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Reinstalling Tiger - Problems

OldCorpse

OldCorpse

macrumors 68000
Original poster
Dec 7, 2005
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OK, so many people make these claims about how OS X and the apple experience are so user-friendly, while f.ex. Linux is "hard" for new users. And it all starts with installation of the OS. OS X is supposed to be easy, while Linux has all sorts of problems - so the myth goes.

Reality: the myth of "easy" installation of OS X is BS.

For the past 30 minutes I've been trying to reinstall OS X Tiger on my iBook. I have the original installation discs. It's impossible.

Here's what they tell you: insert disc 1 and click on "install os x and bundled software". Well, that gets you exactly nowhere. Here's what happens: the first screen appears and tells you "click restart and begin the installation process", then it restarts EJECTS the disc and goes into the regular old startup as if nothing happened. I repeated this several times - same result. I got Airport and Bluetooth turned off. I also tried pressing C on startup - all that results in is a grey screen with a flashing folder with a question mark.

This should NEVER happen. OS X is easy to install? BULL. I can't get beyond step one. Unacceptable. Funny, I just re-installed XP on my inspiron - no problem. But OS X? The installation process is crap.

Anyone have any ideas how to get this pig going? Or is this POS operating system fatally flawed when it comes to reinstallation?
 
You might want to consider getting replacement discs and not blame the operating system itself.

I've imaged and installed OS X on countless machines with very little complaints.
 
Eidorian said:
You might want to consider getting replacement discs and not blame the operating system itself.

I've imaged and installed OS X on countless machines with very little complaints.
Click to expand...

The discs appear in perfect condition (looking at both sides, not a scratch or a smudge). I've kept them under good conditions and never moved them since buying (dark cool place etc.).

And at least the drive recognizes the disc and takes me to that first screen - so how can they be bad? If the disc is bad, wouldn't it simply not be recognized by the drive?

Admittedly, I've never used these discs before - this is the first time I've tried re-installing OS X.
 
OldCorpse said:
The discs appear in perfect condition (looking at both sides, not a scratch or a smudge). I've kept them under good conditions and never moved them since buying (dark cool place etc.).

And at least the drive recognizes the disc and takes me to that first screen - so how can they be bad? If the disc is bad, wouldn't it simply not be recognized by the drive?

Admittedly, I've never used these discs before - this is the first time I've tried re-installing OS X.
Click to expand...
Even if they pass physical and data integrity verification I've had bad discs before.
 
Burgess07 said:
Have a look here. http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=106693
Click to expand...

That's a great link, Burgess07. It describes my problem perfectly, except it says that this occurs only if you have a superdrive. Well, I have a combo drive. Oh well. I'll try to get new discs. Meanwhile, this is a great link, and I'll keep it handy should I have problems with the new discs. Failing all that, I'll go to the nearest Apple store and throw my ibook at the next available "genius". Ugh. And I thought installing OS X would be easy :(
 
Important Update

OK - success!

Here's what happened. I moved the iBook to a side table and that necessitated disconnecting the mouse (the wire was too short). I decided to try one more time. I did everything exactly as I did before, and this time - it went through! The only difference is that this time I did not have the mouse connected. I say: LAME of Apple not to foresee that this could be a problem - nowhere in my iBook manual section on installing/reinstalling OS X, did it say to remove any mouse you may have connected.

Of course this was not the end of the problems. For the life of me, I could not connect to my Airport network. It would not accept the WEP password. So I spent hours trying to get this to work (I even went so far as to copy various files connected with networking and keychains from my working mini G4 to the iBook). Finally, I just decided to go on with the installation, picking the option of "my computer is not connected to the internet". After much more research, still no good. Then, I rebooted. This time, the iBook accepted the WEP password! LAME - this is really criminal... during the installation process, one of the steps is connecting to the internet - and it prompts you for the password - which at least for me was IMPOSSIBLE to have the iBook accept until a reboot - YET IT DID NOT PROMPT FOR A REBOOT prior to asking for the WEP password.

These are the problems so far. I'm continuing now with updates - already one lame thing is that first it installed iTunes 7.5, and now it wants to install iTunes 7.3.1 :(... oh well.

Say what you wish, installing OS X is NOT EASY. It is a deeply flawed process. Apple must do better.
 
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