Installing Leopard on an erased drive

I purchased an iMac on eBay. It came with the previous owner's stuff still on it (incl. Tiger). I wanted to do an erase/install of Leopard, and then transfer my files from my previous computer. In the midst of the erase, the power cord accidentally was pulled. When I restarted the computer, the drive was apparently erased, and the installer said that installing 10.5 required the presence of 10.4, which it couldn't find. I inserted the 10.4 install disc, to install that, but the computer won't boot up from that (or any) disc. Even when holding down the "C" key, I only get a gray screen with a folder/question mark icon.
Would appreciate any suggestions as to how to get Leopard installed on this erased drive!

the installer said that installing 10.5 required the presence of 10.4
So these are Leo upgrade disks and not a retail version of Leo?
It appears that your power cord mishap has resulted in an unconfigured HD that is undetectable. This can be an expensive proposition. Folks with Windows installation mishaps have endured the same results. I posted an unofficial solution from Jon Glazerman, which has proven successful for others and it should work for you as well.
Solution
Since the Mac will not boot the DVD, we'll create an Intel Mac-bootable external installer drive.
What You'll Need:
• A working Mac
• An external hard drive you are willing to format (Firewire only was tested)
• Apple's Disk Utility
• Mac OS X Install Disc 1
• An installed copy of NetRestore v3.3x (Freeware)
Procedure - on your working Mac
1. Insert Mac OS X Install Disc 1 into your DVD drive.
2. On your hard drive, open NetRestore Helper (see above section if missing)
3. Make sure the "Create Master Image" tab is highlighted.
4. At the Master Disk prompt, select Mac OS X Install Disc 1.
5. Select the "Read-only compressed" radio button.
6. You may check the boxes below to skip checksumming and post-processing at your discretion.
7. Click the lock icon in the lower-left corner of the NetRestore Helper window and supply your Username and Password. Once successful, you'll be able to click the Create Master Image button.
8. You'll be prompted to name and save your install disk image. The image creation process could take 10-40 minutes depending on your Mac's capabilities. After a successful image is made, you may close NetRestore.
9. Connect and turn on your external hard drive if not done already.
10. Open Disk Utility and select your external hard drive in the left column display. In the lower right, look for Partition Scheme. If this says "GUID Partition Table", skip to 15.
Important: To make this external drive bootable on an Intel Mac, we need to make sure it's the proper format. You are about to delete the contents of your external drive. You may wish to create a backup before proceeding.
11. Make certain your external hard drive is selected, and click on the "Partition" tab just below your button bar.
12. Name your external hard drive and select Mac OS Extended (Journaled) format.
13. Toward the bottom of the window, click the "Options..." button. Select "GUID Partition Table" and click OK.
14. Click the Partition button and confirm.
15. Select the Restore tab and drag the disk image you created with NetRestore onto it. Or you may click the Image... button to locate the image of your install disk.
16. Drag your external hard drive partition from the left column into the Destination field. You may optionally check the Erase Destination box and then click the Restore button.
Note: If you have still have the installer disk image open in another application (such as the Finder) you may receive an error from Disk Utility until this image is closed in all other applications.
After verification, you may close Disk Utility.
17. Using the Finder, check to make sure your external hard disk file layout resembles your Mac OS X Install Disc 1 DVD. Big discrepancies may indicate a problem in creating the image or restoring the image.
18. Dismount the external hard drive from your working Mac.
Procedure - on your Core 2 Duo Mac
19. Connect the external hard drive cable to the non-booting Core 2 Duo Mac. You'll want the Mac turned off for booting purposes. Turn on your external hard drive.
20. Turn on your Core 2 Duo Mac while holding the option key. The gray screen will be blank for several seconds, followed by an icon for your external hard drive. You should be able to click on this icon and begin the Mac OS X install process. It may not work on the first try, so you may need to power off the system and try again. Also try a USB keyboard and mouse instead of Bluetooth.
Note: If the Max OS X installer runs, but is having trouble identifying your internal hard drive, launch the Disk Utility first and format it using the GUID Partition Table before continuing.
At this point, your Mac should be able to read your second install disk from the DVD drive without issue.
I really hope this fix works for you and you can start enjoying your new Mac again. Again, there may be other methods (for example, booting the install DVD from an external firewire DVD drive) but whatever the case, good luck and thanks for reading.
Jon Glazerman
Kansas City, U.S.

