[guod]

POST #5 has the problem but it has now been solved. please close

[steve626]

Originally Posted by guod 

I have 2 ibook g3's and once macbook. The macbook has a dvd drive and i wanted to install os 10.3 on the ibooks so i was going to do the method of booting one via firewire and then use disk utility to say restore the os 10.3 dvd to my Macintosh hd on the ibook. I did that and after i "ejected" the ibook and tried to restart it in order to run the OS X install, it HUNG AT THE GREY APPLE SCREEN! The machine was almost useless. I can still access all of my files via firewire bootup but cant get into the os. THEN I tried installing 10.3 onto the machince after i had already done the restore method wrong on the first ibook. The first ibook had the HD erased and the only thing on the HD is os 10.3 install. It booted to that and then i connected the other computer to it via firewire. I clicked on the firewire device to say that was the install destination and then i waited the 2 hours it took to install. It just finished and STILL CANT BOOT to the freaking OS. When i boot to the hd though firewire and look at the space on the macbook, the HD now only has 800 MBs free. When i started this whole ordeal today there was like 6 or 7 free GBs on the disc. WHAT CAN I DO THE FIX THIS BIIIIIIG problem?

Your "flow of consciousness" type of post makes it hard for me to follow exactly what you did.

First, what type of 10.3 Install DVD did you use? Either it has to be one that came with the ibook when it was new (in which case why not just boot from the install DVD on the ibook and install normally?), or it must be a "universal install" disk. If it's neither of those, it won't work.

Second, you "restored" the install DVD to the internal drive on one of the ibooks? I am going to believe that you did exactly what you say, which means you may have overwritten critical ibook system files with those from the DVD. In any case, if this restore is not done properly, you can end up with a non-bootable internal drive (which seems to have happened to you). Remember, to install the OS you must be booted from a drive that is different from the target you want to install onto. You tried to copy the DVD Install disk contents to your hard drive but you can't install onto the hard drive from that copy anyway.

Now it sounds like you tried to install on the other ibook (?) but ran out of disk space? I have installed 10.3 and ended up using only about 3 Gig space but it was a minimal install -- you might easily need twice that or more with a full install, and if you run out of space you might not be able to boot. You are down to hundred of Magabytes which sounds to me like you ran out of space. I think the install can require 8 Gigabytes or more depending on the options selected.

I still don't understand why you didn't put the DVD install disk in the ibook's optical drive and just boot from the install DVD (hold the C key down when booting) and then erase and install right from the DVD as is typically done. Does your ibook have only a CD-ROM drive? Also, unless this 10.3 DVD you have is a "universal" installer, it probably won't work on your ibooks.

Also, I'm not sure I like the idea of running an installer from a Macbook to install onto an ibook. Seems like something incompatible could result.

Here is a link that explains how to install the Mac OS (Tiger in this case) on a Mac without a DVD drive, when all you have is an install DVD disk.

The Cat's Mustaches — Installing Tiger without a DVD drive - O'Reilly Mac DevCenter Blog

[OreoCookie]

I am also not quite sure to understand what you've written. But my guess is that you are trying to install 10.3 via your MacBook onto the iBooks. There are two deal-breaking problems as to why this doesn't work:
(i) You're trying to run OS X for PowerPC on an Intel-based Mac.
(ii) You're trying to run 10.3 on a machine that came with 10.4.

You should do the following:
(i) Get install 10.3 CDs from Apple. You can get them for about $20 shipping and handling if you own a copy of 10.3. Alternatively you can also purchase 10.4.
(ii) Start the iBooks in target disk mode. Copy all important data onto your MacBook. You can use Migration Assistant for that.
(iii) Use the install CDs on your iBooks; wipe the harddrives and later on, restore users via Migration Assistant/manually.

[frdmfghtr]

I had to read the initial post twice, and yes, it is hard to follow. It sounds like goud is making it much harder than it needs to be, but we can fix that.

Getting the 10.3 install CDs may not be necessary. You can install PowerPC OS X using an Intel machine as an external drive. I installed 10.4 on a blue iMac G3 DV that only had a CD-ROM drive. I booted my MacBook in target mode and used the DVD drive as an external drive to run the installation. It was a little slow, which is to be expected using a external FireWire drive on a 400 MHz G3 machine, but it worked quite well otherwise.

