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Installing OS X on older iMac

J

joetronic

macrumors 6502
Original poster
Dec 9, 2004
419
0
New Oxford, PA
I have a old 333mhz tray loading iMac just sitting around. I have a extra copy of OS 10.1 from a old mac that had died. Is there anyway I can install this on the iMac. When I try to run the installer from OS 9.2.2 the system says it will reboot, the icons blink, then nothing happens. Aslo, it will not let me boot form the CD. I thought the only requierment form OS 10.1 was a biult in USB port and 128m of ram. This system has 256m and biult in USB so I don't see why it will not let me. Any ideas?

Joe
 
Usually the install CDs from one computer won't work with another. You need a generic, store-bought version. Did you save the HD on the dead mac? Sometimes putting the old HD in a different computer will work.
 
This was a generic store bought copy. The old mac was a G3 B&W. And no, I didnt keep the HDD like a moron. Should I try installing from freshly erased drive, or don't you think thats the issue?
 
Try starting off of the CD... if you can, then wipe the hard drive clean.

And wordmunger was referring to installing the HD into another Mac, installing 10.1 onto the hard drive there, and then moving the hard drive back. I think.

If you can't start off of the CD you are toast... sorry.
 
I installed 10.3 on an old 333 imac. I know when i put the cd in OS 8.6 and it said it will restart all i got was a no symbol. But when i just put the CD in and held down the C key while it was starting, everything worked just fine.
 
I'll try installing the HDD into another machine and installing tonight. If I can get it to boot from a 10.3 disk, but not a 10.1 disk, could the cd be the problem?
 
this is slightly off topic, but i would drop a few dollars on some more memory. 256 is only going to make you very angry because it will be very s l o w. i've got 512 in my 233 imac, and it still brings me to tears every now and again. i'm gonna get a new mac one day......... i wish my bondi blue baby would just break.
 
Thom_Edwards said:
this is slightly off topic, but i would drop a few dollars on some more memory. 256 is only going to make you very angry because it will be very s l o w. i've got 512 in my 233 imac, and it still brings me to tears every now and again. i'm gonna get a new mac one day......... i wish my bondi blue baby would just break.
Click to expand...

Good point. this system is really only gonna be for backing up some data while I am doing a certain project. I might get anouther 128 though, just for a little more speed if anything.
 
I installed 10.3 (with all updates bringing it to 10.3.6) on my parents 333 rev a iMac. It has a 6 gig hard drive and 512 MB RAM. I did a custom install. I left out iMovie and most of the other apps because my parents only need it for e-mail and surfing the net.

I booted right off of the 10.3 CD and the install went flawlessly. I installed the drivers for their Epson printer and it went smoothly. So, I hope you get more RAM for the iMac because it's going to be very sluggish with 256 MB.
 
Actually I was suggesting installing the G3's HD in the iMac, and just running with that. But putting the iMac's drive in another computer could work as well.

Another option, if you have a lot of spare time, would be to use carbon copy cloner to duplicate the HD of another machine onto the iMac. But the 333's don't have firewire, do they, so it could take a while. Also, the stock 6GB HD may be a bit small. Doable, I think, but it'll be cramped.

Another possibility: could you do a network install?

BTW, I'm running Panther on a 233 iBook with only 192 MB of RAM. It's fine as long as you only run one or two apps at once.
 
Check the Firmware!

Hi there.

first of all you should check whether the iMac has the latest firmware installed. If it doesn't, your Mac will not run at all after you installed OSX. I think the latest Firmware-version is 1.2 but check Apples Website first.

I did this with four 333mhz iMacs about a month ago. By the way, they all have 160MB ram and run just fine when you open just one or two programmes. Just don't expect any wonders.

Lars
 
joetronic said:
wordmunger said:
Another possibility: could you do a network install?
Click to expand...

That sounds doable, but have never done it with a MAc before, only linux and windows. how would I go about his, or a few good pointers and I should be able to figure it out.
Click to expand...

Looking around a bit, it looks like you may need Mac OS 10.3 server to do this. Sorry if I pointed you in the wrong direction. I think the carbon copy cloner option would work, though--provided you've got the right firmware, as crush7 points out. Perhaps that's the source of all your problems.
 
I think I might have a solution... I know it sounds sketchy, but just keep restarting over and over again until it works. We have an old B&W G3, and I was trying to install 10.0 public beta on it before I had a copy of 10.3, and the first couple times I did it, it did exactly what you described. I just sat there one day for 10-15 minutes restarting over and over again holding down the CD key, and it eventually worked. Don't know what the problem was, or why that worked... But give it a shot! :D
 
i can't find the firmware. Is there anyware that has these archived besides apple? i think I am going to try this first, then go through all the other options.
 
Well, I updated the firmware to 1.2, then did what Littleodie914 said and its booting from the cd as we speak. but damn its taking forever. So....if all goes well i will be ableo install.

oh yeah, it took like 20 reboots holding the c key before it took at booted.

wish me well *crosses fingers*
 
okay, no go. It sat at the "preraring to install OS X" all night. And if it takes this long to install, I don't think I want ot even try running OS X on this machine. I guess I'll have to stick with 9.2.2.

For those who said they have installed on a 333iMac before, did it take this long?
 
how big is the hard drive on that machine? if I remember you have to install OS X on a drive or partition that's no bigger 8GB on that machine

installing OS X on my 400 iMac was maybe 45 to 60 min max from start to finish
 
Power PC G3 400/use of slots

Greetings...
General question. My Older Graphite is working fine. I filled each slot with a 128 card. Is running on Os X.2.8 No problems.

Can I pull the two 128 cards and then

1. put in a bigger single memory card (say a 256) in one of the slots? (If so, does Apple sell them?)

2. Can I then install an Airport card in the other slot? (I think I need an adapter).

Want to get a few more miles out of this machine. It just keeps working.
 
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