10.3 installation freezes at EXACTLY the same spot every time

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dsharits's picture
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10.3 installation freezes at EXACTLY the same spot every time

Hi all,

I decided to do a clean installation of Panther on my B&W, which I have done with exactly the same configuration several times before with no problems. However, the trying to reinstall it the last few times, it has frozen at "Processing Base System Part 2" at "44% with 7 minutes remaining" every single time. I have reset the logic board several times, and I have even switched cd drives and RAM, with no success. Has anyone had this problem before? Does anyone know what to do? Please help.

Daniel

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HD

Is the HD ok? when I first got my iBook, it had a 3.2GB HD, i tried to install 10.2 and it kept freezing when it had almost finished. a few days later, I got a new 40GB HD and it's been fine ever since, I'm typing this on it now.

If another HD dosn't work, then try a different det of installation media, it might work.

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It seems to be fine. I just

It seems to be fine. I just bought it a few weeks ago, so it's brand new, and it has been working fine. I'll try another HD in it and let you know.

Daniel

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Could be bad sectors on your

Could be bad sectors on your hard drive, or, if the machine is accessing the CD/DVD at the time, a surface blemish on the disc.

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The HD is fine. I tried anot

The HD is fine. I tried another one in it, and I got the same result. Erasing the HD would take care of the bad sectors, right?

Daniel

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Depends on how you erase it.

Depends on how you erase it. If you just to a quick erase (the default reformat method), then bad blocks will remain. If you low-level format the drive, then bad blocks *should* be written around.

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I got it to install. I had t

I got it to install. I had to backup my information to my second partition, and I booted from an OS 9 disk. From there, I used Disk First Aid to erase the first partition. After that, everything was fine.

Daniel

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re: Depends on how you erase it.

Depends on how you erase it. If you just to a quick erase (the default reformat method), then bad blocks will remain. If you low-level format the drive, then bad blocks *should* be written around.

Just a wee lil' point here folks, unlike with scsi drives, you cannot 'low-level format' ATA drives. 'Zero all blocks' is the most you can do. Fortunately most well-written HD utilities won't offer the option. However some will and it's a sure way to screw up your ATA HD. There was one early version of Drive Setup (1.3??) that would in some circumstances present the option . . . I fondly (NOT!) recall destroying a 1GB ATA drive (at the time huge!) by that method.

Also, if an ATA drive is located on a scsi-simulating PCI card's bus it may also appear possible to lowlevel format. The utility can't tell that the mechanism isn't really a scsi device. Fortunately, most such PCI cards have provision in their firmware to protect against such things.

Errr . . . all that having been said, I'm sure Doc Webster meant use the zero-all-blocks option. Eh?

dan k

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Actually a lot of drive compa

Actually a lot of drive companies have their own specific utitlies that will do a "low-level type" of format. It may not be a full fledged low level format like we used to know of them (from back in the days of RLL/MFM drives) but it is more than just zero all blocks option.

Some of the utitlies even call themselves the "low-level" format.

I used powermax (from maxtor) just recently on a 8 gig quantum drive out of a mac that I was having problems with. I ended up doing the complete destructive low-level format and rescued the drive. (You do need to use a PC for the most part with these utilities though).

Jon
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Be careful with some drives,

Be careful with some drives, esp. Maxtor. I've got a 20GB drive that is dead because it lost the special file on the drive that tells the firmware what it is and what cpacity it is. It now thinks it's a 40GB drive with bad firmware. I believe they quit doing that to drives when problems like this showed up, but you never know.

WARNING: ALWAYS USE ORIGINAL MANUFACTURERS SOFTWARE TO LOW LOEVEL FORMAT BEFORE TRYING 3RD PARTY APPS! THE FUNCTIONALITY OF YOUR HARDWARE IS AT STAKE!

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Well powermax was designed fo

Well powermax was designed for the quantum/maxtor line of drives.

Great utlitiy cd: www.ultimatebootcd.com It has all the popular companies hard drive utilities on it. Great stuff for techies like me.

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Re: re: Depends on how you erase it.

...I'm sure Doc Webster meant use the zero-all-blocks option. Eh?

Yeah, for the Mac, pretty much all you can do is either write all zeroes or random data. On the PC side, you can format a little deeper (such as with the manufacturer's drive-diagnostic tool), but usually not much. Nowadays, "low-level" pretty much means to zero the drive anyway (as opposed to just blanking the drive directory).

On another note, Jon is absolutely right. The manufacturer's drive-diag tool is a very useful thing to have around; I remember a time when at least one drive manufacturer (I think it was Maxtor) *required* that you enter the result code from a drive scan before they let you RMA a defective drive.

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