Vicious cycle with Leopard

[serafina27]

Hey there!

OK, to preface things, this is my first mac; were this a PC I would have fixed everything with flying colors by now. So I VERY much appreciate any help! I have a PowerBook G4, 800mhz, that had Panther on it. I bought Leopard and went to install it, using the LeopardAssist program to be able to install it. I'm installing, everything is dandy, then about 10% through I get, "Install Failed". So I reboot and it refuses to reboot, staying at the gray loading screen for all eternity. I rebooted again, this time from the disc. Since Panther seems to have disappeared from my computer, LeopardAssist was no longer available as a program, so while it booted up I went into Firmware and entered the command line manually. But when it starts up, despite having entered (properly, I believe as I saw the "ok" message after each line in Firmware) the hack to run Leopard, it says Unable to install. To fix the initial failed install problem I ran Disk Utility, but it simply said on verifying permissions, "Error: The underlying task reported failure on exit." So I ran fsck and got the OK and did it again, then rebooted and got the message on disk utility telling me it was "unmountable."

Basically I cannot boot from Panther as it were--Panther is not listed when I try to choose where to boot from. And it came with Panther installed, so I don't have that install disk. I think at this point I need to figure out how to get my computer to install Leopard as it was doing; or at least to Verify and Repair the disk on Disk Utility so that I can Archive and Install, which--as it appears in the other forum questions--is the way to go.

Thanks a million for any and all help/advice; this new Mac user is pulling her hair out! (Though I still prefer Macs...)

 

[Doctor X]

You should have got the Installation Disks with the computer, and you should try to get the person/store who sold the computer to you to cough up the disks.

What you had happen is what happened to me, in a way, that eventually led me to boards like this: an incomplete installation. An incomplete installation gives you a frelled and useless system. Mine came from failing RAM--which had a bunch of other symptoms. Assuming you do not have that problem--you would have noticed kernal panics and the like on 10.4--you need a clean system. Most likely, trying to repair from Disk Utility or anything else is rearranging the deck chairs--easier to just install a complete working system.

So you need either the 10.4 installation disks or 10.5. 10.4 is actually a great system for your PowerPC.

--J.D.

 

[rj713]

Hi, If you can tolerate the delay, PM me your mailing address and i'll send you my 10.3 cd's Tues when the PO opens again. The only thing I ask is if you upgrade from 10.3 please pass on the cd's free of charge to someone else who needs them. Ralph