[Fixed] Installation Keeps Hanging (In Calculating time screen)

[sue0110]

I had a previously perfect installation of Leopard (thanks to zephyroth) .then like an idiot used apple software update and crashed it. :(
Now i have attempted several times to reinstall ,but every time the installation hangs either at the start or in the middle .
The hard disk access LED is on forever , i cant seem to get past this.
Tried reformatting ,used another dvd ,all in vain.
has anybody had the problem before , please advice..
Thanks in advance.

[naquaada]

We need some more information about your system, mainboard, cpu, gfx card, harddisk configuration, an the chipset if you know it. Have you already checked the wiki? http://osx86.wikidot.com/

To setup an OSx86 system which saves installations look at this thread:
http://osx.kbot.de/comments.php?DiscussionID=33&page=1#Item_4

[sue0110]

Hi naquaada,
thanks for the reply, as i said , i did enough searching to get my system to work with full functionality in leopard only to crash it.
but now this installation problem in weird, it jus hangs trying to access the HD .My specs
AMD 4600+
Asus M2N-E ( Nvdia 570 ultra)
MCP 55 Chipset
Nvidia 7900gs
ATA 160 Gb -
p1 - winxp
p2 - Leopard
SATA 250gb

[naquaada]

I always would recommend to disconnect all other HDs during an OSX installation if it has not been working at once. I'm not sure how about using a combined HD with Windows and MacOS, how's handling installation and how safe it is. It's also dangerous: if you used once the Disk Utility on a harddisk it would be problematic to change partitions in Windows. PartitionMagic shows the whole harddisk as a big yellow bar marked 'DEFECTIVE'. You can't delete it, you can't move it, nothing. The only way to repartition it with Windows again was to delete the whole MBR, what means that all data on the drive are destroyed. Using two HDs also makes dual boot very easy, you could use the Windows XP boot menu.

I used at the beginning of OSx86 experimenting the easiest configuration: A complete harddisk for MacOS on primary master, DVD on secondary master, no other drives in the system, two bootable partitions. With this method nothing could be destroyed. I never was using a combined HD 'cause I never trusted the PC's silly partitioning system with its Primary, Extended and Logical partitions. And dunno how different filesystems are supported. The Amiga had a great partitioning system: It could use any kind of HD-capable filesystem which was loaded directly onto the drive, an unlimited number of partitions every partition could be set to bootable, including a priority. Selection was possible from the inbuilt bootmenu. What for a partition type is your MacOS partition? It is logical or primary (as it should be)?

[sue0110]

what u say is bang on .. first time experimenting with tiger installation did result in complete data loss .. but that was like 6 months ago.. have managed to expand the data back to some 100gb in that time.. would not want to loose it again for sure..
and yes the partition is primary as it should be..

about installing in two diff HD ... i am waiting for the rev2 of the zephyroth dvd (have failed to successfully inject the Medevil NForceATA.kext)
with the rev2 will install leopard in the SATA HD :)

[naquaada]

hm, waiting for zephyroth RC2 can take a while until it's released. And about the harddrives, ok, it's easy to say for me, I've got about about 3,8 TB and various drives here. To get a new one is also rather easy here, a 500GB Samsung SATA-2 HD costs about 80 Euro in Germany... this maybe different in other countries. What do you have on your SATA HD?

[sue0110]

HD prises are a lil more here in india 500gb would cost abt 5000 rs that's ard 100 Euro ,
anyways , i have all my data in the SATA ,so woudnt installing OS X in that be risky ??( I Would like it to have it there though, My pata access speed is only ard 40mbps) .What do u suggest.. ??

[Puttabong]

You shouldn't install it on a harddrive with existing data, because you will have to format it using Disk Utility to the proper format like HFS+.

The easiest easiest thing to do, would be to use a new and clean Harddrive. I, for example, am using a Maxtor 40 GB IDE HDD for running Leopard itself, and a 300GB S-ATA Maxtor HDD for all my files.

[sue0110]

Thanks a lot fore all the help and comments..
As you suggested removed the sata HD , burnt a new DVD and the installation went through all rite :)

went through the kext installation again ..got all the Hardware woriking.. updated itunes/quicktime/aperture/frontrow..ALL SET.
Now i took a backup of the leopard partition using Time machine.. Jus one silly doubt .. i will be able to restore leopard using the installation DVD in case anything goes wrong again rite ?