Need Help! Can't install Mac os X !!!!

M

macattack600

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So I have a few ibooks at the time I did'nt have actual copy of mac os x and needed to erase the HD so i hooked 2 of them up by firewire cable in target disk mode. I was able to erase that way except I don't know if messed anything up there are 2 spaces in disk utility that will something like 37.0 fujitsu and then underneath it would say Macintosh HD well I wrote zeros to both took about 25 minutes then I get a copy of mac os a few days later try to drag the source mac os x tiger into destination the one that says fujitsu 37.0gb (by the way i'm doing this all with external monitor cause they have cracked screens lol) I shut the ibook off then power it on by itself it will start the installer for tiger and ask what volume I want to install it on and the picture of the harddrive that you are supposed to click is'nt coming up i can't select anything it's blank . question -if the harddrive is bad then why would i be able to copy the source mac os x tiger onto it ? but won't let me install on the HD.
 
see i think that's my problem it will say something like untitled under where it used to say Macintosh HD can you tell me how to format the hd if i'm using it firewire target disk mode? I zero'd both it seemed like that i could'nt install the on to the destination drive fujistsu 37.0 but the untitled i could i'm new to macs thanks.
 
If you have a bootable copy of OSX for your ibook installed on your firewire drive,boot your ibook off of that drive. once thats done go to utilities>disk utilities.Click on "untitled " A screen should pop up showing format and partition options.Choose your HD name,partition size and format choice.Hit the buttons and you will be done in a minute or so.Your HD's name will appear on the left side of the window and you'll be good to go.If you cannot boot from the firewire drive,you can do the same with a install disk.Make sure it is the correct one,hit the "C" key on startup and you should be on your way!
Good luck!
 
Ok good buddy this is what I did. I started up target disk mode (the drive on the ibook which i'm installing does not have dvd otherwise i would hold c key)
I clicked on the part in disk utility where it says 27.9GB AAPL Firewire Target
just above untitled (drive) when i click that nothing pops up like you said it would i get the First Aid Erase Partition Raid Restore so I click partition kinda what you said no format to choose, and click partition , it does it real quick. Then I take and copy the mac os x install dvd onto untitled xcept i did give it a name by changing it on the desktop. Takes like 5 minutes to copy it lol should'nt that take longer and being i've done this like 4 times i thought at one point i copied the same file onto the volume above untitled once but does'nt go into the destination field anymore I dunnno. so i reboot the ibook and goes to installer same thing no picture of the hd comes up but I did notice that it says connected firewire under info that untitled and the other fujitsu says writable but when i'm using the drive alone on the ibook trying to install i click info for untitled and under writable it says no under the fujitsu 27.9 it says writable what do you think I'm doing wrong ? :))))
 
The best outcome will happen when you 'restore' the installer image on a separate hard drive partition.
There's no chance that you can install OS X onto the same partition that the installer is using.
The best choice will be an external firewire hard drive for your installer image restore destination. That will allow you to have one installer that you can use for all of your iBooks, without needing to re-image the installer each time that you change to another iBook. (kind of a waste of time, eh?)
 
Thanks for all the input think you could break it down it into some easy steps how to do exactly what your said as you were actually doing it yourself.
 
Not too tough...
Attach external firewire hard drive.
Make a partition on that hard drive for use with the Tiger install - 4GB should be fine. You can create that partition, and have a second partition for use as backups, etc.
Boot to the installer DVD (or another Mac using Tiger).
Run Disk Utility, click on your hard drive. Click the Restore tab.
Drag your installer DVD to the Source line.
Drag the Destination partition (that 4GB partition that you just created). Click the Restore button. Should take about 30 minutes or so, I suppose.

Connect that external hard drive to the Firewire port on whichever iBook you are working with. Boot to the Option boot manager screen. Choose the icon for the 10.4 installer partition. Click the right-facing arrow.
Follow the instructions to install on the internal hard drive in that iBook.
To really prepare the internal hard drive:
at the "Choose a hard drive" screen in the installer: Open Disk Utility in the menus. Click on your hard drive (the line that shows the manufacturer's info), then click the Partition tab. Click Volume Scheme, and choose 1 partition from the list. Make sure that the format is set for "MacOS Extended (journaled). Click the Apply button, and let the partition process complete (just takes a few seconds to complete). Then, quit Disk Utility, and you will return to the "choose a drive" screen.
Continue with the install process.
I've probably done this 150 times on old iBooks this past summer.
 
well gosh dang your exaclty who I needed advice from Thanks Alot!!! One question , so I'm going to have to use a actual external harddrive and not the one from one of the ibooks already running tiger. Thanks again !!!!!!!!!!!!
 
No, you could do the install that way, too...
But, it means that you would have to 'restore' the installer to each iBook that you would do that type of install, and you would be left with a fairly large partition that you couldn't use for anything else, except the installer. Why would you want to do that?
An external hard drive can be setup any way that you like, and left that way.
I have an external that I use all the time. I have partitions for Tiger, Leopard, and Snow Leopard installers - and other partitions for bootable Tiger, and Leopard system drives - each with a variety of utilities that I use often. It's a 1TB external, so even with those partitions, I still have a partition with about 600 GB of space available for file transfers/backups, etc.
The external drive just saves a lot of time, and having everything in one place is a big advantage for me...
 
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