Installation Issues

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guitarhero

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I am trying to install osx on a blue and white powermac G3(384 ram- it should work). I get it to boot from the cd, but the installer doesn't see the hard drive. the partitioner sees it but cant partition it because it says its in use. this hdd doesnt have an os on it, i partitioned it in windows with ntfs so it is completely empty. i planned to repartition with mac to whatever file system it needs but it says its in use for some reason. has anyone ever heard of this?
 
I'm not sure if this has anything to do with it, but I don't think Macs can edit NTFS drives. I'd re-format the drive as FAT32 on your Windows computer, then get your Mac to format the drive as Mac OS Extended (Journaled).
 
You won't be able to format that NTFS partition, but you can RE-partition the entire drive. Click the "Partition" tab in Disk Utility when you're booted from the OS X Install CD/DVD, select "1 Partition" (or whatever partition scheme you prefer), and partition away.

Mac OS X must be installed on a "Mac OS Extended" partition (also known as HFS+), so be sure to format the drive that way.
 
ElDiabloConCaca said:
You won't be able to format that NTFS partition, but you can RE-partition the entire drive. Click the "Partition" tab in Disk Utility when you're booted from the OS X Install CD/DVD, select "1 Partition" (or whatever partition scheme you prefer), and partition away.

Mac OS X must be installed on a "Mac OS Extended" partition (also known as HFS+), so be sure to format the drive that way.
Click to expand...
thats what i tried to do but it says partition in use :(
 
Hmmm... I've never had a problem with partitioning NTFS drives, but they were always external FireWire drives. Perhaps the fact that it's internal makes a difference... I dunno.

I would recommend trying what Veljo recommended: take the drive back to a PC, format it as FAT32 on the PC, then bring it back to the Mac and you should be able to format/partition it however you like then.
 
Alright ill do that, i was hoping to not have to because last time when i formatted it in my windows machine windows said that my hardware had changed, and i had to reactivate windows. I had to sit on hold for 20 minutes then fight with an indian windows support person i couldnt understand to get it activated again. Hope i dont have to go through that again.
 
No luck. It shows up in the partitioner, and it seems to partition because theres a progress bar then it goes back to the install screen, but when i get to the part where i select the installation drive the only thing listed is the greyed out cd drive(obviously because you cant put an os on a cd drive). Any ideas?
 
You might need to perform a firmware update before installing OS X. Search for your particular Mac and download the firmware update. You have to have a working OS 9 installation to apply the firmware update, as it won't work in the Classic environment.

http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=86117

Apply that and then try to install OS X.
 
Richardanthonyj said:
do a low level format of the hard drive using disk utility
Click to expand...
Technically, only SCSI drives can be low-level formatted by the user. IDE drives can only be low-level formatted at the factory or by the manufacturer. You can do a 0-write format to an IDE drive, but it's completely different than a true "low-level format."
 
If it has no operating system installed, and you have a copy of OS 9, then install OS 9 first, download and apply the firmware update, then install OS X on top of it. OS X will then use that OS 9 installation for Classic.

Heck, I think you could also possibly install the firmare update with the OS that shipped with that G3. I'm hoping that whoever gave you that Mac also gave you the discs that originally came with it. If not, then you're going to have to purchase a copy of OS 9. Check the following link for a good price:

http://eshop.macsales.com/Catalog_Item.cfm?ID=5913&Item=APLOS91CD

Remember that this Mac came out years before OS X was even introduced as a Public Beta, so without the firmware update it had no way of being able to run OS X properly if at all.

One other question: Is this OS X disc a full retail version that was purchased (has an "X" plastered across the disc), or is it an OEM disc (usually gray in color all-around). Or was this copy "acquired"?
 
Tried installing OS 9, and ran into the same problems. Tried using different IDE cabels, and still didnt find the drive. Any other thoughts?
 
I got your PM. I just realized that maybe the jumper settings might be to blame here. If it's set to cable select, change it to something else. Since you had this in a PC, it's possible that if it's in cable select it might not be read by that G3. Change it to Master or Single if it has that option. You should then be able to see the drive once you boot from the OS 9 disk and launch the Drive Setup utility from the disc. Have it initialize the entire drive (it should show up on the list of volumes althoug probably not on the desktop). Once the drive is initialized, install OS 9. Then boot into OS 9 and download the firmware updater for your G3. Then follow the directions given for the firmware update. It till tell you once it's successfully applied. After that, you can install OS X.

You might also want to read up some more on the pros and cons with this particular Mac:

http://www.lowendmac.com/ppc/g3c.shtml

Hope this helps, and sorry for the delay in responding. :)
 
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