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brachiator · Nov 10, 2006, 06:44 PM

I've got a problem I don't even know where to start with, so just looking for points in the general right direction.

A friend "inherited" a beat-up 12" Powerbook 1.33mhz, 512K RAM and a borked HD. He replaced the HD with another 37GB drive he had around and now we are trying to see whether it will take the Mac OS.

It will boot from the Tiger Installation CD that came with my Powerbook 15", but then reports that the OS cannot be installed on the machine.

Any ideas why or what to do?

The HD seems good and to work with the machine -- we ran disk utility from the Tiger Install CD, and successfully erased the drive and reformatted it to Mac OS Extended (Journalled). First Aid reports the drive and volume are OK, and so does TechTool Pro.

Oddly enough, although it will boot from the Tiger Install CD and the TechTool CD, it will not boot from the 10.2 or 10.1 CD (I can't find my 10.3 CD).

Thanks!

Mike

slpdLoad · Nov 10, 2006, 06:50 PM

If you can find another hard drive (in an enclosure or in another mac) that you can put a clean Tiger install on, try then cloning the system from that drive onto the drive in the PowerBook and see if the PowerBook can then boot from it.

Cold Warrior · Nov 10, 2006, 07:14 PM

Why bother with that old crap? 10.4 will run better than the older versions.

romeosc · Nov 10, 2006, 07:39 PM

Originally Posted by brachiator

I've got a problem I don't even know where to start with, so just looking for points in the general right direction.

A friend "inherited" a beat-up 12" Powerbook 1.33mhz, 512K RAM and a borked HD. He replaced the HD with another 37GB drive he had around and now we are trying to see whether it will take the Mac OS.

It will boot from the Tiger Installation CD that came with my Powerbook 15", but then reports that the OS cannot be installed on the machine.

Any ideas why or what to do?

The HD seems good and to work with the machine -- we ran disk utility from the Tiger Install CD, and successfully erased the drive and reformatted it to Mac OS Extended (Journalled). First Aid reports the drive and volume are OK, and so does TechTool Pro.

Oddly enough, although it will boot from the Tiger Install CD and the TechTool CD, it will not boot from the 10.2 or 10.1 CD (I can't find my 10.3 CD).

Thanks!

Mike

You missed the point, the rason it can not install, is the CD you are using is not a retail install and is only good for the specific machine it was came with. You need the machine specific install disks or the full retail install disk! Apple does this so you can't use a disk that came with an older machine on a newer machine, sort of their way of thwarting piracy.

rjt1000 · Nov 10, 2006, 08:11 PM

You can't boot a recent PB with a system that pre-dates it. The PB G4 12 1.33 originally came with OS 10.3 Panther, so 10.2 and 10.1 won't work.

Apple also prevents a software restore disk from one model booting another. That's why the software restore disk from the 15 inch won't work directly in the 12 inch, even though it contains 10.4 Tiger.

So you need to buy a retail version of 10.3 or 10.4, or locate a software restore disk that came with the 12 inch 1.33 ghz PB. eBay may have some attractive prices.

brachiator · Nov 10, 2006, 08:39 PM

Thanks, ladies & gents.

Sad to learn the Tiger discs that came with my machine are crippleware (

yes, yes, don't flame me...)

But, more importantly, that solves the problem. Off to get a full install set!

best,
Mike

romeosc · Nov 10, 2006, 09:48 PM

Originally Posted by brachiator

Thanks, ladies & gents.

Sad to learn the Tiger discs that came with my machine are crippleware (

yes, yes, don't flame me...)

But, more importantly, that solves the problem. Off to get a full install set!

best,
Mike

If you want to get around it, you can hook up the 12" to the other PB by using firewire mode and install the 12" as if it was an external drive or clone the PB to it!

brachiator · Nov 11, 2006, 01:30 AM

Thanks, romeosc. I didn't know that would overcome the limitation, but I see now how it would.

In any event, we're not so concerned with getting around it as being sure that the 12" will actually work right and take the OS. I think the facts that the 12" shouldn't take earlier versions and that my 15" install discs shouldn't work provide enough reason for my friend to buy the full retail version. He wanted to buy it anyway, just wanted to be sure he wouldn't waste the money if the 12" crapped out...