hard drive erased, cannot install system!

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Level 1

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hard drive erased, cannot install system!

Hello y'all,

I wanted to install Leopard on my old Macbook. While in the installer, I went to disc utilities and erased my hard drive. Then I started installing the system just as planned.

Here's the problem: my laptop doesn't have a battery, so when my thigh yanked the cord off the thing died and the installation was zoot. When I restarted and tried to install again, I got the message saying that I needed to upgrade my system to v10.5 or later! Because I erased the disc image! So, I tried to install the other disc I have: v10.4.10, but it tells me that it "can't be installed on my computer". WHAT IS THIS MADNESS? What is a woman to do now?!

I am pretty sure that I already had 10.5 installed on my computer in the first place... I know... I wasn't trying to uprgade it ok? I was trying to reset my laptop.

Any help, condolences, or life stories are welcome and much appreciated.

Thank you!

Mac OS X (10.4.10)

Posted on May 22, 2012 5:41 PM

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Answer 1

Kappy

Level 10

361,741 points

May 22, 2012 5:46 PM in response to Sage.SS

Drive Preparation and Installation

1. Boot from your Leopard Installer Disc. After the installer loads select your language and click on the Continue button. When the menu bar appears select Disk Utility from the Utilities menu.

2. After DU loads select your hard drive (this is the entry with the mfgr.'s ID and size) from the left side list. Note the SMART status of the drive in DU's status area. If it does not say "Verified" then the drive is failing or has failed and will need replacing. SMART info will not be reported on external drives. Otherwise, click on the Partition tab in the DU main window.

3. Under the Volume Scheme heading set the number of partitions from the drop down menu to one. Click on the Options button, set the partition scheme to GUID then click on the OK button. Set the format type to Mac OS Extended (Journaled.) Click on the Partition button and wait until the process has completed.

4. After formatting has finished quit DU and return to the installer. Install Leopard.

Be more careful of the power cord and get a replacement battery. Running the computer without a battery installed will result in the CPU throttling down in speed, thus making the computer run slower than it would with the battery.

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Answer 2

Sage.SS Author

Level 1

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May 22, 2012 5:57 PM in response to Kappy

Thank you for such a detailed response, I really appreciate it. I followed the steps twice, but unfortunately it's still not working. 😟

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Answer 3

Kappy

Level 10

361,741 points

May 22, 2012 6:04 PM in response to Sage.SS

A little more detail would help. What's not working? Were you able to reformat the drive?

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Answer 4

Sage.SS Author

Level 1

0 points

May 22, 2012 6:27 PM in response to Kappy

I believe I did reformat the drive successfully thanks to the instructions you gave. However, perhaps reformatting the drive isn't the right solution (I wouldn't know- just an uneducated guess). My problem is that there is no system on my computer anymore (erased HD), so my install disc won't let me install leopard. What happens is that the installer checks for previous versions of the system on my computer, and because I don't have v10.5 or later (I don't have any, as mentioned earlier) it tells me it won't install v10.6. And yes- it is possible to install it on my model of computer, I've done it before, so hail mary I'm not sure what to do about this one.

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Answer 5

Kappy

Level 10

361,741 points

May 22, 2012 6:36 PM in response to Sage.SS

OK. That means you have an Up-To-Date Leopard disk that only upgrades a previous version of OS X already installed. I hope that isn't true for your Snow Leopard DVD. So, boot from the Snow Leopard DVD and let's see if you can't install Snow Leopard.

If your Snow Leopard DVD is also an Up-To-Date disc that won't work on an erased drive, then you'll need to go back to whichever OS X version you do have that's a full installer - in your case I'm assuming that's the Tiger DVD that came with the computer.

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