Error -36 during install

[unix05]

Firstly hello everyone,  I'm new around here :p
Recently I got my hands on a PowerMac G4. It was working fine, but after a few days it's hard drive gave up. I figured whatever, I had to reinstall anyway - - it was filled with old, useless files. So I picked up an old WD hard drive and went to work. I fried the Mac OS 9.2.2 universal image I found here to a dvd and booted from it. Seemed good. I followed the instructions and initialized the drive. No errors. Then I went to Apple System Restore. Wouldn't open the first few times,  said something about a disk error. Worked the 4th time. When I clicked the "Restore"  button, about half-way through the process, it just stopped and bam : an error message, -36. Allegedly that means "I/O error"  but that doesn't give me a lot to go on. Any help is appreciated!

P.S. I have tried to restore it more than once. At least a dozen or so times.

[GaryN]

I think you probably already know the most likely cause:  "I picked up an old WD hard drive"…

…and now you have i/o errors. Sounds like your replacement drive wasn't any better than the first one.

[unix05]

It worked before. But you are probably right,  I was always suspicious of it. I'll just get a new ATA drive then. Thanks!

[unix05]

Well,  looks like there arent any for sale around me.  I guess the PMac will see better days,  but for now it will remain unplugged under my desk 

[unix05]

Nevermind!
I found another ATA drive. I have a different problem now;upon starting apple system restore it pops out an error saying "Couldnt load HDI driver". I know I'm probably annoying,  but again,  any help is appreciated 

[RossDarker]

I just got error -36 during ASR restore too, whilst testing v7 of the Mac mini CD, before I share it. I re-burned the CD at a slower speed and then it no longer happened from the new CD.

[unix05]

Hm.  Well,  my dvd is DVD-R,  so I will need to burn a new one,  but i'll try that.  Thanks!

P. S.  How much did you scale down the speed?

[RossDarker]

Went from 10X to 4X, this was on a CD-RW. I also noticed that sometimes certain files in the Base Image become corrupt. To see, use your original DVD, and mount the "MacOS9LivesMR.img" image, and copy the contents through the Finder to the drive formatted with Drive Setup. On the way you may get "This file cannot be read because of a disk error [Cancel] [Continue]" (something like that). There could have been something that went wrong during the download, so the image is not fully complete, so you should also re-downlad the whole ISO and burn that at a slower speed.

[unix05]

I actually just tried that,  and from the 4-point-something thousand files,  at least 300 were corrupted. Exact error message as you specified. Now I have a (barely)  working system,  but I at least know the cause so the next install should go smoothly. Thanks!

[RossDarker]

With your barely working System, you should try this:

http://macos9lives.com/smforum/index.php/topic,1859.0.html

(that's if you are able to decode/decompress those files)

[unix05]

I'll try,  but the internet is painfully slow.

[unix05]

Nope,  not happening. Cant even access the site.

[unix05]

Aaand upon frying it on a new disk (speed 4x) it does not work again. I cant copy the files onto my drive and I most likely cant do a system restore...

[RossDarker]

Are you able to copy files off the img file from a different machine?

[unix05]

Maybe.I have a windows/ubuntu laptop with a dvd drive (that i used to fry the disks)  and an ubuntu desktop with a dvd drive.  But what would I do then?

[RossDarker]

If you can take the files off the DVD, and copy them to the drive from the G4, via the laptop, by connecting the drive to the laptop somehow, it could be something wrong in the G4, such as the DVD drive or the cable that connects the drive. If the copying does not work, then it is either the DVD or the drive. Copy the files to your desktop if this happens, if it succeeds, then it is most likely your drive that is not functioning correctly. Have you tried using disk first aid on the drive? Does the G4 load OS X and install it fine? You could possibly extract the "Drag and Install" files from that onto another partition.

[unix05]

What do you mean by "install OS X fine" ?
Also yes,  I tried Disk First Aid and it found no errors.

[RossDarker]

Are you able to boot of a Mac OS X DVD/CD, and install OS X onto the drive, without problems? (Make 2 partitions if you can so you can do the drag and drop thing, to install 9 on the second).

[unix05]

I dont have any Mac OS X install drives.

[RossDarker]

You could burn one of these disk images download from here:
http://macintoshgarden.org/apps/mac-osx-mac-os-10-ppc

Or just straight to 9, you could try a Generic 9.2.1 CD, Not ASR, from here
http://macos9lives.com/smforum/index.php/topic,808.0.html

then update to 9.2.2:
https://udcf.gla.ac.uk/~gwm1h/macos9/macos9.2/Mac_OS_9.2.2_-_Int.html