Help me reinstall osx?

[honkee]

Ok so i have in front of me
two powerbook g4's
an old mac osx box.
I think its 10.2 panther?

I posted something about a week ago about removing a password on one of the g4's, i borrowed a friends tiger disk but the installation will not complete so im left with a borged installation.
Is there anyway i can restore this laptop to its normal state or install 10.2 on it?

any advice appreciated, i also have me own g4 powerbook which is working fine, i can pull files from thatif needed.

Many thanks in advance

 

[n0cmonkey]

Have you tried booting from the cd and follow the prompts?

 

[honkee]

The powerbook doesnt even recognize the cd

 

[n0cmonkey]

If the hardware isn't recognizing the cd, it sounds like you have hardware problems.

 

[honkee]

Maybe the cd is too old for the g4?
Im not experienced with macs but when i put in the tiger dvd it recognizes it but just cant complete the installation.
Im lost with this stuff

 

[nweaver]

when you boot up, and here the "dong" noise, hold down the option key to get a boot option, see if that sees the CD's.

 

[n0cmonkey]

You should get a copy of 10.4 anyhow. 10.2 isn't worth it.

 

[chcarnage]

When the CD is inserted, have you tried pressing the C key while the Powerbook boots?

The Mac OS X CD is a standalone version, right? (I guess so because you wrote that it comes in a box)

If the DVD drive is the only damaged part, you might be able to install the OS in target disk mode, if you have a FireWire cable (both ends 6 pin variety). Connect the fubared Powerbook G4 with a functional one that can read the OS X CD. As soon as the first Powerbook is mounted as an external volume, you can start the installation process on your functional Powerbook.

 

[Oil]

Well Tiger is only on DVD, maybe the Powerbook doesn't have a DVD drive and only CD?

 

[chcarnage]

Originally posted by: OSx86
Well Tiger is only on DVD, maybe the Powerbook doesn't have a DVD drive and only CD?

This came to my mind, too, but according to apple-history.com every PowerBook G4 at least can read DVDs. Maybe honkee mistakenly identified them as G4s when in fect they're DVD-less G3 varieties?

Honkee, your guess that the CD is too old might be right. You should identify the OS X version:
10.2 "Jaguar" photos
10.3 "Panther" photos
10.4 "Tiger" photos
Then go to apple-history.com to identify the minimal version required for your notebook.