Powerbook G3: Broken HD Icon

#1 Sat, 5 Nov 2011 - 03:59 68kMLA

How do you fix a Broken HD on a PBG3? I have tried reseting everything and reinstalling the OS to no avail.

Thanks

#2 Sat, 5 Nov 2011 - 06:38 68kMLA

Get info on HD icon, replace with another icon? It could have been formatted with an older utility, causing the wrong icon.

#3 Sun, 6 Nov 2011 - 23:15 68kMLA

How do I get info on the HD? I am not able to get to the desktop because of the Broken HD Logo on startup.

#4 Tue, 8 Nov 2011 - 19:46 68kMLA

How did you go about trying to reinstall the OS, and what happened?

#5 Tue, 8 Nov 2011 - 23:08 68kMLA

@Bunsen:

Popping in OS 9 and OSX 10.0 in the DVD Drive and held down the C button. Before the computer even tried reading from the Disk Drive, it gave me the Broken HD Icon (Which is strange, because I thought that they were supposed to read from the Disk Drive for an OS before the HD).

#6 Thu, 10 Nov 2011 - 00:58 68kMLA

You're right, it is supposed to. What happens if you don't hold down C? There are other key combos you can try too, which force the boot sequence to look away from the setting for Startup Disk, or away from the HD.

Unfortunately, I forgot what they are - but Google or a helpful person here should reveal them

Have you tried a PRAM reset before CD booting? It might force the Mac to forget the Startup Disk setting.

Other thoughts- do you have an external HD or CD you could try and boot from? SCSI, or Firewire for a Pismo. USB boot is not supported.

#7 Thu, 10 Nov 2011 - 01:05 68kMLA

I would zap the PRAM, pop in the OS 9 CD, and hold down option when starting up so the disk selection menu pops up.

EDIT - I'm an idiot... I forgot that the disk selection isn't on the G3 Powerbook.

#8 Thu, 10 Nov 2011 - 01:10 68kMLA

Are you sure the CD drive is good? To force booting from a device other than the internal disk, hold down cmd+opt+shift+del on startup until you see the question mark, then release and it will boot from the next bootable device it finds.