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Just got a 17 inch imac G4
- Thread starter elf69
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Well yes it boots from my disc with external drive.
But if I open utilities and try format the drive..... the utilities box disappears if i click format.
I am left with just the background, no menu bar either!
3 hours still nothing so power down.
same happens if try install 10.5 over the top of 10.3
bad 10.5 disc or failing ide hdd is my guess.
Really want get 10.5 on it though.
other option connect my 2007 imac to the G4 via firewire (if G4 supports target mode) and install 10.5 that way?
But if I open utilities and try format the drive..... the utilities box disappears if i click format.
I am left with just the background, no menu bar either!
3 hours still nothing so power down.
same happens if try install 10.5 over the top of 10.3
bad 10.5 disc or failing ide hdd is my guess.
Really want get 10.5 on it though.
other option connect my 2007 imac to the G4 via firewire (if G4 supports target mode) and install 10.5 that way?
That's what I would try at this point.
If that falls through, than it's almost certainly a bad drive, and at THAT point, I'd start exploring possibilities to use a SATA drive with an IDE converter, or perhaps an IDE SSD. But certainly not purchased 10+ year old IDE drives pulled from other machines just waiting to fail as well. Thankfully, none of my installed IDE drives have appeared to have anything wrong with them, but in the off chance they give up, I'll know where to look.
HD replacement shouldn't be too difficult, if you follow iFixit. All you essentially have to do is open it up, take the optical drive out, and swap out the HD. I'd get a little dust busting done while in there as well. Hope I was helpful.
I pulled apart the 15" dead G4 at work so got idea what to find in the 17" one.
Yes I'd fit a small SSD with IDE adaptor in there. They are cheap enough now to do this.
machine worked on 10.3 before tinkering ok so I THINK the drive is ok but it is IDE o gonna be old.
A change of drive cannot hurt.
I'll try with my other imac first though. If works then I upgrade drive after.
The 10.5 disc was used to reinstall my ibook last year so it WAS ok then.
Been in a storage case since so I'm hoping it still ok.
Yes I'd fit a small SSD with IDE adaptor in there. They are cheap enough now to do this.
machine worked on 10.3 before tinkering ok so I THINK the drive is ok but it is IDE o gonna be old.
A change of drive cannot hurt.
I'll try with my other imac first though. If works then I upgrade drive after.
The 10.5 disc was used to reinstall my ibook last year so it WAS ok then.
Been in a storage case since so I'm hoping it still ok.
If your disc was only sitting in a case for a year then it should be fine. Don't worry.
Well trying one more time with usb DVD drive.
It booted from it and asked it to install OSX (not upgrade).
45 mins later have the blue and white scrolling bat still going with "time remaining: Calculating" under it.
Put hand on DVD drive and fell no vibrations.
Is this normal?
Is it just formatting the HDD before install?
It booted from it and asked it to install OSX (not upgrade).
45 mins later have the blue and white scrolling bat still going with "time remaining: Calculating" under it.
Put hand on DVD drive and fell no vibrations.
Is this normal?
Is it just formatting the HDD before install?
Do you know your USB optical drive is functional? And have you tried installing it via target disk mode from another Mac?
yes the usb drive is the drive from my 2007 imac in a caddy.
the drive is 100% and has been used to reinstall the imac in past.
I have another external drive I'm gonna try.
I'm also going to grab a firewire 6 to 6 from work and use my ibook g4 to reinstall it via target mode.
I used this very disc to install 10.5 on the ibook g4.
or make a time machine of the ibook g4 and put that on the imac g4.
not out of options yet
another thing I like about OSX over windows!
the drive is 100% and has been used to reinstall the imac in past.
I have another external drive I'm gonna try.
I'm also going to grab a firewire 6 to 6 from work and use my ibook g4 to reinstall it via target mode.
I used this very disc to install 10.5 on the ibook g4.
or make a time machine of the ibook g4 and put that on the imac g4.
not out of options yet
another thing I like about OSX over windows!
right so....
internal optical, boots from disc and preparing to install with blue and white progress bar for 3 hours plus!
external usb optical from 2007 imac, same as with internal drive.
external usb optical from a windows laptop, same as with internal drive
external firewire optical (acer brand), same as with external.
Conclusion, failing internal IDE HDD?
Tried with 10.4 and 10.5 install media.
Weekend will try target mode and my ibook to try install.
before tried all this it booted and worked fine from internal HDD.
This does not mean the HDD is without fault of course.
Will update after weekend.
internal optical, boots from disc and preparing to install with blue and white progress bar for 3 hours plus!
external usb optical from 2007 imac, same as with internal drive.
external usb optical from a windows laptop, same as with internal drive
external firewire optical (acer brand), same as with external.
Conclusion, failing internal IDE HDD?
Tried with 10.4 and 10.5 install media.
Weekend will try target mode and my ibook to try install.
before tried all this it booted and worked fine from internal HDD.
This does not mean the HDD is without fault of course.
Will update after weekend.
Well dug out the ibook G4.
Will not boot from my 10.5 disc either so bad disc.
This very disc was used to install on the ibook so it's gone bad.
Imac still boots into 10.3 fine.
Cannot find 10.5 online so will buy from ebay.
Will not boot from my 10.5 disc either so bad disc.
This very disc was used to install on the ibook so it's gone bad.
Imac still boots into 10.3 fine.
Cannot find 10.5 online so will buy from ebay.
The Leopard 10.5 DVD’s are dual layer disks. Many of the G4 Mac’s including some of the earlier iMacs don’t have DVD drives that can read dual layer disks. That might be your problem.
and leopard dmg files can be DL'd from macintosh garden, so no need to buy a new disc unless you want to. I think TDM is your best bet. I went the other way with mine and cloned my leopard image from my PB17G4 to my MiniG4 to my ImacG4 via FW TDM. My Mac mini has turned out to be an incredibly useful low power PPC TDM cloning box.
Best of luck to you.
Best of luck to you.
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