New hard drive has problem booting on G5!!!

dorkmaster01 · Jun 24, 2010

I recently tried to switch drives to run the Operating System 10.4.6 on my 1st gen G5 1.8ghz.
The new drive(160GBs) is smaller than the old system drive(1TB) so I ran a 3rd party app to clone what I thought was the important stuff onto the new drive; but not everything because it wouldn't all fit. I moved everything that looked like it wasn't just a dumb folder with my media files on it. It seemed like I moved everything important on the new drive.

When I swapped out the drives in the top bay and booted the computer, the new drive didnt boot the OS,... instead it opened up a black screen that looked like some sort of terminal. I did something wrong and I cant figure out what : / Does anyone have better steps to take? Its not the end of the world to start over, but if anyone knows what I did wrong that would be super information! Thanks!!!!!
-Joel

bladerunner88 · Jun 24, 2010

Can you Boot the G5 from a System DVD? If so run Disk Utilities on the Boot Drive, Also from the DVD Run Startup Disk and select the Drive in the Upper Bay.

haravikk · Jun 24, 2010

Is there something wrong with the 1tb drive? To transition to a new drive you'd be best off having both in the machine at once, performing a fresh install onto the 160gb, then manually transferring what you need across from the 1tb drive.

It's very likely that you've missed some hidden files or folders somewhere, and a clean install is just generally the best idea when moving across to a new drive. If you can't put both drives in at once for whatever reason then you might want to get a SATA drive dock, I have one and it's great for connecting spare drives for extra storage, or accessing internal drives from a failed machine or whatever.

dorkmaster01 · Jun 24, 2010

Thanks, Bladerunner for the reply!! So is the problem that I didn't tell the computer that I was going to install a new drive, and now its confused? I'll try that when I get home from work. If that doesn't work, do you think I copied everything onto my new drive properly? Do you see any other reason it might not have worked?

bladerunner88 · Jun 24, 2010

Hi Dorkmaster,

Ya, it might be confused as its looking for the System on the other Drive. Also by selecting the new Drive as the Startup Drive you are confirming its the Boot Drive. And as Haravikk mentioned its always best to install a new System direct from a System DVD as its possible to miss some files. if your short on space you can always instal a minimal System from the DVD. Select custom Install and un-check the options you dont need.

dorkmaster01 · Jun 24, 2010

selecting the 160GB HD as the startup disk didnt seem to work. On the black screen it reads, "/etc/master.passwd: No such file or directory"

I tried to clone the drive again, and did my best to copy everything that seemed like it was part of the system and only excluding media files etc. Further ideas? I could always re-install the OS from the cd on the drive right? But the only problem with that would be that I'd lose all my current apps, settings, and other misc files, right?

666sheep · Jun 24, 2010

Seems like bad cloning. What sotware you are using to clone?

Best way should be clean install on 160 GB drive and use Migration Assistant to move Apps and user data from 1 TB to 160 GB. Check first how much space you'll need for your apps and other files.

DoFoT9 · Jun 25, 2010

cloning in such a way is probably a bad idea - as choosing what to copy may not make the drive bootable.

i would attempt to install the OS on there manually and go from there - just to make sure the actual drive is fine

dorkmaster01 · Jun 25, 2010

666sheep, Im using Carbon Copy Cloner. I was pretty intentional about making sure to get everything copied over that looked like it belonged to the system. I could have missed something, but I dont think so. I usually have about 7GBs to spare when I'm done moving everything onto the 160GB drive. I hope erasing it and cloning it over and over doesnt damage the drive. Also, the drive works fine when operating as a slave drive. I can access all the information and applications etc. Its just when I try to boot it as the system drive.

666sheep · Jun 25, 2010

There are some files that cannot be selected manually. Such as hidden files and folders: http://www.westwind.com/reference/os-x/invisibles.html
Best is clone entire drive or select all those files and folders after making them visible: http://www.macupdate.com/info.php/id/22318/show-hide-invisible-files

Other way is described here: http://support.apple.com/kb/TA20809?viewlocale=en_US - you can try this first, if it won't help test above methods.

bladerunner88 · Jun 25, 2010

I think you should try install from the CD/DVD OSX give you a number of options during the upgrade process to preserve your current settings. See Here:

http://support.apple.com/kb/HT1545?viewlocale=en_US

dorkmaster01 · Jun 26, 2010

I FIGURED IT OUT!!!! There was a hidden folder that I had missed. Due to the precarious name given "private". thanks for your help guys!

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