G5 Needs Help Please!

J

JapanTheo

Registered
I got PowerPc G5 and the optical drive is dead. The HD just died yesterday. I have a new HD and an external DVD drive. Any suggestions on how to do a fresh install with the original installation disks via the external DVD drive? Thanks!
 
This will depend on which version of OS X you have.
If you have an external DVD drive connected through FireFire, then you can install any version of OS X.
Simply insert your installer disk in that external drive, and restart while holding the letter C on your keyboard. Choose your hard drive on the destination screen, and follow the on-screen instructions to install OS X. If you have a blank, brand-new hard drive, then you will need to erase (or format) your hard drive - so stop at the destination screen, and open Disk Utility, from the Utilities menu. After erasing the hard drive there, quit the Disk Utility, which will return you to that drive select screen, so choose the destination, and continue with the install.
If you _don't_ have a FireWire external, and only USB, then you will only be able to install with 10.5. Older OS X versions can't boot through the USB bus.
 
The Firewire help was a real lifesaver Thanks! Now it says this 1 TB disk can not used as a start up disk. Wazzup with that???? I`m using the OS 10.3 disks which came with the original box.
 
The hard drive in a G5 is SATA. There are no disk settings on a SATA drive that would equate to a master setting on an IDE (PATA) drive.
Can you tell us what you really did? Or, is your Mac a G4, and not a G5?
 
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