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System Profiler shows this to be a PowerPC G3 233MhZ. And as stated it is running MacOS 9.2.2
[Re-Titled by Moderator]
Use the original disks distributed with the machine to re-format the drive and re-install the OS.
What you think you're going to use it for, I don't know... It's pretty much useless these days as anything other than a curiosity. It's been obsolete as it was discontinued 25 years ago.
Since this is Mac OS 9.2.2, you should not have different user accounts.
Without a bootable system CD, you would have to manually erase personal files, and all otherwise not needed files and applications (at the main hard disk level and in various folders). Move to the Trash (Wastebasket), and empty the Trash via the Special menu.
However, just emptying the Trash is not sufficient. You can use a special utility like the free Burn 2.5 from Next Wave Software to overwrite/erase free space (after having verified the hard disk via Disk First Aid).
Also, open the System Folder and check for personal files. For example, most if not all files under Preferences can typically be deleted. The System Folder as such, with its System and other necessary files/folders, must stay intact, though.
StuffIt Expander should be on the Mac OS 9.2.2 Bondi Blue iMac G3 already. If you need to download a utility (such as the aforementioned Burn 2.5) or something else via a modern Mac or PC, keep the MacBinary (.bin) or BinHex (.hqx) encoding unaltered until on the Mac OS 9.2.2 iMac G3. Do not try to open/decode/decompress anything on the modern computer. You should be able to use a standard USB flash drive for the transfer to the iMac G3. Once on the iMac G3 hard disk, drag the .bin or .hqx file onto the StuffIt Expander program icon (do not just double-click on the file).
John Galt wrote:
Did they spin up and down at various speeds like the 400 / 800 KB discs? I don't remember...
Presumably, in LaserDisc terms,
Woz was in completely uncharted territory when he developed the IWM. He had no idea how floppy discs were supposed to work, so he just kind of figured it out on his own. It's not as though he could have looked it up on the Internet.
Bill Atkinson got overlapping windows (where uncovering part of a window causes the computer to fill in the right contents) to work on the Lisa and the Mac because he thought that he had seen this at Xerox PARC. Actually, the people at Xerox PARC had not solved that problem.
Related: Computer History Museum – I Still Remember Regions (Andy Hertzfeld). It seems that Atkinson was in a car accident where one police officer who saw the wreck said it was a miracle that Atkinson was not decapitated. If he had been, the whole Macintosh user interface might have been very different …
Well it's pretty useless, however if you want it as a curiosity go for it. Without the original DVDs though, it's nothing but a paper weight. Also, because the DVDs are machine specific and Apple quit making them about a decade ago there isn't a lot of hope.
"Historical curiosity" and "to run old games that never made it to newer platforms" would probably be about the only uses left for such an old machine.
I believe that Mac had ADB for attaching keyboards/mice, and SCSI for attaching external drives. There were no built-in USB or FireWire ports (though there were once third-party PCI cards to add such ports). The hard drive would have held a whopping 4 GB or 6 GB.
A couple of minor corrections to the previous replies. You are describing an original Bondi Blue iMac, which had two USB ports for the keyboard and mouse. It did not use the ADB interface of previous Macs. It does not have a DVD-ROM drive; it uses a tray loading CD-ROM drive. There is no SCSI interface; those hard disk drives used an ATA interface and the original one was 4 GB.
None of those minor details really matter though; if you intend to erase the data on its ATA hard disk drive in a conventional sense you will absolutely, positively need to boot from its original CD-ROM.
Source: I still have mine.
Servant of Cats wrote:
"Historical curiosity" and "to run old games that never made it to newer platforms" would probably be about the only uses left for such an old machine.
I believe that Mac had ADB for attaching keyboards/mice, and SCSI for attaching external drives. There were no built-in USB or FireWire ports (though there were once third-party PCI cards to add such ports). The hard drive would have held a whopping 4 GB or 6 GB.
My mistake. I misidentified the machine as the original Power Macintosh G3 (Desktop).
