Apple – Discussions: Wallstreet Stumper: int HDs won’t boot

Much of my cranial energy the past couple of weeks has been devoted to troubleshooting the beloved, cobbled-together Wallstreet Powerbook G3 that’s been the primary server for my web and internet services projects for the past couple of years.

About two weeks ago, just as I was completing the pre-posting for the Jason Webley interviews, the machine crashed as it was processing one of those entries.

Fortunately, I had a backup server in place and was able to migrate files and such off the machine. I then proceeded to my standard tack when this happens: wipe the drives and restore from backups. To my surprise, the machine refused to boot under OS X, even after clean installs from CD, and eventually began refusing to boot at all.

I bit the bullet and ordered another creaky Wallstreet via eBay, intending to troubleshoot what I took for a hardware component failure. To my surprise, not only did the new machine exhibit the exact same symptoms, it also began to refuse to boot (as it continues to the present).

While I’m certain that I can eventually restore the non-booting machine to bootability, I’m sadly forced to conclude that I won’t be getting OS X on them at any time in the near future, and so will not continue attempting to restore them to the former state of bellerophon.

I still crave a silent, tiny server for home use, but alas, it is not to be for the present. Even Martian, who manufactured a device intended to be used in exactly the way I want, has pulled back from the consumer market. Amazingly, their 80211b-compatible devices, which came with a Linux-based server suite installed and which could very well be also used to provide internet services, sold for well under $500. Shoulda glommed one when i had the chance!