Cuss_Cuss_Cuss! (Novice, with installation nightmare.)

G

gbsothere

Registered
First, guys, I'm not Mac-smart like you are. I'm just a girl, trying to use a Mac, and that's about it. Here's today's nightmare: I have an iBook G4. It's used so it was all full of gunk. I thought I'd just clean-install the system software, no worries about saving stuff, it was all crap. So I started up from the DVD (10.4 Disk one of two) and clicked on options and asked for a clean-install. Away we went, and it was going great until I suddenly got "There was an error installing software. Please restart." Restart from what? The hard drive isn't even showing up in Startup Disk. All I can do is to keep restarting from the DVD and trying to get past the error and restart and, guys, it "ain't gonna happen". I've been at it all day. The weird thing is that when it's time to select a destination disk, it shows my hard drive as if it's still there although, as I mentioned, it's not appearing in Startup Disk. It begins installing, it looks as if everything's going great and then bam! - another error message. I have another Mac sitting here, a G3 (10.3.9). If I could make it talk to the iBook, then maybe I could do something but I don't even know how to do that, especially since the iBook will only start up on the installation DVD. I'm cooked. *sigh* (By the 'bye, the iMac G3 only has a CD drive, not a DVD.)
 
Firstly, check to see if the DVD appears scratched or damaged. If it is, your first option is to get someone to run it through a CD/DVD scratch repair system; many movie hire places and computer stores offer this service. If its still no good, Apple will probably be willing to exchange the damaged disc for you.

The next thing is to try booting from the Installer CD, and when the installer loads up you will notice a menu bar at the top of screen. In here, you will find utilities, including the Disc Utility. Use it to format your hard drive (Mac OS format) and then run a verify/repair on it. That may fix the problem for you.
 
Hi and thanks for posting to me. Just a question, though, when you say use Disk Repair to format my hard drive, how is that done? I see First Aid, Erase, RAID, and Restore in the menu, but nothing about formatting. (See how correctly I identified myself as a novice?) So sorry to have to ask.
 
When you click on Erase, you'll probably wonder wonder which format to use. I think the name is Mac OS X Extended (Journaled), if it's not it's something close, and you'll know the one.
 
gbsothere said:
First, guys, I'm not Mac-smart like you are. I'm just a girl, trying to use a Mac, and that's about it.
Click to expand...

At least you can type in English. That has to be 90% of the battle! ;)
(Sorry, not much help but credit where credit's due. With well over half of the population unable to communicate effectively, it's refreshing to find someone who can).
 
SatCure said:
At least you can type in English. That has to be 90% of the battle! ;)
(Sorry, not much help but credit where credit's due. With well over half of the population unable to communicate effectively, it's refreshing to find someone who can).
Click to expand...

Well, I've spent a sad majority of my life mucking about in Douglas Adams paperbacks and online crossword puzzles. It helps me to effectively string words together, but I'm afraid I don't have an original thought in my head. Thanks for the kudos, though. I'll remember them when I mutter incoherent, grammatically incorrect insults at the television during the NFL playoffs.
 
Pro Grape said:
When you click on Erase, you'll probably wonder wonder which format to use. I think the name is Mac OS X Extended (Journaled), if it's not it's something close, and you'll know the one.
Click to expand...

Thanks, guys, for educating me. I'll give it a try and see how it goes.
 
Okay, guys; I've formatted the drive, verified and repaired permissions. (Once again, the hard drive doesn't appear as an option in Startup Disk.) I drove to town and tried to install using a friend's installation DVD. It was no better. I had the DVD cleaned and polished. I'm trying it again and I still get just so far and end up with an error message, however, this time, I'm getting a much more polite message complete with installation logs, each line more confusing the the one before but all of them containing "crash dump". That doesn't sound good. I do notice this, if it matters: although I'm shown the hard drive when I'm asked to select a volume on which to install the operating system, I can't actually highlight it. It's there, but it doesn't lock into a highlight. Is this significant?

Is there a way to connect the laptop onto my G3 iMac and simply transfer my system from it onto the laptop or must the laptop be able to start up from something other than the DVD for this to happen?

I would just take the laptop to Mac Authority, but they're going to tell me that this is a software problem, not covered under the warranty and that they're backed up in repairs until the end of January.

Thanks for your patience while I try to navigate this problem and listen to the Music City Bowl game at the same time.

;)
 
If both your Macs have FireWire ports, you can connect them with a FireWire cable, boot up the iMac, and then turn on the iBook while holding down the "t" key. This will start the iBook in FireWire Target Disk Mode, which will make the iBook's HD mount on the iMac as though it were merely an external FireWire HD.

I'm not sure why the volume would not let itself be selected for installation. When you erased the drive, there should have been an option to select the formatting. By default, it should have been set to "Mac OS Extended (HFS+)". Did you change it by any chance?
 
