[G4] Error of type -127

[Tracker at aol.com]

I think that the first thing to do here is to stop going into Panic Mode and 
trying to buy everything in the world to rescue your data. You can achieve 
your needs without terrific stress or difficult and complicated 
configurations of your machines and won't need to buy anything at all.

Please follow closely:

Problem factors:

#1 - It appears that you have an ailing iMac that contains data that is in 
danger of being totally lost unless you copy it to another device. (Another 
device can be defined as an external hard drive, a CD, a Zip cartridge, or 
other types of media.)

#2 - You have a working G4 computer that starts up perfectly normally and 
could be used as the "other device".

#3 - Your problem is already solved without having to buy any additional 
equipment.

Solution to your problem:

Remove the hard drive from the iMac (or have a technician or knowledgeable 
amateur tech do it for you).

Install the iMac hard drive in the G4 and configure it as the "SLAVE" device 
on the connection ribbon that is plugged into your G4 hard drive. This 
configuration is done by installing a small jumper bridge to the IDE 
identification pins on the hard drive. Some drives have a printed legend on 
the case that shows exactly which set of pins to put the jumper bridge on to 
make the drive into the SLAVE, MASTER, or CABLE SELECT modes. Be sure to 
identify the G4 hard drive as the MASTER or you will have troubles here.

Boot the G4 hard drive and you ought to be able to see the iMac hard drive on 
the desktop.

If you can see the iMac hard drive, you should be able to open the files you 
want to save and copy them onto the G4 hard drive.

At this point, you can use the hard drive set up utility on your system 
installation CD to re-initialize the iMac hard drive and then you can 
re-install all your system and program software from the original 
installation CDs.

All of this can be achieved without having to buy any additional parts or 
pieces and should recover all your endangered data files, and give you back 
your original iMac hard drive in its original state - ready to use.