My powermac g5 got a new hard drive and now doesn't do anything!

Hi-

Welcome to Discussions!

The first thing that one must do after installing the drive is to boot to the OS install disc (hold C while booting) and then format the new hard drive.
Once formatted, install OS X to the new hard drive.

Hi Bobby JJ, and a warm welcome to the forums! 🙂

Yes, but you still have to Format the new Drive first...

1. Insert the Mac OS X Install disc, then restart the computer while holding the C key.
2. When your computer finishes starting up from the disc, choose Disk Utility from the Installer menu. (In Mac OS X 10.4 or later, you must select your language first.)
*Important: Do not click Continue in the first screen of the Installer. If you do, you must restart from the disc again to access Disk Utility.*

How to format your disks...

http://www.kenstone.net/fcphomepage/partitioningtiger.html

Bobby JJ wrote:
I've already formatted my hard drive by connecting it to my windows pc, how do I install it.
Thanks.

Unless you formatted it as an Apple Drive, i.e., Mac OS Extended (Journaled) and with Apple Partition Map, you won't be able to install MacOS on it.

.

You need to use your OS Install DVD or Install/Restore DVD that came with the machine to format the drive. To get the drive to open at power-up, hold the left mouse button down as you power up and the machine should open the tray. Insert the disc. If you have the flashing question-mark/folder icon, the machine should eventually recognize the disc and boot from it. If not, you will need to power the machine down and bring it back up holding the 'C' key down on the keyboard.

When you get the installer running, *do not proceed farther than the language choice*. Select from the Utilities menu "Disk Utility" which will bring up Disk Utility and you should see the hardware indication for the internal hard drive in the drives pane in the Disk Utility window. Select the Hardware description and icon in that window, not any volume indication indented and under it.

Look at the bottom of the Disk Utility window at the information and you should see an entry for Partition Scheme which for a G5 should be "Apple Partition Map" but for your PC formatted disk probably will not. We'll deal with that in a moment. (You might see "GUID Partition Table" or "Master Boot Record" which may require an extra step below.)

Now, click the "Erase" button which will bring you to the place you start the formatting process. Make sure that the Volume Format selection is "Mac OS Extended (journaled)" and then name the main volume if you want, or leave it at Untitled for the moment (it is better to name it at this point).

If the drive is a new drive, then you can probably ignore security options, as they involve writing zeros or various data patterns on the drive and take a seriously long time to complete. Click the "Erase" button and you will shortly see the format complete and the main volume on that disk should mount. At this point, you should be seeing "Apple Partition Map" as the Partition Scheme entry. If not, there is a little more work to do.

To get yourself to Apple Partition Map, you need to go to the "Partition" tab, click the "Options" button and make sure that "Apple Partition Map" is selected, click OK there, make sure format is "MacOS Extended (journaled)" and name the volume, then click the "Partition" button.

Once all that is done, then you should be able to quit Disk Utility and commence the OS install.

Some added links:

http://support.apple.com/kb/TS1600

Message was edited by: old comm guy

Sorry to jump in, but I'm having similar challenges. I have a PowerMac G5, but I do not have the original OS X or restore discs. I installed a Western Digital hard drive and the machine cannot access it.

Am I out of luck if I don't have OS X install discs? I think my machine can only run Tiger.

What are my options? Go out on ebay and try to find a copy of Tiger?

Thanks in advance.

You have two options, depending on whether you have a "running" HD with system on it.

*First Option:*

If you still have the drive you replaced and it is working, you can put it back into the second bay and boot from it. Then you can format the new drive using Disk Utility.

If desired, you can then copy your original drive contents to the new drive using either Disk Utility "Restore" capability or SuperDuper! utility, found at
http://www.shirt-pocket.com/SuperDuper/SuperDuperDescription.html.

SuperDuper! is a more popular approach as the "Restore" capability in Disk Utility has some anomalous behavior such as leaving some invisible folders visible, for instance)

*Second Option*

If you don't have a bootable HD available, then you will need to get either a set of the original install/restore disks for your specific machine (there are 5 flavors of Power Mac G5) or a retail version (Black label, not Grey) of Tiger on eBay or elsewhere.

If you don't know the exact flavor of machine you have, enter the serial number here: http://www.chipmunk.nl/klantenservice/applemodel.html and you will get the information you need.

Thanks. I should have provided more details.

The machine has an open bay, where I put this drive. I am still booting off the first drive.

However, in Disk Utility, the option to format the new drive is greyed out (at least that's my memory of it - I am not in front of the machine at the moment). I think I have the option of erasing the drive. But not formatting it.

I suspect I will go out and purchase a black OS X disc set in any case, as I probably should have one around and I will inevitably need it.

ERASE = INITIALIZE and when you select the full raw capacity, is the same as FORMAT

So much for good use of terms and terminology in modern era 😟

Some G5s shipped with 2nd SATA cable not plugged into the motherboard, but in that case it wouldn't even show in Disk Utility.

Format/erase and clone is still doable with what you have.

And an external FW backup should also be on the list of "things to do" at some point.

The hatter wrote:

And an external FW backup should also be on the list of "things to do" at some point.

Probably the best approach is a FW enclosure which will allow for relatively easy drive swapping.

I have this Acomdata unit which, thank you very much, has dropped $30 in price since summer. It works very well on FW800.

http://www.acomdata.com/app/stx.productdetail.asp?did=122

Now they have a Siamese Twin version for the same price (introductory offer, it would seem) which could also be a good move.

http://www.acomdata.com/app/stx.productdetail.asp?did=204

Or, there are the ubiquitous toaster docking stations, which don't seem to come in FW800 very often.

I've gone to these for easy swapping...

http://eshop.macsales.com/item/Newer%20Technology/FWU2ES2HDK/

BDAqua wrote:
I've gone to these for easy swapping...

http://eshop.macsales.com/item/Newer%20Technology/FWU2ES2HDK/

Add a handful of these and the swappable HD situation is perfect!

http://www.wiebetech.com/products/cases.php