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Can I install Leopard on an external drive to run my computer?

Since it seems my hard drive has totally bit the dust, can I install Leopard on the external drive I use for Time Machine, and run my desktop from that drive? Could I run it from an external drive totally dedicated to Leopard? I am buying a new desktop soon, but I need info off of this machine. Can I plug in my Time Machine drive to my laptop and be able to use it without losing data?

Elizabeth Salcido wrote:
Thanks so much.
Youa re welcome!
I figured I would have to use a second drive. At least when I get my new desktop I will have a drive for Time Machine for both desktop and laptop.
If you really plan to keep the laptop around after you get your desktop, I would recommend replacing its internal hard drive. While running your laptop off an external is possible, it should be considered a stopgap measure. i wouldn't do it on a permanent basis. For one, as you'll find out, it's quite a bit slower than when using the internal drive.

Install Leopard on an External Drive on a Snow Leopard Mac Book Pro

Hi
I have a MBP 17/CTO 2.66GHz i7, which came installed with Snow Leopard.
I've used boot camp to install Windows 7.
I've attempted to install Leopard 10.5.4 on an external drive.
The steps I've taken:
1 - Connected my WD Passport on the Firewire Port
2 - Partitioned the drive. The first partition is 100GB, Mac OS/X Extended (journal) and I've selected the GUID Partition Scheme
3 - Inserted the Mac OS/X Leopard DVD, and followed the instructions to restart
4 - On restart I have three options. Mac OS, Windows and Install Mac OS\X
5 - I select Install Mac OS\X.
6 - The disc spins for a few moments and then the laptop freezes
Beware of the following issue:
1 - On restart more often than not, the DISC will spin and then the laptop will freeze.
2 - To overcome this, restarting pressing the ALT (option) Key.
3 - You should see your boot options. If you do not see "Install Mac OS\X", then eject and reinsert the disc.
The question maybe why would I want to have an Leopard Installation when I have Snow Leopard. The software I develop has thrown up a number of differences between Leopard and Snow Leopard, hence I need both OS's to support my software.
I mentioned this to the Apple Store before I purchased my machine. They put me through to a senior technician at Apple Care, who told me it would be possible to have the set up I am after; and to contact Apple Care if I ran into any difficulties.
After I received my laptop and ran into the problems I described above I contacted Apple Care, only to be told by a senior technician that it should be possible to install Leopard on an external drive, but Apple Care cannot provide any support or assistance.
I really do like the laptop and would much rather not return the laptop; but I really do need the setup described.
Anyway I have tried a number of different approaches:
1 - Having no partitions (so just the single partition)
2 - Trying all three Partition Schemes:
- GUILD Partition Table
- Apple Partition Map
- Master Boot Record
All resulting in the same problem.
I can confirm the external drive does appear as bootable in disc info.
My guess is one of the following is preventing the install:
1 - It is simply not possible to install an earlier version of Mac OS\X than 10.6 on the laptop I have, even if I tried to install on an external drive. This restriction is built into some hardware confirguration. So even if I wiped the internal hard drive or added a new partition to the internal hard drive, I would not be able to install 10.5.4. I say this may be a reason as the second technician told me the CPU has built into it a process which prevents installing older versions of Mac OS/X, but that it should NOT restrict installation on an external harddrive.
2 - When trying to install Mac OS/X, a search is carried out for an external drive which has the correct format. For some reason it may be that this search is not finding my external drive?
I'm a little stuck here and quite disapointed that the support promised by Apple Care for assistance in setting this up, is now not forth coming.
Any help or suggestions would be appreciated, as ideally I would prefer to keep and not return the laptop, it's a beautiful piece of machinery.
Cheers
Parmy

