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spacepower7

macrumors 68000
Original poster
May 6, 2004
1,509
1
I'm trying to install 10.5 on a 1 TB SATA hard drive destined for a G5 that is being used for audio production.

Since the G5 is being used all weekend for production, I thought that I would get a head start. I put the 1 TB SATA drive in a USB 2.0 dock, connected to an old Dual G4. I ran a full surface scan (TechTool) to insure the integrity of the drive and it check out fine.

I formatted the drive HFS+ Journaled with an Apple Partition Map (needed to boot PPC Macs.)

The problem:

1.
I boot Dual G4 from Apple 10.5 disc but it won't install on the 1 TB SATA Drive in the USB dock because PPC Macs can't boot from USB.
Somewhat understandable, but it should just give a warning and let me continue in my opinion.

2. I change ideas, boot Intel-based Macbook off the Apple 10.5 disc. Now the OS won't install because an APM formatted drive cannot boot an Intel Mac.


Any ideas on how to install 10.5 on this SATA drive with out a computer that can hook up to it natively? Anyway to bypass the installer restrictions?

I'm trying to do this now so we don't have to waste all of Monday installing the OS and apps that I could be doing now.

I'm wondering about Apple Remote Desktop, if that could do it or if its more trouble?

Thanks for any advice.
 

longwood

macrumors regular
May 10, 2005
170
0
You could backup the contents of your current hard drive onto the external. You wouldn't have to install OSX in that case. Something like Carbon Copy Cloner or ChronoSync should do the trick.
 

spacepower7

macrumors 68000
Original poster
May 6, 2004
1,509
1
Thanks for the response.

We are actually upgrading both the OS 10.4.11 -> 10.5.8 as well as installing newer versions of all the audio software. For this reason, we would like to use a fresh install.

We are trying to do all this with a second system because the G5 is being used at the studio all weekend. I'd like to have all of the software installed onto the 1 TB drive so that on Monday, we can just open the G5, add the new hard drive and some RAM. I could do the software installs at home this weekend without the G5, if I could get around these issues with the installer disc.

Any other ideas?
 

MacHamster68

macrumors 68040
Sep 17, 2009
3,251
5
if you cant find a suitable firewire enclosure you should just put the harddrive into the G5 on monday early morning and install leopard onto that harddrive,job done , takes me not even a quarter day and i have a couple hundred apps to install and update , can all be done before breakfast at 9am if you start early ;)
 
Last edited:

Intell

macrumors P6
Jan 24, 2010
18,955
509
Inside
You can boot up PPC Macs via USB. All the way back to the G3 iMac. Just boot from then dvd or the internal hard drive and go to the Startup Pref Pane and select the USB drive.
 

iThinkergoiMac

macrumors 68030
Jan 20, 2010
2,664
4
Terra
I could never get my PowerBook G4 to boot via USB. Even if you can, the installer still won't let you install onto a USB drive, so it's a moot point.

A FW enclosure is really your only option, as far as I can tell (as others have said). If you can't find one, you'll just have to wait.
 

MacHamster68

macrumors 68040
Sep 17, 2009
3,251
5
You can boot up PPC Macs via USB. All the way back to the G3 iMac. Just boot from then dvd or the internal hard drive and go to the Startup Pref Pane and select the USB drive.


i heard rumors too about the possibility , but so far none of my PPC Mac's could be persuaded to boot from usb
 

Intell

macrumors P6
Jan 24, 2010
18,955
509
Inside
i heard rumors too about the possibility , but so far none of my PPC Mac's could be persuaded to boot from usb

Really? I got a Tibook, DV iMac 3G, APG G4, Cube, G4 iMac, and a iBook G3 to all boot via USB. The ones with USB 1.1 where very slow, but it worked.
 

MacHamster68

macrumors 68040
Sep 17, 2009
3,251
5
Really? I got a Tibook, DV iMac 3G, APG G4, Cube, G4 iMac, and a iBook G3 to all boot via USB. The ones with USB 1.1 where very slow, but it worked.

i have tried that right from my 2 iMac G3 600/700 with my 3 eMac's 1.42 with my iMac G5 , with my powerMac G5 2.3 , with my quicksilver with my mirror , to no avail they see the drive but even after hours no booting from a usb drive, when i put the same drive to firewire (drive has both usb and firewire , ad both are working as i use it like i have ports free ) booting within seconds
 

Intell

macrumors P6
Jan 24, 2010
18,955
509
Inside
i have tried that right from my 2 iMac G3 600/700 with my 3 eMac's 1.42 with my iMac G5 , with my powerMac G5 2.3 , with my quicksilver with my mirror , to no avail they see the drive but even after hours no booting from a usb drive, when i put the same drive to firewire (drive has both usb and firewire , ad both are working as i use it like i have ports free ) booting within seconds

You did boot from the internal drive first then selected the USB drive in the Startup Disk PrefPane? It doesn't work with the hold alt/option on boot part.
 

MacHamster68

macrumors 68040
Sep 17, 2009
3,251
5
You did boot from the internal drive first then selected the USB drive in the Startup Disk PrefPane? It doesn't work with the hold alt/option on boot part.

no it just doesn't boot from usb , and i dont know why some Mac's seem to boot from usb and others not , never mind i use anyway only firewire enclosures as they are faster to access , only one that is usb too , so i did try that out
 
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