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Paco Loco · Sep 25, 2005, 08:12 AM

I recently tried to install Panther on my ageing iBook, and though it took about 4 hours to do it it appeared that I had been successful. However the next time I started the machine it would not boot, it just kept hanging somewhere in the process.

I assumed that the install had not actually worked so I tried to install it again. This time there was not enough space on the disk for the full install so I tried to install just the essential system stuff. Unfortunately that didn't work and I got a 'install failed please try again' message.

The problem now is that there is now zero free space on the disk so I can't do the install again. If I try to turn on the machine normally now I just get a folder with flashing question mark icon.

I need to make some space on the disk to do the install again but I don't want to lose all the data on the disk, the problem is that Disk Utility won't let me delete individual folders off the disk, it's format the disk or nothing...

Anyone got any ideas?

Randman · Sep 25, 2005, 08:30 AM

What kind of install did you try?

Paco Loco · Sep 25, 2005, 09:25 AM

Initially it was just a standard installation. The second time I tried to do the same again but I had to leave out all the non-essential components as there was no space, hence I just installed the 1 'essential' component.

ogun · Sep 27, 2005, 08:02 AM

Look for a folder named 'Previous Systems' or equiv. Dump into Trash. Empty Trash. You may need to provide a password.

ogun · Sep 27, 2005, 08:06 AM

I think he's asking if you did an upgrade install, an archive install, or an erase install. I'd say that it's probable that you did an archive install. If I was having the problems you seem to be having I'd back up everything I wanted to keep and then do an erase install and then restore my data. Erase installs don't run out of disk space unless the hard disk doesn't have enough space in the first place (in which case you have other problems) because they reformat the drive as part of the install and the drive's 100% available.

Paco Loco · Sep 27, 2005, 08:29 AM

Yes I did an archive install as I need to keep the data that is on there.

I can easily make enough space on the drive to do a fresh install if i could just get to the files. That is exactly my problem - I cannot explore the contents of the drive in any way as it has had a failed install so the only options it gives me are archive and install or erase and install, and I can't do the archive as there's no space.

It feels like I am in a catch 22 situation and the only way out is to erase the drive... I really hope that someone can prove me wrong...

ogun · Sep 27, 2005, 09:21 AM

1 buy an external firewire drive; I recommend something substantially larger than your internal drive, but that's me

2 attach drive to Mac

3 do an erase install or a first install _on the external drive_

4 boot from the external drive

5 do whatever you want to the contents of the internal drive (I'd recommend backing up all your data to the external drive, but that's me)

6 clear the failed intalls and/or do an erase install on the internal drive.

May I recommend that next time you do a full backup _before_ doing an OS install? This avoids so much trouble. For one thing, if you did the backup the easy way using SuperDuper! or Carbon Copy Cloner, you'd _already_ have an external drive, with all your stuff, and which would be bootable.

Paco Loco · Sep 28, 2005, 06:13 AM

That sounds like it would work... I have ordered an external firewire drive and I will give it a try when it arrives. I will post the results here for the benefit of anyone else who has the same problem.

Thanks for the help Oqun!

ogun · Sep 28, 2005, 10:00 AM

good luck, man.

Paco Loco · Oct 14, 2005, 05:22 AM

Update:
I have now completed this exercise and it worked like a charm. The drive I used was a LaCie P3 160GB firewire. I will now be using it for regular backups of my HD and I reccomend everyone to do the same!

ShotgunEd · Oct 14, 2005, 05:39 AM

Its good to see you learned your lesson.

It nearly always takes an event like this to prompt people into thinking about backup.

1) If you need your data, back it up, back it up twice.
2) If you are upgrading your OS, do a complete back up, of everything

ogun · Oct 15, 2005, 09:58 AM

There are two kinds of computer users:

1 those who have lost data which wasn't backed up when the hard drive died

2 those who will lose data which wasn't backed up when, sometime in the future, the hard drive dies

Mostly that's the luck of the draw. You can't back up everything, all the time. Even with a regular backup system in place, _something_ is going to have been altered/added/moved between the last backup and the time the drive went titsup. Even RAID systems can die... (Long story, involving a fire. They didn't have Halon systems installed. They should have.)

However, major OS updates are an entirely predictable point of failure. 99.99% of the time they go smoothly. That last 0.01%, you'd better have a backup.