OS 10.4 install problems on powermac and imac

jsconiers · #1 October 27th, 2006, 09:52 PM

I recently purchased four used mac computers. I do own other Macs but these are the first used Macs that I have owned so I have never had to go through some of these things. The first computer is a g4 power mac 400MHZ with dvd and zip. The other two are imac dv slot loading machines. I'm running into install trouble on both machines. Here are the problems I'm having:

( I purchased a tiger 10.4 DVD and cd-set. I have the DVD set but am still waiting on the cd set)

Powermac: the machine came with no hard drive. I went out to the store and bought a seagate 400 gig ATA drive and installed. I power the mac up and I get the folder thats asking where do I boot from( i think). no problem I insert the dvd into the disk drive and it starts to boot the the mac os x installer. It gets to the point where it asked for the language. I select english and click the next arrow. A screen says "preparing installation" comes up but it will not get past this screen. I thought it might be a problem because of how slow this thing is compared to my new mac so I last night I decided to leave it on and come back. I came back hours later and still had the same screen. I then thought it was the dvd drive so I broke out an external dvd drive. Boots up and does the same thing. I restet the PRAM. Next move would be to do the firmware but I don't know how to do it without the operating system.

Imac (running 10.3): I plugged the same dvd drive into the Imacs and boot off the dvd no problem. However the install won't work because it needs the upgraded firmware. No problem. I boot back into 10.3 (keep in mind it allows me to login but I don't have sys admin rights and don't know the password) downlaod the firmware update file and double click. It opens the image but requires 9.x to install. I doble click and classic loads. Looks as though it completes loading but nothing happens. No prompts, etc and classic appears to unload. I thought it was an admin problem so I boot off the dvd and go to utilities to reset the password, however the internal hard disc is not even an option. Sorry for the long thread......Any help would be greatly appreciated.

DeltaMac · #2 October 28th, 2006, 12:29 AM

The maximum hard drive that PowerMac will support is 120GB. The 400GB that you are trying, needs to be erased (use Disk Utility from the Utilities menu when booted to the Tiger installer)
You will find that you have a 128GB partition. You cannot partition the drive with multiple 128GB partitions, without installing a PCI IDE drive controller that supports large hard drives. (There are also software solutions, but would be questionable to use if you are preparing these for sale, for example.)

You must boot to OS 9 to upgrade the firmware on the slot-loading iMacs. That means you have to install OS 9. Classic won't help you (when using Classic, you are still booted to OS X), you have to restart the Mac into OS 9 to run the firmware updater.

MisterMe · #3 October 28th, 2006, 08:20 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by DeltaMac

The maximum hard drive that PowerMac will support is 120GB. ...

Wrong.

jsconiers · #4 October 28th, 2006, 08:58 AM

What are the ways to get the 400GB drive supported? For what reason would it hang on install? Is there a way to get os 9 install image without purchasing os 9?

DeltaMac · #5 October 28th, 2006, 09:11 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by MisterMe

Wrong.

Thanks, MisterMe, I was not wrong, but I did not provide enough supporting info - so, You may install any capacity IDE hard drive, but the largest partition that is supported by the logic board in your 400 MHz PowerMac G4 is 128GB, and you cannot use more than that space on a larger hard drive. Hence, my statement that the largest hard drive supported is 120GB, as that is the largest capacity commercial drive under that IDE controller limit.
I went on to say that you can use a PCI drive controller to get around that limitation, and there are software solutions that may or may not help in your situation.

Sheesh, some people want the tiniest detail explained, when that sometimes leads to more confusion, not less. Like Joe Friday on the old Dragnet TV series said 'Just the facts, ma'am!'
The fact about the max 128GB partition is simply NOT wrong.

DeltaMac · #6 October 28th, 2006, 09:36 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by jsconiers

What are the ways to get the 400GB drive supported? For what reason would it hang on install? Is there a way to get os 9 install image without purchasing os 9?

Nothing free here - Intech has a software solution for the ATA controller, costs you about $25. http://www.versiontracker.com/dyn/moreinfo/macosx/22899
Or, there's 3 or 4 different companies that make IDE PCI drive controller cards. A good site to find several is www.macsales.com.
Here's their page - http://eshop.macsales.com/shop/hard-...e-Controllers/
Your hard drive may not be formatted yet, so go to the menus when you get ready to install OS X, and choose the Disk Utility from the Utilities menu (if you are booted to the 10.4 installer) select your hard drive, and choose the erase tab, and erase (actually initialize, or format) the drive. If you do nothing else, you will have a 128GB partition. That's all you will get. If you later get one of the other solutions, the hard drive will have to be formatted again to get full use of the hard drive. You will not have a choice about the re-formatting (unless you don't want to use the rest of your hard drive), and you will have to transfer everything to another storage device, or lose everything.
If you don't have any local sources - friends, other Mac users that you know - you can find copies of OS 9 on eBay, or other web sources. Just be sure to get an install, and not an updater, which will not help unless you can already boot to OS 9.
Did I miss anything?