Resurrecting a G4

I just got a Power Mac G4. Tower only, no keyboard ect... The hard drive was wiped by the previous owner, including the OS. When turned on I just get the flashing folder with the finder icon.

How can I install Tiger (or any other mac OS) without any install dvd's? Can it be downloaded and put on a DVD? How do I open the drives to put the dvd in?

Do I half to have an apple keyboard?

This is my first time with a older mac. I have just recently converted via MacBook.

Tiger nor any other Mac operating system can be legally downloaded. You will need to purchase Tiger from Apple or another vendor such as Amazon.

I believe the optical drive on the G4 is slot loaded. Just gently push the CD or DVD in the slot and it will be taken in and read by the drive.

You do not need an Apple keyboard although it would be preferred for ease of use. The new aluminum Apple keyboard also has two USB ports (low current) that can be used. I believe the price is still around $49 US.

Regards.

If it's a Power Mac G4 tower the drives are full sized with a tray like on most PC's. There is a plastic door in the front that comes down when the tray comes out. The older G4 towers have a button on the front of the drawer that you can press to open the drive if there is not already a CD/DVD in the drive. Otherwise you eject it in the OS. If the button does not eject the tray or there is no button, plug in a USB mouse and hold down the left button right after you press the power button. Never tried that with older Power Macs but it should work. An Apple keyboard has an eject Key on it.

Here are the 3 major revisions of the Power Mac G4. Which one is yours?

Thank you for the responses.

The power mac I have is the one on the top right, with the gray front, two drives, and the single speaker on the bottom.

The model you have is known as a Quicksilver, and will be one of either a 733MHz, 800MHz, 933MHz or 1GHz, the latter two also being available as Dual procesors if you are lucky.

Tiger OS X.4 will run nicely with a minimum of 1GB of PC133 Mac compatible low density memory, do not use high density PC RAM. As advised you will need to purchase a full retail install DVD of Tiger. Make sure you get the black coloured disc and not a grey model specific disc.

For preference use an Apple keyboard, and for that model the optical drive door is operated from the keyboard, usually extreme RH upper key with an upward pointing triangle underlined. The lower door usually fives access to the Iomega Zip drive, if installed.