New Install not Working

Hi there,

I just picked up an iBook G4 with 10.4 on it. The person who owned it before me has a ton of crap on it and I just want to start from scratch with 10.4 until I get 10.5. I have the retail 10.4 disc and when I put it in it is recognized on the desktop and the install runs and asks me to restart. If I do it that way, or boot while holding down "C" then I get a question mark and then OS X boots.

Any idea what's happening? Could there be something wrong with the disc? What's the best way to reformat an iBook and start fresh?

I also tried to boot from a 10.4 disc that came with my friend's MacBook, but I get some weird panic error that I think is due to the fact that the disc is hardware specific. Am I correct? Is there any way to provide the correct drivers to run a hardware specific install disc on a machine it was not meant for? I'm not trying to pirate here, just looking for some practice installing as this is my first Mac experience.

Thanks for any help!

-Comtois

My main suspicion is that there's a problem with the DVD drive. There may be a loose cable or bad solder inside, for example. Try an external DVD drive if you can. Also try cleaning the drive head.

Are you sure it is a retail disk - is the disk black with a sliver X on it.

The only reason I think it is not working is:

a) its a hardware specific disk

B) give it a really good clean and look for any bad scratches

Since the Drive sees the OSX Disc and mounts it on the desktop and even allows him to run install and reboot, I doubt the drive is not plugged in. I have seen some worn out drives read but not boot though. Like the other poster asked, is the disk dirty? Is it Black with a Silver X or a Gray disc that came with the iBook?

Also what are the specs on that iBook? You can click the Apple and get the basics.

Edit, Me bad, specs in your Sig. I own that very iBook 12" 1.33Ghz.

dtravis7 said:

Since the Drive sees the OSX Disc and mounts it on the desktop and even allows him to run install and reboot, I doubt the drive is not plugged in.

Click to expand...

Doh! Totally overlooked that.

Thanks for all the info! So, the disc that it won't boot from is retail, black with silver X. The other discs that it gets the panic error from are gray, so I can safely assume that those discs are machine specific. No worries, I just want the retail one to run!

Would it not let me reformat if the OS on the disc is the same as the OS loaded on the machine?

I think maybe my next step is to get a new drive for it, which is ok since I wanted to put a DVD writer in it anyways. I have also heard you can copy an install DVD to an external hard drive and boot from that, but I haven't really looked into it. Any thoughts on that?

Quick, someone help before I go back to my PC!

edit: The retail 10.4 disc looks brand new, no scratches, smudges, or dirt.