Ask Jacob
Home » Resources » Ask Jacob » Old LC2 tries to boot, but all I get is a “?”
Old LC2 tries to boot, but all I get is a “?”
Monday, December 22, 2008 / Hardware, Mac OS 9 / Classic
I have an old LC2 that tries to boot, but gives a floppy disk icon and a “?” mark and then drops out as if the drive cannot get up to speed or find what its looking for.
The LCII came with a 40MB or 80MB hard drive and many of those older drives just do not hold up well over time. Fifteen years is a long time to keep spinning the same steel platter. You could be lucky and just need to reinstall the Mac OS. It will take Mac OS 7.0.1 to 7.5.5 and you can find system updates for that computer at Apple’s Older Software Downloads page.
If you do not have a copy of the Mac OS for your system, you can download system 7.5.3 from Apple’s Index Of Older Systems and put them on Floppy disks. Here are some good instructions on making boot floppies from OS X.
Hope this helps, If the drive is dead you will have some issues finding a suitable replacement, but it can be done.
