why wont leopard install?

[fev]

Hey all, can anyone tell me why leopard wont install on my macbook? I have all required spec, currently running 10.4.11. when i try to install, it states that
"osx cannot be installed on this machine"
I've asked in pc world and they said they have heard of the issue but dont know it happens or how to fix it.


Anyone able to show how useless pcworld are?

Cheers

[overanalyzer]

Is it a retail Leopard disc or is it from another machine?

[fev]

its a new disk, the guy in pcworld said he was on copy number 4 and it still wouldn't install

[Eric Piercey]

Maybe try making an image of your current boot volume and backing it up and reinstalling on a freshly formatted volume. Or if you have one handy install on a clean HD.

[overanalyzer]

its a new disk, the guy in pcworld said he was on copy number 4 and it still wouldn't install

You mean you've tried 4 difference discs and none worked? That error message sounds like what you get if you try to use a single-model install disc (like the ones that come with a machine) to install on a different model, but if it's a full retail disc and the machine meets the requirements I'm not sure what the issue is. But it must not be the disc if you've tried 4 of them....

[Eric Piercey]

Something is telling the installer the hardware is non-compliant. I'm grasping at straws but maybe reset the PRAM and try again?

[Macky-Mac]

its a new disk, the guy in pcworld said he was on copy number 4 and it still wouldn't install

ok, a new disk, but from where?

Did it come with somebody's computer? or was it bought as a full retail disk direct from apple? The error message you're getting is quite common when trying to install using a disk that came with a computer. Usually it means you're trying to install on a different hardware configuration than the disk was shipped with.

If you bought it from an Apple retail store or an authorized reseller, then it could be a defective disk and you should return it to them.

And if you bought it "new" from somebody on ebay or whatever, than you might have been sold a restore disk and not a valid retail disk, or it could be a pirated copy of a restore disk, or it's simply a defective disk.

[fev]

cheers guys, will return it and try again then.

[aross99]

This seems very strange. I have installed leopard on a MBP and two MB's with no trouble. Did you do anything to the formatting/partition info for Boot Camp or anything, or is it setup as it came originally?

[fev]

I've changed nothing. Like i said, I asked an advisor in pcworld and he'd had the same problem with several copies that he'd bought from the store. He said he'd even tried a downloaded version to see if that solved the issue.... NO!
Same problem. I've borrowed a friends restore diskd for the same comp as mine:

macbook 2.0ghz etc... the only diff is i have more ram and a larger hd.

same issue

[aross99]

Maybe there is some issue with your DVD drive?

What about using Firewire Target disk mode from another computer? That is connecting your computer to a 2nd one using a firewire cable, and then booting yours so that it looks like an external disk to the host computer.

Then you can install leopard on your system, as if it were a disk on the host.

Seems kind of a long shot, but it seems weird that you could have a bad installer DVD, with out getting some type of DVD read error...

Any change your drive is NOT partioned as GUID? I thought that was a requirement for Intel machines, but maybe that has somethign to do with it? You could check that with Disk utility.