Trouble booting from disc on imac a1207

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I recently installed a used hard drive straight out of my pc into my imac a1207 which had a failed hd. I haven't done anything to prep the hd, figuring I would install snow leopard and erase anything on it as well as format it. I tried booting from the disc by holding "c" after the chime but after a couple minutes or so, all I get is a flashing icon of a folder with a question mark inside. This being my first mac, I have no idea what's wrong. I believe the disc is good as I used it with the old hard drive and installed it correctly before it died. I sure would appreciate any advice for this pc user trying to make the change to mac!
 

pigoo3

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You need to format that HD (using Disk Utility). The format should be "Mac OS Extended Journaled".

- Nick
 

Slydude

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If I understan correctly you are not even getting to the point where you can run Disk Utility, correct? If so here's what I would try:

1. Make sure the CD/DVD you are using is either the retail disc (white with a Snow Leopard on the front) or the same disc that came with the Mac you are trying to fix.

2. Try holding down the Option key immediately after you hear the chime. After a few seconds you should see a list of bootable drives. Use the arrows if necessary to select the CD and then press Return.

Once the system boots you should be able to get to Disk Utility to format the drive. BTW are we sure that the disc drive (CD/DVD) is functioning properly?
 
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Silver M1 iMac 512/16/8/8 macOS 11.6
Specs on your computer will help. Did it come new with Lion on it and thus unable to boot Snow Leopard? vAnd tell us about the DVD you are using for the install? Did it come with the computer? If not is it a black full retail install DVD? Silver grey system discs are strictly for the model they were released with.,
 
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Specs on your computer will help. Did it come new with Lion on it and thus unable to boot Snow Leopard? vAnd tell us about the DVD you are using for the install? Did it come with the computer? If not is it a black full retail install DVD? Silver grey system discs are strictly for the model they were released with.,

The DVD I'm using was given to me. It has been burned on a dual layer dvd-r. I'm not sure if it was a download or a copy but as I said before, I used it to do a successful install on the old hd before it failed. My IMAC is an a1207, late 2006: 2.16ghz core 2 duoT7400, 1GB RAM, 250GB (now 1TB seagate hd).
 
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Ohh dear pirated software is not the answer. There is no legal way to download Mc OS X of any form.
 
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If I understan correctly you are not even getting to the point where you can run Disk Utility, correct? If so here's what I would try:

1. Make sure the CD/DVD you are using is either the retail disc (white with a Snow Leopard on the front) or the same disc that came with the Mac you are trying to fix.

2. Try holding down the Option key immediately after you hear the chime. After a few seconds you should see a list of bootable drives. Use the arrows if necessary to select the CD and then press Return.

Once the system boots you should be able to get to Disk Utility to format the drive. BTW are we sure that the disc drive (CD/DVD) is functioning properly?

Ok, so I held the option key and a picture of a hd appeared. It said "Windows" under it. I imagine this is my windows 7 from my pc. Nothing for the disc drive so I'm assuming my Snow Leopard disc is bad because the drive was working ok for the short time I got to use it. Now what? I got this machine used without any software. Do I now have to buy, it or is there a product keycode for the original OS that I can obtain for free? Money is a factor right now and I wouldn't mind too much if I had to use an outdated OS.
 
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Silver M1 iMac 512/16/8/8 macOS 11.6
Depending on the model as A1207 reveals nothing on MactRacker, Snow Leopard may install and can be purchased from Apple Online for $29. It must be an Intel Mac for Snow Leopard to work.

The illegally copied disc you have may well b e a copy of the original system install disc from a different machine. They are strictly model specific.
 

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