Help me reload my Power Mac G4 from CD...

Here is the story...

I was given this Power Mac G4 by a friend. It came with only a mouse and keyboard. I bought off of eBay a set of CD's for it. They came with the reload of OS 9 and OS 10.1, 4 software restore CD's, and 1 hardware test CD.

I have tried to boot from the CD by holding down the C key like the CD's say but it still comes up from HD. Here is the real kicker...it comes up to a user sign up screen and wants your ID and password to log on...well my friend doesn't remember it. So HELP!!!!

What can I do?

thanks in advance
Clark

G'day and welcome to the Forums.

Clark it is almost impossible to match up G4 models with system restore discs there are so many of 'em! My Gigabit Ethernet originally came with 10.1.3 and 9.2.2 and was released in 2001! That would make your discs probably from a 466MHz Digital Audio, the very next model.

If you have a Quicksilver, the won't boot. Suggest as you do not give the model, buy from ebay or similar a full install black colored Tiger X.4 install DVD and do a clean install which will erase the hard drive and get you over the password problem. Do not buy any grey colored model specific discs.

Thanks for replying to my call for help...

I called a local Apple reseller and repair shop, they guided me through a process that very quickly told them that my optical drive is dead. Apparently, when you hold down the Alt/Option button during boot up it will put you into a menu of all the options and drives that you can boot from...well mine would not list the optical drive, so they diagnosed that I need a new one.

Would your guess be the same as theirs?

Clark

Btw...mine is a mirror drive doors model #8570, if I remember right.

Yes. From the model number it is even probably a DP or Dual Processor model. Macs will take leading brand optical drives and personally prefer Pioneer brand. New DVR-115D Dual Layer here in Australia was only $39 and you can fit one yourself. Do a check of the OWC web site for brands and prices.

Suggest you install Tiger as the minimum or Leopard and boost memory up to 2GB and you will be very happy with the machine performance wise.