Help With installing Mac OSX ?

Hey guys ...

my G4 eMac has a flashing question(?) mark.. so i tryed to reinstall mac osx and i did..

i place the install DVD in a NON-Mac DVD-RW Drive (Could this be the problem?) and i hold/press "C" and wait nothing happens.. just gose back to

the flashing question mark... but if you are going to tell me to do these..

1) Hold "OPTION" = Just a purple back ground with 2 Button "Refresh&Arrow'

2)Hold "C' = NOTHING HAPPENS

3) reset nvram = computer resets and gose back to the flashing ?

SO I have TRYED them ALL..

AND finaly i try OPEN FIRMWARE....

i try to boot the cd by typing ...

0 > boot cd:,\\tbxi Cant OPEN: cd:,\\tbxi.

and another way

0 > boot cd:9,\\:System\Library\CoreServices\BootX can't OPEN: cd:9\\:System\Library\CoreServices\BootX

Can't open device or file

and some thing else

( if you really need to know ask me..)

so from them above is there problem with the DVD-RW or something else

HELP ME PLEASE & THANK YOU

eMac-OTHER, Mac OS 8.6 or Earlier

Posted on Dec 10, 2011 3:53 AM

Dec 1, 2012 9:02 AM in response to kithusan

I just received an old iMac G4 with a burned out hard drive- after cracking it open and replacing the hard drive, I found myself in a tricky situation trying to get it to boot.

Here's the solution--

Convert your dmg file into an img file using the dmg2img program.

Insert your usb drive. Go into disk utility and select your usb drive (not the volume, the root drive). Click on the 'info' button.

There is a label called "Disk Identifier"- next to it will be something like disk1.

Open up a terminal window. You can do a direct data stream copy of the image file onto the usb drive by using a powerful program called Data Dump (invoked in bash via dd).

sudo dd if=/path/to/your/file.img of=/dev/targetdisk bs=4096

/dev describes any device attached to your machine. You should replace the targetdisk with the label of your usb drive found in Disk Utility. For the image file, you can drag the file into the terminal to give you the path of it quickly.

It may take a long time to finish and the program itself gives no feedback, but it works (could take over a few hours pending on the size of the image file).

dd is a low-level tool, if you target your main drive it WILL be botched/ruined.

Once dd has finished (the terminal prompt will return to normal), you need to boot your target device in open firmware (hold option-apple key-o-f).

Assuming there is only one usb drive plugged into the machine you're booting-- once you're in open firmware--

boot ud:,\\:tbxi

That should give you the installer.

Cheers!