Question about installing 10.4 Tiger on iMac G4

[mloret]

Hey folks. So I downloaded CD images for Mac OS 10.4 and burned them to CDs. I tried the DVD image but I couldn’t get my iMac g4 to boot from it. Anyway, so I have been working on installing Tiger on my 1ghz iMac now for quite some time. It’s taking forever. There are lots of disc swaps and it seems to be repeating the same things (BSD sub system, languages, etc) over and over again. It does seem to be progressing and the drive is spinning. I haven’t gotten any errors. Is this normal? Should I just carry on with this seemingly endlessly? Or should I quit the installed and redo this selecting only a limited number of packages in a customized install? Let me know what you recommend. Please before I lose my mind.

 

[LaPorta]

I can send you a working image of my retail 10.4 DVD if you like.

 

[mikes-macs]

I'm curious which type of drive you're installing to on your iMac. Also, perhaps the CD drive could use cleaning.

 

[mloret]

I would love that! Amy idea of what I am experiencing is normal on the CDs?

 

[gsteemso]

No, no it is not. The process is slow but nothing like what you report.

 

[LaPorta]

I would love that! Amy idea of what I am experiencing is normal on the CDs?

Definitely not normal. How can I get the DVD image to you?

 

[Andyb66]

I can send you a working image of my retail 10.4 DVD if you like.

Hello Laporta. Could I get a copy of that too? I need to upgrade to 10.4 on my new (old) 17” iMac g4 (usb 2.0 model).

 

[LaPorta]

Sure, how can I best get it to you guys?

 

[mloret]

Sure, how can I best get it to you guys?

Hey there. Sorry I spaced on you. I would still like to get a copy of that Tiger DVD. I'll PM you.

I do have a separate question...I'd like to replace the built in HDD on my iMac g4 with an SSD. I would like to be able to copy the existing drive to the new drive. Do you know what's the best way to carry this out? I don't currently have a firewire drive I could in theory pick one up. Please let me know if you have any idea, I've never done this before.

 

[Andyb66]

Hey there. Sorry I spaced on you. I would still like to get a copy of that Tiger DVD. I'll PM you.

I do have a separate question...I'd like to replace the built in HDD on my iMac g4 with an SSD. I would like to be able to copy the existing drive to the new drive. Do you know what's the best way to carry this out? I don't currently have a firewire drive I could in theory pick one up. Please let me know if you have any idea, I've never done this before.

Hi Mloret,

I just did this myself. Started off with a 17 inch iMac G4 (1.25ghz USB 2.0 model) with a 80GB HDD running 10.3.9 Panther from previous owner. I upgraded to a 256GB WD Sata SSD (using the Startech (red) IDE to SATA adapter). I wanted to keep the software that the previous owner had installed as it had Apple Works 6, Microsoft Office for Mac and a few other interesting packages, so I downloaded a copy of Carbon Cloner 2.3 first and made a Clone of the original HDD first (just in case anything went wrong). I copied this to a 32 GB USB Drive. Then I partitioned my SATA SSD into 2 partitions - One called Macintosh HD - Tiger and one called Macintosh HD - Leopard. I then transferred the existing HDD image to the Macintosh HD - Tiger partition. Once that was done I installed macOS Leopard on the Macintosh HD - Leopard partition using my Leopard Install DVD (I Had an old retail version of the DVD). I now have both up and running. Only problem is that my Classic Mode no longer works in the Tiger partition for some reason. I may have to use the cloned copy to fix that. Hope this has helped you.