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How Do I clean install Tiger on a G4 without DVD player?

C

coop

macrumors member
Original poster
Mar 2, 2006
40
0
I've spent the last few hours using Google and searching the forum for information on installing Tiger on 2 G4 towers at my office that do not have DVD capabilities. I converted a G3 and G4 tower with DVD sucessfully, but am scared of the non DVD drive conversion.

Currently the G4s have OS 9.2 on them if that makes a difference. The way I see it is that I can buy one external firewire DVD drive and connect it to the computer. However I will have to move the harddrives to the DVD Drive. The other way would to be to buy an internal superdrives for the 2G4s which would be the safest way. I looked at MacWarehouse (CDW) for a superdrive but could not find one.

These G4s have to get us through the next year until we can move to intel macs hopefully.

Has anyone sucessfully CLEAN installed via an external firewire drive or do I need to go via the other route? Does it take long to swamp a CD Drive for a DVD drive? We do have a programmer/ IT person who is swamped right now so I don't want to make too much work for him or if putting a drive in is like putting in memory, I can do it.

Thanks for any advice!
 
Tiger

You can just get the cd version of osx 10.4 (tiger) i did it ffor my friend and it only costs 15$AUD for postage and handling if not there are other ways to do it ill try and find the file I have and i will pm it to you
 
coop said:
I've spent the last few hours using Google and searching the forum for information on installing Tiger on 2 G4 towers at my office that do not have DVD capabilities. I converted a G3 and G4 tower with DVD sucessfully, but am scared of the non DVD drive conversion.
Click to expand...

Option 1: Get CD install media. Apple used to have a program that allowed you to swap your DVD media for CD media + $10 shipping and handling. This program ended in June 2005 from what I can tell, but a call to Apple may point you in the right direction.

Alternatively, you can purchase Tiger on CD media from several Mac speciality stores. Google for "OS X 10.4 on CD" or some similar phrases.

coop said:
Does it take long to swamp a CD Drive for a DVD drive? We do have a programmer/ IT person who is swamped right now so I don't want to make too much work for him or if putting a drive in is like putting in memory, I can do it.
Click to expand...

No, the swap is simple: power down the computer, open the case, disconnect three cables from the CD drive, unscrew (usually 4) screws to remove the CD drive, put DVD in position ensuring it lines up with the front case, secure drive using the screws you removed, connect the three cables (the cables only fit one way), replace computer case.

I've always been happy with the drives and service I get from Other World Computing. They will also include illustrated instructions on how to install your new drive. For what its worth, it looks like a pair of internal DVD-R drives would be less than an external firewire DVD.
 
You can use FireWire target disk mode and install in from another Mac onto the target machine.
 
Thanks for the advice. The external drive from macwarehouse was $110 so two internal DVD drives are about the same price. It sounds like this is the safest way to go since I have to buy something.

Okay the superdrives are sounding good. Since this hopefully is a one time install, I can go with the cheapest one, right?

Also, the pioneer one is beige, will I have a beige DVD slot or do you put the gray quicksilver plastic over the front?

While I am at it, I need to buy memory for the G4, can I buy 2nd hand memory from one of these two stores so I don't have to ship seperately? Which brand do you recommend? I got simpletech for my Intel iMac and it is working great.

Thanks again
 
i would buy the DVD drives from newegg. However memory, i would buy from macsales.com [OWC]. since, you are using two G4's [i assume they are the same PC100?] i would try and find backwards compatable PC133/100 memory modules. that way you can use them in a some-what newer G4 [one with a 133 bus, or the older 100 bus].

You might have good luck finding cheaper memory through newegg, but i have only bought a couple of sticks from them for my newer Dual G4 1.42 Mac.

Good Luck, Ryan
 
DVD drive installed

I just wanted to give an update in case anyone else has to do this. Changing the CD drive to a DVD drive is easy. It was only a few screws. My biggest problem was how to unhook the front access panel from the computer (pushing two clips). There was also a Quicktime move on the apple site of them doing this on my specific computer.

I was able to clean install Tiger on the computer without problem.

Thanks for all the advice. I have installed Tiger on a few computers now and my only suggestion to anyone with a G4 or G3 is to make sure you have 512K of memory. It really wasn't too expensive and while I was ordering memory for the G4 I got some for our last OSX G3 and it cut down the power on load time from 3 minutes to 58 seconds. I had 384K previously.

I know that we are late on the upgrades and using older computers but we have been waiting for the Intel switch.

Our two Intel macs are running well, but the rest will wait for native Office and Filemaker :)
 
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