Well where to begin... I got a G3 from a friend. It came w/o a HDD, so I put in my empty (probably FAT32 formatted) 1.6GB IDE drive. The only OS I have on CD at the moment is a burnt version of Mandrake Linux for PPC. I've tried to boot to CD by holding C at boot up, flashing the PRAM (Option+command+P+R for three chimes), going through OpenFirmware and doing "boot cd:2", and that's about that. I always end up with a flashing questionmark. It also appears that my floppy drive is dead. I tried a 2.0MB drive from an old Mac LC, but it just ejects the disk instantly. I'm fresh out of ideas, but REALLY REALLY want to get this computer up and running. Any ideas? Also, supposing I could get a copy of OS 9, how would I get the install going, w/o an OS installed?

You can't boot from the Mandrake CD AFAIK. Get a copy of OS 9 on CD from eBay and you'll be all set. p

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