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Upgraded PowerBook SSD reinstall.

A

Archduk3

macrumors member
Original poster
Feb 7, 2012
56
0
So I felt it was time to upgrade my 12" PowerBook with ssd and more ram. And that worked. But then I realized I had to reinstall it. My PB of course has a broken DVD so I busted out my dmg of the disc and put it on a USB stick. Manage to boot and everything, BUT!

When I want to install to the ssd drive it claims it can't unmount the drive.

The image was made with a mbp, does that create a problem intel vs ppc?

Or is it the fact me using USB that I can't unmount solely run on the stick to install. I have a FireWire drive that I haven't tried to use yet but I am about to try, if that does not work, what is my last resort?
 
Archduk3 said:
So I felt it was time to upgrade my 12" PowerBook with ssd and more ram. And that worked. But then I realized I had to reinstall it. My PB of course has a broken DVD so I busted out my dmg of the disc and put it on a USB stick. Manage to boot and everything, BUT!

When I want to install to the ssd drive it claims it can't unmount the drive.

The image was made with a mbp, does that create a problem intel vs ppc?

Or is it the fact me using USB that I can't unmount solely run on the stick to install. I have a FireWire drive that I haven't tried to use yet but I am about to try, if that does not work, what is my last resort?
Click to expand...

No bump. I just need to add more info. My friend has the 10.5 first edition disk and that didn't work either. But the tiger 10.4.6 found the drive and could start install at least. What is the issue?
 
I would try the following

Cloning over your previous install?
Getting an external CD drive
Sticking the SSD into an external firewire case


Which SSD did you buy? Is it SATA? how did you connect it to the PB? Maybe the connector bridge is faulty?
 
Archduk3 said:
How did you do it then?
Click to expand...

I used Carbon Copy to clone the content of an existing install, but also did regular install from an iPod (restored install disk). That was a 32GB Runcore iV SSD as far as I remember, btw, I think make and model matters in a mac.

If you have it in your PB, then I would clone the system from the old HD to see if it boots ok.
 
pistooli said:
I used Carbon Copy to clone the content of an existing install, but also did regular install from an iPod (restored install disk). That was a 32GB Runcore iV SSD as far as I remember, btw, I think make and model matters in a mac.

If you have it in your PB, then I would clone the system from the old HD to see if it boots ok.
Click to expand...

Ok so I installed leopard to the FW drive. Started cloning, all worked well until 2.32 gb, got stuck at some stupid icns file and has been stuck for an hour now.

Ideas?

Epson scanner icns just do you know.
 
Last edited:
charlieroberts said:
I would try the following

Cloning over your previous install?
Getting an external CD drive
Sticking the SSD into an external firewire case


Which SSD did you buy? Is it SATA? how did you connect it to the PB? Maybe the connector bridge is faulty?
Click to expand...

It's the owc 40 gig IDE drive which I do know is compatible. I didn't install it, had it done at the apple repair dealer.
 
Update!

Cloning worked I guess. But now when I start without the FW drive I just get stuck at the grey apple.
 
well. if the PB boots from the freshly installed Firewire drive, and after cloning that to the SSD it does not boot...

try to boot in verbose mode to see possible error messages.
 
pistooli said:
well. if the PB boots from the freshly installed Firewire drive, and after cloning that to the SSD it does not boot...

try to boot in verbose mode to see possible error messages.
Click to expand...

Is there any special way you have to clone it to make is bootable?
 
if your ssd (target) is partitioned as Apple Partition Map (not guid, not mbr), then cloning will make it bootable. I personaly use Carbon Copy.
 
pistooli said:
if your ssd (target) is partitioned as Apple Partition Map (not guid, not mbr), then cloning will make it bootable. I personaly use Carbon Copy.
Click to expand...

So I tried carboncopy by itself on the powerbook. It completed but did not manage to make it bootable. Just got stuck at the grey apple with the thinking bar.

Then I hooked it up to my MBP and put the powerbook into target mode and tried again, it even went worse, carbon copy was slower, and superduper refused to go further than 160 files.

Whats next suggestion?

I mentioned this all to the guys at OWC and they said that if this didn't work they claimed the drive to be broken :/
 
Archduk3 said:
So I tried carboncopy by itself on the powerbook. It completed but did not manage to make it bootable. Just got stuck at the grey apple with the thinking bar.

Then I hooked it up to my MBP and put the powerbook into target mode and tried again, it even went worse, carbon copy was slower, and superduper refused to go further than 160 files.

Whats next suggestion?

I mentioned this all to the guys at OWC and they said that if this didn't work they claimed the drive to be broken :/
Click to expand...

If you are sure you formatted in APM it's a partition option in Disk Utility not just GUID, then send it back..CCC dor Super Duper will copy the partition map nor will they give you an alert saying its not right because it is just not for PowerPC. If your sure everything was done correctly send it back, something is not right it's just not this hard.
 
GermanyChris said:
If you are sure you formatted in APM it's a partition option in Disk Utility not just GUID, then send it back..CCC dor Super Duper will copy the partition map nor will they give you an alert saying its not right because it is just not for PowerPC. If your sure everything was done correctly send it back, something is not right it's just not this hard.
Click to expand...

Ok, I guess thats it :(

I'll do a last teest using superduper through the powerbook instead of the mbp and see if it helps.
 
Archduk3 said:
Ok, I guess thats it :(

I'll do a last teest using superduper through the powerbook instead of the mbp and see if it helps.
Click to expand...

The only reason I ask about the APM is it's easy to forget..

I have SSD in all my intels, and have replaced the HDD in all of the PowerPC's and I've never had to go through the machinations that you have..You have far more patience than I do.
 
GermanyChris said:
The only reason I ask about the APM is it's easy to forget..

I have SSD in all my intels, and have replaced the HDD in all of the PowerPC's and I've never had to go through the machinations that you have..You have far more patience than I do.
Click to expand...

Well being a poor student is excuse I guess.

Contacted OWC customer support and basically the gave me a return number in less than a minute. I guess thanks to that Apple forums link posted before in the thread we know it isn't just a one time event.

New drive will arrive in 2 weeks hopefully. And if that does not work, I dont know what to do.

Luckily I have my 5400 rpm drive left so I can still use it.
 
Last edited:
Archduk3 said:
Well being a poor student is excuse I guess.

Contacted OWC customer support and basically the gave me a return number in less than a minute. I guess thanks to that Apple forums link posted before in the thread we know it isn't just a one time event.

New drive will arrive in 2 weeks hopefully. And if that does not work, I dont know what to do.

Luckily I have my 5400 rpm drive left so I can still use it.
Click to expand...

My gut feeling is you probably paid about as much for your OWC SSD as I did for any one of the 3 SSD I have..It's just needs/wants/desires in relation to income. Hopefully the new one goes better! That SSD would make that PB FLY!
 
I really would love to know the final result. I was considering buying the very same type of ssd from OWC for my iBook. They advertise those for PBs and iBooks.

Please let us know whenever your replacement drives arrives and installed.
 
pistooli said:
I really would love to know the final result. I was considering buying the very same type of ssd from OWC for my iBook. They advertise those for PBs and iBooks.

Please let us know whenever your replacement drives arrives and installed.
Click to expand...

I will.

Also I will ask the repair guys to test the drive to see what's wrong if in best case they just attached it wrong :/
 
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