Old Macintosh Startup Issue

[Mattata]

Howdy,

       I have a Macintosh LC520 that I turned on for the first time today (First time for me at least - Finding an ADB keyboard for cheap was tough for me). Initially everything booted up fine - I was greeted with the desktop and a file explorer of sorts. However, after a minute of startup time, The system clicked off. I reset the psu and turned it on, and i was greeted with a little floppy icon with a question mark symbol in it. 

 

From what I guessed, and what I found online, is that it can't read the OS on the HDD (It boots from the HDD, not a boot floppy).

 

It was just reading it a minute before, and now even after a few reboots and a HDD reseat it still can't find it. So, what the heck? is there a recovery place i can get to on startup, or did I see the HDD die a minute after waking up from its sleep? Anyone have any insight into this kind of problem? Thanks in advance.

 

PS, The HDD was being noticeably clicky while it worked, but I wasn't sure if that was just due to it being old, or if that's just how the old IDE drives sounded (ill assume its IDE)

[Crunchy Dragon]

Just now, Mattata said:

The HDD was being noticeably clicky while it worked, but I wasn't sure if that was just due to it being old, or if that's just how the old IDE drives sounded (ill assume its IDE)

A hard drive is never supposed to make clicking noises.

 

You most likely have a dead drive on your hands.

[Mattata]

Just now, Crunchy Dragon said:

A hard drive is never supposed to make clicking noises.

 

You most likely have a dead drive on your hands.

Gah, you gotta be joking. If that's the case, how am I going to get a new copy of the OS to pump onto a spare IDE drive?

[Crunchy Dragon]

Just now, Mattata said:

Gah, you gotta be joking. If that's the case, how am I going to get a new copy of the OS to pump onto a spare IDE drive?

Probably the same sources where you can get a copy of OSX for hackintosh purposes.

 

The first thing you should do is look up the most recent version of OSX that this Mac's hardware is compatible with, then look around for a safe copy.

[Mattata]

Just now, Crunchy Dragon said:

Probably the same sources where you can get a copy of OSX for hackintosh purposes.

 

The first thing you should do is look up the most recent version of OSX that this Mac's hardware is compatible with, then look around for a safe copy.

Alright. Thank you for the insight  

[Crunchy Dragon]

1 minute ago, Mattata said:

Alright. Thank you for the insight  

Be warned though, even the most recent version of OSX that machine is capable of running is likely not secure enough to be worth using for a lot of stuff.

 

Even OSX 10.6 isn't secure enough that I'd wanna use it on my Powermac G5, even if it did work.

[Mattata]

27 minutes ago, Crunchy Dragon said:

Be warned though, even the most recent version of OSX that machine is capable of running is likely not secure enough to be worth using for a lot of stuff.

 

Even OSX 10.6 isn't secure enough that I'd wanna use it on my Powermac G5, even if it did work.

Don't worry, I wasn't planning on messing around with it too much, I just wanted to see it work in the first place