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.

 

[mloret]

Good morning! Yes, this is very helpful.

When you say that Classic isn't working in Tiger, what is it doing?

As for your procedure, I do have a couple questions. First, you said that you used Carbon Cloner 2.3 to make a clone of the originial HDD image that you then stored on a 32GB USB Drive. Is this an external HDD/SDD or a USB stick?

Then you mentioned that you partitioned the new SSD into two partitions. How did you do this? Did you boot the machine up using the Tiger or Leopard DVD and then run Disk Utility?

Finally, how did you transfer to the existing HDD image to the Tiger partition? Did you just insert the USB drive and copy it?

 

[LaPorta]

The issue you may have is that since the OS 9 System Folder was not on the Tiger partition when you installed it, parts that are needed for Classic were not updated within it. I can always send you my email 10.4-based OS 9 System Folder and see if that works.

Also, unless you are doing two versions of OS X, no need to partition the drive.

 

[Andyb66]

The issue you may have is that since the OS 9 System Folder was not on the Tiger partition when you installed it, parts that are needed for Classic were not updated within it. I can always send you my email 10.4-based OS 9 System Folder and see if that works.

Also, unless you are doing two versions of OS X, no need to partition the drive.

Thanks but I got it fixed. I downloaded a System Folder from Mac Repository and installed it. My Classic environment is now working again. Thank you for the offer though.

 

[Andyb66]

Good morning! Yes, this is very helpful.

When you say that Classic isn't working in Tiger, what is it doing?

As for your procedure, I do have a couple questions. First, you said that you used Carbon Cloner 2.3 to make a clone of the originial HDD image that you then stored on a 32GB USB Drive. Is this an external HDD/SDD or a USB stick?

Then you mentioned that you partitioned the new SSD into two partitions. How did you do this? Did you boot the machine up using the Tiger or Leopard DVD and then run Disk Utility?

Finally, how did you transfer to the existing HDD image to the Tiger partition? Did you just insert the USB drive and copy it?

Hi Mloret,

1. I got the Classic environment working again.

2. I used a USB Stick. Nothing fancy - just a USB 2.0 32GB Sandisk. Not sure if this was the best idea though, because I can't boot from USB on my iMac G4.

3. I partitioned the SSD first of all by buying a USB to SATA adapter cable. You connect the SATA SSD to one end and plug it into the USB port on the iMac G4. Then you open Disk Utility and do the partitions (2 of them as mentioned - 1 for Tiger and 1 for Leopard).

this next bit gets a bit fuzzy because I can't remember the exact steps - I've been doing so much installing and troubleshooting it's all fuzzy in my head now.

4. I think what I did was to use the Disk Utility RESTORE feature to copy the existing (10.3.9) Volume onto the SSD. You select the Volume containing your current Operating System (usually Macintosh HD) as the SOURCE and you select the SSD (in my case Tiger partition) as the DESTINATION. Then you just Restore ......can't remember it the button you click on is called RESTORE or OK, or COPY .....anyway it should be pretty obvious.

5. Then for the Leopard bit....I booted off my Leopard Install DVD and installed Leopard onto my Leopard partition.

6. I then upgraded 10.3.9 to 10.4 in my Tiger partition, did the 10.4.11 combo update and then I installed and configured SHURIKEN.\

7. I have installed all updates available for MacOS Leopard on my Leopard partition and am intending to update it to Sorbet Leopard.

Hope this helps you. If not, I'm always available here to answer any questions. I'll do my best to help.

Happy New Year and Happy Retro Computing.

PS. Basically the Clone I did of my existing HDD with Carbon Copy Cloner V2.3 was just to have a backup in case something went wrong. It created a file with a .sparsebundle extension. I'm really not sure what I'm meant to do with that file because the version 2.3 of Carbon Copy Cloner doesn't seem to have a clearly visible RESTORE function. Hell, I don't even know if V2.3 was the best version to use. I see on macintosh garden that V3.4.7 is the last version supported on PPC Macs - so maybe that would have been better to use.