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TICKET ARCHIVE -> Installing Panther

jacob1978 - Sep 4, 2005 - 10:49 am

I wonder if there's a way to install my DVD copy of panther on to my G4 using an external dvd drive - my G4 does not have an internal DVD drive.

My external drive will read the disk and when I double-click the 'Install OSX' icon it asks me to restart my mac. However, it will not boot up using the DVD in my external drive and start the installation process as it would if I had an internal drive.

Is there a key I can hold down as my mac restarts to get it to boot from the external drive?? Can anyone help??

cheers
Jacob

philippe99 - Sep 4, 2005 - 11:00 am

Jacob, welcome on macosx.com

(1) if you press the "C" key while booting (with the DVD already inserted in the external drive.;and this drive powered on), does it boot on the DVD ?

(2) if no, boot with the option key pressed; a window muste appear presenting you all the available bootable drive: do you see the DVD; yes, select it with the mouse and press the right arrow to continue the booting process

(3) if no, start the G4 normally; in System Preferences / Startup (or Startup panel if Mac Os 9), choose the external DVD

regards
Philippe

jacob1978 - Sep 4, 2005 - 11:24 am

Hi Philippe and thanks for your speedy reply!

The second and third options seemd to work initially i.e. my mac recognised the OSX dvd as a drive, but when it actually came to booting, the dvd drive did nothing...

Could this be something to do with USB 2.0 perhaps? My G4 has a USB 2.0 card installed (specifically so I could use my external dvd drive!) but perhaps Jaguar will only recognise firewire drives...

Thanks for your help Philippe

jacob

philippe99 - Sep 4, 2005 - 11:34 am

Ah, yes, I do not know your DVD burner was USB
Yes, Mac OSX (Jaguar -Panther - Tiger) can only boot on a FW device.

One solution I did for a friend with equivalent problem.
I installed Panther on a FW external drive
I boot on this drive and use the DiskUtility Restore function of this drive to clone back Panther from the external drive to the internal one

The G4 has no FW ports ?

Philippe

jacob1978 - Sep 4, 2005 - 11:51 am

Hi Philippe,
My G4 does have a firewire port but the DVD burner is USB2.0 only! In retrospect, I think I made the wrong purchase (although it does burn DVDs extremely quickly!).

I think I'll just have to borrow a friend's firewire dvd drive!

Thanks for all your help Philippe.
Salut!

Jacob

philippe99 - Sep 4, 2005 - 12:02 pm

USB2 external drives are a little more speedy than a FW one, but USB2 external peripherals are of no use when your internal drive (hard disk or optical) is out.

I always recommend to buy a FW device or (better) a multiple USB-FW device

Good luck and thank you for using macosx.com
Regards
Philippe