Member Avatar for professorpunish

New to this forum - curious to see that someone else is having the same unusual problem on almost the same day!

Just installed new 120GB HD in original iMac. Formatted disk as specified for OS X (first partition 7.45 GB). Verified disk etc. using disk utility; no problems.

However: during Panther install, I get a failure after the first CD is done.

During normal install (just tried it on my PowerBook), after the first CD is done, the computer effectively boots from the HD, and asks for CD # 2. In the case of the iMac, it won't boot from the HD: simply boots from disk # 1 and starts the process over.

Any ideas? Thanks in advance...

Ian

  • 2 Contributors
  • 2 Replies
  • 213 Views
  • 1 Day Discussion Span
  • Latest Post Latest Post by professorpunish

Dani AI

Generated

Good thread — useful troubleshooting already from and a nice catch by . The failure mode described (installer never handing control to the new disk) is exactly the sort of symptom that comes from a device-address/configuration problem on older IDE-based iMacs, so it helps to have a short, practical checklist for anyone doing the same swap.

First, inspect the drive physically: confirm the 40-pin ribbon is oriented correctly (red stripe to pin‑1), the power connector is seated, and look at the small jumper block on the back of the drive. IDE/PATA drives use a tiny jumper to select Master/Slave or Cable‑Select; a jumper in the wrong position (or the drive left in a factory/shipping jumper state) can make the controller ignore the drive during boot. Changing jumpers should only be done with power removed. (en.wikipedia.org)

If the installer won’t switch to the HD, try startup alternatives before blaming software: use the Mac’s Startup Manager or the appropriate boot-key combos to pick the internal HDD (these key combos also let you verify the drive is visible to firmware), and if required reset PRAM/NVRAM so the startup disk preference clears. When preparing the disk in Disk Utility, pick the partition scheme that matches your Mac family: PowerPC machines need Apple Partition Map; Intel Macs need GUID. Format as Mac OS Extended (Journaled) for Panther-era installs. (support.apple.com)

Quick checklist to follow on a new HDD swap: check connectors and jumper pins; power off before moving jumpers; match the jumper scheme to the original drive or use Cable‑Select for both devices on the same cable; confirm the partition map and filesystem in Disk Utility; test the drive in an external adapter if unsure. If problems persist after this, the drive or IDE adapter may be incompatible with that iMac generation and bench-testing it in another machine or enclosure will tell you quickly. (manualmachine.com)

Recommended Answers

All 2 Replies

Member Avatar for kc0arf

Hello,

Welcome to DaniWeb. Please do not hijack other people's threads... your problem is different and unique, and you are welcome to start your own discussion.

Powerbooks require the C button to be held down to boot from the CD-ROM, whereas your iMAC is seeing the CD-ROM in the drive, and defaulting the restart from there.

Re-install the OS. Then, when the computer reboots, hold down the mouse button when you hear the chime-bong-boot tunes. This will eject the CD, allowing the system to boot from the hard drive.

Let us know if this works for you.

Christian

Member Avatar for professorpunish

Apologies -

The problems seemed similar.

In anycase, the issue is solved. It was hardware: the new HD shipped with a shunt over the ID pins. Should have checked this, obviously...

Thanks for your suggestion.

I.

Be a part of the DaniWeb community

We're a friendly, industry-focused community of developers, IT pros, digital marketers, and technology enthusiasts meeting, networking, learning, and sharing knowledge.