Forums | MacLife

Hello. Do you mean when installing OSX Tiger, include OS9 extensions or something like that. The option is checked. I also zeroed the hard disk as well.

Thanks.

Julian

Do you have a full version of Tiger/Panther? or is it the disk that came with the machine and/or upgrade versions?

You say the hard drive is new eh? Try putting the master/slave Jumper into a different slot

Update:

After changing the optical drive, the first disc installation goes without a glitch, but when the machine restarts, the OSX disc boots up; tried taking OSX disc out and letting the HD boot, but to no avail. I get the infamous ?. Also, made all drives other than HD on Cable Select, with the HD on Master.

Am I doing something totally wrong, missing something, or a combination of that and stupidity? LOL. Thanks.

Julian

The old original HD is totally shot. Anyway, like I said about the OSX Tiger install: it installs, but when it reboots, the OSX disc comes up; tried repairing disk but it gives me an error.

Should I give up on this thing?

Thanks.

I have a question which might sound a little dumb: does it matter if the HD is an Apple hard drive or no? The original HD has a firmware version of 2000. The new HD doesn't have any firmware version; just a plain ATA/IDE drive.

Thanks.

Julian

Okay, does the way the HD is partitioned matter at all? In another message forum, someone said that the OSX installation partition needs to be no more than 8GB. Is this true?

http://forums.macrumors.com/archive/index.php/t-100733


Thanks a lot

Julian

Hello. A couple of updates here from a long last nite.

First, I used another Powermac G4 450 AGP, disconnecting the main primary drive and installing the new HD from my other Powermac G4 400 AGP machine. I installed OSX Tiger without a glitch or error. But, when the system restarted, I received a message saying the Video will not show on this system, or something to that magnitude. I figured it was because of the firmware. Not a biggie, at least in my thoughts.

So, the new HD switched back to the inactive, non-working G4 400 and seemed to be working, albeit after a good 30 seconds, I received a new message that has the OSX circle with a slash, gray colored in white background, just blinking.

Question is, what does this mean? Is it a firmware issue, or is it something much bigger than that? If it is a firmware issue, could I swap the HD back to the G4 450 as a slave (backup HD) and install firmware that way, or will it not work?

Thanks. If I need to clarify something, please let me know. I wanna get this issue solved fast, because the system seems to be laughing it's butt off at me.

Julian

Yes. Please forgive my stupidity. I got confused since the DVI inputs are different on both machines.

To clarify, with a fresh start, here are the steps I have done overnight:

1) Installed OSX Tiger on my other mac, which is a Powermac G4 450MHz with AGP, with the hard drive that was in my Powermac G4 400MHz with AGP (the problem machine)
2) Everything installed without a hitch, no installation errors.
3) Moved my HD to the problem machine, the G4 400MHz.
4) The G4 now shows the OSX Hard Drive, when I press the option key.

Now this is the issue: the problem machine boots up, but after 30 seconds or so, the circle with a slash shows up, with the progress indicator spinning.

I think I am making progress, since the HD didn't show up at all before. Now it does, but I can't get the machine to finish the boot process and login to the system.

Let me know if you need other clarifications.

Thanks.

Julian

This sounds more and more like a bad harddrive. It's skipping the HD at boot, it freezes at boot, Disk Utility is give you errors, etc. Harddrives often act irratically whe they die. Although failing drives will be problematic, they might coooperate in certain ways at certain times. And that only dupes you into thinking that your troublshooting efforts are working.

No offence, but I'm going to hold off on troubleshooting this problem untill you actually have a new harddrive, or at the very least, a harddrive that has been recently confirmed to work on another machine.

When you troubleshoot something you're supposed to examine the obvious variables first, and you haven't done that. It doesn't make sence to continue troubleshooting this problem untill you have eliminated the harddisk from the equation. A new 80gig harddrive is about $35. Moreover, if you still have the receipt for the new drive, it won't cost you a dime.