My friend just gave me his old iBook... i am not sure of what model or anything like that

Awhile back he tried to delete evrything by just dragging most all files to the recycle bin and then deleting them...

the system boots up in OS 9.1 but no system functions really work...i would like to run the system at OSX but when i put the installer in it just takes a long time to get to the installing screen and then freezes at the same point...what can i do to make this system run at its normal speed again?
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*this anonymous user account is used to post prepress forums user and customer inquiries for others to see and respond to.

If that iBook has Mac OS 9.1 on it, that dates it a little for me. It must be pretty old and most likely one of the colored ones. That would most likely make it a G3 233Mhz processor. So, I must say that it is a liitle slow to handle mac OS X and I would not recommend that Mac OS X be run on a mac that old.

For the iBook with a G3 233Mhz processor, I would recommend Mac OS 9.2.2 which is the latest version of Mac OS 9. It will actually perform better than Mac OS 9.1 on that machine. You will find Mac OS 9.2.2 to be a very good and stable system to run that laptop on. I would just run with that.

So, get a Mac OS 9.2.2 CD and start with that. The fact that Mac OS X is taking forever to boot that box speaks to my recommendation. Mac OS X has over 140,000 files as a standard install, Mac OS 9 is simply a better system in many ways when it comes to doing more with less. It is also a great system to use. Here's a read me page about installing Mac OS 9 to go by when you find an installer CD. If you can only find the Mac OS 9.1 CD, go with that for now. It is a good system too and from there, you can download an update to Mac OS 9.2.2 from apple's website. Good Luck!
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JoePostscript -- support administrator

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hey sam....its acutally an all white G3-500mhz machine...so does that change anything with not being able to load OSX...and also is there any way to format the computer without having to go through the disk utility in the installer.

OK, then a 500 Mhz G3 does change the picture a little. I would lean toward the Mac OS X as well on a G3 500. It is still going to have points of sluggishnes but is fast enough to run Mac OS X 10.3. You will be seeing the color pizza wheel more than on most machines when it is thinking through processes. What use are you going to put the machine through? If for general business use, surfing, ms word, etc., it will be OK, if for high end graphics and prepress, will be a little sluggish from time to time and will not be nearly as zippy as same process on that machine under mac OS 9.2.2.

There is another way to re-format that without the disk utility from a booted CD. You can run that machine as a target disk mode, while booted from another mac. This is done as a firewire connection between two firewire enabled macs.

(1) You boot mac 1 (the G3 500) while holding down the "t" key. A firewire icon will appear on the screen.

(2) Then with that mac 1 connected to another better running mac via firewire between, reboot the mac 2. When it comes up, the disk of mac 1 will pop up like an external HD. Then, it can be reformatted or installed with either Mac OS X 10.3 or Mac OS 9.2.2.

Mac Os 9.2.2 is a very versatile and flexible system like NO OTHER. You can simply reformat, copy an entire mac OS 9 "System Folder" and reboot, BAM You will be up and running. But, if you want to get that box up under Mac OS X, it will have to be installed from the Mac OS X CD/DVD. Doh!

There's a huge clue! If the iBook with the G3 500Mhz is CD and NOT atleast a DVD read only Drive, it may be simply having a problem with that. Be sure and check that. That would explain the iBook not booting up from the "CD" because it could be a "DVD" and therefore may not be able to run the installer from it.

Do you have the CD with Mac OS X 10.1 that would have come with that G3 iBook? A Mac OS X 10.3 installer is typically on a DVD. . . .

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JoePostscript -- support administrator

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first off thank you so much for your help...

the CD's are loading and being read but just taking an extremely long time
per screen...and eventually it just wont load anything more....

Hmmm,

After booting from the CD, were you able to run the disk utility and reformat the disk before installing? After booting, you should be able to go to the File Menu I think or the apple menu at far left and select "Disk Utility". Then from there you can reformat and if is Mac OS X 10.3 use journaling and reformat that disk <before> installing.

Mac OS X Booted from a CD or DVD takes forever, especially on a Mac G3. So, I am not that surprised that it takes forever to boot etc. I had a white G3 500 iBook 12", and an iMac G3 600 that I traded off about 18 months ago. They were both VERY SLOW to boot and install Mac OS X so I mainly ran them booted in Mac OS 9.2.2. But I would see if that disk will take a re-format before installing. Do you need any data or did you get everything backed up? Reformat WILL ERASE ALL DATA, of course, may sound elementary to a savvy computer dude, but always something I have to cover in case user is not aware. . .

Did you figure out if was CD or CD/DVD combo drive? Lets try and reformat that disk before installing the OS for sure. Look for an option in Disk Utility to "write zero's" to the disk when formatting. That is like a security erase and will test the disk as it writes zero's. Will absolutely clean off that disk, takes FOREVER but just see if you can do that. Be prepared for a 5 to 15 or so hour process. . . But will take the disk back to factory clean and will test every sector as it goes. If it won't take a format with write zeros, you have diagnosed that the disk is bad. . . If you get that going DO NOT interrupt when it gets started, can hose the disk if interrupted so be prepared to let it write zeros however long it takes.

Don't give up, take your time, play it out. I'll help all I can, will be cool if we can revive it and get it operational. Do you have another Mac to try the fire wire mount in target disk mode like I was recommending? You have a better shot at getting it going that way. I do that all the time from my 17" laptop when I'm in the field working on macs.
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JoePostscript -- support administrator

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ok i just had a friend who has an imac give me there OS 9 disks...i currently have a System Restore Disk and a Full OS Disk

-Full installer: the contents of the cd pop up but when i try and open the installer it says it will not work on the computer...

-System Restore: on the restore disk when i try and open up the system restore it comes up with the box asking if i want to Restore saving original items, Restore in place, or Erase "Mac HD" before restoring however the box that that says restore is grayed out and it says that "The Disk Mac HD is the startup disk and cannot be restored"

-there seems to be a MacHD.img and stuff on the restore disk and the following folders "system folder" "utilities" and "configurations"

Ive been trying a lot of different things but nothing can completely cure the problem....is there anyway to change the startup disk so that i can format using system restore...i have everything from the Mac HD.img copied to the real hard drive but it still will not let me format...by the way is there any way to make a donation to your site for your help?

its been a few weeks and still no reply...

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