okay you MAC freaks, here's a stumper...

I'll give you a dime if you can get me outa this.

[markass11]

here it is...
os 10.2 and 9.2 on a G3.

froze for the umpteenth time. This time she's down for good. (I'm on my ibook now)

I've tried the usual reset PRAM, tried disk first aid from every original OS Cd I have.

OS 10.2 won't let me do a record(something like that) and re-install, in fact there aren't any drives to be found anywhere... so it won't let me even erase and re-install, because there's nothing to erase, and it won't mount anywhere.

I apologise if it's not clear, but I think it's at least a starting point to...

How can I do a power erase, (so I can re-install)

there you go...

[Yidaki]

Did you try to boot from a OS 9 system cd?

[timster]

Definitely sounds like you need a good disk fixer. Start with Disk First aid on the already-mentioned OS 9 CD. If that doesn't work, check out Tech Tool Pro or Norton Utilities.

Switching back and forth between OS 9 and OS X can sometimes be "risky" if you move/delete important OS X files while you're in OS 9. That means basically anything in the "Library" folder.

[BwanaZulia]

Did you add ram? Most of my problems with OSX came down to RAM.

Try an external drive to see if it is your internal one.

BZ

[markass11]

wow. it's been a while, but my solution was to purchase antoher hard drive, and slave it off my new one. I was able to go into that crapped out drive and back my data up.

Nice!
Then it happened to my new drive, which Ijust had to replace.

Thanks for the help.