The mystery continues...
I have an older MBP (2.33 GHz Intel Core Duo) which came installed with Tiger. I can confirm I purchased a genuine copy of Leopard (10.5.4) from the Apple Store and it’s not an OEM version. I installed 10.5.4 without a hitch on my old MBP internal drive. It is the only OS installed on my old MBP.
Using my older MBP (which through software updates is now running 10.5.7), I managed to install 10.5.4 onto my external HD (WD My Passport Studio – 640GB FireWire 800).
However; on the final restart, the screen remained grey and 10.5.4 did not boot from the external drive.
I restarted the machine holding down the ALT (option) key, and only two options appeared, Macintosh HD and the Install DVD. I selected the Macintosh HD and opened System Preferences.
In System Preferences --> Startup Disk, I discovered the partition on my external HD which contains 10.5.4. I selected this partition and selected restart.
On restart my MBP displayed a grey screen, and the blue light on my hard drive flashed slowly. I left this for an hour, however; the OS did not start and the screen remained grey.
I then plugged my external HD into my new MBP which I started holding down the ALT key.
To my surprise I found 3 boot options (Macintosh HD, Windows and Leopard). Leopard being the partition on my external drive, which now has 10.5.4 installed.
I selected Leopard, but sadly after 30 minutes, the OS failed to boot.
Although this deviates slightly from this post, I fail to understand the problem here:
1 – Why can’t I boot 10.5.4 on an external drive, from my old MBP? Surely this is not because my old MBP is now running 10.5.7?
2 – Why can I see 10.5.4 as a boot option on my new MBP but not on my old MBP when I start the MBP holding down the ALT key?
I doubt there is a problem with my external drive, as it seems to read, write, etc... in all normal cases.
Whilst it definitely appears that I won’t be able to boot 10.5.4 on an external drive from my new MBP, I should be able to at least boot it from my old MBP, which would give me the option of installing Snow Leopard and Windows on the internal drive of my old MBP.
Apologies for keeping this post going, but I hope by getting to the bottom of this, it will help other Mac users as well.
I’ve run out of ideas of things to try, so I will give Apple Care another call in the morning, and will report back.
Any suggestions of other things I can try?
Cheers

Install Leopard on a hard drive

Is it possible to install Leopard on any hard drive that is formatted to +Mac OS Extended (Journaled)+

guynjoan wrote:
Is it possible to install Leopard on any hard drive that is formatted to +Mac OS Extended (Journaled)+
No problem.
Insert DVD, boot holding down "C" key and when prompted select the appropriate HD.

How do I install leopard on an external drive

I have been unable to install snow leopard on my external drive, when I put the install disc in the drive on the iMAC, it shows up on the desktop, but i cannot get it to install on the external drive, the iMAC has Lion installed.

I'd like an answer to the original question, too. I have a brand new Intel iMac which came preloaded with Lion. I'd like to install Snow Leopard on an external hard drive for a variety of reasons. I would rather NOT erase the internal hard drive of the iMac, if possible. Of course, I get this same message that, "You cannot install Snow Leopard on this machine running Lion" more or less. Does anyone have a method of faking out the installer so it will install Snow Leopard onto an external hard drive even though the Mac is running Lion?

Installing Leopard on new hard drive

Want to replace HD on my dual 1.8 G5.
How do I go about starting, formatting and installing Leopard on a new blank drive.
My old drive is backed up on an external using TimeMachine.
After install I plan to pick and choose what to replace from TimeMachine.
Thanks for any help.

First:
Extended Hard Drive Preparation
1. Open Disk Utility in your Utilities folder. If you need to reformat your startup volume, then you must boot from your OS X Installer Disc. After the installer loads select your language and click on the Continue button. When the menu bar appears select Disk Utility from the Installer menu (Utilities menu for Tiger or Leopard.)
2. After DU loads select your hard drive (this is the entry with the mfgr.'s ID and size) from the left side list. Note the SMART status of the drive in DU's status area. If it does not say "Verified" then the drive is failing or has failed and will need replacing. SMART info will not be reported on external drives. Otherwise, click on the Partition tab in the DU main window.
3. Set the number of partitions from the dropdown menu (use 1 partition unless you wish to make more.) Set the format type to Mac OS Extended (Journaled.) Click on the Options button, set the partition scheme to GUID (only required for Intel Macs) then click on the OK button. Click on the Partition button and wait until the volume(s) mount on the Desktop.
4. Select the volume you just created (this is the sub-entry under the drive entry) from the left side list. Click on the Erase tab in the DU main window.
5. Set the format type to Mac OS Extended (Journaled.) Click on the Options button, check the button for Zero Data and click on OK to return to the Erase window.
6. Click on the Erase button. The format process can take up to several hours depending upon the drive size.
Quit DU and return to the installer. Have your TM backup drive already connected. When installing you will be provided the opportunity to restore an old system from a TM backup. I believe this will appear after completing the Setup Assistant.
If your old drive is still functional then you can put it in an external enclosure, boot from it and clone it to the new drive after the new drive has been prepped per the above.

