my PowerMac g3 which I would like to upgrade only has a cd rom drive. I have os x tiger on DVD and I think apple only made it on DVD. did apple ever make it as a cd version?
PowerMac, Mac OS X (10.2.x)
Yes, that's possible if you can find a set.
Apple DID make a set of CDs for OS X 10.4 Tiger, but these will be much harder to find as Apple made these a limited option if a Mac only had a CD read/write drive and if you do find them, the CDs will be much more expensive to purchase.
There are alternative means and methods that are cheaper to be able to use that OS X Tiger install DVD.
I am thinking easier to purchase hardware external optical drive if your G3 can be able to use one.
What model G3 is it? If IR is a beige color mode?
Has it ever been upgraded with a PCI USB or FIreWire 400 PCI card?
Is the G3 the Blue & White colored tower model?
The B&W G3 has FIreWire 400 built in and that Mac is bootable and can run optical and hard drives from the FIreWire connection
The reason for asking is that it maybe money better spent to purchase and external FIreWire optical drive that CAN read and write DVDs and install OS X Tiger using the DVD you have by booting the Mac over FIreWire to the external optical drive and running and installing the DVD from there.
Plus, you will now have a way to use both DVDs and CDs with your Mac.
You need to purchase a FIreWire optical drive, though. No Mac from that era had the ability to boot from a USB connected device.
Here's what will work on your Mac for an external drive.
There was a very rare 4 CD version, (thought it was 5, but)...
Good find, BD!!!!!!!!
NIiiiiiice!!!!!!!!!
Michel
😉
Cheapest I've ever seen too! 😀
Also note, PowerMac G3s can't boot off Firewire. Neither could the Yikes PowerMac G4, also known as the PCI PowerMac G4. So the CD set, or an Apple compatible internal DVD drive for the PowerMac G3 are the only way you could install the 10.4 DVD disc.
a brody wrote:
Also note, PowerMac G3s can't boot off Firewire. Neither could the Yikes PowerMac G4, also known as the PCI PowerMac G4. So the CD set, or an Apple compatible internal DVD drive for the PowerMac G3 are the only way you could install the 10.4 DVD disc.
Not normally, but it is possible to boot OS X from a FW drive, this helps boot larger volumes than the built-in controller supports. Beige G3's did not have FW, but the ports could be added on an expansion PCI card, not sure if those particular compatible cards are still widely available. With the use of the XPostFacto freeware, and a dedicated "helper" disc, i.e. an existing otherwise bootable volume like the first partition <8GB on an internal drive on the built-in ATA bus with or without an OS on it, then you can boot and install OS X on an external FW drive. The older beige G3 models require XPostFacto to install 10.4, and maybe 10.3 as well, I don't remember which version dropped native support on the Beige G3s.
https://eshop.macsales.com/osxcenter/xpostfacto/
XPostFacto helps to boot from the OS DVD installer on an otherwise unbootable optical drive so that you can run the installer, and helps to boot the installed OS from an otherwise unbootable drive, ie FW on the G3 it also helps you change the startup disc, when you are running the unsupported OS on the older G3, you can't use the regular startup disc utility.
Blue and White G3s are quite different, this may not apply to those at all. I am mainly speaking from distant and foggy memory of the Beige desktop G3 I had many years ago.
Can OS X Tiger be purchased on CD-ROM