Thanks, Mikuro!

I believe it said "Mac OS Extended Journal". I do believe that both Macs have a Firewire cable, at least they appear to both have identical inlets that are obviously not phone modem or Ethernet. They seem to house a plug that is rounded at one end and flat at the other. (Well, I just hopped over to Yahoo images and looked up a Firewire plug and I'm convinced that this is what I'm seeing on both Macs.)

If I'm successful at getting the Macs to communicate in this way, do I simply drag my system folder onto the iBook's hard drive?

I hope my inexperience isn't too annoying. This is becoming quite an education for me.

Thanks for your help.
 
You could certainly try dragging the system folder across but I don't think it will boot up properly. Do you have an earlier system installer disc? Maybe Panther?
 
Well, the dilemma seems to be that the iBook won't start up from anything but a DVD and all my earlier system installers are CDs. Here's where I am: I couldn't think of anything else to do, so I went through Disk Utility and selected my hard drive as a destination and the OS X installation DVD as a source and clicked "Restore". After it copied, I started up again from the DVD and went through the installation process. This time, for no obvious reason, it completed the process, or it said that it had succesfully done so. But I was asked to restart in order to install DVD #2 and it won't restart; it just sits there and looks at me, with an apple and a revolving arrow. So I am truly stumped at how to proceed. This is a real head-scratcher.
 
It could be that it's trying to boot from the unfinished OS X installation on the HD. This might have something to do with the "Restore" routine you did. Try putting in disc 2 and restarting while holding down the "C" key. That will force the iBook to boot from the DVD rather than the HD. Maybe then installation will continue normally.

By the way, "Mac OS Extended Journal" is the right format, so that's definitely not the problem.
 
DVD #2 isn't bootable AFAIK. It's only used when the HD is ready for booting (i.e. the system is installed already), to install additional software packages.
 
I hooked the iBook up to the iMac with a Firewire. I set the iBook as the target and decided to try to install another system using my iMac's startup disks. When I first selected the iBook's hard drive (someone named it "Gracie"), I got this message: "The disk 'Gracie' could not be remounted after disk verification was complete. If this disk requires a password, turn off passwork protection and then try installation again." It doesn't require a password. This was followed by, "The selected destination disk is invalid or has unexpectedly disappeared. Click OK to select another destination disk." (Of course, there is no other disk.) I did finally get the "Gracie" disk to appear on my iMac with Firewire and seemed to have performed a successful install on it. But when I tried to restart the iBook, there is still no "Gracie" on the startup disk list, only the installation DVD and "network". I tell you, I can hear the blood in my ears. :(
 
It's starting to sound like there's something wrong with the HD itself (that is to say, the hardware).

I suggest running the Apple Hardware Test. Look at your Tiger discs; one of them should say "Hardware Test" on it, and it should have instructions on how to use it. (I think you need to insert that disk and then turn on your iBook while holding down the Option key.) Once booted from the Hardware Test disc, run the extensive test.
 
Hi, Mikuro. I managed to run the Hardware Test and the only error I saw had something to do with memory. This iBook has 55G, so I'm not sure what sort of memory issue could be affecting it. I was wondering if there's any sort of key combination I could use that would force the iBook to start up in root? I'm not sure why this might be helpful, other than the fact that I may be able to actually locate a hard drive that way. From what I can see, there's never actually been an independent hard drive since all this began, certainly not one that actually shows up as a start up disk. I've never been able to lock the hard drive icon into a highlight when trying to select it as a destination disk. It's strange, when I used the Firewire, my iMac sees the hard drive on iBook, it even installs on it. But the iBook, itself, can't see its own hard drive. I feel that if I could just establish the hard drive as something that actually is a start up option, I'd be getting somewhere. I guess I assumed that when a Mac rolls off the assembly line and an operating system is installed, that system create its own hard drive. Thinking it through, I suppose that doesn't make sense.
 
Guys, I appreciate all your input, patience and willingness to help. This is just beyond me and I've gone from having ideas to just sitting and staring blankly at nothing in particular. It's time to whip out the cash, which seems to fix most things. (I can't understand why Steve Jobs hasn't created a credit card drive; you just install your Visa and voila! - your computer fixes itself.)

;)

All that to say, I've reached my limit and, again, I appreciate all your time and effort. Thanks, so much!
 
I'm sorry you're so frustrated, but I can certainly see why.

If the Hardware Test reports a memory problem, that means RAM, not your HD. Bad RAM can lead to all sorts of weird problems.

Now that we know there's a hardware problem, I think the only thing to do is to have it repaired. It could be as simple as removing/replacing the bad RAM. If you take it in to be repaired, be sure to let the repair people know what the Hardware Test said.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top