I've got a faithful G3 Beige, been running OS 9.2 , upgraded to G4 500Mhz processor, 384 MB RAM USB/Firewire PCI card. Wanted to go for Panther. Loaded new 10x firmware for the scsi as recommended by Apple. Started to run Panther disc. Just stuck with image of black Apple and rotating clock beneath. Restarted, removed disc. Now every time I start up and before booting begins tiny writing appears at the top of screen repeating 'No bootable HFS partition' about 20 times. When booted the internal CD will not mount. Nor will the internal Zip drive. (Ihave all the right extension loaded and I have even swapped the CD drive with another mac)

If I start from the install disk (pressing C on restart) then it recognises the CD and the ZIP, but not if I start from installed OS. I have re-initialised and repartitioned the hard disk several times and re-installed the OS - even starting from 8.1 and building to 9.2 - but still I get the same pre-boot message, and the CD/Zip drives don't mount. An external scsi drive does mount in all modes. How do I get rid of the error message and get my internal CD to mount?? Help! I just spent the whole w/e wrestling with it.