Two Situations. G5 (Server) and cloning older iMac's...

[Jayce]

I have a stack of projects to complete, most of which are low priority until closer to Labor Day (I work in a school district). I'm running across several questions, and I'm not exactly a Mac expert so I figured I would ask in hopes of stirring up an idea.

Mac G5 - This is being set up as a server for the video editing lab, so they can store their videos to this "local" server and that way we don't have dozens of lengthy videos bogging down the main server. When I put the install CD in, for OS X 10.2, it doesn't install. It just hangs... white screen with the spinner. I've cleared out the pram in hopes that would do the trick, but it doesn't seem to help. When I boot holding the option key, it does recognize the CD as being "Mac OS X Install CD" but... again... it just hangs.

iMac Cloning - I need to set up three additional iMac's that need to be identical to one another. They are going in an existing iMac lab which is graphics oriented. We have a cloning machine here, but we all know how tedious it can be to get to the HDD of an iMac. I was wondering if there was any known (and free) way to successfully clone these Mac's to a master Mac via firewire cable?

Any ideas would be great. Thanks!

 

[Kharn]

jayce the only way i know of to clone a mac's hard drive is by extracting the hard drive but you might be able to do somthing with time machine but I am unsure let me see if i can find anything in the reference manuals i have.

 

[Jayce]

If it comes down to it, I will just rip apart the iMacs and take the drives out. But I was asking this mostly based off of future reference, unless anybody knew a sure-fire answer immediately.

The G5 though is a much bigger concern of mine.

 

[Kharn]

Sadly time machine will only just back up files an settings, but THIS vid might prove informative.

How long was it looping for? I know the system disk can take a while but load the system digagnostics an see if you can test the hard drive an the ram, OSX is funny if there is a error.

 

[Jayce]

I let it run for about 25 minutes as I did some other work, when I looked back, it was still spinning. I got ****ed and pulled the plug and haven't touched it since.

 

[Kharn]

Got another disk you can try?

 

[Kharn]

OK jayce here is the only idea i can come up with after looking in my manuals:

Install a standard version of OSX on the G5 an then check for firmware updates an then try an install the server OS - some times the old G5 will have issues when you try to install the OS an you dont have all the new firmware in for some reason especially when you try to install OSX server on there.

 

[Jayce]

I'm not installing the server OS. I'm installing a desktop OS and we'll configure it to act as a backup server, as network storage... since that's the only thing it'll be used for.

I just have a habit of calling it a server since I refer to NAS units as "backup servers".

 

[KSoD]

Can a desktop Os even be installed to a NAS? From what i remember of NAS they have their own software built into them to manage the data on them thru the various disks that they have. Depeding on which NAS you have of course.

But i would check into it and see if you can even install a OS on the NAS. From what i know OS X will not allow you to install it on a external device which would be why it stalls. Since a NAS is considered a external device.

Cheers,
Mak