12-12-2007, 11:53 AM

Hi Guys,
As I understood it, the grey restore disks were machine specific, ie if it said "G5 PowerMac" on the disk, it would restore a G5 PowerMac. On the other hand, a black disk with a silver cross would restore or install to ANY machine as long as the specs were OK.
So how come I bought some disks on eBay last week (auction number #160185963561) which seemed to be the Retail, black version but turned out to be grey disks specific to an eMac which faultlessly loaded Panther on my G3 Blue and White PowerMac?

12-12-2007, 12:05 PM

this is my guess,
remember its a guess but i think emac is panther so it installed panther on there since it was a false advertised disk or it was a wrong disk just a guess

12-12-2007, 12:53 PM

Originally Posted by Wabbit

Hi Guys,
As I understood it, the grey restore disks were machine specific, ie if it said "G5 PowerMac" on the disk, it would restore a G5 PowerMac. On the other hand, a black disk with a silver cross would restore or install to ANY machine as long as the specs were OK.
So how come I bought some disks on eBay last week (auction number #160185963561) which seemed to be the Retail, black version but turned out to be grey disks specific to an eMac which faultlessly loaded Panther on my G3 Blue and White PowerMac?

Just a guess, but I would venture to say that the hardware is similar enough between the two machines that it works.

12-12-2007, 01:02 PM

First off, you got duped into paying a lot more than you should have. Not to mention that the discs you purchased were never intended to be sold on their own.
This is why I generally stay away from ebay.

Secondly, the discs for eMacs are the only ones that have ever worked in other machines. The reason I was given by someone once, was since the eMac was really intended for schools, the discs were "unlocked" so they could be used on any machine in the school, regardless of form factor. I guess it was supposed to make it easier for the school's IT guys to take care of things. I don't know the validity of this reasoning, but I do know that the eMac discs were the only ones to work in other machines. This did eventually change and not all of the eMac models' discs work that way.