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Stuck at grey screen


maranelloboy05
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What packages did you choose in the Customize window?

 

During the installation, when you get to the window where you are to click the Install button, you must first click the Customize button and choose packages for your computer. Click the little arrow next to the patches category to reveal the individual packages. Select Intel or AMD packages, not both. Select SSE2 or SSE3, not both, depending upon the capability of your processor. Select the Combo Update to get the latest version of OSX. Select other packages only if you know your computer can use them.

 

10.4.6: http://forum.insanelymac.com/index.php?act...ost&id=4249

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i screwed up the first time and had to go baq and do that all i installed was the combo update and sse3 which i know my processor can handle, i figured out that if i boot up with the dvd int he drive it works fine but if i take it out im still stuck at the grey screen, i also did and archive and install instead of an erase and install if that matters

thank you for replying so quickly

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Start up in verbose mode.

 

When OSX starts booting, first the screen turns black and then goes to grey with the spinning icon. As soon as the screen first turns black, start tapping the F8 key quickly and rapidly until a command prompt appears. Type -v at the prompt.

 

Read the messages. If it hangs at "b0 error", then you need to set the OSX partition "active". You can use any Windows/Linux disk/partition utility, or use Fdisk built into OSX: http://forum.insanelymac.com/index.php?showtopic=22844

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Restart the system in verbose mode (hit the F8 button immediately after selecting mac os x partition in Acronis OS Selector menu, then in the following screen, type -v) and see where the system hangs. That will help diagnosing what's wrong.

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it is active

You are positive? Usually when a disk won't boot by itself but will boot using the DVD, it is because the partition isn't active. The DVD takes care of that. Since the DVD boots the installation fine, there is nothing wrong with the OSX installation, it is with the booting. Making the drive "active" (or bootable) is the only difference between initiating the boot with the DVD and with the disk itself.

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OK. Did you use the Disk Utility on the install DVD to format (erase) the entire drive?

 

If so, you really need to format the entire drive using a Windows/Linux utility as FAT32 to establish the MBR partition scheme. You are booting a PC, so BIOS expects a PC style partition scheme. The Disk Utility on the installer DVD can't do that. Formatting as FAT32 will place the boot sectors in a tiny partition at the start of the disk and the rest of the disk will be a big partition.

 

Once you format the hard drive as FAT32, then when you go into the installation, format only the large partition. In Disk Utility, you will see the hard drive listed at the top with the large partition right below it. Format the partition, not the drive, as MacOS Extended Journaled.

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No, as I explained...under MBR, the boot sectors are stored in a really teeny tiny partition at the beginning of the hard drive. I think the size is much less than the size of a floppy disk. All of the rest of the drive is available for data. That is how the MBR partition scheme works and that is what you need in order to boot the disk with BIOS on a PC.

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ok i am in the installer and in disk utility and there is no option for fat32, is it the ms-dos file system?

I think I told you twice that Disk Utility on the install DVD cannot format the hard drive with the MBR partition scheme. You need a Windows or Linux disk or partition utility to do it. Disk Utility will create a partition scheme for an Intel Mac. That scheme is called GUID. The BIOS on a PC looks for MBR.

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ok thank you very much i understand it now

Format the entire hard drive as FAT32 using a Windows or Linux disk or partition utility.

 

During the installation, format the primary partition as MacOS Extended Journaled. The primary partition will appear in Disk Utility below the hard drive icon. If you select the hard drive icon in Disk Utility, you will screw up the MBR partition scheme from the previous FAT32 formatting and your booting problem will be back.

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