Lend273

Q: Can't restore an early G5 single 1.8

I have a 1st gen single 1.8 Powermac G5.

I am trying to restore using the original restore disc but the computer will not boot from the disc.

The disc contains 10.3 sox, the computer has been upgraded to 10.5.8 leopard.

The drive works fine on other disks, just won't do anything withe restore disk. I also tried reinstalling from the Leopard upgrade disk but it won't mount the disk.

I just want to wipe the hard drive and reinstall.

Help please! :-)

 

Thanks

Len

PowerMac, Mac OS X (10.5.8)

Posted on Sep 9, 2013 7:15 AM

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Q: Can't restore an early G5 single 1.8

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  • by MichelPM,

    MichelPM MichelPM Sep 9, 2013 5:46 PM in response to Lend273
    Level 6 (13,811 points)
    iPad
    Sep 9, 2013 5:46 PM in response to Lend273

    That's about all I have.

    You still need to make sure that the external hard drive and the PowerMac's internal hard drive is erased and formatted in OS X extended format (journaled)

    I hope it works and I wish you luck.

    Please get back here to let us know if you were successful or not.

  • by Lend273,Solvedanswer

    Lend273 Lend273 Sep 10, 2013 4:26 AM in response to MichelPM
    Level 1 (25 points)
    Sep 10, 2013 4:26 AM in response to MichelPM

    OK, problem solved.

    Due to some changes Apple made along the way, the only way to restore an older G5 is to install from an external FireWire drive. I couldn't use my external drive because I had no way to copy the restore disk to that drive since the G5 would not recognize the restore disk.

    So I have an older G4 iBook that I put into Target Disk mode, inserted the restore disk, it recognized it right away. I accessed the iBook with the G5 since it was in Target mode, double clicked on the cd drive, disk started up on the G5 monitor. Just had to select the drive to install to and I was good to go.

     

    Thanks for all your help!

     

    Len

  • by ezylstra,

    ezylstra ezylstra Sep 10, 2013 7:32 AM in response to Lend273
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Sep 10, 2013 7:32 AM in response to Lend273

    A simpler explanation...

     

    Your G5 optical drive can't read the disk not by design, but by fault.  The drive is probably getting a little flaky.  Using the iBook drive, which isn't getting flaky, worked around the problem.  Replace the G5 optical with a new drive, and you'd probably be OK.

  • by Lend273,

    Lend273 Lend273 Sep 10, 2013 9:24 AM in response to ezylstra
    Level 1 (25 points)
    Sep 10, 2013 9:24 AM in response to ezylstra

    Actually there is nothing wrong with the drive.

    All other disks work fine.

    I did some research online and found that this is a common problem. That is where I found the suggestion to put another comp in target drive mode and use that drive to install.

     

    Len

  • by MichelPM,

    MichelPM MichelPM Sep 10, 2013 9:50 AM in response to Lend273
    Level 6 (13,811 points)
    iPad
    Sep 10, 2013 9:50 AM in response to Lend273

    I am very glad you were able to resolve your issue.

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