Trouble trying to Restore Mini Mac

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I recently acquired an older Mac Mini from around 2005. It is a 1.42 ghz powerPC. When I got the machine (3 days ago) everything worked great and it was running OSX Tiger. I upgraded the RAM to 1gig and it still worked flawlessly. I wanted to upgrade to OSX Leopard and while trying to upgrade I did something wrong and ended up erasing the entire Hard Drive. I didn't lose any data because the computer was only mine for a few days, BUT right now I obviously can't reboot because there is no OS on the HD. The disks I was given from the previous user for Tiger restore are copied disks...which haven't worked. Not sure if it's because they aren't specific to the machine or because they have a paper label on the top that prohibits them from properly rotating inside the drive.

I have done a ton of research and tried to install the OS from my macbook with the mini in Target Disk Mode connected by FireWire. When it asks for me to select a destination for the install, the Mac Mini HD has a red exclamation point with a circle. I'm not sure if I need to reformat the HD a different way, or if I need to reinstall from a Retail version of either Tiger or Leopard. I have the retail Leopard disk somewhere...I just can't find it.

Any ideas? - I would love some help!
 

chscag

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2017 27" iMac, 10.5" iPad Pro, iPhone 8, iPhone 11, iPhone 12 Mini, Numerous iPods, Monterey
You need either the retail version of Tiger or Leopard. Find the disk(s) or buy a new set. You can't install using Target mode because your MacBook has different hardware and the same version of OS X will not work with the Mini.

The copied Tiger disks are illegal and should be discarded.
 

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