iMac G3/400MHz Drive (?) Errors

[tbohon]

Am having strange problems with this machine. When my wife used it (before she got her dual G5 ...) she couldn't get MS Powerpoint to run - would get an error 1,010 the first time, then error 12s from then on - and the application would never run again.

I've blown everything away and installed a clean copy of OS 9.2.1 because I'm having the exact same problem only with Appleworks 6.

Only similarity is that she installed MS Office first after her system and I installed Appleworks first after reinstalling the OS.

Today, in trying to update to 9.2.1 (I've already updated firmware, etc.) I get an error that it can't access the 'SYSTEM' file and that I need to move it to another folder.

My guess is that there's a bad spot on the disk - I can totally reformat by booting from the CD, going to Utilities, etc. ... but is there any way to do a low-level examination of the (9.5 GB) hard drive and lock out any bad sectors?

As always, thanks in advance.

Best,

Tom

 

[jimbopalmer]

In Drive Setup, under Functions is Initialization Options, you can choose to do a low level Format there, that will do what you want.

I tried to remain child-like, all I acheived was childish.

 

[tbohon]

Hey, thanks for the reply.

I did the erase/total reformat and then ran the disk (sector) check - program says that it found no bad sectors (if it can be trusted ...).

Did a complete and total reinstall and am rebuilding it now. So far, so good ...

One note for anybody reading this ...

If you put an OS update on a so-called 'thumb drive' and try to do the update from there - it won't work. Seems, at some point, that the usb connection is broken so the script and the process lose communication - and you end up with a mangled software upgrade where nothing works. Lesson learned - I've re-installed from scratch x3 today alone before figuring this one out. Again, just an FYI in the 'interesting facts' category.

Thanks again.

Tom