Nov
Howto: Upgrade an old Mac to Leopard
The new version Leopard comes complete with site filtering, time on machine management, remote monitoring and application blocking goodness that Tiger does not include. These features would make an older Mac the perfect kiddo komputer. We decided to try and upgrade our older eMac with only a 700Mhz processor and 512Mb of RAM. We knew Leopard might balk since it didn’t meet the minimum system requirements but we gave the installation a shot and sure enough, Leopard gave us an error that said this machine does not meet the minimum specifications and the installation will be terminated. ARGH! That response just wasn’t good enough. “So we gots ta thinking.” How could we bypass this message and force the install. The answer was much simpler than we initially thought. You don’t bypass the message, you bypass the computer. Here’s how, but remember, TRY THIS AT YOUR OWN RISK!:
- Fire up the older computer and rename the hard drive to something other than the default name Macintosh HD. We named ours eMac 700 to avoid confusion when having to select this drive as the installation source later.
- Turn off both computers.
- Connect the older Mac, that doesn’t meet the minimum specifications, via firewire to another computer that does meet the minimum specifications (you can even borrow a friends!). We connected the eMac to a PowerBook G4.
- Boot the older computer and while doing so, hold down the “T” key on the computer until you see the Firewire logo bouncing around on the screen as shown in the figure below. This will basically turn your older computer into an external firewire harddrive (Remember this step as we have found it handy for all manner of file transfers).
Click image for a larger view
- Place the Leopard installation DVD in the newer computer (you know…the one that meets the minimum requirements) and boot that computer while holding down the “C” key. This will force the computer to boot from the DVD.
- Now just follow the prompts through the first couple of information screens. When the screen that asks for the volume to install to appears, you should see the older machine’s hard drive appear as a firewire drive.
- Select the firewire drive and continue the installation. It took us about 90 minutes to install on our eMac. By the way, we did a fresh install so we can’t vouch for this working on upgrades or archive and install options.
- Once the installation has completed you will be asked to restart the computer. DON’T! Instead, turn off the older Mac and unplug it from the newer computer. You can now restart the newer computer to eject the DVD and return to the internal harddrives OS installation.
- Now restart the older Mac. If all goes well, you should see the Leopard welcome video followed by a couple of prompts and then the Leopard desktop.
We’ve been very pleased with the performance so far on our older eMac. We’ll probably throw another 512Mb at it to speed things up a bit, but all in all, its working great and gives us all the functionality we need for the kiddos.
So why would apple block installation on older machines? Post a comment and let us know your thoughts. Be sure to let us know if this works for you or if you have any additional info or clarification that would make this post easier to follow.
You know I use to look at the Apple web site back in the day when they had all on the versions (imac, power mac etc) listed on one page and a picture of each. I hated the day when my trusty Blue and White moved to the bottom of the list and then off the list. Well, for the most part the old Blue can’t run much of the newer programs without bombing or taking all night to burn a iDVD only to find the next morning that it had bombed in the night. Arrghh!! So I bit the bullet and upgraded to the newer first edition Intel. Things are pretty good but I sit here looking at my copy of Leopard knowing that all is not well if I load it. “Am I going to need a “new” Blue and White” to make the jump?” I can’t blame Apple for the planned obsolescence. How else are you going to sell new stuff and keep the shareholders happy? Apple will block the old machines and clever people like you guy’s will figure the workarounds! (Just visit OWC and XPostFacto to see it in it’s glory.) I applaud your efforts. Thank YOU!!
November 13th, 2007 at 6:46 pmNow will someone tell me if I can throw a little solder on the emac 700 and give it the speed bump like the person did on the 800!! Keep the mods coming!!! Apple thanks but don’t forget your roots.
Ahh…the shareholders. Of course! Obsolete the older machines and folks will have to purchase newer machines. Good call.
Thanks so much for the nice comment and for posting your thoughts. It’s great to hear from our readers. All 20 of them!
Steven
November 14th, 2007 at 7:55 pm———-
Steven B. Combs, Ph.D.
