Ok, I got this mac G3 from my grandpa, It was in his attic and he didnt have any of the disks that came with it,so all i have is the tower the screen and the keyboard, It had os 10.2 on it. Since this was my first time using a mac EVER i was trying to figure everyting out and, somehow i downgraded to os 8.3. Now it gives me a message about 'the system software on the startup disk only functions on the origonal media, not if copied to another drive'. I dont know what this means. How can i get it back to OS 10. The End

Well first, there is no OS 8.3. There is Mac OS 8.5 and 8.6. 8.6 will run on any beige G3 model, or on any early blue and white G3 model. First of all if the machine is not booting and it is a blue and white model, hold down the "Option" key as soon as you turn the machine on. This should prompt you with a few icons in the middle of your screen on any open firmware based mac. Second, There should be a button saying Mac OS 10.X, and one saying 9.X(or 8.X if you were running 8, but 10.X doesnt support 8.X) Just click on the button saying 10.X and it should boot back up into 10.X If you are running 10.2, you really NEED to upgrade to 10.2.8, there are way too many bug fixes and changes to list, but you will need the system password to do so. Now if you want to stick with the older Mac OS, I recommend 8.6, it's stable, fast, and reliable. In you like OS-X, than go for 10.3, panther, most software for OSX requires 10.2 or 10.3. Thats it, have fun, and in 10, dont screw with ANYTHING, Unix is VERY touchy and one miss placed system file is all you need. With 9 and below, there are only a few very important ones, the two main ones are System, and Finder, dont touch these or their resources.

I tried this thing that Outlander said here and it didn't work. i held down the option button when i turned it on but despite this it still tried to boot the old system(which is 8.6 i think). it still gives me the message saying, 'the system software on the startup disk only functions on the origonal media, not if copied to another drive'. and asks me if i want to restart. after i try and restart it just goes back to the same spot and sits there. Help me.

I still own a iMac G3 and have been through many system installs and upgrades over the years before upgrading to an iMac 20 inch Intel-based system. When starting your iMac, be sure to HOLD DOWN the Option key on the keyboard until the screen changes to a sort of royal blue and the hard disk stops spinning. You can't damage anything by holding it down too long. Let me know what happens when you hold down the option key. Also, do you have any other computers at home, with a firewire port? If you want to chat directly, I'm at jonathanrowson@gmail.com

jonathan rowson, When i hold down the option key it just starts the same as it does when i dont hold it down. i've tried holding it down for a long time and then just for like a few seconds. either way it just keeps giving me this message saying 'the system software on the startup disk only functions on the origonal media, not if copied to another drive'. i thought that that key on my keyboard dosent work but ive tried it with like 2 keyboards with the same result. no i dont have any other computers with a firewire port i've got an old macintosh preforma from like 1993 and an old windows 95 computer.

Since you've had this problem for almaost a month! with it still existing, i'll pitch in here with the answer. Firstly, what you seem to have done is copied the system folder from the Mac OS cd rom to the hard drive. You can't do that . You'll get an error message that says that this particular system folder will only work on the CD Rom (the "original media" referred to). Since you clearly have a MacOS system disk. put it in the CD drive and boot from it by holding down the 'C' until the booting starts - you'll know it's the CD by hearing it spin around a lot in the drive. Keep in mind that a G3 (blue and white, anyways) needs at least OS 8.6, although some of the earliest iMac G3's and the older white ones will boot with OS 8.1. Once you have booted successfully, you should (hopefully) see two partitions on the desktop (displayed as individual drives), One of them should have OS8 or 9 on it, and one should have OSX. It may be possible for both to be on the same drive, i don't know, i've never considered or run across such..but regardless, first find the system folder that you copied from the CD and trash it, or drag the system suitcase out of it onto the hard drive (you cant drag stuff to the desktop or empty the trash booted from a CD). Now that that system is disabled, find the partition that *not* contain OSX (that is, the OS9 one - the OSX one will have generic (blank ) icons for most of the files, and many have extensions at the end of the file name). Start the Mac OS installer from the cd and pick the OS8/9 partition - I think early on you have a choice of a fresh install, or updating an older system..if your having problems, I'd suggest a fresh install. Once this is completed, youll have a classic Mac OS install, but you won't be able to pick OSX in the 'startup disk' control panel unless it's either an OS 9.1 or higher install, or you get the 'startup disk ' control panel update..you can get it out of the 9.2.1 update at apple's site. or find it as a seperate update there somewhere too..you'll have to hunt around a bit, i suppose. HTH

no, sadly i do not have any mac os cd's as i got this mac g3, blue and white from my grandpa. he got it from my uncle who probably has the cd's that i need. only thing is he is a traveling preformer (yea, no kidding)so i have no idea where he is. i may be able to get a cd though from like another uncle or something so thanks anyway.