Upgrade from 10.4.2 to 10.6.4

I have got a old work Mac G5 from my work as a private computer. I have formated the harddisk and installer Mac os x 10.4.2. When I did this the Mac told mé that I was downgrade the Mac from a higher Mac os x version. After I have downgraded the Mac I found a new software in the box from my employé. It is mac os x version 10.6.4. When I try to upgrade now the Mac tells mé 'you Can not use the program 'install Mac os x' with this version of Mac os x' I have aldo tryed to start up pushing C without any luck. Please tell mé how to upgrade. Both discs are Grey. I am pretty new ón Mac so give a detail description thanks

If this is a G5 you cannot use the disc that says 10.6.4. That will only work on Mac with Intel CPUs.

If the system is booting go to the Apple menu in the far left conner and choose About this Mac and it will tell you how much memory the system has installed.

It's hard to give definitive upgrade suggestions without knowing more about the machine. Here are the basics though:

1. Boot the machine and run Software Update. This is free and will take the OS to 10.4.11.

2. Purchase a new operating system. If it has enough memory the last one the G5 can run is 10.5.8. Those are not cheap at the moment.

Do not purchase machine specific (grey) discs. You will need retail discs which I think are black.

Thanks for your answer. The Mac is a imac G5 20"/2.1/512MB/250GB/SD/AP/BT and EMC no. 2082. Is it not possible to Update this imac to version 10.6.4 ?

Flho said:

Is it not possible to Update this imac to version 10.6.4 ?

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No. Only Mac's with an Intel cpu can be upgraded to OS 10.6 and beyond. iMac G5's do not have an Intel cpu (it has a "G5" cpu).

- Nick

No version of 10.6 will work on that machine. Even versions of 10.5 might be a little slow with only 512 MB of memory. Since you are interested in upgrading that Mac check out http://www.mactracker.ca/downloads/Mactracker_5.3.zip. You can locate your machine and find out all kinds of information like latest OS it will support, maximum amount of memory, and other great details.

Edit: Beat me to the punch again Nick. lol

Slydude said:

Edit: Beat me to the punch again Nick. lol

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Only by 10 minutes!

- Nick

Slydude said:

If this is a G5 you cannot use the disc that says 10.6.4. That will only work on Mac with Intel CPUs.

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That was pretty clear, in Post #2

Finding a disc in a box never works, unless that "box" came from a retail store or catalog outlet selling the current version of the software. But then, you don't find those, you buy them.

toMACsh said:

That was pretty clear, in Post #2

Finding a disc in a box never works, unless that "box" came from a retail store or catalog outlet selling the current version of the software. But then, you don't find those, you buy them.

Click to expand...

Interestingly those grey disks will work as long as they are from the same model computer. My dad's was able to wipe and rebuild his 2006 15" MBP with the grey disk that came with his 2011 15" MBP.

That's not always true. Being from the same model line is only part of the issue. It also depends upon whether there have been firmware changes as well. You probably could not, for example, use a 2006 disc to boot your dad's 2011 model.
While that may be obvious to you, some users buy the grey discs expecting to be able to do just that,