Help with Formatting new Hard Drive in iBook G4

[drackley]

I installed a new hard drive into my wife's older iBook G4 since the HD that came with the machine was only 30GB and was max'ed out shortly after we added some applications and photos. (Never should have bought such a small hard drive in the 1st place!) The new hard drive is an 80GB hard drive I bought online. I turned on the machine and got the question mark (?) blinking with something else on the 1st screen that came up. I proceeded to insert the original iBook OSX install cds. First I cleared the hard drive under disk utility and then the computer recognized the new drive. Then installation began. Got through the first disk no problem. Then it restarted and asked for disk two, which I inserted. Then, if it decided to start installing from disk 2 (it kept going back and forth before it actually started disk two installation), it would get about 75% through the disk two installation and I keep getting a message saying 'There were errors installing the software'. I have tried to eject and re-insert the cd and I get the same message. I started from scratch by re-booting, wiping the hard drive clean again and started with disk one, only to get to disk two and encounter the same problem.

Can anyone help me out? I don't want to take this computer in and pay a service company to get me straight. This is an experiment to see if I could upgrade the hard drive and memory to make a slower/older machine perform better. We really only use it for organizing photos, surfing the net, office applications, etc. We have two other computers in the house so it's not like this is an emergency but I am anal and want to make it work! Any help would be great? Am I doing something wrong?

 

[Eidorian]

Enable full logging and read what it logs when it errors out. It's tough sorting out what goes wrong during installation sometimes. I hope it's not a bad installation disc.

 

[drackley]

Sorry...but how do I enable logging? I don't have many options right now without having any operating system on the computer?

 

[Eidorian]

Sorry...but how do I enable logging? I don't have many options right now without having any operating system on the computer?

You can enable the advanced logging options when booted off of the OS X installer discs. You'll have to enable the full logging because it's not default

 

[html]

Be very very very careful!

I have found that when formatting hard discs, especially on the macintosh, you must be very careful. Use a PPC native OS X install disc and disc utility to reformat. In other words, try again.

You may want to try a newer version of the OS, but have no DVD drive. In this case, get a firewire cord and a friend's mac handy. Plug the cord into each of your computers. It should look like this:

|-----------| +++++++++++++++++
| | +++++++ ++++++++
| | - - +++++++++++++++++
|------------| +++++++++++++++++

Then, use target disc mode. When both computers are on, restart the iBook and wait for the chime. Then press and T until this appears on the screen. The ibook will appear as a firewire HD. Restart the other machine with the disc in and tell it to install onto the firewire disc. It will want to boot onto the ibook's HD afterwards. Go ahead and do this, although it will look really weird. Then, shut down and boot up the ibook. There may be a kernel panic looking something like this or displaying the message "Panic we are hanging here". Restart and it should work fine. One further note: the other computer must be PPC.

 

[drackley]

Sorry...I'm claim to be pretty savvy with computers but not when it gets real technical. What do you mean by PPC Native OSX install disk? I am using the OSX install discs that came with the computer...should I be using something else?

 

[html]

Sorry...I'm claim to be pretty savvy with computers but not when it gets real technical. What do you mean by PPC Native OSX install disk? I am using the OSX install discs that came with the computer...should I be using something else?

My new version should explain things better, but I really suggest you consider putting on at least panther or maybe even tiger. Just make sure the version you buy is for powerPC macs as opposed to the new intel ones. You won't have that kind of problem with panther.

 

[drackley]

I have found that when formatting hard discs, especially on the macintosh, you must be very careful. Use a PPC native OS X install disc and disc utility to reformat. In other words, try again.

