[iBook] Panther Installation

[Peter Nevett]

On Aug 25, 2008, at 4:06 PM, Tom R. no spam wrote:

> On Mon, 25 Aug 2008, Peter Nevett wrote:
>  . . .
>> Is it possible to start up the iBook from the OS9 CD, format the hard
>> drive and then try to install Panther? I have backed up the iBook but
>  . . .
>
> Do check the firmware (as someone else suggested).
>
> Also try booting from an OS9 installer CD, and
> use the Drive Setup utility (I'm not sure of the
> name, it's been so long) to zero the HD while
> formatting as HFS+, ie choose the option to write
> zeros over the entire drive.  Among other things
> this should force a check for bad HD sectors, etc.
> Then boot from the OS 10.3 installer CD and use
> its Disk Utility to format the HD again but just
> do a simple format, no zeroing. (I'd recommend
> choosing HFS+ journaled format, available with
> OS10.3., since it gives some protection against
> various errors during computer use.)
>
> This OS9 zeroing, then OS10.3 format again, trick
> has worked for me a couple of times working on
> old CT iMacs.

Thanks for all the help. I have checked the firmware and it seems 
up-to-date (4.1.7). Is there any point in re-updating it?
I am still a bit worried that following Tom's procedure above might 
leave me with no OS at all. Is this likely? I have an OS 9 CD from 
which the iBook will boot reliably.

Pete
> _______________________________________________
> iBook mailing list
> iBook at listserver.themacintoshguy.com
> http://listserver.themacintoshguy.com/mailman/listinfo/ibook
>