I recently acquired three Macintosh G5 PowerPC’s. None of them would boot up properly. I was able to install Random Access Memory correctly in these three computers and they all booted up properly.
I am going to describe to you how to install OS X Leopard which is version 10.5.4. First, you will need either a Digital Optical Disc or Universal Serial Bus flash drive. You can install OS X via USB flash drive but it requires more technical knowlegde beyond this blog post.
Apple allows you to buy and sell used Macintosh operating system discs. You can obtain them from websites similar to Craigslist, Amazon, and Ebay. If your missing a hard drive you can install a new or used one and partition it using Mac OS X install DVD.
If you cannot get the DVD optical tray to open you can power on your Macintosh while pressing and holding your left mouse button. USB mice designed for PC’s are supported by Macintosh hardware. Also, standard USB keyboards are supported by Macintosh hardware.
You do not have to use official Apple Macintosh keyboard and mice. The G5 PowerPC will eventually boot off of the DVD disc. After you choose your language, you click the right arrow down below at the initial screen to begin the installation.
You will see a welcome screen where you click “Contine”. You will then be presented with a software license agreement screen. Click on “Agree” to continue the installation.
If you have a used, refurbished, or new hard disk then you will need to create a partition. If you do NOT create this partition now, the MAC OS X Leopard 10.5.4 install will fail. However, you will not get notified why the install failed.
Many times it is because you have not created a partition yet. To create a partition click on “Utilities” from the top menu and then choose “Disk Utility”. From within disk utility you will be able to create a Macintosh partition.
You will see your hard drive on the left hand side. Click on your hard drive and then click on a “Partition” tab. In partition you will be able to create a new partition.
I recommend you create a MAC OS X journaled partition. Also, if you have an existing hard drive with a MAC partition created, you can go ahead and erase this partition instead for a clean install. There are two types of erase options, a quick simple one where your user data is preserved and not written over until that portion of the hard drive is used.
The longer erase is called “Erase Free Space” and can take an hour or more depending on speed of your Apple G5 PowerPC. Once you create a partition you can now exit out of disk utility. You will be asked to select the destination hard drive for your install.
Select whichever hard drive or partition you want MAC OS X Leopard 10.5.4 to reside on and click “Continue”. You will be presented with an “Install Summary” screen. Click on Install to begin the installation.
You will see a “Checking Installation DVD” popup window. You can click on “Skip” to skip this step. I recommend you allow the installation to check your installation DVD if it is the first time you are using this particular DVD disc.
It will add possibly another 15 to 20 minutes to the install time. Finall, you will see an installation progress indicator. It took MAC OS X Leopard 10.5.4 approximately one hour to install on this G5 PowerPC.
The installation will automatically reboot the computer. It will not dismount your DVD but will NOT boot off of it. If you see a blank screen during the installation it is most likely the screen saver, so you do not need to panic.
Your keyboard might not get detected so you just need to press two keys to get the operating system to detect it. Follow the instructions on screen to perform this task and click “Continue”. You can choose the default keyboard detection or change it and then click “Continue”.
You will see a welcome screen with country or region information. Select the default or change it and then press “Continue”. Next a “Do you already own a MAC?” will be presented.
You can transfer data from another Macintosh computer, another disc volume on this computer, or from a Time Machine backup or not transfer any data. Click on “Continue” to move along the installation. You will be asked to enter your Apple ID.
You do NOT have to enter your Apple ID to continue with the installation. Click on “Continue”. A “Registration Information” screen is displayed.
You do NOT have to enter any registration information in order to continue the installation. Click on “Continue”. You will be presented with a “Create Your Account” screen.
You ONLY have to enter in a name and short name fields. You do NOT have to enter a password. You will automatically be logged into your Macintosh OS X Leopard 10.5.4 desktop.
You can create a password for your account later. Click continue to see the last screen titled “Thank You”. Click on “Go” to finalize the installation and be taken to the Mac OS X Leopard 10.5.4 desktop. I just described how to install OS X on a PowerPC G5.