Booting iMac G3 from firewire dvd-rw

[jeffmr4]

Hi,

I am interested in purchasing a LaCie d2 external fw400 dvd-rw so I can boot OS 9.2 from a CD and install it on an iMac G3 slot-loading 700. My questions are, will it boot from this drive externally? If so, how do I boot from the drive (is it opt or T)? and can this drive burn and read cds as well?

Thanks,

Jeff

 

[mikes-macs]

Hi Jeff,
Here are the specs with system requirements for the drive. It looks like you need 500 MHz G4 or better. Were you going to boot from a burned copy of 9.2 or is it original media install? One you find a drive to boot CDs with you'll hold in the C key at boot to boot from a CD/DVD but that may only be for the internal drive so holding Option at boot will load the Boot Manager and you'll be presented will all available bootable volumes to choose from.

 

[jeffmr4]

Thanks Mike. I'm hoping this will boot from a G3 firewire too. We'll see. \o/? It is a burned copy of 9.2. I'll try the things you suggested.

 

[mikes-macs]

So what's wrong with the internal drives that you cannot use the burned CD to boot from internally? I know, on the g3 iMac, the internal optical drive is one of the first things to go. Especially around smoke.

 

[mikes-macs]

Usually I will network something like this to my G4 Mac mini which holds my archive of Installers (as disk images).
Then I will access the disk image via the network and do the install via AppleTalk.
I've pretty much had it with CDs.

 

[jeffmr4]

Yeah. I have installed an ssd in it with an ide controller and the cd drive works but won't boot to OS 9.2. I'll try what you are suggesting. Thanks.