Mac OS X 10.6.4 Installation Issues on iMac G3

Question

Level 1

0 points

Mac OS X 10.6.4 Installation Issues on iMac G3

I have been trying to get Mac OS X 10.6.4 to run on my iMac G3. It has a 1GB of Ram, 400mhz, and 20GB of hard drive space. At first, I would always get a blue screen after the Apple logo loading screen. It had finally gave me the menu. I decided to format the hard drive to give me the maximum amount of space. It started to install then stopped to say there were errors and to restart. I did so. I kept getting the blue screen and kept restarting. Lots of the time, it would just stay on the white loading screen. Now when the menu loads correctly and when I get to the part of it to chose where I want it to be installed, it doesn't recognize the drive. There is no icon. How do I fix this? This is driving me crazy.

iMac G3-OTHER, Mac OS X (10.4.6)

Posted on Jun 6, 2015 2:39 PM

Reply

Answer 1

Kappy

Level 10

361,741 points

Jun 6, 2015 3:03 PM in response to awent0428

Sorry, but Snow Leopard requires an Intel Mac. You have a PPC model. Tiger is the last version of OS X that runs on most G3 models.

Reply

Answer 2

awent0428 Author

Level 1

0 points

Jun 6, 2015 3:06 PM in response to Kappy

Sorry. I had got mixed up. It's 10.4.6. I don't know how, but I had got them mixed up.

Reply

Answer 3

Kappy

Level 10

361,741 points

Jun 6, 2015 3:17 PM in response to awent0428

Please describe in detail what you've done so far and what is happening.

Reply

Answer 4

BDAqua

Level 10

239,225 points

Jun 6, 2015 3:19 PM in response to awent0428

Does the drive stll show up in Disk Utility?

Is it APM Partition map?

1. Insert the Mac OS X Install disc, then restart the computer while holding the C key.

2. When your computer finishes starting up from the disc, choose Disk Utility from the Installer menu at top of the screen. (In Mac OS X 10.4 or later, you must select your language first.)

*Important: Do not click Continue in the first screen of the Installer. If you do, you must restart from the disc again to access Disk Utility.*

Reply

Answer 5

awent0428 Author

Level 1

0 points

Jun 6, 2015 3:21 PM in response to Kappy

I have formatted the hard drive. I have restarted many times when the screen is blue or it doesn't go past the white loading screen. When the menu does show up, it wouldn't recognize the hard drive. Just now, it had worked correctly and recognized the hard drive. After a few minutes into installing, it says that there were errors and to restart. This is the second time it has done this.

Reply

Answer 6

Kappy

Level 10

361,741 points

Jun 6, 2015 3:48 PM in response to awent0428

Are you formatting the drive using the APM method? You cannot use GUID. When you run the installer wait for the menubar to appear. Select Disk Utility from the Utilities menu. Do you see your drive listed in Disk Utility's sidebar? Do you have a Macintosh HD or other volume name indented entry below the HDD's out-dented entry?

Reply

Answer 7

awent0428 Author

Level 1

0 points

Jun 6, 2015 3:55 PM in response to Kappy

All I did was erase it with Disk Utility. It was Macintosh HD, but I decided to change the name of it to MacOSX10.4

Reply

Answer 8

Kappy

Level 10

361,741 points

Jun 6, 2015 4:10 PM in response to awent0428

Try changing the name again to MacOSX. See if the makes a difference.

Reply

Answer 9

awent0428 Author

Level 1

0 points

Jun 6, 2015 5:44 PM in response to Kappy

Nope. Not much.

Reply

Answer 10

awent0428 Author

Level 1

0 points

Jun 7, 2015 12:42 AM in response to Kappy

The installation having errors is the problem I am worrying about now.

Reply

Answer 11

Kappy

Level 10

361,741 points

Jun 7, 2015 12:15 PM in response to awent0428

I'm guessing that the drive is failing, then.

Reply

Answer 12

awent0428 Author

Level 1

0 points

Jun 7, 2015 12:41 PM in response to Kappy

I would doubt that. I had Mac OS 9.2.2 running before trying to install Tiger.

Reply

Answer 13

mns579

Level 4

1,170 points

Jun 7, 2015 3:12 PM in response to awent0428

That 20G hard drive is around 15 years old. The age and erratic performance suggest, as Kappy says, a failing hard drive. It doesn't matter that 9.2.2 was working fine. At the very least, the Tiger installation is going to occupy different sectors and take more space than OS 9.2.2.

If you can, boot to the Tiger disc and run Disk Utility to reformat/erase the HDD. I'd erase the drive (two runs: used space and free space) throughly by overwriting it with zeroes in order to give the entire HDD a work out. I'd also expect the HDD to fail in the process. I suspect damaged sectors.

Reply

Answer 14

awent0428 Author

Level 1

0 points

Jun 7, 2015 3:37 PM in response to mns579

Thank you for explaining it too me.

Reply