[FX.php List] [OFF-TOPIC] A bug discovery in OS X Server and OS X 10.4 installers

[John May]

Can't you just boot from the install disc and run Disk Utility from 
there to format the drive?

	- John


>Recently, in the process of setting up my new web server, I 
>discovered a bug in OS X Server and OS X's installers that I was 
>able to reproduce:
>
>If you do an install of OS X Server and it doesn't completely 
>install properly, or if you wanted to reinstall OS X Server for some 
>reason, you would normally put the install DVD into the machine and 
>reinstall. The installer tells you that you have to initialize the 
>drive, so you click that button and proceed.
>
>In my testing, I discovered that OS X Server would hang up forever 
>at the beginning of the install, UNLESS the drive was already 
>initialized. I went through hours of grief over this; I tried 
>installing OS X (not Server), again checking the box to init the 
>drive, but it too hung up. I suspect it has something to do with OS 
>X Server being on the machine; I didn't test to see if I could 
>overwrite OS X on a previously-installed disk that had OS X on it.
>
>When I realized that the problem was that the drive had a previous 
>version of OS X Server on it, I started thinking of how I might 
>initialize the drive:
>
>a) put a 2nd drive into the machine, install a system on it
>b) get a new drive
>
>But here's the solution: I mounted the drive to my laptop using 
>Firewire target disk mode; I then was able to initialize the drive. 
>Once I did that, I was able to put OS X Server on without any 
>trouble.
>
>Thought I'd share it in case someone else stumbles into this same problem...
>
>Bob Patin
>Longterm Solutions
>bob at longtermsolutions.com
>615-333-6858
>http://www.longtermsolutions.com

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John May : President                 <http://www.pointinspace.com/>
Point In Space Internet Solutions             jmay at pointinspace.com

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