Whatever it was, this one was no go in the Pismo too, so I am back to doing the sequential updating...once I got the DVD drive to boot up the OS on about the 4th try or so...I'm currently on all of the Java updates from 10.4.6 to 10.4.11...

Weird. You'd think there was a way to make a bootable copy via USB transfer, but I couldn't figure it out. At least I can use that drive enclosure to house a portable drive.

And the new drive works, and is quiet...so got there ugly, but got there in the end.