Sawtooth G4 AGP Graphics booting problems

A

anerki

Registered
I plugged in a much older IDE HD into my Sawtooth G4 which already had 2 HDs (120Gb w Mac OS X and 40Gb for Mac OS 9). So to do this I removed a HD and just plugged the smaller/older one from the Performa in. This gave some problems with booting hard drives but I presumed this was just because I wasn't taking into account that I would probably have to switch jumpers or something around. Anyway, connecting the Mac OS X HD and removing the jumper from the old one worked and it booted the G4. I copied the entire HD to the big HD with Mac OS X, removed the OS 7.5.5 from that folder (you never know).

http://www.macosx.com/forums/showthread.php?t=49500

And that's the last time the Mac succesfully booted up. I've tried everything that I could think of:

- Booting up from the Official Mac OS 9/X CD (pressing c of course) with one or both of the HDs connected gave me the error where he give a flashing folder with a question mark/macos smily in it.

- Strangely enough when I boot with the OS 9 CD with the Mac OS X partition in I get a completely pink screen with som text on it. Stack error something something and I end up in the, erm, Firmware I think. I get to choose between typing mac-boot to start the OS or shut-down to shut it down. Shut down works perfectly but mac-boot just crashes the entire system.

- Booting up with the OS 9 Partition gives the same as above.

- If I hold option while booting use any possible HD configuration it just crashes. I see the OS X or OS 9 or both HDs with their respective OS sign active but I can't select them. If I click on either with the mouse it crashes. If I press return it refreshes and freezes there.

- I can no longer start up with the old HD and the Mac OS X HD connected either.

Any other clues as to what I can do? I have some other computers here but the Sawtooth is crucial since it's the only machine that can control the old ImageWriters I have (with a 4-port Keyspan Serial card) And yes I need those old Imagewriters since they can print any kind/type of paper with ease! (and I control them with Hypercard).

Any help would be sorely needed and veyr much appreciated!

Thanks in advance.
Frederik-Jan
 
Make sure you deal with the master/slave issue...

Do some Googling to figure out what the correct dip-switch settings are BEFORE hooking up the drive and/or booting your machine.

You can cause a log of greif if you have those set wrong... Including permanent harm.
 
We solved the problem on a quite onorthodox manner:

1) Connect the old HD and the OS X HD and cross your fingers the computer boots. This took me 3 tries.

2) Open Preferences and set the startup disk to the OS X drive.

3) Reboot

4) Open Preferences again and make sure the OS X drive is still set as the startup drive.

5) Shut down, unplug the old hard drive and boot.

6) In Preferences the OS X drive will no longer be selected as the startup HD. Set this and reboot.

7) Cross your fingers and hope the computer doesn't crash when it's starting up.*

8) Switch the cables (in the original cabling you won't have enough space to use the original lower cable to connect the upper hard drive. Reboot, hope it doesn't crash.

9) Make sure the OS X drive is still selected as the preferred startup disk.

10) Plug the OS 9 HD and start the computer. Hope it doesn't crash.*

11) Set the startup disk to OS 9 and start the computer.*

12) Done. Relax, go out with friends. Have some drinks and preferably try to enjoy your evening with your partner.

* Take a shot of Tequila and do all the steps over again. If I had really taken a shot I would've taken 9 shots. Not counting the times I tried before I started doing this in steps that made it work.
 
I originally posted as to why you wanted to put in an old hard drive. Then read your other post as to why you did it. So disregard this post. :p
 
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