I recently picked up a PowerBook 5300cs that had no OS. In my attempts to get it working, this is what happened:
1) Made a 5300/190 Disk Tools floppy
2) Booted the 5300 with it
3) Copied the System Folder from the floppy to the hard drive of the 5300
4) Tried installing 7.5.3 from floppies
5) Greeted with error saying that it can't upgrade from the version of the Mac OS on the Hard Drive
6) Tried changing Finder/System combo to allow upgrade to 7.5.3
7) Rebooted, greeted with a flashing "?", and now it won't accept any disks to boot from, even the ones from before that worked
If anyone knows a way I can get this laptop working again, preferably with OS 8, please say so.
This is the stuff I have that can be used to get a system on the laptop:
7.5.3 on floppy disks
7.5 on floppy disks
8.0 on CD
PhoneNet network with a PowerMac 7100, which has a CD drive and Zip Drive, along with assorted 68k macs on the network
G4 with OS X and internet connection, with Zip drive
First, I'd use the 5300/190 tools disk to wipe that System Folder you copied over. That method won't work.
Then reboot with the 7.5.3 floppy Install Me First, or whatever it's called with that version.
Others here may know for sure about this, but is 7.5.3 fully 5300 compatible? I know there was a special 7.5.2 version that had an enabler for the 5300. Was that carried over to 7.5.3?
One other option would be to download Apple's Network Access Disk from here:
ftp://ftp.usask.ca/pub/mirrors/apple/Macintosh/Utilities/
...which you can use to boot your Powerbook and access your LocalTalk network. Note that with this floppy, LocalTalk must be plugged into the printer port of the Powerbook, not the modem port.
Then you can -very slowly- wipe that floppy system folder off your hard disk, and install the OS of your choice over the network.
When Apple released 7.5.3, they sent it to me for free, as the 7.5.2 version that shipped originally was terrible. The packet of disks I got was labeled specifically for 5300/190/2300. I have since installed the downloaded version on a duo 2300c though, so I don't think the OS install itself was machine specific, just the disk needed to boot the computer (the system enabler in particular). I believe Gamba has a downloadable copy of the 5300/190/2300 disk tools disc as well. Hope this helps.
The 7.5.3 installer disk boots the system, but it says the disks won't install because it didn't initialize the installer or something like that and that the disk may not be the original (even though it is, complete with the apple label). The same disk worked in a Centris last week. I'll try it in the Centris again to be sure.
I don't know if the Network Acess Disk will work, as it has system 7.5... but i'll try it anyways. Do you think that if I copy a 5300 enabler to the 7.5.3 install disk it will work?
Did you first boot with the disk tools floppy and wipe that copied system folder off the hard drive?
I'd recommend against that. There's likely no extra room on the floppy anyway. I'd recommend trying to boot from it first.
Another option is to get a powerbook scsi cable, which seem to be going for a lot less on ebay than they used to. This gives you the option of using an external CD or hard drive, or copying files to the Powerbook in target disk mode (if the cable supports it).
Well, after I formatted and zeroed the hard drive, it began to do some wierd things when booting from the Install disks or the disk tools, such as lockups, a grey screen with a white bar at the top and nothing else, a sad mac, and so on. But on the 4th try with the Install Disk 1, it worked and installed! Yes! Thank you eeun and ek9hatch!
You can download 7.5.5 for free from the apple FTP site.