Can't restore an early G5 single 1.8

Question

Level 1

34 points

Can't restore an early G5 single 1.8

I have a 1st gen single 1.8 Powermac G5.

I am trying to restore using the original restore disc but the computer will not boot from the disc.

The disc contains 10.3 sox, the computer has been upgraded to 10.5.8 leopard.

The drive works fine on other disks, just won't do anything withe restore disk. I also tried reinstalling from the Leopard upgrade disk but it won't mount the disk.

I just want to wipe the hard drive and reinstall.

Help please! :-)

Thanks

Len

PowerMac, Mac OS X (10.5.8)

Posted on Sep 9, 2013 7:15 AM

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Answer 1

MichelPM

Level 10

81,547 points

Sep 9, 2013 7:53 AM in response to Lend273

Does the OS X 10.3 Panther disc, on the label, show what version is on the disk?

There are two different model years that had a 1.8 Ghz CPU.

The very early models booted either from a OS X 10.2.7 Jaguar or OS X 10.3 Panther.

The later single 1.8 Ghz CPU used either OS X 10.3.5 or OS X 10.3.7

When booting from a disc, you must hold down the C key at startup.

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Answer 2

ezylstra

Level 1

16 points

Sep 9, 2013 9:20 AM in response to Lend273

Are you able to log into the machine? If so, when you put the restore disk in, does the optical drive read the disk and does it show up in the Finder?

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Answer 3

Lend273 Author

Level 1

34 points

Sep 9, 2013 9:33 AM in response to Lend273

Apple supplied 2 restore disks. One has 10.2.7 the other has 10.3.

They both are gray and say restore disk.

I am able to log into the machine, when I put the disk in the drive it does not mount, does not make a sound, and does not show in the finder.

In Disk Utility the cd/dvd drive shows.

The drive works fine with other disks.

When I hold the C key down while starting it only gives me an option to boot from the hard drive.

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Answer 4

ezylstra

Level 1

16 points

Sep 9, 2013 9:36 AM in response to Lend273

This sounds like a disk problem. Is it clean? Does it have any scratches?

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Answer 5

MichelPM

Level 10

81,547 points

Sep 9, 2013 9:37 AM in response to Lend273

Look at read side of the discs in strong light.

Are they scratched up really bad or have any major flaws in their surface?

The restore discs maybe damaged?

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Answer 6

Lend273 Author

Level 1

34 points

Sep 9, 2013 11:25 AM in response to Lend273

I tried both restore disks and the leopard upgrade disk. The disks show no damage. All other disks work fine.

Any other suggestions guys?

Thanks for your help :-)

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Answer 7

MichelPM

Level 10

81,547 points

Sep 9, 2013 12:29 PM in response to Lend273

The Leopard upgrade disc will not work.

OS X 10.5 Leopard is a full PAID upgrade. If you have some sort of OS X 10.5 disc, this must be an update disc that can be used once a retail OS X 10.5 disc installation occurs.

If you can boot and log into the OS X version that is installed now, we need some additonal info about this Mac.

To find out info about your system, click on the Apple symbol in the upper, top left of the OS X main menu bar. A drop down menu appears. Click About this Mac. A smaller popup window appears. This gives you basic info like what version of OS X your iMac is running, the speed of your iMac's CPU and how much RAM is installed. Click on the button that says More Info. A larger window appears giving you a complete overview of your iMac's hardware specs. Highlight all of this info and copy/paste all of this into another reply to this post, editing out your iMac's serial number before actually posting the reply. This will tell us everything about your iMac so we may begin to help with your iMac issues.

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Answer 8

Lend273 Author

Level 1

34 points

Sep 9, 2013 2:31 PM in response to Lend273

Here is the info you requested:

I am running 10.5.8

Model Name: Power Mac G5

Model Identifier: PowerMac7,2

Processor Name: PowerPC 970 (2.2)

Processor Speed: 1.8 GHz

Number Of CPUs: 1

L2 Cache (per CPU): 512 KB

Memory: 5.5 GB

Bus Speed: 900 MHz

Boot ROM Version: 5.1.5f1

Serial Number (system): xxxxxxxxxxxx

Hardware UUID: 00000000-0000-1000-8000-000A95966B88

I put the Panther upgrade disk in and it reboots but wont let me install because the version on my hard drive is a later version.

The drive wont read eother of the Power Mac G5 restores disks or the Leopard upgrade disks.

Thanks for your help.