Issue Installing Leopard on new internalk drive on older ImacG5

installed new drive in older ImacG5 I have Leopard install disk...tried to load OSX and install menu does not show target to install...drive is recognized in disk utilities..tried erasing to reformat and erase failed??????

Drive Partition and Format
1. Boot from your OS X Installer Disc. After the installer loads select your language and click on the Continue button. When the menu bar appears select Disk Utility from the Utilities menu.
2. After DU loads select your hard drive (this is the entry with the mfgr.'s ID and size) from the left side list. Note the SMART status of the drive in DU's status area. If it does not say "Verified" then the drive is failing or has failed and will need replacing. SMART info will not be reported on external drives. Otherwise, click on the Partition tab in the DU main window.
3. Under the Volume Scheme heading set the number of partitions from the drop down menu to one. Click on the Options button, set the partition scheme to GUID then click on the OK button. Set the format type to Mac OS Extended (Journaled.) Click on the Apply button and wait until the process has completed.
4. Select the volume you just created (this is the sub-entry under the drive entry) from the left side list. Click on the Erase tab in the DU main window.
5. Set the format type to Mac OS Extended (Journaled.) Click on the Security button, check the button for Zero Data and click on OK to return to the Erase window.
6. Click on the Erase button. The format process can take up to several hours depending upon the drive size.
7. When formatting is complete quit Disk Utility and return to the installer. Install Leopard.
A possible issue with a new drive is that it came pre-formatted with NTFS or FAT32. A special issue is created by the former that will prevent Disk Utility from partitioning or reformatting the drive. Please check the status reports in Disk Utility for both the drive and the volume on the drive to determine if it is formatted NTFS.

How to install Leopard to external hard drive & boot the eMac from it.

I am attempting to update my mom's eMac so she can use her new iPad and have discovered it would be best to install Leopard onto an external firewire hard drive and boot from that. I want to be sure I'm doing it right. So, I attach the drive to the eMac, partition and format it (I did find some instructions in the forum) and then how do I load Leopard on the external drive. Would it be best to do all the formatting and installation from my own MacBook Pro? After Leopard is on the external drive, how do I cause the eMac to boot from it?
Or would it be easier to return the iPad, buy the basic Macbook and shine the eMac? Can you tell I'm frustrated?
Message was edited by: cwebb

how do I load Leopard on the external drive
Install it normally. The drive must be connected with FireWire.
Would it be best to do all the formatting and installation from my own MacBook Pro?
No. It won't work if you do.
how do I cause the eMac to boot from it?
Start up with the Option key held down, click on it, and push the button with the straight arrow.
(51916)

Stuck in Maverick install, tells me to erase drive and try again, should I??

I tried to install Maverick on macbook pro but keep getting install error. Says hard drive can not be repaired and I should erase and reinstall. I am unable to get out of the install program even if I restart. I can get to utilities menu. Should I try erase?

Create an image of its contents on an external drive and then erase.
(91854)

Installing Leopard from USB flash drive

Basically i need to install Leopard from a USB flash drive on my Macbook, but i will sum up my issue: (I'm afraid i'm not a computer-"geek", so bear with me when i try to explain the issue :-))
My macbook hdd recently died on me, so put in a new, clean hdd. I now need to install Leopard on the new hdd from a DMG-file.
So, i have an 8GB USB flash drive and DMG-file of Leopard.
I formatted the USB flash drive to NTFS, and copied the 6+GB DMG-file onto the flash drive.
I tried booting from the flash drive by holding down the option key, but a blank screen shows up with a mouse pointer. There is no Flash drive or install icon to select.
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Hi Dweepe;
On top of everything else the other posters pointed out, I would suggest that formatting the USB flash drive to NTFS is not doing you any favors either. NTFS is a propriety file system from Microsoft which the Mac can only read with special software install.
My suggestion is to replace your optical drive. A new one can probably be purchased for much less then the problems you are creating for yourself in your attempts to work around replacing it.
Allan

