lazarusnine

Q: System 7.5.3 (and 7.6) Installation Problems on LC 475 and Performa 630

I am having an issue getting an operating system to install on two old Macs, an LC 475 and a Performa 630. No matter what manner in which I try to install System 7.5.3, I get an error at some stage during the install. The exact same disks worked with my LC III, but not my LC 475 or Performa 630. I will be going about my business and swapping disks in and out and suddenly (and at different stages each time), I'll be asked to "Please insert the disk: Install Disk 1". If I do that, it closes out the install and it says the following:

 

"An error occurred while trying to complete the installation. Installation was canceled, leaving your disk untouched."

 

So, thinking it could possibly be my floppy disks (though unlikely, since the same ones worked on the LC III), I used another copy of the System 7.5.3 install disks and moved them over to my Floppy Emu. I have the exact same problem. And as I say, this happens with both my LC 475 and Performa 630. They have different hard drives installed and each of them had working OS's prior to my attempts to wipe the drives and put fresh installations of 7.5.3 on. It's worth noting that I have an original copy of System 7.6 that I must have gotten while my mom was still working in education; I've tried those disks and had the same result. I have initialised the drives, tried partitioning the drives, repairing the drives, etc. etc. It seems that no matter what I try to get an OS onto either of these machines, I hit this stumbling block. One more point to add: my LC III has a SCSI2SD adapter with SD card, whereas the 630 and LC 475 have standard SCSI hard drives. Does anyone have any ideas as to what might be causing this and what steps I might take to solve it? Thanks!

Macintosh LC III, Mac OS 8.6 or Earlier, System 7.6, 32MB RAM, 25MHz

Posted on Mar 4, 2015 4:17 AM

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Q: System 7.5.3 (and 7.6) Installation Problems on LC 475 and Performa 630

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  • by Smokerz,

    Smokerz Smokerz Mar 4, 2015 1:36 PM in response to lazarusnine
    Level 6 (9,699 points)
    Mar 4, 2015 1:36 PM in response to lazarusnine

    I'm trying to remember. Go on the internet and do a search for enabler. I believe way back then the specific OS install disks had the proper enabler for the specified Mac. The enabler was contained in the system disks back then.

  • by Jan Hedlund,Solvedanswer

    Jan Hedlund Jan Hedlund Mar 5, 2015 3:09 AM in response to lazarusnine
    Level 6 (9,869 points)
    Mar 5, 2015 3:09 AM in response to lazarusnine

    To summarise:

    You are using an LC 475 and a Performa 630.

    You have tested conventional floppy disk install sets of both System 7.5.3 and 7.6.

    Installation attempts via the real floppy drives were not successful.

    Installation attempts of System 7.5.3 via (an SD flash memory card in) a Floppy Emu (internally connected instead of a floppy drive) have not been successful.

    The 7.5.3 set of floppies as such has been tested OK with an LC III.

    Hard disks had been reformatted before tests.

     

    The above appears to cover all angles. System 7.5.3 and 7.6 are supported for all computers. System enablers are normally used for System 7.1 versions only. You have not indicated that the system disks in question are machine-specific. Therefore, one would assume that the installation should be OK; yet it does not work.

    https://support.apple.com/kb/SP209

    https://support.apple.com/kb/SP211

    https://support.apple.com/kb/SP286

     

    It is hard to find a logical explanation. Either the floppy drives in both the LC 475 and the Performa 630 have to be faulty (which is unlikely, and it still does not work when you try via the Floppy Emu), or both logic boards are defective. Or, both sets of floppies would have to have a common issue or limitation regarding the finalisation of an installation onto an LC 475 and a Performa 630, or perhaps all 68LC040 processor machines (the System 7.5.3 set works with an LC III), which does not seem to be too likely either.

     

    Anyway, you could of course try an alternative installation method.

     

    If you have access to the nineteen-files (US) version of System 7.5.3 previously downloadable from Apple, you could try that instead (the nineteen files were segments of one large self-mounting disk image; this was not a normal set of system disks, and it needed a bootable system on the hard disk or on a startup floppy). A (temporary) small operating system can be installed by dragging a copy of the system folder from a Network Access Disk 7.5 floppy onto an empty hard disk.

     

    It should also be possible to carry out a "net install" of a set of conventional system disks. With a temporary system installed on the earlier empty hard disk (see about the Network Access Disk 7.5 above), the floppy drive will be free for subsequent file transfers. One could then copy each normal system floppy to the hard disk. The result will be a folder for each floppy. Again booting from a Network Access floppy, one could remove the temporary system folder from the hard disk and then try to carry out an installation via an installer in one of the folders. There are variants of this, involving mounted disk images and/or RAM disks.

     

    Jan

  • by Jan Hedlund,Helpful

    Jan Hedlund Jan Hedlund Mar 5, 2015 7:19 AM in response to Jan Hedlund
    Level 6 (9,869 points)
    Mar 5, 2015 7:19 AM in response to Jan Hedlund

    Addendum

     

    >Again booting from a Network Access floppy, one could remove the temporary system folder from the hard disk and then try to carry out an installation via an installer in one of the folders. There are variants of this, involving mounted disk images and/or RAM disks.

     

    Typically, a system software installer will complain if the installation is supposed to take place on the same volume. If so, unless a second hard disk partition is available, one may have to experiment with mounted disk images or RAM disk variants. For example, a Memory control panel placed in the Control Panels folder of a temporary operating system would allow a RAM disk to be created. With enough RAM installed, the RAM disk could (temporarily) hold a whole set of folders for installation purposes. Mounted disk images behave in a similar manner, but the image files themselves stay permanently on the hard disk. Disk Copy 6.3.3 (https://support.apple.com/kb/DL1262) can be used to create and mount disk images.

  • by lazarusnine,

    lazarusnine lazarusnine Mar 6, 2015 2:59 PM in response to Jan Hedlund
    Level 1 (10 points)
    Mar 6, 2015 2:59 PM in response to Jan Hedlund

    Dear Jan,

     

    Thanks for your very detailed response. Through a lot of trial and error, I think it was probably the hard drives in BOTH machines. Just before your first reply, I essentially did exactly what you said. Though, instead of using the Network Access floppy, I performed a minimal install (it took about four or five goes to get through all 6.8MBs without the installation failing. From there, I was able to drag all of my disk images onto the hard drive and install 7.6 from the hard drive itself. What was particularly telling was that both the install disks and the Floppy Emu worked perfectly well with a Macintosh IIx that I have. So, unless there's some random issue with a combination of a 68LC040, my floppy controller on the motherboard and my installation software, then it seems it's like the hard drives at fault. Still, it's a strange occurrence and one I've never come across before. Thanks again for your assistance; next time I have this issue, it will definitely be the Network Access floppy route that I take. All the best.

     

    Regards,

    LazarusNine

  • by Jan Hedlund,

    Jan Hedlund Jan Hedlund Mar 6, 2015 4:44 PM in response to lazarusnine
    Level 6 (9,869 points)
    Mar 6, 2015 4:44 PM in response to lazarusnine

    Hello,

     

    Glad to hear that the problem has been solved. One should perhaps not rule out the possibility that it has something to do with formatting and hard disk drive drivers. If so, and if there are other issues, tests may have to be carried out with various disk utilities.

     

    Jan