No previous version of OSX Installed?

playmakerplaymaker
Posted:
in Genius Bar edited January 2014
Last night I spent several hours backing-up my 1ghz Ti Powerbook to perform a clean system install only to become very frustrated with the results. After erasing the erasing the existing drive and getting rid of the partition I never use in the disk utility I kept running into an error telling me that I cannot install OSX because there are no previous versions of OSX found on the machine.



I tried several times and double checked all of the available options. I also tried formating the drive as osx extended, osx extended (journaled), and UNIX file system and each supplied me with the same error once reaching the destination disk selection in the installer. I could really use some help, as the machine was not having any HD errors before I attempted to perform the clean install. It should also be noted that I used the same installation disks (panther) on my G3 and had no problems at all. Please help!

Comments

  • Reply 1 of 6
    jlljll Posts: 2,713member
    Did you install on a G3 with no system on? It sounds like you have a Mac OS X Upgrade CD and it requires Mac OS X on the HD to work.
  • Reply 2 of 6
    playmakerplaymaker Posts: 511member
    Quote:

    Originally posted by JLL

    Did you install on a G3 with no system on? It sounds like you have a Mac OS X Upgrade CD and it requires Mac OS X on the HD to work.



    Actually, yes...my G3 tower's HD had been wiped clean and I remember selecting UNIX as the particular type of drive format. This allowed me to perform a full install on the G3. On my powerbook it will not allow me to get past the drive destination in the install. It tells me (again) that there is no previous version of OSX detected and offers no options.



    I bought the powerbook used about a year and a half ago and the OSX Panther disks that came with it say nothing about being strictly upgrade disks. Additionally, as I mentioned I used the same disks to perform the same operation on my G3 and it seemed to work fine so I am completely confused.
  • Reply 3 of 6
    dobbydobby Posts: 797member
    CAn you reset the PRAM on a Powerbook. If so then it might be worth a try.



    Dobby.
  • Reply 4 of 6
    playmakerplaymaker Posts: 511member
    yes you can, but I have tried this and it had no bearing on the options I was offered. Does anyone know if Apple even offers upgrades to previous versions of OSX?



    I thought they only sold the $129.00 full version and have never seen a "upgrade" per say, but apparently thats what I got with my powerbook. I have a buddy who is bringing me his restore disks for his powerbook today to try (these were not supplied to me when I purchased the powerbook).
  • Reply 5 of 6
    agnuke1707agnuke1707 Posts: 487member
    Quote:

    Originally posted by Playmaker

    yes you can, but I have tried this and it had no bearing on the options I was offered. Does anyone know if Apple even offers upgrades to previous versions of OSX?



    I thought they only sold the $129.00 full version and have never seen a "upgrade" per say, but apparently thats what I got with my powerbook.



    Hey there!



    Actually, the same thing happened to me a while back. I bought a "retial" copy of Panther off of eBay and it installed just fine because I was running 10.2.8, BUT when I went to install it on my brother's G3 running 9.2.2. I got the same error message you're getting.



    You're assertion that Apple sells only retail copies of Mas OS X is correct. Apple does not sell OS updates; however, whenever people buy a new Mac within a certain period of the relseae date, Apple provides the Update CD's at for a small fee to those people. The advantage difference is, these update CD's are not retail installs and you can only install them if you're moving from one OS X version to Panther.



    If you have a legal copy of ANY Mac OS I would install that and then run the restore disk that came with your computer. If you didn't get one with your computer or don't have a legal OS install, then my guess it you're going to have to get a retail copy from somewhere. Jaguar retails are going for as low as $25 now on eBay. That's what I had to do to get Panther on the G3. It's an extra $25 - $50 to spend, but worth it to have a retail copy of the OS. Oh, and just a warning ... if you use Classic for anything once you're back running Panther you can not install anything other than 9.2.2. I tried installing my copy of 9.0 after I had installed Panther and got errors telling me I needed a newer version of the software.



    Hope that helps a little bit....
  • Reply 6 of 6
    playmakerplaymaker Posts: 511member
    Quote:

    Originally posted by AgNuke1707

    Hey there!



    Actually, the same thing happened to me a while back. I bought a "retial" copy of Panther off of eBay and it installed just fine because I was running 10.2.8, BUT when I went to install it on my brother's G3 running 9.2.2. I got the same error message you're getting.



    You're assertion that Apple sells only retail copies of Mas OS X is correct. Apple does not sell OS updates; however, whenever people buy a new Mac within a certain period of the relseae date, Apple provides the Update CD's at for a small fee to those people. The advantage difference is, these update CD's are not retail installs and you can only install them if you're moving from one OS X version to Panther.



    If you have a legal copy of ANY Mac OS I would install that and then run the restore disk that came with your computer. If you didn't get one with your computer or don't have a legal OS install, then my guess it you're going to have to get a retail copy from somewhere. Jaguar retails are going for as low as $25 now on eBay. That's what I had to do to get Panther on the G3. It's an extra $25 - $50 to spend, but worth it to have a retail copy of the OS. Oh, and just a warning ... if you use Classic for anything once you're back running Panther you can not install anything other than 9.2.2. I tried installing my copy of 9.0 after I had installed Panther and got errors telling me I needed a newer version of the software.



    Hope that helps a little bit....



    Thank you for the insight. I was affraid this might be the case but had nothing to support it. One problem (not sure if I mentioned this before) is that I bought my machine used and it didnt come with a system restore CD. my neighbor just got a 15" aluminum Powerbook a couple of months back and I am thinking of asking if I can borrow his system restore disks to get me back up and running. Additionally (and Ironically) my wife just ordered a 15" alum. Powerbook yesterday, but it wont be here for a week or so and I dont know if I can wait that long to get my machine up and running. Thanks for the advice
Sign In or Register to comment.