Trying to install Tiger on an eMac

[Garrick Clark]

I'm attempting to reinstall Mac OS X on an eMac after a hard drive failure, and I'm just going in circles. After finally tracking down an install media DVD, the optical drive doesn't work (and I believe it's CD only). It doesn't support booting from USB. I've attempted to create a FireWire installer, but El Capitan doesn't know how to create a bootable device with it. I tried booting from the Install DVD on a newer Mac and then "install" it on the firewire drive, but my 2008 iMac didn't recognize it.

I'm not highly experienced with older Macs and I've googled everything I can, but I can't seem to get the eMac to recognize the installer. Am I missing something or am I just dealing with something that is naturally difficult?

Any assistance would be appreciated as I've already been paid for this and it was supposed to be done almost a week ago.

 

[sapphirescales]

You've got two options:

1. Get an external FireWire DVD drive and boot from that.

2. There's a really old torrent still flying around that split Tiger into 4 CD's instead of a DVD. It's not piracy as Mac OS is free for a Mac.

I have no clue whether an eMac will support booting from an external USB DVD drive, but I doubt it. I bought a FireWire drive for a reason back then, and I'm pretty sure that was it.

 

[Markverhyden]

I'm attempting to reinstall Mac OS X on an eMac after a hard drive failure, and I'm just going in circles. After finally tracking down an install media DVD, the optical drive doesn't work (and I believe it's CD only). It doesn't support booting from USB. I've attempted to create a FireWire installer, but El Capitan doesn't know how to create a bootable device with it. I tried booting from the Install DVD on a newer Mac and then "install" it on the firewire drive, but my 2008 iMac didn't recognize it.

I'm not highly experienced with older Macs and I've googled everything I can, but I can't seem to get the eMac to recognize the installer. Am I missing something or am I just dealing with something that is naturally difficult?

Any assistance would be appreciated as I've already been paid for this and it was supposed to be done almost a week ago.

Unless the install media you acquired is an original Tiger it's almost certain it's not bootable. Back in those days, with 10.4 and 10.5, Apple was wanking around with images and, while they could be copied, were not bootable. What year is the machine or do you have the serial number?

 

[NviGate Systems]

eMac is PPC. Sorry that's just....So...Old.

They maxed out at 10.4.x. And older Mac's had so many issues in regards to version of Mac OS that worked and glitches in the ToolBox.

 

[sapphirescales]

eMac is PPC. Sorry that's just....So...Old.

They maxed out at 10.4.x. And older Mac's had so many issues in regards to version of Mac OS that worked and glitches in the ToolBox.

Actually you can install 10.5 on the old PPC systems. I did it many, many times back in the old days.

 

[Garrick Clark]

It's probably too late to help, but I do have one piece of advice. It sounds harsh but think of it as tough love.

Never quote a fixed price or accept money in advance for a job you don't know how to do.

This is really the best advice here, thank you. And I learned not to assume I know how to do something just because it's similar to something I've done before

Thanks for all your advise everyone. After reading through the comments I was able to get it to load from the first CD, but it's not recognizing the hard drive and I really am out of my depth and days past caring about it, and just enabling my client to stay in the bronze age. And I've wasted so much time I could have spent on other projects.

I should have just gone with my gut on this one and not even suggested it might be repairable, I've just never worked on one since I was a teenager and thought it would be an interesting project.

Just gave him the news, and he wouldn't take the money back, he insisted on putting it towards a replacement.

 

[Markverhyden]

You have to go into Disk Utilities to partition the new drive. OS X installers do not automatically partition the drive. Should be in the pull down menu when you boot into the installer.

 

[Garrick Clark]

It never got that far. Just got a blank screen with a refresh button and a forward arrow, neither of which appeared to do anything.

It's moot now. I admitted defeat and refunded the customer. Unfortunately the story didn't end there. But I'm starting a new thread as it's a totally different issue now.