Going from Tiger BACK To Panther, but screwed it up!!

[FF_productions]

I have an iMac G5 (look at sig for more details)

Ok, I decided to switch back to panther because it isn't as much of a hog as tiger and I wanted to see how my iMac would run Panther.

I completely erased the hard drive, and have (this was from the original seller, but the panther disks are mine): I have Jaguar 10.2 discs, a Tiger UPGRADE DVD, and OSX Panther.

I stick the Panther disk in, hold the C button, but then it freezes on the apple symbol, the fans kick up, and nothing happens.

I stick the Jaguar disk in, hold the C button, it just gives me a sign pretty much telling me their is no OS.

I put in the Tiger DVD, and ran disk startup, and had an external dvd drive with panther in it, so I tell the Mac to restart under the Panther disk: It freezes just as I mentioned before, no difference. I put all my files on a dvd before I erased it, but now I can't get any OS to run on this iMac!!

Please help!!

 

[lordj4000]

here's the deal, your disks are probably 10.3.0 or so, the minimum supported os the imac will boot is probably 10.3.7 or something. If you have another mac that is old enough, you can boot off of it from the imac's hdd and install and upgrade that way.

sorry.

 

[Les Kern]

Your say, just to be clear, that it will not boot under any original install disk at all, even the Tiger DVD? (Let's forget Panther for a second)

 

[iMeowbot]

the minimum supported os the imac will boot is probably 10.3.7 or something.

Yep. 10.3.5 is needed for a first generation iSlab. Magic Apple chart

Your say, just to be clear, that it will not boot under any original install disk at all, even the Tiger DVD? (Let's forget Panther for a second)

The Tiger DVDs that ship with some Macs will only install over an existing OS.

 

[mkrishnan]

Dittoing Lordj.... and please make sure you do it on a wired keyboard...not so sure you can do this from a BT one.

 

[Nermal]

I just tried booting 10.3.5 on my iMac, and it sat there loading for a minute or so, then suddenly the fans went to full speed and it appeared to crash (although the little "spinner" kept going). I tried again in verbose mode, but it got even less far, it said "FireWire GUID = some numbers" then the fans went to full speed again.

So, I don't think it's your machine. Hopefully someone has a solution, as I'm also getting frustrated with Tiger and am considering going back to Panther.

 

[mkrishnan]

Dumb question...so these are both iMacs that shipped before Tiger, right, but neither of you has Panther system restore disks for them?

Or Nermal, are you saying that your iMac won't boot off it's own restore disk?

 

[Nermal]

It boots from the Tiger DVD that came with it, but it won't boot from my retail 10.3.5 CD.

 

[iMeowbot]

It boots from the Tiger DVD that came with it, but it won't boot from my retail 10.3.5 CD.

For that case, I might try installing Panther from another machine using FW target disk mode and updating to 10.3.9 (of course, the catch is that another compatible Mac has to be handy).

 

[Les Kern]

It boots from the Tiger DVD that came with it, but it won't boot from my retail 10.3.5 CD.

So USE TIGER. It's better by not only one generation, but several. What you want to do is like buying a $4,000 stereo and then trying to get an after-market 8-track to hook to it.
Sheesh!

 

[Nermal]

So USE TIGER. It's better by not only one generation, but several. What you want to do is like buying a $4,000 stereo and then trying to get an after-market 8-track to hook to it.
Sheesh!

Since we're talking in caps, READ THE THREAD. The guy needs to install Panther before his Tiger upgrade will work.

 

[Counterfit]

A Mac will most likely not boot on an OS version that was released prior to the hardware manufacture. If it shipped with Tiger pre-installed, don't bother trying to put Panther on there. Just like how no aluminum 15" PB will boot from anything earlier than 10.2.7, and then it would have to be the PB-specific version, not the G5-specific version.

 

[Jschultz]

A Mac will most likely not boot on an OS version that was released prior to the hardware manufacture. If it shipped with Tiger pre-installed, don't bother trying to put Panther on there. Just like how no aluminum 15" PB will boot from anything earlier than 10.2.7, and then it would have to be the PB-specific version, not the G5-specific version.

Seriously? That's crazy!

I guess I'll go off an run my copy of Puma beeeyotches! :::types away on his 400 mhz TiBook::::

 

[Nermal]

Seriously? That's crazy!

I guess I'll go off an run my copy of Puma beeeyotches! :::types away on his 400 mhz TiBook::::

You have a valid point, although you expressed it in a profoundly stupid way. I can buy a brand new PC and run Windows 95 on it. The graphics might be stuck in 16 colours, and there might not be any sound support, but it'll run. OS X, on the other hand, seems to just crash

 

[FFTT]

One of your OS CD's needs to be bootable so you can reformat the drive
and then run a clean install.

The problem is that each one of your versions was meant to build
from a previous version. So essentially all three are upgrade CD's

Usually when you erase the drive, you also reformat it at the same time
getting it ready for the clean install.

If the cobwebs in my brain will clear for a moment, I think Jaguar 10.2
needed to build off of OS 9.1.2 Panther in turn needed to see 10.2 or better and Your Tiger DVD, like mine was the drop in box update to bring Panther up to Tiger.

When I added my second HD, I had to format the blank drive with the
Panther CD then ran a lean custom install of Panther.
Then I could boot from the Tiger DVD and also ran a lean custom install.

I've been helping several iBook buyers with running a lean install of Tiger
and it's freeing up about 5 GB of HD space when you deselect all
the extra printer drivers, languages, software demos, iDVD themes, GarageBand songs and so on.

The only reason I would backtrack to Panther would be if I had purchased
some high end Pro applications that worked well in Panther, but require
expensive upgrades to run in Tiger.

Otherwise, your probably better off just cutting Tiger down a bit
before you install it.

 

[Will Cheyney]

All of this trouble, and for what?
You iMac G5 can easily handle Tiger... you shouldn't be struggling to run it!

 

[Macky-Mac]

It boots from the Tiger DVD that came with it, but it won't boot from my retail 10.3.5 CD.

is yours a Rev B iMac? if so there's probably something in 10.4 that it needs.......it shipped with OS 10.4 and as others have said, Macs often wont boot from an earlier version of the OS than the one that shipped with the machine

 

[FF_productions]

Hey guys thanks for the advice...
I have a rev a iMac (from august 2004)
Heres a question: My friend has a iBook, can I connect my firewire cord to his iBook and boot off the iBook? His iBook is running 10.3.9, so I figure it would work??

Help Me, I can't boot up the computer at all!!!

And yes the reason I am going to Panther is for FCP 4 and Soundtrack.

 

[Laser47]

I think they mean that you should put the imac in firewire taget disk mode and then boot the install cd on the ibook, then just select your macs hd on the list and install it.

 

[FF_productions]

Your say, just to be clear, that it will not boot under any original install disk at all, even the Tiger DVD? (Let's forget Panther for a second)

The Tiger DVD is just an Upgrade Disc, it boots up but I have to have 10.3 or later installed on it...I guess I'll have to hook this iMac up to my friends iBook.

 

[iMeowbot]

Heh. Not that it's helpful or anything, but the Apple doc "Don't install older versions of Mac OS than what comes with your computer" happened to be updated yesterday

 

[Will Cheyney]

And there I was planning to install OS 9 on my G5... Damn