You may want to try a newer version of the OS, but have no DVD drive. In this case, get a firewire cord and a friend's mac handy. Plug the cord into each of your computers. It should look like this:

|-----------| +++++++++++++++++
| | +++++++ ++++++++
| | - - +++++++++++++++++
|------------| +++++++++++++++++

Then, use target disc mode. When both computers are on, restart the iBook and wait for the chime. Then press and T until this appears on the screen. The ibook will appear as a firewire HD. Restart the other machine with the disc in and tell it to install onto the firewire disc. It will want to boot onto the ibook's HD afterwards. Go ahead and do this, although it will look really weird. Then, shut down and boot up the ibook. There may be a kernel panic looking something like this or displaying the message "Panic we are hanging here". Restart and it should work fine. One further note: the other computer must be PPC.

Ok...I read about this a little bit. I actually, just today, got a new Macbook 13" white but it is an intel based machine. I do have another PowerBook G4 here at the house that I believe is a PowerPC. I don't think I have a two sided firewire cable but can go get one. So you are saying put the install disc into the PowerBook? Also, I have two other OSX install discs, one from my sister's Black Macbook and the one's that came with my White Macbook I just got today. You're saying use one of these discs or use the original iBook G4 install discs?

 

[drackley]

HTML...

I went out and bought a firewire cable and have tried to boot the way you mentioned. I have my iBook G4 in target mode (firewire symbol bouncing around...this is the machine that I installed the new hard drive and am trying to format) and connected to my PowerBook G4. I restarted that computer (which has the OS X installation disk in its drive) and it tries to start the installation process. After I select the language, the installation screen pops up and then reads "Alert, This software cannot be installed on this computer"

I don't want to install the software on the PowerBook...how do I tell the PowerBook to install on the Firewire drive? Do I need to do something different?

Anyone...Please Help!!!

 

[html]

HTML...

I went out and bought a firewire cable and have tried to boot the way you mentioned. I have my iBook G4 in target mode (firewire symbol bouncing around...this is the machine that I installed the new hard drive and am trying to format) and connected to my PowerBook G4. I restarted that computer (which has the OS X installation disk in its drive) and it tries to start the installation process. After I select the language, the installation screen pops up and then reads "Alert, This software cannot be installed on this computer"

I don't want to install the software on the PowerBook...how do I tell the PowerBook to install on the Firewire drive? Do I need to do something different?

Anyone...Please Help!!!

Sorry -

I may have not explained very well. You will need to purchase tiger or panther from a website like amazon . The complication is this: you cannot use a restore disc because the software on the disc will detect it is not being restored onto the right mac. I hope this helps. Good luck!

 

[ftaok]

It might be that the 80GB HDD is faulty ... not likely, but possible.

Also, what did you do with the 30GB HDD? You could always throw that into a FW enclosure (I recommend the Macally PHR-250CC ~$35) and boot from the old HDD. This will allow you to clone your 30GB HDD onto the 80GB HDD using SuperDuper (my recommendation) or CarbonCopyCloner.

After the cloning process, just shutdown and remove the 30GB HDD and reboot.

If that doesn't work, I would suspect a faulty 80GB HDD.

 

[kennyli]

HTML...

I went out and bought a firewire cable and have tried to boot the way you mentioned. I have my iBook G4 in target mode (firewire symbol bouncing around...this is the machine that I installed the new hard drive and am trying to format) and connected to my PowerBook G4. I restarted that computer (which has the OS X installation disk in its drive) and it tries to start the installation process. After I select the language, the installation screen pops up and then reads "Alert, This software cannot be installed on this computer"

I don't want to install the software on the PowerBook...how do I tell the PowerBook to install on the Firewire drive? Do I need to do something different?

Anyone...Please Help!!!

Lets make it more simple .......... because the Installation DVD for the Macbook that came with it and in normal condition, it won't allow you to install in other machine.

If you have a firewire cable, just use Carbon Copier to transfer the whole harddrive, including the OS X in your PowerBook to the iBook you wanted to install the new OS.

Make sure you format the iBook harddrive before the transfer. Use Disk Utility to format the iBook in target mode. Select right OS to be installed in "Option" before format the diskdrive. If not, you hang forever in the white apple screen.