Help!

[MacMike]

Hi,


I recently purchased a new iMac 2.8Ghz running Leopard which is shiny and works just great. The problem I have is with my old eMac PowerPC G4. What i wanted to do was wipe this because it was getting on a bit and had quite a few problems in order to "lend" it to my flat-mate who recently got inundated with viruses (on a PC). So what i did was mount it (the eMac) as a firewire external hard drive on the iMac and zeroed the drive out (just the once), its worth saying here that i didn't realize i could have just put the OS X 10.4 disk in and selected "Erase and Install".

I then attempted to boot the mac from the installation disk and it came up with the message (after some other code stuff) "panic: We are hanging here...", so i installed the OS from the iMac onto the eMac while booting from the OS X 10.4 DVD (in the iMac). The installation went fine and then the iMac booted from the eMac's hard disk. I then rebooted the iMac from its own hard drive, disconnected the eMac and turned it on and now just get the flashing question mark on the folder with the Mac logo.

I've tried zapping the PRAM, which did nothing. I've also tried to repair the disk in disk utility from the iMac which said the disk was fine.

Does anybody know how exactly I can get the eMac to work again, and what i have done wrong? I can't work out why it wont boot off anything. I did recently install another 512MB of RAM and am wondering if this is the problem.

Any help would be much appreciated.


Thanks


Mike

 

[MacMike]

http://forums.macosxhints.com/archive/index.php/t-76750.html


Is this the answer? Do I have to find the disk that came with the eMac and try to boot off of that one?

 

[Spawn_Dooley]

I just found your post. Let me have a few minutes to read it before I answer.

 

[Spawn_Dooley]

What OS were you running on the eMac prior to these issues?

Try booting the eMac whilst holding down the Option Key.

 

[MacMike]

I was running Leopard, which added to the problems i had with it, and the main reason i wanted to wipe it then install Tiger (We're photography type people and Photoshop CS2 seems to work much better with Tiger on low spec machines).

The version I'm trying to install now is 10.4.10, It does say "iMac" on the disk, so I'm beginning to think that this is the problem. Since the iMac started from the eMac's HD after the install, and the eMac won't start at all.

Yes same problem when trying to boot with the option key it just comes up with the "Panic:..."

 

[Spawn_Dooley]

Do you have the original System Restore disc for your eMac?

 

[MacMike]

I don't know which is the problem! I'm currently at my parents house for the xmas holidays in the arse-end of England. I'll have to wait till I get back to my flat in London to see if i can find the disk. If this is the problem and I can't find the disk will I have to buy a new one?

 

[MacMike]

Another thing that might work, before I wiped the HD, i made a copy of it on an external hard drive (literally copied and pasted it, the whole thing, with the system files). If i copied that back on to the eMac would that work? Would some hidden files and code be missing?

I would just go ahead and do it, but the iMac only has the one Firewire port, and it will take about 6 hours each way, from the external HD to the iMac, from the iMac to the eMac. Would this be an easier way to do it than searching for an elusive dvd?

 

[Spawn_Dooley]

You could try booting from that external if you have it connected to the eMac. Just press Option at startup to see if the external is in the list of boot options ... I'm not sure at the moment if it's that easy. I'll check while you try it, eh?

 

[MacMike]

No options, just the symbol that looks like "repeat" and an arrow pointing to the right, nothing happens when i click either of them. Going to try to move the files and see if that helps. (They're in a folder named after the disk they were on at the moment)

 

[MacMike]

Nope nothing, not working at all. Think i will have to try to reinstall from the original disk. I don't get why OS X installed on the internal HD doesn't show up either.

 

[Spawn_Dooley]

Is this the 6 hr Firewire operation you are about to try? Is your eMac supported by Leopard? What OS was on it prior to you trying to install Leopard?

 

[Mr. MacWare]

Idk if this is the issue, but from what i read it sounds like you used the imac disk to install the OS on the emac. This is a big no no. The iMac is intel. The eMac is PowerPC. Yes, Mac OS X runs on both, but its two versions, not one universal version. 1: If you used the iMac to install the OS on the eMac's drive the disc would read the processor of the imac and think it should install the intel version, and 2: if its the disc that CAME with the iMac it probably doesn't include the ppc version of the OS anyway. don't know if this is any help, but thats the first thing that came to my mind.

 

[Spawn_Dooley]

You are 100% correct with your diagnosis Mr. MacWare Unfortunately for MacMike, the install media for the eMac is not within his reach for the moment.

 

[Mr. MacWare]

Well, that's the way it goes i guess....

Good luck with your emac, MacMike, and whilst using your imac and looking for free software you may want to... oh i don't know... check out a little podcast.... on macwarepodcast.com... *hint hint*

*coughs* oh what? sorry that just *coughs* slipped out there uh...

yeah

good luck

-Mr. MacWare

 

[MacMike]

Thanks to both of you for your help. I will let you know if it works when i get back to civilization and find that eMac disk.