Forums | MacLife

PaddyFahey · 2009-01-21 10:29 pm

I'm installing an off-the-shelf copy of Leopard (just bought the family pack) on a MacBook. It's my son's computer and was in a poor state, so I decided to erase everything, reformat, and install from scratch. However, the installer hangs - it says "Installing Max OS X on the volume "Liam's HD", the progress bar is about 5% done, and underneath it says "Time Remaining: Calculating". The menus of the Mac OS X Installer don't respond, and I can hear the hard drive clicking but not the DVD. I did check out the HD beforehand, using disk utility, and it checked fine. Any ideas?

Paddy

Last edited by PaddyFahey (2009-01-21 10:33 pm)

Nefarious · 2009-01-22 8:13 am

hmmmm...

I would reformat one more time. Disk Warrior is worth a shot.

Jyri Erik · 2009-01-22 5:16 pm

You might want to check out the DVD drive. I had the same problem installing using a DVD I knew it was good since it had installed onto my old Mac without any trouble, but on the new one it failed the install pretty quickly. Once I swapped the DVD drive the install went fine.
Although if it is the DVD drive, then it's a major pain on a laptop to replace the drive.

Jyri

PaddyFahey · 2009-01-22 9:18 pm

Thanks both.

I think it is the DVD drive - I installed it on my desktop G5 without problems. I also tried reformatting again, and it got further along before it hung.

I tried to install from my desktop with the laptop in "target" mode, but it wouldn't let me specify the laptop as a target for the installation unless I formatted the drive into Apple Partition Map (which, since it's an Intel, wouldn't work well).

Does anyone know if it would work if the source computer were another Intel Mac? Would it allow me to install from that with the laptop in "target" mode and formatted as GUID?

Paddy

Nefarious · 2009-01-22 9:45 pm

I'm not positive, but I strongly believe that --- When doing a target disk mode install, both machine should be Intel or both be PPC.

PaddyFahey · 2009-01-23 5:11 am

Thanks, that's good news. I can go to someone else's house and try to install from their desktop Intel, with the laptop in target mode. I'll post whether it works or not.

Graphic Autist · 2009-01-23 7:13 am

If you put the G5 into FW target disc mode, put the DVD in the G5, and attach the G5o to the MacBook via FW, the MacBook can boot from the DVD in the G5 (hold down option key on MacBook when booting and select the Leopard DVD in the G5 as the boot disc.) The MacBook will think it's just an attached FW drive, and will install the desired partition scheme (GUID).

Tell us if this works!

PaddyFahey · 2009-01-24 7:50 pm

Yes, it worked. I can boot the (intel) laptop from the DVD drive in the G5, and started the install from there. It's running now.

Thanks for all your help.

Paddy

PaddyFahey · 2009-01-24 11:42 pm

And to bring things full circle... it crashed when I did it per above, and I couldn't get it to start again, so I ended up putting the target intel laptop into target mode, and installing from another intel laptop per Nefarious above. That finally worked.

Paddy

Forums | MacLife

#1 2009-01-21 10:29 pm

Installation hangs when installing Leopard

#2 2009-01-22 8:13 am

Re: Installation hangs when installing Leopard

#3 2009-01-22 5:16 pm

Re: Installation hangs when installing Leopard

#4 2009-01-22 9:18 pm

Re: Installation hangs when installing Leopard

#5 2009-01-22 9:45 pm

Re: Installation hangs when installing Leopard

#6 2009-01-23 5:11 am

Re: Installation hangs when installing Leopard

#7 2009-01-23 7:13 am

Re: Installation hangs when installing Leopard

#8 2009-01-24 7:50 pm

Re: Installation hangs when installing Leopard

#9 2009-01-24 11:42 pm

Re: Installation hangs when installing Leopard

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