Can't update - Leopard asks for erasing drive

I've just successfully updated iMac and wanted to do the same on my MacPro, where I have BootCamp. During installation, Leopard doesn't want to do update (Macintosh HD drive as well as others has yellow screamer mark), but wants to erase my drive and do clean install. Any idea why? I don't want to do clean install. It doesn't offer any other option that clean install.
<Edited by Moderator>

here is one bummer which I found: Looking at DiskUtility, I can see greyed "disk1s3" drive under my Macintosh HD.
Mount Point : Not mounted Capacity : 128,0 MB (134 217 728 Bytes)
Partition Type : Microsoft Reserved
Available : -
Owners Enabled : - Used : -
Number of Folders : - Number of Files : -
ok, sounds like I'll have to do Erase and Install, but what's going to happen to my BootCamp stuff? I have WinXP 64bit there. I believe WinXP should be fine itself, but, will I'll be able to snap it again when will intsall Leopard?
<Edited by Moderator>

Install leopard on an external drive?

Hi I was wondering if I can do a clean install of leopard on a usb external drive.
I originally did an upgrade install on my imac, but would like to play around with a clean install on an external. And if the setup seems faster would like to migrate it back to my internal. Just wondering if this would be possible? Thanks

Yes you can I have a clone of my internal drive with leopard using carbon copy cloner and it is bootable

Install Leopard via External DVD Drive?

This is a question for a friend, as I don't have an external DVD drive I can't test it out for myself, but basically can OSX 10.5 Leopard be installed using an external drive?
His internal Superdrive doesn't work properly, very similar to the issues discussed in the "Apple.com > Support > Discussions > iMac G5 > Using DVDs and CDs with your iMac G5" section. I'm not sure of the brand of external drive, but I believe it's connected via USB2.0.
That's pretty much it, any help is, as always, very much appreciated!
Scoobs.

An external DVD drive will work, but it must use FireWire for a G4 or G5. USB or FireWire will work with Intel Macs.

How to install Leopard on external Hard-drive

hi can somebody tell-me how to install Mac OS X 10.5 on to my external Hard drive????

Well, an USB HD is useless with a PPC computer because you can't boot with it. So, installing OS X onto it is an exercise in futility. Return it for one that has FW or get another one. Amazon is offering an ext enclosure + 1 TB Seagate for $130 USD at http://www.amazon.com/Macally-G-S350SUA-Hi-Speed-FireWire-Enclosure/dp/B000P1NAM O/ref=pdbbs_sr1?ie=UTF8&s=automotive&qid=1240278380&sr=8-1

Installing Leopard on external USB drive

Hi there,
I am trying to wipe a drive clean via an external USB drive box. Might somebody explain how I can do this? When I boot on the Leopard DVD I arrive at the drive choice screen and there is a big red "exclamation point" on the external USB drive mount icon. What can I do to get around this problem?
Cheers,
Noah

Noah Wallach wrote:
Hi there,
I am trying to wipe a drive clean via an external USB drive box. Might somebody explain how I can do this? When I boot on the Leopard DVD I arrive at the drive choice screen and there is a big red "exclamation point" on the external USB drive mount icon. What can I do to get around this problem?
Cheers,
Noah
Although you can boot some systems via USB, the drive must first and foremost be bootable. Not all external drives are bootable. The firmware must support booting. For example, my Maxtor 160 that I use for TM on my G5 states in the manual that it cannot boot.
You are having a somewhat different issue, in that you are not yet ready to boot, but the drive cannot be seen by DU.
I would see if the external drive can first be partitioned and formatted in Leopard directly by running DU in the Leopard Utility folder, not from the DVD.
I would check for a firmware update for your drive box.

Installing Leopard on an erased drive

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