How can I do a fresh install of Leopard with all these problems?

Joined
Feb 18, 2008
Messages
251
Reaction score
1
Points
18
Location
Kent, UK
Your Mac's Specs
Macbook White 2.16GHz 2Gb OS X 10.5, 16Gb iPhone 3G Black
Hi guys,

I've decided it's about time to reinstall Leopard. It's been just over a year and so I feel it's about time to get that fresh new feel. Only problem is that my superdrive on my macbook (White, 2.16, 2Gb) is dead.

My question is, how can I go about installing Leopard?

I have no other macs in the house. Can I do it via remote disc with a PC?
I've heard about mounting the disc to an external HDD and booting from that, but my USB ports also seem to be dead, so at the moment eject any external HDD automatically after 10 minutes or so (my poor mac is dying!! )
Can I do it via a Firewire external HDD? I dont have one of these, but may be able to get my hands on one.
I dont have an external disc drive.

So, many problems to block various roots. Right now I'm thinking that doing it via remote disc would be easiest, but im not sure if this is possible or not?

Any thoughts? Thanks!

Luke
 

cwa107


Retired Staff
Joined
Dec 20, 2006
Messages
27,042
Reaction score
812
Points
113
Location
Lake Mary, Florida
Your Mac's Specs
14" MacBook Pro M1 Pro, 16GB RAM, 1TB SSD
So, let me get this straight:

  • Your Mac is unstable to the point that you feel a complete OS reinstall is needed (very unusual for a UNIX-based OS, BTW).
  • Your optical drive is dead.
  • Your USB ports are dead or unreliable.
  • You think the Firewire port might work, but you don't have any way of testing it at the moment.

I dunno - I'm not sure that you have a mere software issue. Did something get spilled on that machine, or was it dropped?
 
OP
lukenn77
Joined
Feb 18, 2008
Messages
251
Reaction score
1
Points
18
Location
Kent, UK
Your Mac's Specs
Macbook White 2.16GHz 2Gb OS X 10.5, 16Gb iPhone 3G Black
So, let me get this straight:

  • Your Mac is unstable to the point that you feel a complete OS reinstall is needed (very unusual for a UNIX-based OS, BTW).
  • Your optical drive is dead.
  • Your USB ports are dead or unreliable.
  • You think the Firewire port might work, but you don't have any way of testing it at the moment.

I dunno - I'm not sure that you have a mere software issue. Did something get spilled on that machine, or was it dropped?

Not unstable no. I just feel it's clogged up with crap and (like many people choose to do occasionally (not often)) so I want a fresh reinstall, to clear absolutely everything out. All the little bits uninstalled apps leave behind in the library etc, a good spring cleaning :p

Dead optical drives are fairly common on MacBooks. I had mine replaced last august, luckily I was just still inside the warrenty. The warrenty for the drive was extended to November. That passed and now the replacement has died too. It attempts to spin the discs up 3 times then ejects them.
I have no idea what is wrong with the USB ports. They havnt been in contact with any liquids. Can you 'burn them out'? I did have a bus-powered USB hub in one, and the hub ran an apple keyboard, creative xmod device and a webcam (I was using my mac closed with an external display) this was working fine until one day I got a message saying the hub couldnt power it all any more. Could this have 'burnt out' the USB ports?
The FireWire port works, I just have no FireWire external HDD.
The USB ports don't seem to eject USB sticks however. Can I mount a disk image of the install disc onto a USB stick and boot from that? (the external drive that gets ejected works fine on other computers).

Thanks for the reply. :)
P.s. Sorry for any weird words/typos in the message, I had to write this on by phone.
 

cwa107


Retired Staff
Joined
Dec 20, 2006
Messages
27,042
Reaction score
812
Points
113
Location
Lake Mary, Florida
Your Mac's Specs
14" MacBook Pro M1 Pro, 16GB RAM, 1TB SSD
Not unstable no. I just feel it's clogged up with crap and (like many people choose to do occasionally (not often)) so I want a fresh reinstall, to clear absolutely everything out. All the little bits uninstalled apps leave behind in the library etc, a good spring cleaning :p

.

There's an easier way to do this. In addition to running the clean-up and maintenance tools in Onyx, you can pretty much wipe out every change you've made to the machine simply by creating a new account and deleting your old one.

OS X simply doesn't suffer from "Windows rot". There is very rarely any reason to completely reinstall the OS. Remember, we're talking about the same underlying operating system that runs on huge mainframes in mission critical environments that don't get rebooted for years at a time.
 
OP
lukenn77
Joined
Feb 18, 2008
Messages
251
Reaction score
1
Points
18
Location
Kent, UK
Your Mac's Specs
Macbook White 2.16GHz 2Gb OS X 10.5, 16Gb iPhone 3G Black
There's an easier way to do this. In addition to running the clean-up and maintenance tools in Onyx, you can pretty much wipe out every change you've made to the machine simply by creating a new account and deleting your old one.

OS X simply doesn't suffer from "Windows rot". There is very rarely any reason to completely reinstall the OS. Remember, we're talking about the same underlying operating system that runs on huge mainframes in mission critical environments that don't get rebooted for years at a time.

ohh I see. I guess I'm just used to completely cleaning out a windows comp by wiping it. I didnt realise accounts were so independent. I think I'll just do that then. Thanks for your help! Much appreciated!
 

Shop Amazon


Shop for your Apple, Mac, iPhone and other computer products on Amazon.
We are a participant in the Amazon Services LLC Associates Program, an affiliate program designed to provide a means for us to earn fees by linking to Amazon and affiliated sites.
Top