OS X problems - powermac G4 not booting

[zaxza]

Hi there, im not sure where to post this so i appologise in advance.
I just recieved a free powermac G4. It didnt come with any disks, just the computer.

When i starup it comes up with the 0sx screen , loads a load of things, then displays a blue screen with a cursor. I've tried pretty much everything i could to get it to work. I did the single user mode, typed in /sbin/fsck -y and it displayed no such file/directory message. Now im new to macs, but i have a feeling that osx has been corrupted or partially deleted or something. Can anyone give me advice.

I have a copy of os8 on disk, is there anyway i can un-install whats left of osx and install os8?
thanks

[hayne]

1) I don't think OS 8 will run on that Mac - OS 8 is way too old for that.

2) You should always erase the drive and install a fresh copy of OS X from the CD/DVD when you buy a used Mac.

You can usually get a copy of older versions of OS X on eBay quite cheaply. Make sure that you get a retail version of the CD/DVD, not just an upgrade or "restore" disk (that came with some particular model of Mac).