PowerBook G4 12" 1GHz - USB installation hangs (?)

[Zotaccian]

So I have another PowerBook G4, it is 12" model with 1GHz G4, first with USB 2.0 I think.

I'm trying to install Leopard via USB because optical drive is apparently broken. I just got the machine and the drive does make usual sounds on bootup but it seems that something is blocking discs, they cannot be pushed in. I dont' think there is disc already because it does not start spinning it on power on, one explanation is that wrong screws are in place because the machine has been opended before... but that's not the issue I'm looking at the moment.

USB installation goes fine until get to the point where files should be copied, it displays Calculating... and then the indication bar's animation stops and that's it. Machine keeps running and mouse moves, USB keyboard has lights and I can switch between windows (I have installed log open) and at the moment there is beach ball.

I used this same USB stick on an older PowerBook yesterday and it worked fine, altough because of USB 1.1 speeds installation took very long.. but USB stick should be fine. This machine which I try to install has relatively large hard disk for its time, 250GB, I don't know if that has anything to do with it...

Any tips?

 

[Zotaccian]

OK, apparently that another PowerBook just has something against that USB stick....

If I remove the hard disk from this PowerBook, but it in external case and hook it to the another PowerBook, then boot off the USB stick and try restoring the OS from the working PB to this hard disk, can the problematic PowerBook then boot from it or does Disk Utility make identical copy, including boot sectors etc? Of course Apple does not allow me to simply install to that USB drive in hope of me buying FireWire stuff....

I'm currently doing that restore but if it does not work I might as well stop now...

 

[hamis92]

You could hook the two PowerBooks together with a FireWire cable and then use Target Disk Mode to install the OS onto the problematic PowerBook using the working one. That way you don't have to swap the hard drive around.

 

[Zotaccian]

FireWire -cable would probably save me from lots of harm since I tend to own and fix these old Macs now and then. That USB stick just wasn't ok for this PowerBook, I gave up on Leopard and took a 4GB USB stick and looked for Tiger DVD image which I found, I made installation disk and there was zero problems. I have two 8GB sticks which I tried to use with Leopard but one of them wasn't even recognized by open firmware and the another one caused those problems, both of these were bought from eBay but according to test programs and the fact that I have used these to install operating systems and move files around many times without problems suggest that these should not be fake, but maybe not the most reliable...

 

[hamis92]

Glad you got it sorted out!

 

[Zotaccian]

Yes, and I just got Maxell 8GB stick and started Leopard installation, it went past that spot where installation did hang with that other stick so I guess Leopard will install just fine now.