I have an 1st Gen eMac. It is currently running OS X 10.2.8. I have the DMG of the OSX 10.4 install disk. My DVD drive doesn't work right (it only accepts CDS and spits out DVDs). I copied the contents of the DMG to a flash drive, and I can't get it to boot. What am I doing wrong, and/or is there a better way to install this?
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Tiger and eMac
- Thread starter rosser
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first gen emac systems came with either a cd-rom or combo drive... are you sure you have the combo drive? if so, how do you know you have the combo drive? just asking. cd-rom/cd-rw drives will spit out dvd media like you described, that's why i'm asking.
other thought is where did you get the DMG, are you sure it's valid. lots of non-bootable crap floating about on the interwebs... if it's valid, how did you burn it DVD?
the emac will only boot from firewire (hard drive/optical), or in 'target' mode which turns the emac into a really big external drive. you would need another mac with dvd, a firewire port, and firewire cable to pull that off. best of luck
other thought is where did you get the DMG, are you sure it's valid. lots of non-bootable crap floating about on the interwebs... if it's valid, how did you burn it DVD?
the emac will only boot from firewire (hard drive/optical), or in 'target' mode which turns the emac into a really big external drive. you would need another mac with dvd, a firewire port, and firewire cable to pull that off. best of luck
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I guess I don't have a Combo Drive. I got the DMG from a website i don't remember which one. I have a bunch of DVD drives lying around from previous computers. Is there a way to check if any of them are compatable with the eMac?
eMacs take desktop sized 5" drives. They have a PATA/IDE connector on the back. Warning: If you open the eMac do not mess with the tube. They are very dangerous.
An eMac, like most PPC Macs, can boot from a USB drive. It just needs to be formatted for PPC and contain a boottable OS.
How do I make the USB drive bootable? I can't stand 10.2.8 anymore.
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You format it to be HFS+ with APM as the partition type. Then clone the DMG onto it. Plug it into your eMac and turn it on while pressing Option. It will be very slow, but it will boot. If it doesn't show up in the Option menu, startup in 10.2.8 and select the USB drive as the startup disk using the Startup Disk pref pane.
When you say clone, do you place the dmg onto the flash drive, or place the contents of the dmg onto the flash drive
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Place the contents. You can't use Finder/Windows to do this, because it won't copy the hidden parts or save the correct permissions.
I suggest using Carbon Copy Cloner or SuperDuper to clone the DMG's contents to the USB drive.
So I used carbon copy to put it on the USB drive, then turned the eMac off, pressed option, powered on and selected USB drive, and boot. This is what happened (video is shortened): (Click here for video from TwitVid)
This is starting to sound like you pirated Tiger...
I suggest you get retail DVD from eBay. Use that to make a bootable USB drive. There's also Tiger retail cd's. They are more rare and there are three of them. Make sure you get the black retail disc, not the gray reinstallation disc.
I suggest you get retail DVD from eBay. Use that to make a bootable USB drive. There's also Tiger retail cd's. They are more rare and there are three of them. Make sure you get the black retail disc, not the gray reinstallation disc.
You need an external Combo or super drive that has fire wire 400, and a good installer DVD/CD. As long as the disc is good you can install from the external fire wire drive.
If you do have other DVD/ CD drives laying around my advice is not to open the unit yourself. eMacs can be a pain to get back together sometimes and they have a thing in them called a flyback transformer on the back of the CRT (Display). Even days to weeks after you unplug the computer it keeps a high voltage charge and if you don't discharge it, it may kill you or really mess you up. So unless you know about old tube TV's and CRT monitors don't open it up and start messing with it.
If you do have other DVD/ CD drives laying around my advice is not to open the unit yourself. eMacs can be a pain to get back together sometimes and they have a thing in them called a flyback transformer on the back of the CRT (Display). Even days to weeks after you unplug the computer it keeps a high voltage charge and if you don't discharge it, it may kill you or really mess you up. So unless you know about old tube TV's and CRT monitors don't open it up and start messing with it.
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