Can't Reinstall OSX

O

Oakley

Registered
Hi all, thanks for reading this.

Been trying to reinstall OSX all day long without
success, figured it was time to ask for help.

---------------------------------
MY DETAILS

I'm on a 6 month old G5 iMac, OSX 10.3.9

I've wiped my internal drive clean, and am
trying to reinstall OSX 10.3, using the install
disks that came with the iMac.

I am currently booting from an external LaCie
Firewire drive, running OSX 10.3.9. I successfully
installed OSX on that drive using the install disks,
a few months ago.
---------------------------------


THE PROBLEM

I insert OSX install disk one. It tells me to click to restart.
Machine restarts, and crashes during the Apple logo
display.

It doesn't matter whether I use the FW drive as
start up disk, or press C to use CD as startup drive.
Crashes either way. Tried it 20 times.

I can boot up fine from the OSX on LaCie disk.
And I'm trying to install on another disk, the internal
drive. So I'm not sure why the install disks demands
I restart, or why it continually crashes.

I tried running the installer from another machine
on our network, but once the installer is running,
there is no way to connect to the drive I wish to
install on.

So, I can't install OSX on my empty internal drive.

Thanks for your tips guys, I am stumped.
 
Hm. That's really strange. I'd disconnect all FW and USB peripherals (other than the keyboard and mouse, obviously, and try to start holding down the option (alternate) key. It should show you the installation disk as a viable boot option. If so, select it and see if it boots into the installer.
 
Thanks much fryke.

I tried your suggestion. I get to the screen with the arrow icons, but the install disk system is never found. I've unplugged the external drive, and the internal drive is empty, so no boot drive is shown. Had to yank the power cord to get out.

Here's a new clue. I put the install disk in to an old G3 iMac and pretended I was going to install there. I took the process up to "select a volume to install on" and it all seemed to work.

Another clue. I wiped my internal drive clean because I was having Finder like problems. I'd try to open a folder. The folder would open, and show no contents, and the rainbow ball would spin and spin until I forced quit. That problem was popping up pretty regularly, and the Disk Utility could find no problem, so I thought I'd wipe the disk clean and start from scratch.

I have a wireless keyboard and mouse, but doubt this matters?

So, hardware problem on the G5? I have a hardware test CD for the old G3's, but the G5 didn't come with one, and the old tester won't run on the G5.

The G5 seems to run OK off the OSX on the external drive.

Thanks again for your time and experience!
 
Hm. Sounds like the G5 can't actually read the disk or is unable to boot from it. Is it the _right_ disk? (I know you're probably sure it is, but this is important...) If it _is_ the correct disk and it does _not_ show up in that boot-selection screen (opt-booting), then the Mac simply can't read the disk. That means either the disk is bad or the wrong one _or_ the Mac simply can't read from that drive for another reason. I'd take it to the shop, then.
 
Thanks again fryke,

Is it the right disk?? How dare you ask such a thing. :-) Of course it's, oops, NOT the right disk!

I was using "Mac OS X Panther Version 10.3 Install Disk 1" which apparently is for G3s, and NOT G5s.

I dug around in the closet and guess what? Found some G5 disks.

Thank you sir, next time I'll ask first, before wasting a day on being disk demented.

Appreciate it!
 
Hehe. :) I'm glad it was such a simple thing. I was already wondering about how to detect a defective DVD-drive and how to support _that_ short of exchanging the drive... Report if you get it to install. :)
 
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