Hi everyone, I'm new to these forums so please be understanding.

I have a Power Macintosh G3 beige desktop, Revision A, 266 MHz, running Mac OS 9.2.2. Currently, it has a Quantum Fireball SCSI hard drive intstalled in it. Unfortunately, the capacity is very limited and I wanted to upgrade. I bought an IBM DGHS comp IEC-950 hard drive off of Craigslist. I know it works, but I can't get my Macintosh to recognize it! It powers up, spins up, but when I go to install Mac OS 9, it can't find the hard drive. When I try to select the "select drive" option or whatever it is, it's greyed out.

If anyone knows how to get this sucker working, it would be greatly appreciated. My Windows computer has had far too much attention, and I think I need to spend some more quality time with my Mac. But, unfortunately, that can't be done until I get this hard drive working.
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3 Apples:

Power Macintosh G3, 266 MHz, Mac OS 9.2
Macintosh IIx, 16 MHz, Mac OS 7.0.1
Apple IIe, 1 MHz, ProDOS

If the HDD was formatted with a disk utility other than Apple's own it may be unapproachable with HD Setup. At the very least you should get a message that 'This disk is unreadable ...', and be invited to eject or initialize it. That you do not get (or report) such a message indicates that you will need a larger hammer for the job: Silverlining (LaCie), FWB ToolKit, Intech's SpeedTools or ATTO's utility (the name of which escapes me for the moment). Silverlining comes free with LaCie's external drives. The current (and last for OS 9) is v6.5.8. FWB's, InTech's and ATTO's software comes at a price. All of these utilities can install the logical partitions on your drive (if they test it as functional) in accord with Apple's protocols, and install a driver as well. Only if the present driver/formatter was from way out left will the quoted utilities not be able to 'take over' the drive.

There are freeware/shareware utilities also, for which you can Google.

de
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(60x) 13DT + 3PB + PTPro; (G3) 7DT/MT; (G4) 3T + PB. System 8.1 to OS 10.5.8

Thanks for the advice, I think I may try a new strategy now. I was planning on keeping the old SCSI drive in the bay, and then remove the Zip Drive and place the IBM drive into the Zip bay. That way, I believe I could run the Silverlining app off of the original drive.

The programs you mentioned all look very useful thank-you very much
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3 Apples:

Power Macintosh G3, 266 MHz, Mac OS 9.2
Macintosh IIx, 16 MHz, Mac OS 7.0.1
Apple IIe, 1 MHz, ProDOS

You are aware that the rev. A Beige G3 does not support slave drives on the ATA buses? Rev. B and rev. C ROMs do, and can be bought with a little prowling in the dark alleys of the Internet. Rev. A limits you to two hard drives on the two ATA buses, unless you use the SCSI bus also for a third drive. If you install a HDD utility (eg Silverlining Pro 6.5.8) onto the Quantum, and boot from your retail OS 9 CD, you should (barring the disaster of an intransigent disk utility on the IBM) be able to 'get hold of' the IBM with the Silverlining app. Silverlining has a much more informative GUI than does HD Setup, and also a much more intuitive selection of the necessary test, format, and driver installation processes.

That accomplished, you are ready to install an OS onto the IBM in the same sitting. This may be a useful first point of call for you to explore your upgrade options.

de
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(60x) 13DT + 3PB + PTPro; (G3) 7DT/MT; (G4) 3T + PB. System 8.1 to OS 10.5.8