Installing Leopard

[wasteofmindtg]

Ok so a few days ago I aquired a legal copy of Mac Leopard from a university. I popped it in my imac, currently equipped with Mac OSX 10.4. I load the image (which takes forever), start the install process, and it says to restart my computer. I click restart, but all the computer does is restart and the installation process does not continue! I do not understand. Am I doing something wrong? Any suggestions?!

[Buzz]

Does your iMac meet minimum system requirements for OS10.5?

[wasteofmindtg]

Yes, I bought it brand new less than a year ago. I checked to make sure it met the requirments. Thanks for the speedy response.

[Buzz]

When it restarts hold down the c key to try and force it to boot from the OS DVD. This is a retail OS DVD right? the black one? Not a grey DVD.

[wasteofmindtg]

No, it is a burned copy, but a legal one. Nonetheless, I will try forcing the dvd to boot when I get home to my imac.

[wasteofmindtg]

Ok so I held down the c key to try and force the DVD to boot. It made a lot of noise, but that was it. Any other thoughts?

Also, I wanted to know if there is an easy way to back up the entire contents of the computer (users, settings, etc.) I have backup, but I can't figure out how to use it to perform this task. I also have a 5 gb idisk to back up onto and an ipod if extra memory is required.

[Buzz]

Well burned copies are most often not "legal" copies. I realize you can burn a copy for backup. But if you aren't installing it on a machine that a license was purchased for, well.. so much for legal. Are you certain it was a good burn? If it's legal.. why can't you get the retail DVD? Was it burned as a direct copy? Was it burned to a double layer DVD?

Obviously, what I'm getting at here is the media you are using is most likely the problem, not the iMac.

You can use applications such as SuperDuper or Carbon Copy Cloner to backup an entire drive. Search www.versiontracker.com for these applications.

[wasteofmindtg]

I'm pretty positive this is a legal copy. I am on staff at a large university, and the computer tech people allowed me to purchase it for a fee less than retail value. I was under the impression that they bought multiple licenses for all the computers at the university, and that they did not receive a retail DVD for each one. Is this possible? Also, it was burned to a double layer DVD. Assuming this is indeed a legal copy, do you have any other suggestions?

[Buzz]

Well it sounds like your techs are pirating the software. It is ABSOLUTELY against the license to sell burned copies of the DVD. No question about that. WHat you have is an illegal copy, regardless of what the techs tell you. No, you don't get a DVD for each license. However, your system isn't sitting on university grounds it is? Is it a University owned system? See where I'm going? The University purchased licenses for their systems, not every system owned by anyone that works at the University. I know pirating software isn't a big deal to a great many people. However, rest assured what you have is not legal. If it were me, I'd get my money back from the techs and go spend the $90 on the retail DVD.

If your iMac meets the minimum requirements, the only suggestion I can give is to try a retail dvd, not a burned copy.

[wasteofmindtg]

Thank you for your opinion, however I just contacted the tech office and they assured me they bought special licenses for the staff to use. And I'm not just "Anyone that works at the university," I'm a professor that uses my computer for work on a daily basis. Is that all you can tell me is to buy a retail copy?

[Buzz]

All I can tell you is to try a retail copy. Obviously the burned copy you received is not valid. And you can spend days trying to get it to work when it may be the issue all along.

Also, you need to verify it was burned from the Retail copy, not a grey OEM OS disk. For instance... if the university bought new iMacs, they all shipped with OS10.5. But all the new iMacs are intel-based, your mac is PowerPC based.. the grey OEM DVDs will NOT work on your iMac. The grey OEM DVDs are often system-specific and can not be used to install on multiple systems.

In short, the DVD is the weak link in your chain. I seriously doubt you'd have a single issue if you were using the retail DVD.

[wasteofmindtg]

Ok thanks for your help. My iMac is intel based, however, not a power pc.