:: Give Us One Minute (GUOM)
:: http://www.giveusoneminute.com
:: giveusoneminute@gmail.com
Great to know that Leopard runs on “unsupported” macs. I’m gonna check how it works on my god father powerbook g4 titanium 400Mhz!!! By the same way. But a bit different! I restore a G5 hard drive into a fire external drive, then boot the unsupported powerbook g4 by this firewire drive… Will do it tomorrow. Is anyone try this yet?
Thanks for all your posts.
ANH
November 22nd, 2007 at 8:29 amIt actually makes me sick to my stomach to think that my eMAC is now obsolete. It is only 2.5 - 3 years old!
I just bought my wife an IPOD Classic for Christmas and tried to set it up for her. Of course when I plugged in the USB cable and opened up ITUNES the message said that I needed to upgrade to OS 10.4.8 Tiger. Makes me sick that Apple can’t supply drivers to work on my “old” machine that cost me top dollar just a few years ago. Now I am expected to go out and buy Leopard or Tiger at approx $120 just to play the damb IPOD that already cost me close to $300?!
These Apple devises are supposed to be plug and go, just as the commercials depict - It’s all a load of BS!!!
I think I am just going to take the thing back and get a generic MP3 player that is cheaper. Any one have any Mac MP3 player recommendations?
December 26th, 2007 at 11:04 pmAndre,
Thanks for the comments. I should first say that I toyed with the idea of not posting your comments due to its tone. We would like to keep our site extremely family friendly with a very upbeat tone. We don’t want “Haters” posts. So while we are happy to post comments that criticize products and posts, we would like folks to do so in a very respectful, family friendly manner. On the other hand, you made some good points that I thought I would address.
I am confused. Why is upgrading to OS 10.4.8 and issue for you. It’s a free upgrade and works well with an eMac. I had version 10.4.9 installed on my eMac before upgrading it to Leopard. Software Update should take care of that process for you and have your new shiny iPod Classic up and running in no time. I think you will be sadly disappointed with other MP3 players. Especially if you are trying to use them on your eMac. I have tried other MP3 players other than iPods and have never enjoyed using them. Some of our readers may have other suggestions and I would also recommend that you visit Amazon and read user ratings very closely before choosing a different brand. Especially look at comments related to the use of the device on a Mac. Most are Windows-based (including their DRM) and you may not be able to purchase songs using your Mac. However, if you just want to rip your current CD collection, they may work fine.
As for the Leopard upgrade. I do agree that Apple should not have limited Leopard upgrades to newer machines only. It doesn’t make sense at this time (especially since you CAN install in it on older machines – just have to run through a few hoops as I described). On the other hand though, OS 10.4 is still a great operating system with another year or two of life left. My wife will not upgrade her MacBook anytime soon because she feels she has all the features she needs.
Again, thanks for the feedback and thanks for giving us a minute.
December 27th, 2007 at 10:19 am———-
Steven B. Combs, Ph.D.
:: Give Us One Minute (GUOM)
:: http://www.giveusoneminute.com
:: giveusoneminute@gmail.com
Thanks for these instructions, which I used to install Leopard on my 700 mHz eMac. Everything went perfectly - the only thing I did differently was to choose the “upgrade” path rather than the “erase and install” path. - So I was able to keep various photos, documents, settings, etc. intact. I encountered no problems whatsoever. Once the install was finished, I did a “software update”, and finally attached my new external hard drive (which I had partitioned into two drives, one called “desktop” and one called “laptop” - each for Time Machine’s exclusive use as backup drives on these respective computers) and ran Time Machine. The initial backup of the eMac did take a long, long time to complete, but eventually finished successfully.
December 30th, 2007 at 9:48 amThanks, I was looking for a way to do this for quite a while. I have an old PowerMac G4 400, with 768 RAM (I know, random number, it had 256 when I got it, and I’ve only thrown in the one 512). I was so excited for Leopard, and then found out that I’d either have to buy a new processor (which I will eventually), or buy a new Mac (which I will somewhat soonish) to use it. So thanks, I’m going to try this as soon as I can borrow my sister’s iBook and get a Leopard disc.
March 6th, 2008 at 11:01 pmHi-
April 5th, 2008 at 6:46 amExcuse my ignorance, but how is it a free upgrade to 10.4.8? This would be great news as all I’m trying to do is use the 2007 turbotax cd on my emac. I don’t want to keep financials on my laptop. I have 10.3.9 right now.
