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TICKET ARCHIVE -> Osx Panther Reinstall Problems

heartspace - Aug 12, 2005 - 3:40 am

A few warning signs, such as applications unexpectedly quitting, alerted me to a potential problem. I tried repairing disk permissions and was unsuccessful. I tried booting up from the Panther Installer disk and failed to repair disk permissions and disk from outside the box. The message told me the disk could not be repaired.

I called Apple Care tech support. They gave me several options. I chose to backup all my files, erase and reinstall the hard drive.

I backed up all my files. Then I followed the instructions on the Panther installer disks 1 & 2, because that's what the instructions said to do. After restarting, I realized that I was missing a whole lot of software, not the least of which is Appleworks, which I don't love, but which is my only word-processing application.

More hours on the phone with tech support. We tried Installer Disc 3 several times from inside and outside (holding down the C or option keys). No Appleworks. I get a message about opening the Dictionary.The tech support person was as mystified as I was that such a simple operation yielded no results.

Later, I tried a Software Restore from the disks that came with the computer. I saw no installer icon in the window to click on.

I did go back and successfully repair disk permissions and repaired the disk after the OSX reinstall, but my computer is virtually useless because of the missing software.

Any bight ideas?

bobw - Aug 12, 2005 - 3:07 pm

Hi Pushkara

Try using 'Pacifist' here;

http://www.versiontracker.com/dyn/moreinfo/macosx/12743

Use that to extract any programs from your original disks to install them.
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Bobw - Macosx.com Tech Support

heartspace - Aug 13, 2005 - 3:56 pm

Thank you for your suggestion. I will consider it in the future. I finally erased the hard drive, did a reinstall of OSX 10.2 and software reinstall, then reinstalled Panther. I'm guessing that the entire problem might have been avoided if techsupport knew that I had two hardrive icons showing in my disk utility, one with the ram I added, recently. Five days and 7 or 8 tech support people later, I was on the phone to a product specialist who knew that I had to begin from the beginning in an erase and install with the 10.2 (instead of just reinstalling Panther) and asked the question about the hardrive icons. We were able to install to the expanded hard drive and get me up and running. I would not advise this route for anyone, but I understand how, with Apple making frequent quirky changes to the OSX, not all of their tech support knows which questions to ask and how to guide a novice like me through the maze.