Mac OS 10.5 Leopard on g4 ppc (help installing)

[pvcman]

Hi. Tried to find a post I done in May to update but it appears to be gone.

First update. I purchased 10.5 install DVD that I was willing to pay for. It's the black and purple DVD.

Ok, now for the problem. I have g4 ppc with mirror drive doors. 1 ghz. 768 ram and 60 gb hd with 10.2.8.

I pulled out he for 120 gb. The machine seems to be unable to see DVD. Will not start in DVD when pressing c on start up. Won't let me choose DVD when pressing option on start up. All I get is icon flashing ? Thing.

Is it possible that DVD drive is bad?

I have ext hd with FireWire. Can I do something with?

Look for any help I can.

 

[robbieduncan]

Mod note: I found your thread from May and merged this with it. Then I realised that thread had been deleted for discussing pirated copies of OSX. So I unmerged it again!

 

[DrakkenWar]

A few things then..

1. If it is really a retail install DVD of Leopard and your mac cannot see it, is your media drive at the very least a DVD-R?

2. Do you have another computer around where you can see if the disk is readable?

 

[tayloralmond]

My guess is the disk drive in your MDD is having trouble reading the Leopard DVD because it's a dual layer disk. I'm sure your MDD has a DVD drive, but it's most likely a Combo drive (burns cd's/only reads dvd's)...from what I understand, some of the older combo drives don't work well with dual layer DVDs.

 

[Intell]

Does the optical drive read DVDs at all? Like a commercial DVD movie? Some G4 era DVD drives stop reading DVDs as they age. This problem is most common with iMac G4's and eMacs. But it could also effect PowerMac G4's.

 

[Zeke D]

If your optical is not compatible, you can use another unit with OSX and a dual-layer DVD reader and use disk utility to copy the installer to an 8GB flash drive. I have used this method with retail disks of tiger and leopard to install on G3 imacs, G4 eMacs and PM G4 towers.

there are many guides on the net to do this, I just did a quick froogle and saw this one:
http://www.maciverse.com/install-boot-os-x-leopard-from-a-usb-flash-drive.html

 

[Lil Chillbil]

or you could do it the hard and stupid way

first buy another g4 with the compatible reader
switch its drive with your g4s hard drive
install the software onto that hard drive
and then just switch them back and you have just installed leopard on your g4 tower

 

[tayloralmond]

If you find out for sure it's the disk drive, I'd recommend purchasing a DVD-R DL drive and installing it. You can get them all day long for $30US. I pulled a DVD-R DL drive from my old PC tower and put it in my MDD with no problems whatsoever. MDD's have generic drive support so you won't need any drivers whatsoever. Then, you wouldn't ever have to worry about being able to install the Leopard from the retail DVD again.

 

[647156]

Alternatively if it is that it is not reading the DL DVD (test the disc in another machine and test a single-layer DVD in the G4 to confirm) you can convert the Leopard disc to single-layer by reburning it without things like Xcode, languages and printer drivers that you don't need, if you don't want to have to change the drive - you'll find instructions online for doing this.

 

[pvcman]

Hi all,

I read all the replies and they have been very helpful. What I done is put another DVD rw in. This allowed me to install very easily.

Now I have leopard on my g4. Later I might post a question in another part of forum about networking.

I'm getting ready to install 10.3 on my strawberry tray loading g3 iMac.

Again thank y'all very much.