The OP said "PowerPC G3 iMac Gen 1". The original iMac dumped SCSI, ADB, and serial ports in favor of USB 1. People with existing SCSI equipment were left out in the cold, and to add injury to insult, USB 1's top speed was less than one third of the speed of SCSI-1. This change caused much pain for Mac users.
It also lit a fire under accessory makers and got them to put more effort into supporting USB. Prior to the iMac's release, many accessory vendors didn't bother with USB. It was the "new kid" on the block, and everybody knew that parallel printer ports and serial ports were more compatible with the installed base. Once the iMac appeared, USB wasn't just "nice to have", but a "must have", unless vendors wanted to write off the iMac customer base.
Apple was impugned for omitting floppy disc drives on that iMac, causing many tech pundits to declare it a failure. As they did with the iPod, Apple Stores, the iPhone... etc.
Omitting serial ports still causes trouble for me though.
Thanks for all the replies, guys. John Galt's description of this as a Bondi Blue iMac is correct. I believe "PowerPC G3 233MhZ" is the system's processor and was listed in the System Profiler. MacTracker shows the processor as "PowerPC 750 (G3)".
Another use for this is as a stage prop for TV period pieces and commercials. Which is what I will do with it and several peripherals that are with it. When I turn it over to the camera crew I don't want the original owner's files on it. I have not seen the original CD but will search for it.
Thanks again!
John Galt wrote:
Apple was impugned for omitting floppy disc drives on that iMac, causing many tech pundits to declare it a failure. As they did with the iPod, Apple Stores, the iPhone... etc.
That Mac would have been unable to read 400K and 800K Mac floppy disks even with the aid of an external USB floppy drive.
Apple used an "Integrated Woz Machine" (IWM) chip in early Macs and some external Apple floppy drives to get more data onto each disc. Where a PC with a 3.5" floppy drive would get 360K, 720K, or 1.44 MB on a disc, the Apple drives could get 400K, 800K, or 1.6 MB on a disc, respectively. (Apple never advertised support for a 1.6 MB format, but one game developer discovered it and shipped floppies that used it!)
The original Apple SuperDrive was a floppy drive that could handle 400K, 800K, and 1.44 MB discs; but there was never a USB version. All of the external Apple floppy drives that can handle 400K and 800K discs have one sort of long-dead hardware interface to a Mac, or another.
If you can boot that Mac to the point you can log in and use it (not every Mac requires login credentials) then simply deleting the original owner's files might be sufficient. Or, create another empty User Account, log into it, delete the other Account, empty the Trash, etc. In those days "Secure Empty Trash" may have been an option, although its "secure" implication was always somewhat misleading.
Given its age it probably contains very little in the way of personal information that remains useful anyway. Perhaps some old GeoCities account information or similarly antiquated data.
Another challenge for anyone with the time and motivation to extract personal information from that Mac would be to find a suitable ATA hardware interface for its hard disk drive.
Also, if it's running OS 9 "Classic" it wouldn't take much effort to completely trash the system.
Did they spin up and down at various speeds like the 400 / 800 KB discs? I don't remember...
Woz was in completely uncharted territory when he developed the IWM. He had no idea how floppy discs were supposed to work, so he just kind of figured it out on his own. It's not as though he could have looked it up on the Internet.
John Galt wrote:
Did they spin up and down at various speeds like the 400 / 800 KB discs? I don't remember...
No. Just a normal 1.44 MB floppy disk drive that could handle newer Mac or PC floppies. I have some of my old Sun project management data stored on those diskettes from an Enterprise 10000/SAP installation.
Woz was in completely uncharted territory when he developed the IWM. He had no idea how floppy discs were supposed to work, so he just kind of figured it out on his own. It's not as though he could have looked it up on the Internet.
I remember disassembling my iMac DV SE and installing a 7200rpm Barracuda drive, more RAM, and OS X Tiger with dual boot to the classic 9.2.2. A sweet solution for its time.
Yes it was. The DV SE was a powerhouse compared to the Bondi Blue iMac.
Erasing original owner data on PowerPC G3 iMac Gen 1 running MacOS 9.2.2
