OS 10.1.5 crashed when restarting in OS9 at the suggestion of XPostFacto

Question

Help!!
Someone gave me a Macintosh G3 that was upgraded to a G4, with OSX 10.1.5. I needed an upgrade to use some of the open source software out there, so someone gave me OSX 10.3. When I tried to install it, it said that 10.3 couldn't be used on my machine. Didn't say why.
I found an online bulletin board that suggested that you can't "skip a cat" which means that I'd need to upgrade to 1.2 before trying 1.3. Then a poster said that I could use XPostFacto upgrade to 1.3.
I downloaded XPF 4 and then tried to run it. The user who gave me the computer had seven partitions on it, most of which were empty. XPF gave me a list of drives on which to save 10.3, among them drive 7, which I believe was a partition. The main harddrive, called "Brian's Comp" was grayed out, with a note that said it required 10.2. The other drives were available, presumably because they had no system software on them, which was on Brian's Comp.
I tried to install 10.3 onto partition 7 using XPF 4, and a message came up saying that it couldn't upgrade it (yet) <-- parentheses aren't mine. Perhaps, the message suggested, I could restart in system 9 -- the Classic system. There are two systems on this computer, 9.1 and 10.1.5. I hit the restart button.
It restarted in system 9.1, as it suggested. However, I couldn't find the XPF icon. I couldn't find any of the files that I had put in a folder on the desktop. I couldn't find system OSX. The only option, it seemed, was to reformat the system with the original OSX disk which the person gave me.
I held down "c" as the drive was starting up and I was presented with the format screen. I chose easy install on the Brian's Comp drive. It did it's thing then asked if I wanted to restart, which I did.
Oddly, the original user's screen name came up in the firewall, I guess you'd call it, even though I'd installed OSX again. My name came up as well. Presumably, I hadn't written over the original system software as I'd thought I had.
I typed in my password and waited. A bar appeared on the bottom of the dialogue box showing the working computer, but nothing happened. It didn't hang, since the bar was still oscillating, you migh say. But I could do nothing else.
Just now I tried again and found that I'm able to access some commands even while the firewall, or whatever, is oscillating. "About this computer" "Set Date and Time" -- things like that were available to me, while the bar was scintillating. However, almost none of the commands in that "portal" would do anything. I found a utility to stop certain running programs. It had a number of running applications listed. One was "System Preferences", a window which I'd opened earlier, and about a dozen or so finder icons. I tried quitting one of them, but there were so many I didn't know if it worked or.
I tried using another startup disk which explained that I couldn't see my files because I use a pre-8.1 filing system.. (The CD I was using was running 8.0) On that CD was a disk first aid program, which said that Brian's Comp needed some slight repairs. I had it make those repairs, thinking that would help. It may have, but I'm still not able to get past that page.

Answer 1

Hello again, based upon all you have told me and my understanding of it here is what I would do assuming you have the OS 9.1 install CD and everything of importance is backed up. And since I do not know which G3 you have another factor could be the size of your hard drive, read this.
http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=25249
Now with all of the above into consideration my first move would be to reset the PRAM, as explained here.
http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=2238
Now boot from the OS 9.1 CD (C key held down) once the CD mounts from the install window select Options, Erase and Zero all Data, this will take while depending on the size of your hard drive. Now continue with the OS installation, this should get you up and running in a supported OS. From here depending on which G3 you have I would now try the Panther CD and see what happens. Good luck.
Joe
Power Mac G4 Gigabit Ethernet   Mac OS X (10.3.9)