[TheDayWalker]

New to the forum….

Not so new to Macs, I have a situation and I was hoping that amongst the others that you could dispense some advice as to how to remedy it.

I have a Dual 800 with 1 Gig of RAM, running 10.3.5, Master HD is an 80 Gig and the Slave HD is a 120 Gig. All has been going well I thought of swapping out the 80 Gig for a 120 for the room off course. The only thing that I have done new lately is I bought the LaCie Dual Layer DVD Burner. As to how it works that is another story to be told, it does work though.

So I remove the old drive (after backing all data up) as if I have done let's see over a thousand times, as I am a techie. So I install the new 120 Gig drive in the bay. All is well and good until I boot up and I see the blinking icon the one you all know “No System Folder” well I knew this was going to happen (Techie) had the 9.2.1 system software disk ready to go (Yes I need the old OS 9 please long story. Well I reboot and insert said OS 9 CD to my amazement it did not mount. I think well I messed that CD up one to many times try another, well I did, and then I tried all kinds written and non-written. I even tried “Apple Hardware Disk” Yeah! That too! None would mount this was a nice surprise for one who has to get ready for his next film project.

Therefore, I think well bad DVD drive or something else is wrong with the System so I try to put back the old HD and there it is like some nightmare that will not go away. The ominous blinking System Folder.

So I guess what did I miss were do I start as there many questions I am asking myself. As to the DVD my two ideas to that are the update from Apple that came first but that holds no water whereas the new LaCie DVD could this have some how messed with the DVD-R 103. To which it gives me an excuse to go out a buy the 108 or even the 109. Which I would not like to as I want a G5 just like all you guys.

[reader50]

Hold down the option key during bootup and select the desired boot drive. It is possible the 80 GB drive has some directory damage, so boot into OSX and run a repair utility on it. DiskWarrior is the best option, but TechTool and Disk First Aid will do. Once you are sure the 80 GB drive is healthy again:

First, a number of 3rd party optical drives cannot be booted from on a Mac. Without knowing the model number of your Lacie drive, it's hard to find bootability reports for it.

Next, Apple's boot CDs can hang up if you have a video card that was released after the CD. You probably would not reach the blinking folder if this were the case though.

Put back the original optical drive and (optionally) the original video card, then try to boot from the OS9 install CD again. Alternatively, you could experiment with copying the OS9 install CD's files to the new HD while booted into OSX.

Note, if you format the new HD from OSX, you Must check the box in Drive Setup to "Install OS 9 Drivers". If you don't, the drive will be unreadable to OS9 and OS9 will not be able to boot from it.

[TheDayWalker]

Thank you for your reply as to my question.

I did not try to use the LaCie as a Boot CD as I know that the Mac would'nt see it.

I have tried shooting the PRAM, I have shot the thing to death, have tried Bootable CDs while holding down the “C” key as well, I went as far as removing the battery and resetting the computer. I tried removing the RAM Chips, as one of them might have been bad. I tried three other Hard Drives I tried another DVD 103 as well…..I also remove all unnecessary cards on the motherboard as well. I even tried DiskWarrior to mount and it will not mount when have you ever heard of that one???

Yet that annoying blinking continues.

Again, I thank you for your suggestions.

TheDayWalker

Will try what you have suggested.

[TheDayWalker]

You were right as to the option key....

What it brings up is a lock were I have to put in my password now the question is how does one remove this nice feature??

I do not recall were to change the settings on this feature.

If you have an answer I would be thankful

TheDayWalker

Thank you