HDD woes - PC guy needs help with first Mac Project!!!

[whatnow619]

I just bought a second hand iMac G3 (Blue and White Type) for super cheap. It was defunct displaying the "grey screen of death" so I decided to take on this project. I work with graphics and audio design and have worked on Macs in the studio but only ProTools and Adobe Applications. I know nothing of the internal workings of the Mac.

My knowledge of PC hardware is rather strong so I upgraded the Memory to 512MB (from 128MB) and began with doing a complete new install of OSX Tiger. The first disc would initialize and get me to the utilities. I erased the 20GB hard drive and would attempt to install the OS. It would go through the install process up to about the end where it tells me that an error has occurred and I need to reinstall.

I do as it suggests and even ran the hard drive through utility checks (Verify, Repair, Etc.) and still get the same results. Being a Windows PC Tech, my instincts tell me that the drive is bad. So I replaced it with a 80GB Seagate that I had in another PC.

Now, it won't even let me run the startup disc from the CD-Rom and I get stuck at "grey screen" with the folder with the "?" flashing.

Please help me as this is my first adventure toying with a Mac. I know I can get this machine running, but need some help.

=Thanx

[eric_x]

You need to install OS X on a partition that is less than 8 GB in size on drives over this size.

http://support.apple.com/kb/TA20420

Hope that helps.