Could you be specific as to how to upgrade for free, because all I can find are upgrade discs which are priced from about $79-120 and have to be shipped or purchased in a store. Thanks for the info
Thanks. Great tip, I just installed Leopard on eMac 700MHz for my son and everything was fine. Just one thing: yesterday I tried install Leo using the intel Macbook Pro and it was not good idea. There is o problem with partition of HD - Intel has GUID Partition Table and PowerPC should has Apple partition map.
April 10th, 2008 at 1:29 pmSo I install Leo and after eMac do nothing. When I try to start Intel macbook from eMac HD, Leopard starts
So I pick up iMac G5, install again and everything is ok. The advice: you should use computer with PowerPC procesor, maybe some geek knows how to use intel, but I had problems.
Hi Steve,
thanks for the response to my IPOD issue with th eMac. You wrote, “I am confused. Why is upgrading to OS 10.4.8 and issue for you. It’s a free upgrade and works well with an eMac. I had version 10.4.9 installed on my eMac before upgrading it to Leopard.”
I do not know where to go for this upgrade. When I called Apple to complain, they wanted me to purchase an upgrade for approx $100.00. If you have time could you send me a link for the free upgrade to Leopard?
Thank you,
April 11th, 2008 at 7:00 pmAndre
Andre
I stumbled across this thread looking for solutions for some of my own issues. I read your posts, and I think I can help.
First of all, what Mac OS X is on your computer? From what it looks like, it appears that you have a version of Mac OS that is something like Mac OS X 10.4.xx, where the Xs signify what update of 10.4 you are running. If your computer came with OS X 10.4, that means you can upgrade to ANY update within 10.4, meaning you can update to 10.4.1, 10.4.2, 10.4.3….10.4.8…10.4.11 all COMPLETELY FREE. Now, since the iTunes thing said you had to update to 10.4.8, it is likely that you had something between 10.4.1 and 10.4.7, which means you can update for FREE to 10.4.8, like I previously mentioned. To do this, what you will need to do (and you should do this very often!!) is go to the apple button on the top left of the screen, click, and then hit software update. This will then search all of your programs, including all other applications, for FREE updates to your pre-existing software. It is April 28, 2008 right now, and to my knowledge, there are updates all the way to 10.4.11 available, so it is likely that you will have to update A LOT. so, I recommend updating EVERYTHING and then doing your ipod stuff.
To clear up more confusion, please keep the following straight. All OS X 10.4.xx is considered “OS X Tiger.” So you can update all through OS X Tiger for free. However, the new operating system is Leopard, which is 10.5, not 10.4. Since this is a completely new operating system and NOT an update, you have to pay $100 to upgrade it to the new OS. That is why the person said you had to pay 100 dollars to upgrade because you probably asked for an upgrade to Leopard and not to 10.4.8. So, keep in mind, you can update your pre-existing OS X 10.4.xx TIGER for free by going to software update after clicking on the apple button. But if you want to upGRADE (not upDATE) to Leopard, you have to pay because you would then be installing a completely new operating system, not updating your existing one.
But, keep in mind that your iTunes thing in order to support the iPod is NOT asking you to upgrade!!! It is only asking you to update, which means all you have to do is go to software update under the apple key and upgrade everything for FREE. After doing that, everything should work just fine.
Do all of this, and if it doesn’t work, then leave another post and I’ll help you out more personally. Macs ARE plug and go; they are VERY VERY efficient and easy to use and have few problems. Your problems are not arising because of Macs, but they are arising because you are not familiar enough with them to know exactly what you’re doing quite yet. Let me know.
Brian
April 28th, 2008 at 11:55 pmBrian,
Wow! Thanks for the excellent reply to Ian’s question. I sometimes get bogged down with daily life and am not always able to quickly reply to questions. I was getting ready to reply to this one when I saw your response. I couldn’t have said it any better. Seeing readers helping readers really put a smile on my face this morning. Thanks!
Steven
May 2nd, 2008 at 1:14 pm———-
Dr. Steven B. Combs
:: Give Us One Minute (GUOM)
:: http://www.giveusoneminute.com
:: giveusoneminute@gmail.com