OS X Leopard won't successfully install on my G5 tower

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OS X Leopard won't successfully install on my G5 tower

I own a G5 tower (dual 2.0 Ghz processors, PCI-X, 6 GB of memory). My question is this... my hard drive was on its last leg so I backed everything up, bought a new SATA 1TB hard drive and went through the typical reinstall steps. My Leopard install disk is the purchased version, not the factory included gray disks. I booted from the install disk, selected the disk utility and formatted my new disk for Mac compatibility, then went through the entire install process.

Upon restart the screen comes right back around to the OS X install screen, so the OS is not installing for reason. I tried several times with the same result. I tried this same process with my Tiger install disk with the exact same result.

Does anyone out there know what the problem might be? Am I doing anything wrong? I've done this type of thing before and have always had success.

Thanks in advance.

PowerMac, Mac OS X (10.5), G5 tower, dual 2.0 Ghz (PCI-X)

Posted on Nov 16, 2012 8:49 AM

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Answer 1

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BDAqua

Level 10

239,111 points

Nov 16, 2012 9:38 AM in response to PowerPC_Fan

Hello, is the new Hard Drive SATA 1.5 Gb/s compatible?

What brand/model drive is it?

What shows as boot choices if you hold the alt key at bootup?

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Answer 2

PowerPC_Fan Author

Level 1

5 points

Nov 16, 2012 12:12 PM in response to BDAqua

The new HD is a SATA Seagate Barracuda 1.0 TB, I have no idea if it's 1.5 Gb/s compatible or not. Does that matter?

I did try booting with the alt key to show boot choices and it always indicates there are no options available if the disk is not in the computer. And this is all after the installation process has completed with no errors. At restart it goes back to the initial install screen if the disk is in and the flashing folder (with question mark) if the disk is removed.

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Answer 3

BDAqua

Level 10

239,111 points

Nov 16, 2012 12:55 PM in response to PowerPC_Fan

Does that matter?

Absolutely, the symptoms so far sound a bit like it isn't.

Without the Install Disc in, what shows as boot choices if you hold the alt key at bootup?

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Answer 4

Nov 16, 2012 1:11 PM in response to PowerPC_Fan

Does this Mac normally boot from SATA drives. The reason I ask is because not all SATA drivers permit booting.

Can you use the installer DVD to select the startup disk?

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Answer 5

Nov 17, 2012 4:01 PM in response to PowerPC_Fan

Try creating 2 partitions with disc utility 1st, one 160 gig the second with what ever is left over, then try to install mac os on the 160 partition.

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Answer 6

Henry G4

Level 4

1,865 points

Nov 17, 2012 5:22 PM in response to PowerPC_Fan

Hi.

Without knowing the series of the drive (7200.11 or something like it) is very difficult to provide a definitive answer, however, I can tell you that some newer Seagate Barracuda SATA drives are probably not going to work, because they require the matherboard to have a speed autonegotiation SATA chip. I think (not 100% sure) these models are not compatible with your PowerMac:

ST31000524AS

ST3750525AS

ST3500413AS

ST3320413AS

ST3250312AS

ST3160316AS

Some other (a bit older) Seagate Barracuda SATA drives have a jumper block, which will allow you to block the drive SATA bandwidth to 1.5Gbps like this:

which is exactly what the PowerMac G5 requires in order to properly recognize the hd.

It would be great if you provide us with the exact Seagate HD model number.

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