Cannot Install 10.2 on PowerBook G3 Pismo

pyroboy

pyroboy

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I am unable to install System 10.2 on my PowerBook G3 400 MHz (Pismo).

Right now I am running 10.1.4. It runs fine, but I wish to upgrade. Since I have a 6 GB drive, I decided to wait until I got a bigger drive to install it. I put in a 40 GB IBM Travelstar and formatted it TWICE to make sure it would work, then I installed System 9.2.2. It started crashing whenever the software tried to load. It was one of those really hard crashes where the computer completely locks up even if you hold down the shift key to prevent extensions from loading.

So I was able to load System 9.1 with no problems. However, when I tried to install 10.2, no hard drive would show up in the window where you choose which volume to use when installing 10.2. Curiously enough, I was unable to install System 10.1 on this HD.

So I returned the drive and the company sent me a new 40 GB IBM Travelstar. The same problem happens. In fact, the same problem happens when I try to install 10.2 or 10.1 on my 6 GB HD.

I have tried several different registered copies of the softare and even some bootleg versions to see if it might be a problem with the CD-ROM. I can get all the way to selecting which volume I want to install the OS. No hard drive shows up in the window.

When I try installing the same software on an iBook, there is no problem.

This leads me to suspect that there is something wrong with my firmware.

I have checked and I have a version of the firmware for installing 10.2. System Profiler says I have ROM version 4.18f5. When I attempt to reinstall the firmware, I get a message that says the firmware is fine.

I was going to attempt to reload my firmware to see if that is a problem, but I cannot figure out a way to force Open Framework to reload the ROM.

I figured out a backhanded fix which is to install the OS on an iBook on the new HD, then install the new HD in the Pismo. That works, but I would like to fix the problem that prevents me from updating my OS the easy way.

Has anyone heard of a similar problem or wish to venture a fix?
 
What format did you use to reformat? You must use HFS Extended. The UFS (or what ever they call it) does not bide well with OS X. And large drives need the Extended not Standard.
 
I used HFS Plus or HFS extended. I tried formatting the HD with the format utility for 10.2 as well as the one for 9.x.

UFS should actually work fine for OSX. However, 9 cannot use it. I prefer HFS.
 
After running into problems that don't sound that different from what you are describing, I stopped using IBM drives for any of my client's PowerBook G3s (Wallstreets, Lombards and Pismos). One known problem was with the magnetic field generated by the IBM drives causing a sensor to think the PowerBook was actually closed and forced the system into a hard sleep. On that system I tried three different IBM drives, all causing the same problem. After that I tried a Toshiba and had no problems. That pretty much ended my use of IBM drives in G3s.

I still use them in earlier models, and the OEM IBM drives (under 15 GB) seem to work great, but from what I've seen, 20 GB and up just don't like Apple's G3 hardware. This problem has been pointed out to IBM, but the fact that Macs are a small part of the market and this doesn't seem to be a problem with any of the PowerBook G4s or any of the iBooks means they really have no reason to want to work on the design of one of their top selling products.

On a side note, Mac OS X doesn't work very good running on UFS. Carbon apps have problems with UFS, and the Finder is a Carbon app. Be ready for a major performance hit (and some apps to completely stop functioning) if you try UFS.

Best of luck.
 
timovii,

Good suggestion, but I cannot get 10.2 to recognize the current hard drive which is under 6 GB in size. I may not have made that clear.

Still, I appreciate any and all suggestions. I never realized that if the system folder grows bigger than 8 GB there is a problem.
 
timovii,

A bit of followup.

The article timovii mentions is actually the best resource I have found.

I am planning on formatting the drive externally on an iBook that does not suffer from the same problems. I'd rather have one partition than two, but if it comes to that it is good to know that if the volume is under 8 GB, it might fix the problem.
 
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