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SL will not install on intel mac mini.

T

tangerineyum

macrumors 6502
Original poster
Feb 16, 2005
423
0
Ontario, CA
I have a 1.83 ghz intel mac mini. it has a busted internal cd drive, i use a sony dl dvd burner and 2 external hard drives. I have a retail copy of snow leopard. In the instructions, the guide says sl will install from an external optical drive. Heres what I have tried so far.

Installing from external optical drive- when i try this it goes through the normal verifications, i agree to eula, when i get to the grey screen with spinning apple, after a few minutes a "no" sign pops up, like a no smoking sign and my computer restarts and takes me to the login screen.

I thought maybe it was a disk space issues so i backed up, erased some items and freed up about 20 gb, giving me 30 gb of free disk space. tried again with installation and same thing happens.

next i went into disk utility and verified and repaired permissions, which was a lot, tried again and same thing. next i verified disk. disk is ok.

next i started thinking perhaps its the disk. so i tried to install sl on my moms unibody macbook. installation went fine, she is running 10.6 like a champ.

So then i decided to try a remote installation. i unplugged all usb devices, including the dvd burner and ran the remote install assistant. im using and ethernet cable connection, with the 2 computers plugged directly to each other, and i can browse both computers files from one another. when i restart the mini with the assistant running on the macbook, when i hold down option to select the start up device, the only option listed is starting from the mini's own hard drive and not the macbook.

I've tried everything i could think out with asking for help. But now i would really like some. If any one has any suggestions, i am all ears. Im gonna be heading for school now, and will respond with what ever I can after 10pm pacific.

Thanks.

EDIT- i forgot to write that the internal cd drive is not functioning and i use an external sony optical drive.
 
Not implying anything, but are you using a purchased original DVD of Snow Leopard as opposed to a backed up copy of Snow Leopard?
 
Ok, can't give you a reason for the no smoking sign. As far as I know it should work. Hopefully someone else can give you an answer.
 
I have the exact same problem. my macbook drive isn't working so I used another computer to make a imagine of snow leopard on a usb drive. it won't install, I even moved the image to the desktop on my macbook but still no install.

it tells me "burn the img to a dvd disc and try again on install"

and yes I own a legal original copy of snow leopard.
 
flir67 said:
I have the exact same problem. my macbook drive isn't working so I used another computer to make a imagine of snow leopard on a usb drive. it won't install, I even moved the image to the desktop on my macbook but still no install.

it tells me "burn the img to a dvd disc and try again on install"

and yes I own a legal original copy of snow leopard.
Click to expand...

It sounds like you are simply trying to run the install from the disk image. This will not work. You need to either burn to a DL-DVD or restore the disk image to a USB or Firewire drive.

Instructions:
1. Open Disk Utility
2. Menu Bar --> Utilities --> Scan Image for Restore --> Select your disk image
3. Click the Restore tab (you may need to click on a drive first)
4. Drag the disk image to the restore field (from Finder or from the left if it shows up)
5. Drag the disk/partition you want to restore to, to the Destination field
6. Click Restore. (Optionally but recommended, erase destination)
 
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