Power pc or Power mac G5

Hey guys I'm new with mac. I got this mac for $45 at my schools auction. I want to install ubuntu on it(or mac osx if there's a way..) The only problem is that it doesn't have a hard drive for it. But i do have one but it was for my windows system. I have heard that the hard drive needs to be formatted in a different format. If so what format and how can I do it?

You're going to need the proper Mac OS install disk for two reasons:

1. You need to install an OS on whatever hard drive you use.
2. You need an OS install disk so so can use/have the program called "Disk Utility" to format the HD. The formatting you want is "Mac OS Extended Journaled".

You would be best with getting an OS 10.5 install disk...from e-Bay...for about $80-$100 bucks.

Good luck,

- Nick

If you use Ubuntu or any other Linux distro, the installer will format the drive for you with whatever is the default filesystem for that distribution.

If you got a PowerPC Mac, make sure to get a PPC version of your chosen distro. It has gotten hard to find them so take some time to search through older versions.

Thanks pigoo3 !

So your saying there's no 3rd party format software??? =\

When I try to install ubuntu 11.10 mini it tells me disk driver not found.

fishstick41 said:

So your saying there's no 3rd party format software??? =\

Click to expand...

If you want to install the Mac OS...you need a Mac OS install disk...which will also have Disk Utility on it for the HD formatting.

You need to be able to boot the computer from something (an OS disk) before you can format the HD.

- Nick

Thanks for the help guys .