inherited imac defeating me

Hi all,
Please help a mac newbie out, I have inherited an imac, model number a1208, which has only one operating system installed (windows 7) which is unbootable and is definitely a software issue, I have tried restoring or repairing the installation, neither of which work, presumably because of how it is installed on an imac and what I really want to do is put it back to running mac osx so it is "as nature intended", I also do not have a recovery disk or installation cd of any version of mac os.

Is there any hope for me? I am a long time pc user , builder, modder, but totally newbie with a mac

Please help if you can, thanks in advance

Since it is an older Mac, I would suggest buying OS 10.6 Snow Leopard disc from Apple...$20. Install the OS and the dl the Combo Updater (<<important) from Apple. This should get you started.

My Mactracker identifies your machine as a late 17" 2006 iMac. In order to restore Mac OS X on that machine you'll need to do two things:

1. Buy a Snow Leopard install DVD from Apple (OS X 10.6.X) ($19.99) in order to install OS X.

2. Before using the DVD to install, you'll need reset the NVRAM - PRAM on that machine first. Follow the directions to do that from here.

3. Boot the machine with the Snow Leopard DVD, accept the language and license. Instead of installing, go to the top menu "Utilities", and select "Disk Utility". Use Disk Utility to erase the hard drive, format it as Mac OS X Journaled File System.

4. After that, install Snow Leopard. Once Snow Leopard is installed, go to software update and bring Snow Leopard up to date.

That should do it.

Also hold down the C key with the Snow Leopard DVD in the drive so it will boot from the DVD. Right after the start up sound, hold C and keep it down.

Do everything above first.

Thankyou all very much off to order snow leopard now and I will update you how I get on expect to see me all over this forum asking dilly questions once I get it up and running (maybe before) :-/

I like dilly questions.

I should have been more detailed in my earlier post...but I saw where you had been a long time PC user, builder, and modder.

Dogbreath said:

I like dilly questions.

I should have been more detailed in my earlier post...but I saw where you had been a long time PC user, builder, and modder.

Click to expand...

Oh, apparently so do I, must be a combo of chunky fingers and an android keyboard, cant wait to pose my first dilly question!