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Purchased a G5 with no hard drive

J

juicy 666

macrumors newbie
Original poster
Aug 6, 2012
2
0
Hi there. not 100% new to macs as i have a macbook and iphone. But....
I purchased a Powermac G5 1.8ghz tower from ebay that came with no hard drive. i have a copy of osx on a usb stick (tiger i believe) which im trying to boot from so i can install the os. basically just wanted to see if the thing worked before i purchase a copy of leopard but when i start it up it either has the pic of the mac with a question mark or alternativly a circular arrow and a straight arrow. so im stuck. dont want to buy newer software if its not going to work.

any ideas?

any help would be greatly appreciated.

Pete
 
Not sure that g5's can boot from USB (might be wrong) could try a FireWire hard disk?
 
Also make sure that the copy of tiger is universal or a PowerPC version.

I will echo the lack of USB boot support. Try booting from the FireWire port, yes that does limit your options a bit. I've previously just partitioned a hard drive with a small portion of it with a copy of a Mac OS X DVD so that I could use that to install on an old Xserve which had no DVD drive as I have nothing with FireWire.
 
oki doki thats great. ill have to see if i can find some way of doing that. may just try and copy my usb to a dvd and see if it works that way. failing that ill just buy a disk i think!

Cheers for the help guys. much abliged!
 
PowerMac G5's, like all other Macs made after the introduction of the slot-loading iMac and the Sawtooth G4, can boot from a USB drive. The version of Tiger you have must be a PowerPC version. There was no universal version of Tiger. The only operating system that was universal is Leopard.
 
Why would you buy a 6+ year old machine?

I wouldn't get one for free, ffs. :rolleyes:
 
People purchase old computers for the same reason that people purchase 60 year old cars. They are fun to use and look great. I'd rather buy a 1950's Chevy than a modern thing.
 
Intell said:
People purchase old computers for the same reason that people purchase 60 year old cars. They are fun to use and look great. I'd rather buy a 1950's Chevy than a modern thing.
Click to expand...

I more than agree.

And besides i really don't like to go from point A and point B in the shortest time possible. I like to cruise....

But mind you these old macs still has a lot of grunt remaining to power you from point A to point B on a decent time.
 
Intell said:
The version of Tiger you have must be a PowerPC version. There was no universal version of Tiger.
Click to expand...

The retail version Tiger was PPC-only, but it's definitely possible to have an Intel-only version as the first Intel Macs were introduced in the Tiger era. We don't know where this "USB version" of Tiger came from; it's possible that it's had Monolingual or similar run on it to remove the PPC code.

I suggest picking up a retail Tiger or Leopard DVD.
 
I'm not saying that there are no Intell versions of Tiger. I'm saying that there was never a disc of Tiger that could install onto both a PowerPC and an Intell Mac. Even when Tiger was dropped, its updates where still either PowerPC or Intell updates. You could download a universal updater for both architectures, but it was almost twice the size.
 
PPC machines cannot boot from a USB device without altering the OpenFirmware settings at bootup.
 
Mengele said:
PPC machines cannot boot from a USB device without altering the OpenFirmware settings at bootup.
Click to expand...

It is not necessary to do anything in OpenFirmware to get a PowerPC Mac to boot from a USB device. All that you need to do it plug the drive in and select it from the Startup Disk pref pane or choose it from the boot menu that is accessed via pressing Option at boot. No OpenFirmware changing needed.
 
Intell said:
It is not necessary to do anything in OpenFirmware to get a PowerPC Mac to boot from a USB device. All that you need to do it plug the drive in and select it from the Startup Disk pref pane or choose it from the boot menu that is accessed via pressing Option at boot. No OpenFirmware changing needed.
Click to expand...

I've never tried it myself, but here's an Apple Support document that backs this statement up.

http://support.apple.com/kb/TA25908?viewlocale=en_US
 
Intell said:
It is not necessary to do anything in OpenFirmware to get a PowerPC Mac to boot from a USB device.
Click to expand...
That is false information.

jbarley said:
FAIL! ^^^
did you not read the full thread, in particular my post #5?
Click to expand...
Yes, you fail quite frequently based on your prior post history. I did read it and your post does not contain factual information.

Intell said:
Yep. That's the KB document I usually link to when people flat out say it cannot be done.
Click to expand...
Sorry, you might gain some credibility if you have ever actually tried it.
I have a 700mhz iMac, Dual 1.2GHz G4, single-CPU PM1.6, dual core PM2.3 and Quad PM2.5. None will boot from USB without changing the Open Firmware setting first.
 
Mengele said:
That is false information.


Yes, you fail quite frequently based on your prior post history. I did read it and your post does not contain factual information.


Sorry, you might gain some credibility if you have ever actually tried it.
I have a 700mhz iMac, Dual 1.2GHz G4, single-CPU PM1.6, dual core PM2.3 and Quad PM2.5. None will boot from USB without changing the Open Firmware setting first.
Click to expand...

I have 3 late 2005 powermac G5 and they all boot from USB flash drive installer.
 
You have now said multiple times that settings must be changed in Open Firmware, but haven't said what to do. What have you needed to type to get this working?
 
Mengele said:
That is false information.


Yes, you fail quite frequently based on your prior post history. I did read it and your post does not contain factual information.


Sorry, you might gain some credibility if you have ever actually tried it.
I have a 700mhz iMac, Dual 1.2GHz G4, single-CPU PM1.6, dual core PM2.3 and Quad PM2.5. None will boot from USB without changing the Open Firmware setting first.
Click to expand...

That is true information. Nothing needs to be set in OpenFirmware to make a USB device bootable on PPC Mac. I have booted a G4 Cube, a slot loading iMac G3, a Ti Powerbook G4, an eMac, many G4 iMacs, two quad G5s, a G3 iBook, and a Sawtooth from USB. All simply by selecting the external USB drive in Mac OS X's Startup pref pane and clicking restart. There isn't anything else to do.

jbarley's posts maybe touchy at times, but he does indeed speak the truth far more often than you. Just by stating that something needs to be changed in OpenFirmware to allow USB booting is nonsense and shows that you don't fully understand how Macs work.

Strange how you seemed to stop read my previous post and missed over how I have booted my G3 iMac via USB before. Myself as well as many other extremely knowledgeable and respected people in the PowerPC forums have done this before and know it is possible. Being an certified Apple tech, I'm pretty sure I know what my machines can and cannot do.

Now please stop spouting incorrect information and actually do some research and testing of your own instead of basing your knowledge on outdated research of others.

Mengele said:
Correct, all of them will when set in Open Firmware.
Click to expand...

Nothing needs to be set in OpenFirmware.

Nermal said:
You have now said multiple times that settings must be changed in Open Firmware, but haven't said what to do. What have you needed to type to get this working?
Click to expand...

Nothing needs to be set in OpenFirmware. All that's needed is a USB device with an operating system version that supports your machine. The device must be formatted with APM. You can even startup Mac OS 9.X this way, pending the drive has the OS 9 drivers installed on it.
 
Not to feed the lovefest, but I have booted many a g3 and g4 via USB thum drives without entering open firmware.
 
is it me or are people on this forum getting quite rude..??
please be kind to one another and please treat each other with respect.
 
Information like this can be very confusing, especially to those like myself who have no trouble booting my G5 power mac from a USB drive, in fact from this very same CC Clone that spewed out this message.
 

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