G3 iMac - HDD Icon does not appear

Tom Whitacre · **Posted:** Mon Jul 07, 2008 12:50 pm

New to MacOSG and look forward to returning from time to time. My 80-something mother's 350MHz G3 Blueberry iMac stopped working. Although her time on the internet was basically limited to exchanging emails with family and viewing pictures of grandchildren and great grandchildren, her main use was for "typing" letters to her older friends who are not on the internet. When her Mac stopped working I thought I might be able to get it going for her again and would at the same time upgrade the RAM (hopefully speeding up the time it takes for pictures to download). Anyhow, I doubled the RAM and put in a new 6GB hard disk drive. When I started it up using the OS 9 disk, there was no HDD icon on the screen. When I tried running Disk First Aid to format the new drive, the HDD did not show up in the window where I expected to be able to 'select' it. What am I doing wrong?

Golfer · **Posted:** Tue Jul 08, 2008 12:20 am

You need to use Drive Setup to make the drive usable first.

Tom Whitacre · **Posted:** Wed Jul 09, 2008 9:50 am

Golfer,

Thank you for responding. Started up the Mac by inserting the OS 9.1 Disk. After the Mac boots up, the only icon on the desktop is the one for the CD. I opened it... and started the Drive Setup program. When the first window opens, under the 'List of Drives', the only 'Volume Name(s)' I see is "Mac OS 9.1" [Type: ATAPI, Bus: 2, ID: 1, LUN: 0]... which is the CD.

Anyone have other thoughts??

Slydude · **Posted:** Wed Jul 09, 2008 11:11 am

Two things occur to me as worth checking out. First, is it possible that the connections to the new drive did not "seat" correctly and are not fully connected. I have made this mistake before on other models.

Second, while checking the connections on the drive I would check the configuration of the drive. I don't remember for sure but I think the hard drive needs to be set to "Master". Most drives set this by moving a jumper pin.

The drive usually has a diagram showing which pin the jumper needs to be moved to to set it to Master. If the diagram is not there the manufacturer usually has this information on their website if you look up the drive's model number.

Tom Whitacre · **Posted:** Wed Jul 09, 2008 12:05 pm

Slydude,
Thank you so much! I'll give your suggestion a whirl this evening!

Tom Whitacre · **Posted:** Tue Jul 15, 2008 11:22 am

Reset the cables (power, HDD and CD). Checked jumper - - - it is set the same as the original HDD. Still no HDD Icon on boot... so I pulled the battery and checked it with my VOM. It is DEAD! Any chance this could be keeping the HDD from mounting??? I hate to spend $20 at RadioShack replacing the battery if the next move is to then spend $100 on a new Logic Board... when I see used G3's for sale for $35.

Just out of curiosity, is there any way for the 'layperson' to check a Logic Board?

KCMac · **Joined:** Fri Jan 07, 2005 3:58 pm **Posts:** 2417

A dead battery wouldn't keep the HD from being recognized. It WILL keep your system clock from keeping the correct time during a power outage. I would suspect the drive first. It's possible the drive may be bad. Try the original HD again and see if it recognizes it. If so, it's not the logic board.

Tom Whitacre · **Posted:** Wed Jul 16, 2008 12:01 pm

KCMac wrote:

A dead battery wouldn't keep the HD from being recognized. It WILL keep your system clock from keeping the correct time during a power outage. I would suspect the drive first. It's possible the drive may be bad. Try the original HD again and see if it recognizes it. If so, it's not the logic board.

Will do, however, it was precisely because the original HD wasn't booting ("no icon") that I replaced it. Do I need to buy the new battery first? Based on your suggestion, it doesn't sound like it... is that correct?

I really appreciate all the suggestions I've been receiving. Thank you!