Help installing Mac OS X on cleaned 2004 iMac G5

I just received an iMac G5 that has been totally cleaned. I am trying to use the install discs. I get to a point where it says to "select a destination volume to install the Mac OS X" but it gives me no choices. What should I do to proceed? (I have never owned an apple computer before) Thanks.

Cleaned? Cleaned meaning that you have no harddrive? Because that's what appears to be happening according to Mac OS X.

What version of Mac OS X are you trying to install? And are the disks original to the computer?


Keep in mind that Mac OS X Snow Leopard does not support Power PC.

So, if you're installing Leopard, double check to make sure the discs are original to the computer.

When booted up to the install disk go to the utilities menu. Open Disk Utility and erase the drive with Mac OS Extended(journaled) format. Quit disk utility. Should show up then. If not you may need to go back to disk utility and actually partition the drive (Only 1 partition is necessary)

Fodge said:

When booted up to the install disk go to the utilities menu. Open Disk Utility and erase the drive with Mac OS Extended(journaled) format. Quit disk utility. Should show up then. If not you may need to go back to disk utility and actually partition the drive (Only 1 partition is necessary)

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There could be other things- faulty hard drive connection or a bad drive.

Chris H. said:

There could be other things- faulty hard drive connection or a bad drive.

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Yes of course, but an improperly formatted drive would be the first thing to check given his (limited) description

Fodge said:

Yes of course, but an improperly formatted drive would be the first thing to check given his (limited) description

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We'll see when he posts back if anything has worked.

Chris H. said:

Cleaned meaning that you have no harddrive? Because that's what appears to be happening according to Mac OS X.

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This sounds like a definite possibility to me as well. If this computer was purchased on e-Bay or CL...it's somewhat popular with some sellers to simply remove the hard drive before selling a computer.

- Nick

I received the computer from my mom. She had her personal information erased from the computer. The discs I have are original to the computer and are version 1.0 I think the computer is a 2004 model.

jen14 said:

I received the computer from my mom. She had her personal information erased from the computer. The discs I have are original to the computer and are version 1.0 I think the computer is a 2004 model.

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Seems to me that you'll need to do a Disk Verification to see if the discs can see the hard drive. If not, check your connections anyway.

Booting up from the install discs:

-Go to "Utilities"

Do a disk check.