(Don't let the term "target mode" confuse you; booting in "target" mode just means that the computer is now an external drive; you can read and write to/from the drive.)

I agree with OreoCookie to boot the iBooks in Target mode and copy all the important data from them to the MacBook temporarily. After that, assuming that the iBooks have CD drives only:

*Shut down everything

* Boot the MacBook in Target mode, and insert the 10.3 install DVD

* Connect the MacBook to the iBook and boot the iBook from the external DVD

* Install 10.3 from the DVD.

* Restore your data files

Repeat for the other iBook.

Welcome to the forums, and good luck!

[guod]

Thanks for the help guys. I was in a rush and really frustrated when i wrote the post as i thought i now had 2 ibook paper weights. Now that I got ONE of them working let me write what happened a little more clearly.

I wanted to update my ibook that had 10.2.8 on it to 10.3. My ibooks DO NOT have a DVD drive installed, so I needed the cd version of 10.3. I have a macbook and I have a 10.3 DVD installer. Then since the ibooks would not read the disc as it was a DVD I would need to try something else. I tried to do the install by just running the DVD and was going to tell it to install onto one of the ibooks via firewire. When I tried to run the installer, it said i could not use it as i have 10.4 on my macbook. So I tried a different approach. I was going to now try to use disc utility and say restore the discs image onto the ibooks drive. It did its work and started to restore the image file onto the ibooks hard drive. Little did it know that by checking erase hd completely (it didnt matter as there were no important files that i needed on the hd) would make it boot from an installer where i would not be able to install it on that computer. So what i had now was a working ibook, one with the installer on the hd and a working macbook. Then since the ibook that i did the image restore on could not see its own hd in the installation, i tried to do the restore thing again but without erasing that HD. I did that and i thought it was going well. It finsihed but when i tried to restart the computer and run the installer, it hung at the grey screen. i thought i was screwed. I had an idea to hook up ONLY the 2 ibooks and try to just install 10.3 onto the ibook that boots to the grey screen and see what could happen. I guess i was low on disc space at it took 2 hours and still hung after it was done so then i went for it all. I didnt really have anything to lose as i was going to consider this a learning process, so i tried the install again but telling it to erase the hd completely for a fresh install. I did that and IT WORKED!!!!!!! It booted right up to 10.3 then got the updates for 10.3.9 and that ibook is running well.

I still have a question on how to install 10.3 on the other ibook that only boots to the installer. is there a way i can get my macbook to boot from dvd? I push C when it boots and i have help option and i cant get a dvd to boot. I am not too sure on how to create a set up where i would be able to install 10.3 on there as every option I can think of wont work. Is there a way to boot from like an external dvd drive (all i have is a burner) or can i get the ibook to see its own hd with the current set up now? (im going to try what is in the above post but just in case it doesnt work, i needed a few more options)

Again, thanks for the help sorry for the initial post confusion.

[pinenuts]

Originally Posted by OreoCookie 

I am also not quite sure to understand what you've written.

¿Huh?

[OreoCookie]

Glad to hear it worked. You could have also done the following (much easier): start your MacBook in Target Disk Mode, connect it via FireWire to your iBook and pop the DVD in the MacBook's DVD drive.

[guod]

Yea..I JUST did that on the ibook that only booted to the OS X install and now BOTH ARE WORKING!

Thanks again for your help everyone. Please close this thread now as the problem has been solved

[ibook2001]

Originally Posted by OreoCookie 

Glad to hear it worked. You could have also done the following (much easier): start your MacBook in Target Disk Mode, connect it via FireWire to your iBook and pop the DVD in the MacBook's DVD drive.

Would something like this--"start in target disk mode"-- work for using an imac (currently running tiger) to install OS 10.4 from a dvd onto an ibook that has no dvd drive (currently running 10.3.9)? I can connect wirelessly between the two. I've gotten my laptop to read the disk but installation doesn't work. The message says something like "you can't install from this disk". If this might work, could you explain how to "start in target disk mode"? Do I need to be connected via firewire? Thanks for any help. I am woefully ignorant...

[Big Mac]

Yes, you use a firewire cable between both and restart the one you want to use a hard drive while holding down the T key. It will mount on the desktop.