02-08-2008, 07:24 AM

I just recieved my first mac a used G4 MDD dual 1.25 with 80 gig original mac HD, 2 gig ram. I am having extreme difficulty and cannot find a answer.

I have the original Panther discs and Tiger upgrade I insert the disc and it boots to the install screen and locks after the 2nd install screen, i think the introduction after the language selection. I then rebooted to the disc utilities and it searchs and comes back with a error message about a background application error and locks up.

I installed a different HD 200 western digital and it will not boot from CD with this installed. I use linux on the laptop and am totally confused as to why it locks and I cannot continue.

I went to single user mode and open firmware but it cannot seem to see the HD only cd/Dvd drive? Is there any way I can fix this without taking it somewhere?

Any ideas?

02-08-2008, 07:58 AM

This may sound funny but is the 200 GB HD set to master?

As another idea, put the original HD into the fridge for about 10 minutes then re install it and retry to start. I sense your move was correct as the HD locked up. On the CD/DVD htere is a hardware test. Run it and advise us.

02-08-2008, 09:53 AM

The drive worked fine yesterday and since my coworker formatted on a thinkpad it no longer works in the Mac...?

I tried to run the cd disk util but it gives me a error message about a failed background app.

I will try cable select when i get home to see if that works.

Jonathon

02-08-2008, 09:59 AM

Are you holding down the C button to use the CD/DVD as the startup device? A windows formatted drive will not be seen by the Mac until you get into a disk utility program - one is on the install CD. You need to erase that drive from within Mac as it cannot used a Fat32 or NTFS format only HFS+ if I recall.

02-08-2008, 01:21 PM

Just got back from the Apple store and they reformatted my drive to HFS, it appears that when my coworker formatted it, it only took care of the first partition and left the drive corrupted.

Hopefully tonight I can install ans test it out before I make the additional software purchases.

Jonathon

02-08-2008, 02:03 PM

Do try the Cable Select if you have issues. I have seen a lot of G4 towers that were set to Cable Select. Let us know what happens.

I had one older G4 system that locked with a messed up hard drive like that. Maybe now it will work for you.