Back from Imac with only windows to Mac OS X

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Hi all, for a while, I had only Tiger OS X 10.4 installed on my iMac. I wanted to try with having only Windows XP, so I formatted the hard drive, and here is the jist of the question... there were some dos commands I had to run to be able to boot from a windows XP cd, which basically converted the drive to a PC format and I was able to install Windows XP by itself.

Now, I dont remember what the command was to convert the drive or the MBR or whatever was changed at the time, but I want to go back to Mac OS X, but the computer wont start up from the Mac Install disks.

I remember at the time that I was supposed to run a different command to convet the computer back to be able to run mac - but can't for the life of me find what that is....

If anyone here has any clue to what I'm talking about - help would be very much appreciated...

thanks in advance!
 

chscag

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When you say the computer won't start up from the original install disks, do you mean the machine will not boot at all? Or, does it boot but won't install OS X? If the machine will boot with the original install disk, you can erase and format the HDD to HFS+ and then install Tiger.

Post back.

Regards.
 
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sorry - no - it will boot from the mac install DVD, and I can enter the partition info, and I have deleted all the partitions and created a mac partition, but for some reason, it gives an error message saying I cannot install on this partition....

I have tried everything, it just wont install to any partition I create.
I will try again this weekend, and get you the exact wording of t he error, but basically, it makes it up to the point where you select the partitions, and create or delete them, but after creating a mac partition (using the whole disk), it still wont allow me to install!.

I know that this question is pretty vague, but I will try again this weekend, and note all the steps, and the error messae I get. thanks.
 

chscag

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OK, let us know. When you try again, be sure to erase the disk first and for the format, select HFS+.

Regards.
 
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Boot from the install disc and open Disk Utility, click the Partiton tab and go to Options - you need to change it to an Apple partition map.
 

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