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Answer 9

MichelPM

Level 10

81,547 points

Sep 9, 2013 3:16 PM in response to Lend273

Okay,

If your iMac can boot from the OS X 10.3 Panther disc, let it boot from the disc.

Once it boots, before we can install 10.3, you need to erase and reformat the hard drive.

You can quit the installer app by going too the top main menu under the name installer and click the name, a drop down appears where you can quit the installer app.

In the top, main menu bar should be Disk Utility, click on this to launch it.

In this app you can erase the Mac's internal hard drive and reformat the disk as an OS X extended format (journaled).

Once the hard drive is reformatted, you can relaunched the OS X 10.3 Installer app and proceed with the Installation of OS X 10.3 Panther.

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Answer 10

Lend273 Author

Level 1

34 points

Sep 9, 2013 4:10 PM in response to Lend273

OK, I did that. But when I go back to the installer it tells me that there is no earlier version of Mac OSX on either of my hard drives, and it wont let me install the Panther upgrade.

I bought the G% with OSX 10.3, then upgraded from there to Panther, then Tiger, then Leopard.

The original disks that came with the computer are from 10.2.7 and it will not let me restore from them.

All the other upgrade disks read fine, but it wont let me use them because they are upgrade disks and a previous version of osx does not reside on the drive.

I did reformat the hard drive as you recommended, but it will not let me restore to it.

It just will not read the restore disks for some reason.

I paid for everything, this *****.

It must be some type of apple glitch. Do you guys have any other suggestions?

Thanks

Len

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Answer 11

MichelPM

Level 10

81,547 points

Sep 9, 2013 4:44 PM in response to Lend273

You never purchased a complete, full retail OS X disc of any version of OS X?

They were all upgrade type discs?

Without good restore discs or full install OEM retail discs, it will be next to impossible to install an OS X version on this Mac.

You need to contact Apple in order to get OS X 10.4 Tiger or OS X 10.5 Leopard from Apple assuming they still have copies.

Apple Store Customer Service at 1-800-676-2775

These discs will be replacement OS install discs.

You will need to give the rep your Mac model and serial number and you'll, also, need a credit card as there is a nominal fee of around $18 for processing and shipping of the disc.

Good Luck!

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Answer 12

Lend273 Author

Level 1

34 points

Sep 9, 2013 4:49 PM in response to Lend273

I bought the G5 computer new from Apple.

It came with 2 restore disks:

One of them says:

Power Mac G5

Software Install and Restore ( Includes Apple Hardware Test) Moc OS version 10.2.7.

The other restore disk says:

Power Mac G5

Software Install and Restore ( Includes Apple Hardware Test) Mac OS version 10.3

These 2 came with the machine.

When subsequent versions of OSX came out, I bought the upgrade disks.

I think that constitutes paying for install disks.

All of this I paid for. The original restore disks are in my possession.

Your response implies I did something wrong, which I did not.

My restore disks should restore the machine I paid for. No?

Thanks

Len

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Answer 13

MichelPM

Level 10

81,547 points

Sep 9, 2013 5:42 PM in response to Lend273

Okay,

These OS X install discs are full retail discs? They don't say anything about an " upgrade" disc on the the disc, correct?

These discs should have either a Black background with silver X (OS X 10.4 Tiger) and/or a star or colored nebula background with a Black X on them (OS X 10.5 Leopard), correct?

I don't know why you can't install the OS X to the PowerMac's internal hard drive.

If this is the case, there is one last thing we can try and this should work.

It involves purchasing an external FireWire hard drive, installing OS X to the external drive, then purchasing,downloading, installing and using a data cloning app like Carbon Copy Cloner or SuperDuper to clone the OS X version installed on the external hard drive and clone it back to your PowerMac's original hard drive.

Then see if the PowerMac will boot from its own drive.

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Answer 14

Lend273 Author

Level 1

34 points

Sep 9, 2013 5:40 PM in response to Lend273

OK, I have a black disk with silver X. It is the Mac OSX Tiger disk. It does not say "upgrade".

It says "Install DVD".

I also have a spare firewire extrnal hard drive. I also have Super Duper

I will format the firewire drive and try to install Tiger to it.

Then I will clone to my G5 hard drive and see if it boots.

Is that it?

Thanks

Len

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Answer 15

MichelPM

Level 10

81,547 points

Sep 9, 2013 5:46 PM in response to Lend273

That's about all I have.

You still need to make sure that the external hard drive and the PowerMac's internal hard drive is erased and formatted in OS X extended format (journaled)

I hope it works and I wish you luck.

Please get back here to let us know if you were successful or not.

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