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General discussion

Installing panther

Sep 30, 2005 8:15AM PDT

I`m trying to install panther on an 500 mgz imac, everything goes good until I get to the section where i got to choose where to install, my hard drive appears but it got a little red warning that says that I cannot install mac os or start my machine on that hard drive, any help? do I need a diferent hard drive? thanks.

Discussion is locked

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Reason
Sep 30, 2005 8:31AM PDT

There has to be a reason why you can't and the installer is telling you. You're just not telling us.
Not enough room, damaged, it's the install CD, it's not the internal HD,
Gotta be something.
Do it again and read the error mess completely.

How many choices of drive do yo get


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hello mrmacfixit
Sep 30, 2005 9:04AM PDT

I just get one option of hard drive, and it got a red circle around it i think and if I want to choose that hard drive, i get the warning it say something like, you can`t install mac os or start mac os in these disk, it does not says why.

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Hard Drives
Sep 30, 2005 11:42PM PDT

I'm not sure what is going on here.
Am I correct in assuming that the Mac boots normally when the Installation CD is NOT in the drive?
What OS does the machine normally boot up into?
If the OS that is installed is higher than the OS on the CD, it will not let you install. "Unless you change the options"
How much free space is left on the HD? This could be a space issue.
What RAM do you have installed?
The 500Mhz iMac is capable of supporting Panther, so the machine itself should not be an issue.


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hard drives.
Oct 1, 2005 10:05AM PDT

The thing is that the mac was in a public dumper, I saw it and I pick it up, took it home, did not have memory or HD, I put some memory on it and a 6 gigs HD and installed panther with no problem aat all, but then I decided to change the HD. I had one in my garage, it`s a 30 gigs. remove the 6 gigs and put the 30 gigs, and everything was going real smooth until I got to the section where i got to choose where to install the OS, I just get one option, but it got a red spot whit an ( ! ) symbol and if I click on that option it tells me that I cannot install the OS in that disk or even start the machine in that disk, the memory, I`m not sure but it might be 128 mb. Before I installed the 30 gigs I reformated using windows, maybe th`ts is the problem?

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You are correct!
Oct 1, 2005 11:45AM PDT

The drive you have in is formatted for a PC and not for a Mac.
Restart the machine from the CD but do NOT run the installer. Exit the Installer under the File menu.
Then run the Disk Utility, which is also on the CD, and initialize the drive for Mac HFS+ Extended.
Once you have done that, restart and your installation should proceed without further mishap.
It has been my experience that Macs found in dumpsters were usually thrown there by disgruntled thieves who thought they had a PC.

Good Luck


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thanks
Oct 1, 2005 11:52AM PDT

mr macfix it I`ll try that tomorrow, and let you know what happens, the machine was not in a dumpster it was already in a land fill, did not have memory or HD but I took it thinking I could fix it, is got a DVD, where can I get a CD burner?

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They are available
Oct 1, 2005 12:21PM PDT

but let's get to walking before we start running on this project
Happy
Good luck.

Keep us informed


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