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Trying to install Leopard on a Powerbook

A

akhamish

macrumors newbie
Original poster
Sep 17, 2009
11
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I just bought a copy of leopard to install on my old 1.33 Ghz Powerbook G4 but it hasn't been working. My laptop meets all of the system requirements. When I open the installer it prompts me that my computer will restart and then install the new OS, but when the computer reboots nothing happens, no dialog box or installer menu pops up. My internal drive is broken so I've been using an external DVD drive to try the install. I know the OSX install disk is good because it worked on my friend's MBP (it's a family pack so I haven't used up my install). Is it possible that using an external disk drive is what is preventing my install? If so, is there any remedy to this, short of paying to get the internal drive fixed?
Thanks
 
It's USB... if this is the problem, is there a way to fix it without repairing the internal ($$$), a drive with a Firewire connection perhaps?
 
USB is the problem. You cannot boot off of USB. Only firewire.

Or the internal drive.

I have a great combo drive (cd burning/dvd playing) from a Powerbook
and I have a superdrive (both dvd/cd burners) from a Powerbook that you can have real cheap. Opening up the 15" Powerbook is not that big of a deal.
 
It's a 13" Powerbook, does that make a difference in terms of opening it up?
 
Your friend should pay for their copy of Leopard. Family pack means :

* The Family Pack Software License Agreement allows you to install and use one copy of the Apple software on up to a maximum of five (5) Apple-labeled computers at a time as long as those computers are located in the same household and used by persons who occupy that household. By “household” we mean a person or persons who share the same housing unit such as a home, apartment, mobile home, or condominium, including student members who are primary residents of that household but reside at a separate on-campus location. This license does not extend to business or commercial users.
 
optophobia said:
Your friend should pay for their copy of Leopard. Family pack means :

* The Family Pack Software License Agreement allows you to install and use one copy of the Apple software on up to a maximum of five (5) Apple-labeled computers at a time as long as those computers are located in the same household and used by persons who occupy that household. By “household” we mean a person or persons who share the same housing unit such as a home, apartment, mobile home, or condominium, including student members who are primary residents of that household but reside at a separate on-campus location. This license does not extend to business or commercial users.
Click to expand...

My friend is my roommate who shares our apartment
 
akhamish said:
My friend is my roommate who shares our apartment
Click to expand...

Well thats good then. My bad for "assuming" since most people refer to their roommates as roommates :cool:

Did you try loading leopard using "sharing" their dvd drive off a network ? Someone had mentioned to try that for me since I had a similar issue to you, since my dvd drive was broken.
 
optophobia said:
Well thats good then. My bad for "assuming" since most people refer to their roommates as roommates :cool:

Did you try loading leopard using "sharing" their dvd drive off a network ? Someone had mentioned to try that for me since I had a similar issue to you, since my dvd drive was broken.
Click to expand...

Hmmm that sounds interesting, did it work/how'd you do it?
 
I was able to install Leopard last night by connecting to a MB through firewire and starting it up in Target Disk Mode. Thanks for all your input!
 
Replacing internal batter not too difficult on PB 12"

If you need to replace the internal hard drive, it's not too difficult. There are instructions on-line. I needed to replace my Powerbook 12" hard drive and installed a larger HD. Since the cost of hard drives is fairly reasonable today, it just made sense to try the replacement myself too. I've also upgraded my PB from Tiger to Leopard... apps now run faster with Leopard than they did with Tiger..
 
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