Adventures in macintosh land

PPC Macs normally do not boot from USB drives, but some can be fooled into booting from USB...

http://hints.macworld.com/article.php?story=20060301112336384

What exact HDD did you put in it?

Does the Optical Drive work?

Is this 10.2 discs you have the original gray discs that came with PowerMac G5?

The G5 1.8 model I believe shipped with a version of OS X 10.2 that was a greater point version. I think it was OS X 10.2.7 Jaguar

Also, later PowerMac G5's of the same vintage later shipped with OS X 10.3 Panther.

Does the bulit-in CD/DVD drive work?

Does the Mac Chime when you first power up?

Should be able to boot the CD/DVD in the optical drive by holding down the C key when the Mac first chimes.

As long as you regard spending time on your 1.8 as a labour of passion / challenge you should enjoy it and not get too stressed, it isn't worth a great deal anymore. I have one with a power issue and with the original discs so if any help is needed I can verify my model against yours and disc versions etc.

As others have asked, does it chime up and give you a flashing question mark?

Well chime means good.

Without racing away and trying lots of things it requires a logical step by step check of all variables involved otherwise you will go round in circles.

• Are the cd's the correct ones for your machine and are they in working condition? Can you post by what version they are and we can check.Have you a full version of a mac os like tiger or leopard you could borrow / try.
• Is the cd drive in working condition,can it read other discs like linux boot cd's,it it connected properly,can you remove and test in another pc to be sure
• Is the hard drive you are using in working condition.Can you install windows on it ok? Can you run a hard disk drive diagnostic software to make sure
• Is your keyboard working correctly.Have you another usb one you could try.
• You should be able to hold down 'c' and the bootable install cd's should spin up and you instigate the install of mac osx.
• Others may correct me but i'm sure bootcamp is an intel thing and won't work.

If you need a free OS for you G5 look at linux. I have never wrote the discs on Windows. Remember you need the PPC version of linux. I think Debian still has a PPC version. Bootcamp is for the intel macs. The mac os x firmware will ignore discs of Mac OS X that the machine doesn't support. Apple machines are a little different when it comes to what Mac OS X version of software they will run. Each mac has a range of Mac OS X it will support and that is it.

Given the serial number, this will provide more info on the machine you have.

This site provides more information. Best for older machines. Note, serial number is sent in the clear.

"A serial number is a unique, identifying number or group of numbers and letters assigned to an individual piece of hardware or software. It's used for various things depending on the product / brand but what is your Mac's serial number for and more importantly... what is it hiding and what can it do for you ?"

http://www.appleserialnumberinfo.com/Desktop/index.php

or

This site provides more information, but lacks security too.

"A serial number is a unique, identifying number or group of numbers and letters assigned to an individual piece of hardware or software. It's used for various things depending on the product / brand but what is your Mac's serial number for and more importantly... what is it hiding and what can it do for you ?"

http://www.appleserialnumberinfo.com/Desktop/index.php

http://www.chipmunk.nl/klantenservice/applemodel.html

( hint by K Shaffer )

If the discs are just 10.2 or 10.2.3,, those will NOT work. Macs won't boot a system that is lower than what came with it.

You'll need OS X 10.2.7 discs or better.

Failing that, you will need to find and purchase OEM Retail discs of either OS X 10.3 Panther or OS X 10.4 Tiger, OR retail OS 10.5 Leopard discs to use to boot that G5.

No other options are possible.

I am NOT sure if that model PowerMac G5 is even bootable over USB!

Almost ALL PowerMacs are bootable over FireWire, but NOT many over USB.

IF your external DVD drive is only USB, it may not work, either. Even with the proper discs.

You'll need an optical drive that has both USB AND FireWire.

Take a look at this site for more info about your PowerMac G5 model

http://www.everymac.com/

Okay!

Good!

😉

Before throwing money at this machine and not just your time,I would personally beg borrow or steal a 'retail' copy of tiger or better,leopard and try to install using your plan of using the internal sata dvd drive you've got. If you can't get a copy then,before wasting money buying it for this old machine,i would check everything all works ok by using the correct flavour of linux for this power pc as others have said and then go from there.

Retail versions of leopard still exhange hands for decent money when in reality you would be better off treating yourself to a second hand mac mini which would comes with discs and save you energy running it and take up less space,add to that you would probably end up with an intel processor which would eat you rmachine alive.

Good Points!

😉

And I'm not knocking them because i think they are beautiful machines but unless you have the timeto kill and a little acrued knowledge it's a waste of your valuable time.I had three dual 1.8's in my time and they were all brilliant reliable machines which i resold for good money to people who wanted reliable simple file servers that would carry on regardless. But now i am down to one like yours that's psu has gone,a 2.7 dual which will chime when it feels like it and a Quad 2.5 beast which i could never afford when it came out but that is really testing my patience.I am fed up of lifting their heavy weight up onto my worktable all the time and i am seriously starting to understand the appeal of a laptop even though i've never regarded any laptop as a serious contender. My parents have a mac mini which it's dvd drive has failed (common) and hdd has failed (probably due to the heat) so they all fail in the end!

These things are sent to try us and many people would just bin them,perhaps they are the wisest of all of all.😁 But it's fun fixing stuff.

I reckon if you can get hold of a retail copy and do what you suggested you'll be fine.Doesn't sound much wrong with it.

http://www.everymac.com/systems/by_processor/powerpc-g5-powerpc-970-macs.html

check if you can find your particular G5 mac here, the detailed specs will let you know the versions of the OS X that can boot the machine, and maybe some other useful hardware specs.