiring about:
PowerMac G3 350 MHZ

256 MB o' RAM
crappy 12 GB hard drive

(mine is the exact same except for the hard drive)

Hawaii Cruiser's picture
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You didn't mention whether it

You didn't mention whether it's a Beige G3 or a B&W. Assuming it's a B&W since it's 350mhz, then there shouldn't be a partitioning problem. I don't know if it still applies to the Beige G3, but there used to be that 8GB partition requirement.

What brand of harddrive is it? What's it's part number? What cable are you connecting to it? An 80 pin? Which OS are you installing? You've checked to make sure the install CD is clean? And you ran disk utility from the CD first to format it? You should run disk utility again and write zeros before attempting another install.

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More info.

It is The Blue and white(sorry about that). The hard drive is a Western Digital and says its fully mac compliant (and its the same one I'm using in my other g3). I formated it 3 times in a row to make sure it was wiped but that might not have been good enough. Im connecting it to the IDE Hard drive cable that the original was connected to (80 pin). The install CD is clean as I was able to install on the 12 GB but not the 80 GB. Im installing OS 10.4. I just don't understand why it would work on the 12GB and not the 80GB....any Ideas? Also when I was verifying it and finished it said the disk would not unmount..... If its quicker you can IM me at mac0s9user on either AIM or Yahoo..

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You need to check if your Mac

You need to check if your Mac requires a firmware (Boot ROM version) update. Mac OS Secret Available firmware updates
http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=86117 If an update is required, the update must be installed (using OS 9) BEFORE you install OS X.

 Cheers, Tom

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cool

Wow I totally forgot about the firmware update...I'll be it needs it as it came with OS9 on it. i did it on my computer and should have remembered to do it on this one as well. Good thing I kept My OS 9 disc..Will give this a shot on Saturday and hopefully it will work.If i got OSX to install on the old 12 GB Hard drive will it have updated the firm ware? I havent tried to reinstall the 80 GB since then..

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Boy, that one would never hav

Boy, that one would never have occurred to me. It's been so long since I did that firmware update on my first B&W I can barely even remember being required to, or even doing it. That might explain problems I've had with one of my other B&W's.

Since it's 10.4, then it's an installation DVD, right? Meaning your B&W has a DVD player which weren't stock on any B&W's. I'd double-check the surface cleanliness of the DVD. I've had a few experiences with installations working sometimes, and sometimes not, and it seemed like it came down to just wiping the CD correctly.

Out of curiosity, what's the video card in the machine? If it's the original 16mb Rage128, then to watch DVD's in OS 9 required the DVD daughtercard that fastened to the video card, or else a software patch on the Apple DVD player software.

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I was able to get 10.4 on CD.

I was able to get 10.4 on CD. 4 Discs.. I have the DVD but seem to have better luck with the CD's But yeah it does have a DVD player. Which never seemed to work in OS 9 which is why I want to get it to OS X. The Video card is the standard ATI RAGE 128 (16MB). Yeah I totally forgot about the firmware update. I'm glad I'm not the only one Smile

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Re: You need to check if your Mac

You need to check if your Mac requires a firmware (Boot ROM version) update. Mac OS Secret Available firmware updates
http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=86117 If an update is required, the update must be installed (using OS 9) BEFORE you install OS X.

 Cheers, Tom

There is no firmware update needed to install OS X on a B&W G3 as needed by the iMac G3. The updates are for PCI performance and SCSI card problems.

Your problem is probably due to the IDE bus controller in rev.1 B&W G3's which have issues with larger drives than originally came in the G3. In my experience any drive larger than 12GB can be a problem, although I have been able to use a 20GB drive with good results on one B&W G3.

See this article and google for more info if needed:

http://www.xlr8yourmac.com/G3-ZONE/yosemite/IDE/

To eliminate any problems you can either put a PCI ATA/IDE controller card in it, or swap the board for a rev.2 board which has a better IDE controller chip.

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Re: You need to check if your Mac

In my experience any drive larger than 12GB can be a problem, although I have been able to use a 20GB drive with good results on one B&W G3.
I used a 120GB Samsung (SP1213N Rev A) in my old Rev 1 300Mhz B&W G3 for quite a while with no HD related problems at all. Now that B&W G3 has had an 80GB Samsung for a while without any problems ether.

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Re: You need to check if your Mac

I will find out tonight what Rev # it is.... Hopefully its a 2 but I will try everyones ideas as well (like the firmware update). Thanks for all your help and I'll post my findings on the REV tonight.

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Alright!

Okay so its a Rev. 1 which sucks... I tried the firmware update but it said it didn't need it. So after trying to figure this out for hours I figured I'd try something stupid.I'm running two hard drives and was trying to get the 80 to be the main(master) and the 12 GB for just extra room . Anyway I jumped the 80 GB as master and the 12 as slave I went to verify the disk I got errors. I'd fix them and re-verify it. Errors again. So I set the 80 as Slave and the 12 as Master. Well for some reason OS X let me install on the 80 (slave) and treated the 12 as the slave. Weird but its working.

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