Mac OS X install on an iMac G5 Intel 17"..

Is it a G5 or an Intel? It can't be both.

How are you attempting the install; are you booting the system from the install disks and if so does it boot from those successfully? And what exactly happens when you try to install? Where does it fail? Any error messages?

Without details, it's difficult for anyone to offer anything useful in the way of suggestions, so please post back with more information and I'm sure someone here will be able to help.

Presuming you are booted from the install disk, run Disk Utility from the menu and take a look at the formatting of the new hard drive. Unless this disk came from a Mac-savvy vendor who sold it as pre-formatted for use in a Mac, you probably will have to partition the disk and format it as Mac OS Extended (Journaled).

Message was edited by: Dave Sawyer

Snow Leopard can only run on Intel Macs; not PPC.

Have a nice day.

What leads you to think he's trying to install Snow Leopard, Boyd? I obviously can't be absolutely certain, but we're in the Leopard forum and PM says he's using the disks that shipped with his G5 iMac so I don't see any indication that he is indeed working with SL.

Message was edited by: Dave Sawyer

No G5 shipped with Leopard; so you should be posting in the forum for Tiger or Panther; whatever OS is on those discs.

But I think I know what you need to do. While booted up from the System Restore DVD, choose Disk Utility from the Utilities menu. Click your hard drive in the sidebar, and then click the Partition tab at the top. Choose "1 partition" from the drop-down menu. Then click the "Options" button, and choose the Apple Partition Map scheme.

When the re-partitioning is done, you should be able to install OS X.

iMac G5s can only install Mac OS X 10.5 from discs that look like * and do not say Upgrade, DropIn, or OEM on them. Furthermore, if they don't have at least 512 MB of RAM, they may have difficulty installing 10.5. As suggested earlier, the partitioning of the hard drive may affect the ability to install. PowerPC Macs use Apple Partition Map partitions for best compatibility. If you use GUID, FAT32, UFS, HFS+ without journaling 10.5 when you go into partitioning http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=61301

You may run into diffulty with making 10.5 bootable, or other applications accept the file naming convention of the operating system.

Note, partitioning normally will WIPE YOUR HARD DRIVE CLEAN. Backup your data before attempting*:

http://www.macmaps.com/backup.html

- * Links to my pages may give me compensation.

It would really help if you would tell us what version of OS X you are trying to install. All we know is that it isn't Leopard (No G5 shipped with Leopard install discs).

Furthermore, if you aren't attempting to install 10.5, depending on the age of your iMac G5, you can install either from the discs labelled iMac G5 the operating system, or newer retail discs.

The serial number is at the base of your Mac, and is in this format:

xxABCxxxx where x is any value, and A is the year of manufacture, and BC is the week of manufacture.

iMac G5s with serial numbers where ABC is between 435 and 444 can install from iMac G5 installer discs labelled 10.3.5, and 10.4 installer discs labelled * that do not say Update, Dropin, or OEM, and the aforementioned 10.5 disc.

ABC between 445 and 450: 10.3.6 iMac G5 and the aforementioned 10.4 installer disc and 10.5 installer disc mentioned above.

ABC betwen 451 and 507: 10.3.7 iMac G5 and the aforementioned 10.4 and 10.5 installer disc mentioned above.

ABC between 507 and 514: 10.3.8 iMac G5 and the aforementioned 10.4 and 10.5 installer disc mentioned above.

ABC is 514: 10.3.8 iMac G5, 10.4 Update, and the aforementioned 10.4 and 10.5 installer discs mentioned above.

ABC Between 515 and 517: 10.3.9 iMac G5, 10.4 Update, and the aforementioned 10.4 and 10.5 installer discs mentioned above.

ABC between 518 and 544: 10.4 iMac G5, 10.4.3 retail looking like the 10.4 disc above, and 10.5 installer disc mentioned above.

ABC between 545 and greater: 10.4.3 iMac G5, 10.4.6 retail looking like the 10.4 disc above, and 10.5 installer disc above.

Edit: where I mention the 10.4 Update disc, you may need to install the 10.3 imac installer disc first that corresponds to the Mac in question, before using the Update disc. I don't remember if this is the case with 10.4 Update or not.

- * Links to my pages may give me compensation.

Message was edited by: a brody