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OS X won't install on a Mac Mini

post #1 of 11
8/5/10 at 6:56am
Thread Starter 
Hi all,

I have a 2006 Mac Mini that was running Linux and being a media center for the past few years. I've just replaced it with a different machine and was trying to put OS X back on it... but it just won't install.

I'm trying to install Snow Leopard from the actual Snow Leopard DVD, and it gets to a random point and does the Grey Death Screen (see image).

Just to test, I've installed Linux and Windows on it with no problems. I've, uh, also been able to install a hacked version of OS X on it (though that has it's own set of problems). But the authentic OS X randomly dies.

Any ideas?

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post #2 of 11
8/5/10 at 9:50am
Are you formatting the drive before the installation and making sure it's formatted as a GUID partition?
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post #3 of 11
8/5/10 at 9:55am
Thread Starter 
Quote:
Originally Posted by Marvin View Post

Are you formatting the drive before the installation and making sure it's formatted as a GUID partition?

Yeah. Before I did that it was dying before it even started installing. Note from the photo of the screen that it is actually starting to install. It also dies at a random part of the install...
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post #4 of 11
8/5/10 at 11:06am
Quote:
Originally Posted by jethro1138 View Post

Yeah. Before I did that it was dying before it even started installing. Note from the photo of the screen that it is actually starting to install. It also dies at a random part of the install...

You mentioned earlier running a "hack" OSX on it... did that, by chance, require you to flash the boot-ROM ? (or whatever Apple calls it)
I remember there being a couple of versions of OSX that required us to upgrade the boot-ROM on original G3 iMacs before they could be installed... so if you altered it, I could see the original not recognizing an altered version. I'm just guessing at stuff.
From out there on the moon, international politics look so petty. You want to grab a politician by the scruff of the neck and drag him a quarter of a million miles out and say, "Look at that!" -...
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From out there on the moon, international politics look so petty. You want to grab a politician by the scruff of the neck and drag him a quarter of a million miles out and say, "Look at that!" -...
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post #5 of 11
8/5/10 at 11:12am
Thread Starter 
Quote:
Originally Posted by KingOfSomewhereHot View Post

You mentioned earlier running a "hack" OSX on it... did that, by chance, require you to flash the boot-ROM ?

Oh good lord no (: It's just one of the ones that are meant to work on non-apple hardware. I figured it was worth a shot.
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post #6 of 11
8/5/10 at 10:31pm
It really sounds as if you have a scratched or otherwise bad DVD. Apple will replace them for a small fee. Alternately you have some bad memory that only MacOS X is running afoul of. Apple tends to demand memory to work closer to spec than others do, since they typically know they can trust the hardware (not really a good assumption for Windows or Linux).
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post #7 of 11
8/6/10 at 6:02am
Thread Starter 
Quote:
Originally Posted by Karl Kuehn View Post

It really sounds as if you have a scratched or otherwise bad DVD. Apple will replace them for a small fee. Alternately you have some bad memory that only MacOS X is running afoul of. Apple tends to demand memory to work closer to spec than others do, since they typically know they can trust the hardware (not really a good assumption for Windows or Linux).

It's definitely not the DVD. I booted the thing with a MacOS harddrive from a different Mac (which went fine) and did a Time Machine onto another drive, then tried a restore. Again, it dies at a random point.

I guess I'll test the RAM, but it doesn't seem like it's getting to a point where it's actually, you know, using much of it. Plus when I had actual OS X running (from the other harddrive) it had zero issues.
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post #8 of 11
8/6/10 at 9:44am
If you have another Mac, you can install onto an external drive and then plug the external into the problem Mac and boot from it and then clone the system form the external to the internal.
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post #9 of 11
8/6/10 at 9:57am
Thread Starter 
Quote:
Originally Posted by Marvin View Post

If you have another Mac, you can install onto an external drive and then plug the external into the problem Mac and boot from it and then clone the system form the external to the internal.

How do you clone the system? I tried something similar (restoring from backup from the install DVD) but that died.
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post #10 of 11
8/7/10 at 12:39am
Quote:
Originally Posted by jethro1138 View Post

How do you clone the system? I tried something similar (restoring from backup from the install DVD) but that died.

Use Carbon Copy Cloner:

http://www.bombich.com/
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post #11 of 11
8/7/10 at 7:18am
Thread Starter 
Quote:
Originally Posted by Marvin View Post

Use Carbon Copy Cloner:

http://www.bombich.com/

Thanks, I'll give it a shot!
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