reinstalling os from a different computer...?

[londonweb]

First of all, merry christmas one and all and hello to anyone who's here taking a break from it.

I would love some help with this problem: My sister has an ibook g4 and the cd drive is screwed- our local fix it store have disconnected it because it was interrupting the start up sequence and freezing the computer. So the machine still works, but because of a problem with a software update she was doing it just boots into darwin and asks for a log on.

I've got my powerbook here and have been attempting to fix the ibook by mounting it to my computer via a firewire connection, but so far haven't been able to. Disk utility doesn't find anything wrong with the disk. I have been wondering if I can reinstall my sister's os from my computer. In theory I guess I'd just put the disk in my pb and then select her hard disk as the target and do it that way, but I'm concerned that if I do that then my computer will then be looking for her computer as a startup disk in future.

Any ideas?

 

[mad jew]

It should be fine. Your computer really shouldn't then think her iBook is the start up drive but the good news is that if it does for one reason or another, you can change the start up drive through the System Preferences.

 

[Jo-Kun]

boot her system as target...
connect trough firewire...
install everthing on it...
boot from it (with the Pb) to check the installation...
then choose your internal disk again as startupdisk for the Pb...
reboot...
your PB schould be fine now...
reboot the G4...
it might serch for a while...
be sure to select this drive again to boot from in your preferences once you've booted in OSX from that drive...
yes it will find the os otherwise... but might be just a slight bit faster if you show it where to look ;-)

so to give you a short version: your idea is ok... but just be sure to reselect the OS version on the Pb before removing the G4... it will work even without dong that but... if you tell it where to look... it helps... ;-)

merry xms & happy new year... and have 'fun' with the G4...

 

[londonweb]

It should be fine. Your computer really shouldn't then think her iBook is the start up drive but the good news is that if it does for one reason or another, you can change the start up drive through the System Preferences.

Ok, but i don't want the ibook to be acknowledged in any way, shape or form once i've done it. Do you think that's possible?

The other possible issue is that I'm running 10.4 and she's on 10.3 (as are her startup disks).

 

[Jo-Kun]

Ok, but i don't want the ibook to be acknowledged in any way, shape or form once i've done it. Do you think that's possible?

The other possible issue is that I'm running 10.4 and she's on 10.3 (as are her startup disks).

this shouldn't be a problem since you'll have to boot from the 10.3 disks with your Pb to be able to install it anyway... 10.4 will not be looking around the corner since its not on the bootdrive...

ok the only problem can be that your Pb refuses to boot from that 'older' system... than its time to find someone with an external FireWire CD/DVD-ROM drive... to boot from I guess...

 

[londonweb]

Thanks guys... I'll give it a try

 

[mad jew]

It'll be fine, even if she's running Panther and you're running Tiger.

Just for reference, I always thought you didn't have to boot from the install disks unless you wanted to install on the start up drive. Am I wrong?

 

[Jo-Kun]

It'll be fine, even if she's running Panther and you're running Tiger.

Just for reference, I always thought you didn't have to boot from the install disks unless you wanted to install on the start up drive. Am I wrong?

I guess you're wrong... when opening the installer when booted onto your normal drive you'll get a message that the system needs to reboot etc... and then it will set itself to boot fro the install disks... haven't seen any other way (yet)

 

[mad jew]

I'm obviously getting far too mad for my own good because I vaguely remember installing OSX (10.4.0) from the start up drive onto another computer through Target Disk Mode (legally and legitimately). It's a shame. I kinda miss my sanity.

 

[londonweb]

I guess you're wrong... when opening the installer when booted onto your normal drive you'll get a message that the system needs to reboot etc... and then it will set itself to boot fro the install disks... haven't seen any other way (yet)

That is indeed what happened just now.

 

[mad jew]

Interesting, thanks for that. Mine would have been a retail version, but I imagine it'd be the same either way. Is it all going well londonweb?

 

[londonweb]

Seems to be...

I'll let you know what happens and how/if it affects my pb.