The dreaded ? and folder icon

Question

I recently won quite a few macs from an auction from public school district, emacs and imacs from 2001-2004 range. For security of course all the drives were cleared. I am quite experienced on pc's as I am a technician at our local cable company, but when it comes to macs I know just enough to mess things up. But we troubleshoot both, so I would like to learn more about them. I plan to set these up at my church as a computer lab, but not sure where to start. I have 2 sets of boot up discs that are labeled imacs, but neither the imacs or emacs will boot when holding c down at boot. These were in a seperate box though so not sure they even go to the computers I got.
What I have read about and done so far:
Followed instructions online about finding the hd (that was fun)to make sure there was no physical damage, the district didn't touch it physically, on 2 mac laptops tha came w/ they just took a drill and drilled through the hd. So no physical damage to hd.
Next, I did the pram reset and got the ding it says, but no change on next boot
Next, I found an article on the open firmware and got into it, and I was like cool(finally a break) something that looks like dos, I can work with this. And I found some artice telling me to change the boot device to X but that didn't work either. And looks like a whole nest of hornets when I started reading about all the stuff that can be done in OF. I found a walkthrough of setting up the partitions.
I thought about calling apple to try to obtain a boot disk for the emacs, and I am sure one the imac or imac dv boot discs will work on the imacs. But how do I get these hard drives prepared to take the boot disk (I understand that is proably what is missing from ibm format and partitioning I can do in my sleep).
I didn't have any info on the macs before, but I noticed the OF had some info on the machines, so I will post that to the thread later
Questions:
1. What would a typical school employee do to clear a mac hd quickly, he had a lot to deal with so I am sure didn't put much time into it, I mean he drilled through the laptops, and some ibm's he just took the hd out? (can he ruin a hd permanently without cracking the case)
2. If the hd's are useable, what do I need to do get it prepped to acccept a boot disk?
3. If unable to get boot disk for emac, can I used what I found on bit torrent to boot, if it is copied from a pc, or should I get an imac working first then try to firewire to an emac (possible?)?
4. In the status these macs are in, after I get one working can I firewire to others(there is like 30 of them)to get them working or do I need to work on each one?
I know this will take a while, and prepared to keep looking till I can find an answer, not expecting a quick fix. If you can answer any one of the questions or offer assistance I would greatly appreciate it.
p.s. A lot of questions I know but if anyone can take me under their wing and help me get these working for the church, I would be more than happy to send you one at no charge

Answer 1

1. What would a typical school employee do to clear a mac hd quickly, he had a lot to deal with so I am sure didn't put much time into it, I mean he drilled through the laptops, and some ibm's he just took the hd out? (can he ruin a hd permanently without cracking the case)
Typically wipe the hard drive using the Zero Data option. This would remove all information on the drive from any kind of access or recovery. But it takes a bit of time to complete the process - up to several hours depending upon how large the hard drive is.
2. If the hd's are useable, what do I need to do get it prepped to acccept a boot disk?
Extended Hard Drive Preparation
1. Boot from your OS X Installer Disc. After the installer loads select your language and click on the Continue button. When the menu bar appears select Disk Utility from the Installer menu (Utilities menu for Tiger or Leopard.)
2. After DU loads select your hard drive (this is the entry with the mfgr.'s ID and size) from the left side list. Note the SMART status of the drive in DU's status area. If it does not say "Verified" then the drive is failing or has failed and will need replacing. SMART info will not be reported on external drives. Otherwise, click on the Partition tab in the DU main window.
3. Set the number of partitions from the drop down menu to one. Set the format type to Mac OS Extended (Journaled.) Click on the Partition button and wait until the process has completed.
4. Select the volume you just created (this is the sub-entry under the drive entry) from the left side list. Click on the Erase tab in the DU main window.
5. Set the format type to Mac OS Extended (Journaled.) Click on the Options button, check the button for Zero Data and click on OK to return to the Erase window.
6. Click on the Erase button. The format process can take up to several hours depending upon the drive size.
After formatting has completed quit DU and return to the installer. Now complete the OS X installation.
3. If unable to get boot disk for emac, can I used what I found on bit torrent to boot, if it is copied from a pc, or should I get an imac working first then try to firewire to an emac (possible?)?
It is illegal to install a copy of OS X that has been obtained from any other source than the original discs that came with the computer (gray labeled OEM discs) or purchased from Apple or from a vendor who owns and is selling his/her licensed software. Discs posted on torrent boards are pirated and illegally obtained and illegally distributed.
4. In the status these macs are in, after I get one working can I firewire to others(there is like 30 of them)to get them working or do I need to work on each one?
Not unless you own a license for each copy of OS X you install. For 30 machines you would need to purchase a site license from Apple.