New Mac Owner / New Machine - No discs ???

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Are we supposed to get discs with laptops - like restore discs ??

I am a little concerned about what I do if things go wrong and I need to restore my laptop. Mac Pro.

Thank you :)
 

bobtomay

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Look in the box again for a CD sized package called "Everything Else".
 
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Nope - no discs.... but I biught this off a private seller on ebay (not someone who sells loads comps - he just was selling this one - his own previous machine).

Are discs always included and necessary?

Thank you :)
 
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Call him or email him and tell him that the disks were not included.

And yes, the disks are important.
 
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Are discs always included
No, not by resellers. Based on reading posts here and on other Mac forums, It seems that a significant number of Mac owners have great difficulty keeping track of installation discs. That's not good, because...
and necessary?
Yes.
 
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Nope - no discs.... but I biught this off a private seller on ebay (not someone who sells loads comps - he just was selling this one - his own previous machine).

Are discs always included and necessary?
For future reference any time you buy a used Mac, one of the things you should always ask or look for are the original discs. You can live without them if you have or bought another Mac OS X retail disc.

The problem with not having the original discs is that you won't get the applications that were included when the computer was originally bought. That's also not a big issue unless you payed for extra software from Apple. You didn't say which OS version you have but the other issue is that if you like any older versions of Mac OS X then it will be pretty hard to get them now. I'm assuming your Mac is an Intel Mac and not a PowerPC Mac. PowerPC Macs can only go as high as Leopard (10.5) so what I just said would be a big issue if you had a PowerPC. Snow Leopard (10.6) is the current Mac OS and it doesn't work on PowerPCs.

You really should contact the seller and see if you can get those discs but if he didn't include them in the first place then he probably has lost them. The other option for you is to buy a retail copy of Mac OS X. Mac OS X doesn't have a separate disc for hardware drivers like Windows computers which is why it's not the end of the world if you don't have the original discs but you should have at least a retail Mac OS X disc in case you ever need to reinstall your OS and there are other reasons too.
 
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Golden rule no system restore discs no sale!

You do need the discs to access trouble shooting utilities such as Apple Hardware Test etc.
 

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Golden rule no system restore discs no sale!

That's just one of the hazards of buying a Mac or any other computer second hand from someone on eBay. One of the reasons I usually recommend staying away from eBay and Craig's list. (the exception is if you're local to the Craig's list seller)

Regards.
 

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