03-13-2009, 05:26 AM

I am restoring a macbook (intel) for a friend. His hard drive has died and it is out of warranty.

I have put in a new hard drive etc and booted from an install disc etc and run disk utility. When I get to "install Mac OS X" I get an alert that states "this software cannot be installed on this computer"

Any ideas or has he given me incorrect disks?

03-13-2009, 08:23 AM

The drive must be formatted as Mac OS X Extended (Journaled). I would also advise against creating multiple partitions at first.

Also, if you're using a "restore" disc (the gray set of discs that came with your computer), do note that they are specific to the computer they were sold with. For example, an iMac disc won't work with a Macbook and vice versa.