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User profile for user: IA-Nick
IA-Nick Author
User level: Level 1
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Upgrading to OS 10.4 (on CD iMac) from DVD Software-Phase 2

Suppose I have a Firewire EZQuest DVD burner and want to upgrade an iMac G3 with a slot-loading CD-R/W drive from 10.3.9 to 10.4 via DVD. Will I be able to transfer the DVD info onto the iMac's HD and proceed from there? Or, could I expect to have the iMac restart off the DVD loaded into the DVD burner?

Thanx in advance for any feedback received.
IA-Nick

PowerMac G5, Mac Mini, 3 iMacs Mac OS X (10.3.9)

Posted on Aug 27, 2006 8:41 AM

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8 replies
User profile for user: Kenichi Watanabe
Kenichi Watanabe
User level: Level 8
41,572 points

Aug 28, 2006 1:59 AM in response to IA-Nick

I think you need to be able to boot from the DVD. So the answer to your question is a question... Can you use this Firewire EZQuest DVD burner to start up from a bootable DVD? I don't know.

I've done the following as an experiment (I noticed you had some other Macs that do have DVD drives). I put my iMac's new larger hard drive in an external Firewire case and used a Power Mac G5 to install Mac OS X 10.4 on it. I then put the drive back into my iMac. It seemed to work fine (no problems), but after a few hours of playing with it, I realized that 10.3.9 worked better on these old G3's. And it was just an experiment, but it seemed to work.
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User profile for user: mrtotes
mrtotes
User level: Level 6
11,836 points

Aug 29, 2006 4:45 PM in response to IA-Nick

Hello and Welcome to Apple Discussions.

I gather from the fact that you are posting here that you are unable to boot your iMac G3 from the EZQuest drive. If you haven't tried that, then that is the first thing to do. Insert the Tiger disk in the EZQuest drive and restart the iMac G3. Hold down the Option key after the chime and select the Tiger Install Disk from the choice of icons once they've all loaded.

If that doesn't work then the easiest thing to do here is to:

  • Insert the Tiger DVD in to another Mac.
  • Then connect the other Mac to the iMac G3 with a 6pin-to-6pin Firewire cable
  • Start the other Mac in Firewire Target Disk Mode (Hold down the T key during start-up).
  • Restart the iMac G3 and hold down the Option (aka alt) key. A purplish screen will appear with the iMac's hard drive, the other Mac's hard drive and the Tiger Install DVD listed.
  • Wait for it to finish searching for Network drives and then select the Tiger Disk.
  • Install Tiger as normal.

All you are doing here is borrowing the other Mac's optical drive. There is no need to swap hard drives in and out.

regards

mrtotesUser uploaded file

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User profile for user: mrtotes
mrtotes
User level: Level 6
11,836 points

Aug 30, 2006 11:37 AM in response to IA-Nick

Regret I don't have experience of that particular setup. I've never installed anything greater than Jagaur on my old iMac G3 400.

Technically it's very possible though. The only thing I'l say is that you'll defintely miss out on certain Tiger visual effects as the video card is too limited. So long as you don't start to use high end apps you should have a good experience. (I'd guess you'll do the complex stuff on the G5/Mini(?)).

regards

mrtotesUser uploaded file

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Upgrading to OS 10.4 (on CD iMac) from DVD Software-Phase 2

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