Hi! I will try to be as detailed as I can about how I got to this disaster.
I have a Powerbook PowerPC G4 Aluminum Laptop that had 10.3.9 as the OS and I think the Hard drive is 60GB Ultra ATA 100.

I feel that I must preface this by saying that although I have had this computer for nearly 3 years, I am a 10000 times more knowledgeable about Windows computers than Mac. Not to mention, I am entirely technologically self taught.

Anywho...I have felt very limited by 10.3.9, impossible to find programs that work on anything before 10.4, so I finally got the nerve to upgrade/reinstall whatever. I downloaded 2 different copies of Tiger and burned each on a DVD from a Windows computer using Power ISO-I think.
Only one copy seemed to work:
I inserted the DVD and changed the Start Up in System Pref. to boot from the DVD
restarted
nothing but the contents package with the read before installing, About Tiger, Install OSX, and several other folders opened.
I clicked on Install OSX and it asked to restart again
Same thing after this restart

here is where things get a bit fuzzy

I read that Disk Utility can install an OS so I opened it
the only thing I thought would work was restore
I put the install disk as the source and the HD image as the destination
I think this is where I messed up cuz it was unable to complete the restore but there were some of the things on the HD that were on the DVD and they wouldn't delete.
I restarted again several times and tried both holding the c key after the dong and not holding anything down.
all I keep getting is the mac-face folder with the ? then the white screen with the apple then a black screen with 2 flashing lines across the top that says

"dyld: -sh can't open library: /usr/lib/libncurses.5.4.dylib (No such file or directory, error = 2)
Feb 12 10:xx:xx init: single user shell terminated, restarting"

this keeps flashing and the time keeps changing but it doesn't load anything or restart like it says it is going to.

I have an external hd and was thinking about loading a bootable os onto it and booting my mac from that. Is that possible? I have a Windows computer to use, but no dvd or cd burner on it. Even if I am able to load my old os somehow, my mac only burns cds so I wont be able to burn a new install dvd to try this all over again

I was also wondering, I know that my mac is not an Intel-which is Windows compatible I think, and I am sure it is a PPC-powerpc, duh, my other question for you is this:
is it AMD? What is AMD?

somethings you could try

insert the dvd and restart and hold down the option key
and also AMD is another kind of proccessor it is in no mac but can be used for a hackintosh

bravo! something different happened! PROGRESS
ok I held down the option key and the screen changed to blue with an image of the Macintosh HD in the center and a button to the left that lloked like a reload arrow and a button on the right the pointed to the right.
I selected the button on the right...must have been the wrong button, cuz it went to the black screen with the flashing message in my original post
any ideas?

Originally Posted by 911truth

Hi! I will try to be as detailed as I can about how I got to this disaster.
I have a Powerbook PowerPC G4 Aluminum Laptop that had 10.3.9 as the OS and I think the Hard drive is 60GB Ultra ATA 100.

,.........

I was also wondering, I know that my mac is not an Intel-which is Windows compatible I think, and I am sure it is a PPC-powerpc, duh, my other question for you is this:
is it AMD? What is AMD?

If I understood correctly, you have a PPC-TiBook, and you have been planning on upgrading. Your upgrade went wrong, and now you cannot boot up with it.

First is to see if the shell's still there,... hold down "cmd-s" and see if it loads.

If not, hold the left option key, insert your original boot CD's and reinstall. Try upgrading again.

Before you upgrade though, be absolutely familiar to the upgrade process, because we (forum users) may not know the trouble if you did not spot and describe it.

Take Control of Upgrading to Tiger - Page 1 | Macworld
Peachpit: Upgrade to Tiger Without Getting Bitten > Prepare

PS. from your description the issue is probably the DVD not being an retail upgrade dvd. try finding another one.

PPS. AMD is another microprocessor company who recently merged with ATi (graphics card manufacturer), and is one the largest competitor to Intel. As you have said, you use a PowerPC processor, and that is entirely different; they are made jointly by Motorola, IBM and Apple.

(but seriously, my advice is getting a new computer. 1.64GHz isn't gonna help you a lot running Leopard and Tiger is going to be "obsolete" in coming months.)