Can't boot into OS X

Hi, I was asked to by someone if i could reinstall the mac osx onto their mac book pro because somebody else had installed windows xp on it, he also gave me some mac book pro version 10.4.8 installation disks that he had borrowed from a friend, i tried using the disk to install the mac osx while holding c (as it said to on the disk). This failed, everytime i put the disk in it would keep restarting itself, not booting windows or installing mac. I took the disk out and after it restarted itself again it loaded windows xp. I asked my mom's friend about the problem and he said that i should try pressing the option button to bring up bootcamp at startup and select the mac osx. I did just that and there was one hard drive picture that said windows xp underneath it, the other picture was a picture of a cd and it said mac osx install disk underneath it, clicking the install disk just made it go on it's frenzy where it keeps restarting itself. I think some ******* must have removed the mac osx completely but i dont know what to do because i am a complete mac noob and this is my first encounter with macbook pros and operating systems. Any help in helping me install mac again would be deeply aprreciated !!

Do you have access to another Mac or an external drive with MacOS X on it?

unfortunateley not but i can get a hardrive tommorow and i have a .dmg image for mac osx on my pc

Bet they are the silver grey model specific discs and not full retail install DVD? These discs are very much model specific only and a MBP disc will not install on a MB.

Your friend may have to go out and buy Leopard OS X.5 full retail disc.

adam 187 said:

unfortunateley not but i can get a hardrive tommorow and i have a .dmg image for mac osx on my pc

Click to expand...

Before you do that, I would try some of these suggestions: Troubleshooting Mac OS X installation from CD or DVD

harryb2448 said:

Bet they are the silver grey model specific discs and not full retail install DVD? These discs are very much model specific only and a MBP disc will not install on a MB.

Your friend may have to go out and buy Leopard OS X.5 full retail disc.

Click to expand...

Or wait and get the Snow Leopard installation disk. $49 isn't it?

hmm thanks, but if i put the image file onto my hard drive would i have to delete everything else and just hav the image on for it to install the full retail image??

adam 187 said:

hmm thanks, but if i put the image file onto my hard drive would i have to delete everything else and just hav the image on for it to install the full retail image??

Click to expand...

Good question. I've never used that method because I've got my Mac hard drive partitioned and a backup copy on the internal drive and an external FireWire drive.

if my friend got the snow leopard disk when it came out would he just pop it in and it would work, or will the disk not be model specific?

adam 187 said:

if my friend got the snow leopard disk when it came out would he just pop it in and it would work, or will the disk not be model specific?

Click to expand...

A retail disk would work. OEM disks are system-specific.

The retail discs are not model specific. The only discs that are model specific are the ones that come with a machine.

kool, thanks alot !!

does any1 know how to burn a .dmg image onto a dual layer disk? i tried transmac but it didnt work, i also tried changing the file name to .iso and burning it with nero but all that did was save a .nrg image. i really need to burn a boot disc successfully any help??

adam 187 said:

unfortunateley not but i can get a hardrive tommorow and i have a .dmg image for mac osx on my pc

Click to expand...

adam 187 said:

does any1 know how to burn a .dmg image onto a dual layer disk?

Click to expand...

And where did you get this disk image of OS X from?