# ibook g4 won't boot HDD after fresh 10.4 install



## mjones1 (May 25, 2008)

As the title states, I recently ran a fresh installation of OS X 10.4 on an old iBook G4. The install ran just fine on the detected 40gb HDD, no errors, got to the end, had it's "setup will restart in 30 seconds" countdown, and upon restart, after the usual chime, I get the flashing folder/questionmark (as if no OS was installed) screen.

I've repeated this install numerous times, with different OS X 10.4 disks, and I can't see to understand what's holding it up from botting it's first boot from the HDD, while it installs the OS perfectly fine TO the HDD...

Any thoughts?


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## sinclair_tm (Mar 11, 2005)

Have you held down the option key when you start it to see if the hard drive shows up? Turn it on and then hold the option key and keep it held until you see the boot menu. All bootable drives will be shown.


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## mjones1 (May 25, 2008)

sinclair_tm said:


> Have you held down the option key when you start it to see if the hard drive shows up? Turn it on and then hold the option key and keep it held until you see the boot menu. All bootable drives will be shown.


I've taken that route already, I suppose I should have mentioned that.

Option yields the following (keep in mind, this is after a fresh, and 100% SUCCESSFUL OS X 10.4 installation to the HDD).


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## sinclair_tm (Mar 11, 2005)

What file system is the hard drive formatted in?


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## mjones1 (May 25, 2008)

Um, Mac OS (Journaled) I believe. Or simply HFS. I don't think there is another option on the install disk, but I am not sure that I checked because the touchpad didn't seem to want to work when I booted it up, so I simply used the ol' tab button and space for selection.


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## mjones1 (May 25, 2008)

mjones1 said:


> Um, Mac OS (Journaled) I believe. Or simply HFS. I don't think there is another option on the install disk, but I am not sure that I checked because the touchpad didn't seem to want to work when I booted it up, so I simply used the ol' tab button and space for selection.


I was... really tired when I posted this reply. According to the install diskm I've been formatting with Mac OS (Journaled) partition scheme every time, which I assume is HFS (as it SHOULD be).


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## sinclair_tm (Mar 11, 2005)

That is really weird. The installer sees the hard drive, but the iBook doesn't see the OS on the drive after the OS is installed. Do you have any external USB or firewire drives you could try installing to? Do you have any other Macs you could connect the iBook to via target disk mode?


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