Hard Disk Image for an iMac G3 DV 400 on MacOS 9.2.2?

[Elate]

I have an iMac G3 DV 400 (Slot-Loader) that I'm trying to repair, next thing I plan to do is recapping the PAV board. But the DVD-ROM drive doesn't really work, just makes a loud mechanical noise when you insert something, and doesn't try pushing it inwards, nor does it give me a way to eject it once I manually push it all the way in, so a MacOS installation CD is a no-go.

So, is it possible to prepare the SSD on my Windows PC with a hard disk image I can flash to it so I have no need for a installation disc? Unsure if external USB DVD drives work, and FireWire external DVD-players are a bit too expensive for me due to scarcity, shipping, and import taxes.

 

[Snial]

I have an iMac G3 DV 400 (Slot-Loader) that I'm trying to repair, next thing I plan to do is recapping the PAV board. But the DVD-ROM drive doesn't really work, just makes a loud mechanical noise when you insert something, and doesn't try pushing it inwards, nor does it give me a way to eject it once I manually push it all the way in, so a MacOS installation CD is a no-go.

So, is it possible to prepare the SSD on my Windows PC with a hard disk image I can flash to it so I have no need for a installation disc? Unsure if external USB DVD drives work, and FireWire external DVD-players are a bit too expensive for me due to scarcity, shipping, and import taxes.

I had similar problems a while back here's my technique for force ejecting CDs:

Post in thread 'G3 iMac ate a CD...'

Feb 10, 2024

Sounds good, just wanted to make sure there wasn't some secret way to get the disk out. its burned so i don't care if i damage it. Anyone know if the late model iMacs will boot off a firewire dvd drive?

You may have already solved the problem, but this is what I've found, with the iMac G3 DV/400 slot loader I have: you need two credit/debit cards! You slide one into the slot so that it goes just under the CD (and you can feel when it does this, because you can feel when the card hits the cd and then you can angle it under). Then you slide the second in just above so that it slides...

• Snial

I fixed a broken CD-RW drive in an iMac G3 using rubber bands:

Post in thread 'No Go Snow iMac G3!'

Jun 24, 2024

OK, slight update: I've managed to get the slot-loading CD drive to eject. I took the CD drive apart. I found the rollers were loose, so I first tried to glue them to the metal bar with superglue, but it didn't seem to work very well. Later I used rubber glue from a puncture repair kit, which seemed to be better. Neither is particularly easy, because pushing the rubber roller back onto the metal bar tends to push the glue out of the way, so I spun the roller as I pushed it on: I squeezed each roller to the bar for 5 minutes as I would with a normal puncture repair.

I then put the iMac...

• Snial

 

[Elate]

I had similar problems a while back here's my technique for force ejecting CDs:

Post in thread 'G3 iMac ate a CD...'

Feb 10, 2024

Sounds good, just wanted to make sure there wasn't some secret way to get the disk out. its burned so i don't care if i damage it. Anyone know if the late model iMacs will boot off a firewire dvd drive?

You may have already solved the problem, but this is what I've found, with the iMac G3 DV/400 slot loader I have: you need two credit/debit cards! You slide one into the slot so that it goes just under the CD (and you can feel when it does this, because you can feel when the card hits the cd and then you can angle it under). Then you slide the second in just above so that it slides...

• Snial

I fixed a broken CD-RW drive in an iMac G3 using rubber bands:

Post in thread 'No Go Snow iMac G3!'

Jun 24, 2024

OK, slight update: I've managed to get the slot-loading CD drive to eject. I took the CD drive apart. I found the rollers were loose, so I first tried to glue them to the metal bar with superglue, but it didn't seem to work very well. Later I used rubber glue from a puncture repair kit, which seemed to be better. Neither is particularly easy, because pushing the rubber roller back onto the metal bar tends to push the glue out of the way, so I spun the roller as I pushed it on: I squeezed each roller to the bar for 5 minutes as I would with a normal puncture repair.

I then put the iMac...

• Snial

The belt seemed alright when I opened it, but I'll definitely look into a replacement next time I open it to closer inspect how the belt's doing. Though I am a bit unsure about the quality of the blank CDs I have as I can't find much about the brand online, is there still a way to flash a fully functional hard disk image onto the SSD from my PC?

 

[Snial]

The belt seemed alright when I opened it, but I'll definitely look into a replacement next time I open it to closer inspect how the belt's doing. Though I am a bit unsure about the quality of the blank CDs I have as I can't find much about the brand online, is there still a way to flash a fully functional hard disk image onto the SSD from my PC?

Or it could be the roller. The rubber gets worn and can slip on the inner metal rod too. You can use dd in Linux or on a Mac to copy a HD image directly to an SSD. The command will look something like dd if=myImage.imgOrIsoOrWhatever of=/dev/sdMySSDorSD . This is possible if you have an SSD or SD adapter to your PC, e.g. USB->SSD. I used USB->IDE->mSATA at one point with my Mac mini G4.

 

[torus_aei]

have you tried tweezers or credit cards as Snial suggested- in addition to pushing the hidden eject button on the right side of the slot? that might get some things moving inside to help you get the disk out.

 

[Ivan Holmes]

Do you have/can you get a FireWire hard drive enclosure? That way you could restore an OS X install disc to it, boot from it and partition your drive then copy a System Folder from a disk image.

Alternatively you could set up a NetBoot server either with a real Mac or a VM, or install Mac OS 9 in QEMU to a raw disk image and try to dd that across. I'm not 100% sure that would work, other members could chime in, but worth a try?

 

[adespoton]

Do you have access to another Mac with Firewire?

My solution with an iMac DV SE (slot loading) was a Firewire connection to my Mini, from which I was able to partition the internal drive and restore the install DVD to the partition. Hold down option to select boot partition, run the installer, install to the primary partition.