iMac a1207 new HDD, no OS

I'm new to macs, I'm a PC tech, but recently someone gave me an iMac a1207 with a bad hard drive, no peripherals or discs. I put a working hard drive in and found I can't seem to make a USB bootable with OS X. I'd borrow a disc from someone I know, but it's a grey disc and I read those are model specific.

I'm not sure what I can do to this Mac. I try holding option (my windows start button) and nothing happens. It just stays on a white screen and a folder with a question mark appears and blinks.

Like I said, I'm new to Mac and would greatly appreciate some help.

OK, from that number it would appear to be a 20" iMac. However, be aware that that machine is from 2006, last made in 2007, so it's 7-8 years old. May not be worth putting a ton of money into it at this point. Your best bet at this point is to order a Snow Leopard disk from Apple ($20, last I looked) and use that to install an OS. From there, you can upgrade to Lion at no additional cost. (Lion, Mountain Lion, Mavericks and Yosemite were all free). But that 1G memory it came with by default will be very slow on Lion. SL should work OK.

Staunton, VA? I'm just up the road in Winchester!

Here's a link for the Snow Leopard disc:
Mac OS X 10.6 Snow Leopard - Apple Store (U.S.)

(Lion, Mountain Lion, Mavericks and Yosemite were all free).

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Only Mavericks and Yosemite are free Jake. The other two must be purchased.

chscag said:

Only Mavericks and Yosemite are free Jake. The other two must be purchased.

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Heh! Those braincells must have died!