iMac G4 Help Needed

[Brad-Pea]

Hi All,

Have purchased an iMac and am just after some help in re install the OS.

When i purchased the mac, i was given some discs, 2 in particular were... iMac Mac OS X Install Disc 1 and 2.

Here comes my problem, I want to re install the OS, using these discs to start out with a fresh OS. I put disc 1 in and reboot.

I just seem to be stuck at trying to boot to the install cd, im
holding C when it boots up, it waits a while but then just ejects
the cd ?

But the drive seems fine because once its booted in, it will read
cds fine, such as ilife and also some movie dvds.

Does anyone know what could be the problem ?

Many Thanks !

 

[pigoo3]

I'm going to guess that the disks you have are gray colored. These disks are model specific. If they are not the disks that originally came with the computer...then they will not work.

Unless you know absolutely 100% for sure that these disks originally came with the computer...I'm betting that the previous owner obtained these "gray" disks at some point later after they got the computer.

You need a retail OS install CD/DVD. These are usually black with a big X on them...and cost $100+.

Hope this helps,

- Nick

p.s. By the way...if the computer is booting fine from the hard drive...then there may not be a need to reinstall the OS. But if you really do want to do a "fresh" install of the OS...you can see that it will not be cheap to do it.

 

[Brad-Pea]

Hi,

Thanks for the quick reply.

Yes they are indeed grey, so these will actually only work with ONE particular machine? even though they say iMac on them?

Strange why they have sent them with it.

Ah well, Dont suppose there is anywhere i can reset back to "As New" then without a correct CD ?

Many Thanks.

 

[pigoo3]

Yes they are indeed grey, so these will actually only work with ONE particular machine? even though they say iMac on them?

Strange why they have sent them with it.

Ah well, Dont suppose there is anywhere i can reset back to "As New" then without a correct CD ?

Many Thanks.

It's not that these gray disks will work with only ONE particular Macintosh computer...it's that they work with only one MODEL iMac computer. Apple has released many many different iMac models over the years...so who knows what exact model iMac those disks will work with.

Many many times people buy these gray OS install disks because they are MUCH cheaper than the "black" OS install disks that folks REALLY need. Then when they get them...they find out that the gray disks don't work with their particular model Mac. The previous owner probably included them with the computer because they didn't need them (cause they didn't work).

If you tried to boot from disk #1 (while holding down the "C" key)...and the iMac wouldn't boot from it...this is a sign that those disks are not made to work with that particular model iMac.

No there really isn't a way to "reset as new" the computer without the correct OS install disk.

- Nick

 

[Brad-Pea]

Ah ok.

No probs, thanks for the help