I *was* able to boot off the USB drive, but not with the 9.2.2 Universal installer copied to it.
So I pulled out a 650 MB CD-R, used `hdiutil burn` to burn the iso to a CD, and popped it in. It was a tiny bit crunch at the start, but the mechanism was pretty happy after that. I got through...
Thanks! I will try it out, maybe format a USB stick on the iBook, drag over the System Folder, and see if that just works. That'd be simplest.
I do have an old DVD-ROM that I pulled out of a MacBook Pro years ago, I'll see if I can get that going if the USB key doesn't work. Was going to do...
I have a first gen iBook G3 clamshell; I might be able to get the CD-ROM working but I'm not sure yet. With that, I could probably find a way to burn a Mac OS install CD (maybe 8.6?)
but failing that, is there a way to boot this thing off USB, or otherwise reinstall Mac OS after wiping the...
Thanks so much for posting this photo; I was worried when I couldn't find this revision board anywhere else, that I'd have to sit there and notate my own photo... then just searching here I found this!
Working on recapping my Aunt's old Classic and this has saved me an hour or so :)
The Wildest Thing™ about all this is how well you've documented it, so we can relive the experience and learn something new. I'd seen a ton of weird Apple CD-ROM drives, but never knew they made a tape drive!
Of course, my first exposure to tape besides cassettes was DAT, which we used at a...
The 637CD was the Mac my family and I played Myst on (I think maybe Seventh Guest and The Dig, too!)... even though it's from a forgettable era, it's a memorable model for me!