Factory Restore Issues :(

I just recently bought a used macbook 5.1. It has os x 10.5 on it. But I want to do a factory restore on it. The previous owner made me a new user account and erased her previous user account I rather a fresh install.

I dont have the install discs. I do have a 10.4 install osx disc set.

When I try to reboot the computer and hold down command R it doesnt do anything.

When I try to install the 10.4 disk it tells me to restart the computer. I restart. And it just keep restarting itself over and over.

What are my options?

You can not use your Tiger install disk on that MacBook as it's older than the original installation of Leopard. Go on line and order a Snow Leopard DVD (OS X 10.6.X) from Apple. (cost is $19.99) Order from here.

Also, you can not boot that machine with Command plus R since it does not have a recovery partition.

chscag said:

You can not use your Tiger install disk on that MacBook as it's older than the original installation of Leopard. Go on line and order a Snow Leopard DVD (OS X 10.6.X) from Apple. (cost is $19.99) Order from here.

Also, you can not boot that machine with Command plus R since it does not have a recovery partition.

Click to expand...

Ok. Thanks.

Now why am I getting 10.6 instead of 10.5? Will that one run on my macbook?

Because you can no longer buy Leopard (OS X 10.5.X) from Apple. You may be able to find a retail version on eBay but it's going to cost $50 or more. Snow Leopard (10.6.X) is a later version and can still be purchased from Apple, and yes it will run just fine on your MacBook.

Ok. Thank you again.

One more thing then. I notice I could upgrade to el captain. If I download this, can I choose to do a clean install? Instead of an update that retains my files and settings?

Yes, the Snow Leopard DVD from Apple will allow you to do a clean install. After that you can decide whether or not you wish to upgrade any further.

What about el captain. If I download that will it let me do a clean install?

Any version of OS X will allow you to do a clean install. However, in case you do not know... you must install Snow Leopard first otherwise you will not have access to the Mac App Store in order to download OS X.

And Snow Leopard will be needed and updated to OS X 10.6.8 in order to access the App Store to do any further OS X upgrades.

And your option may only be OS X 10.11.x El Capitan while Apple still provides it for a bit longer and at least until the next OS X version is released.




- Patrick
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I get it. Ill go buy snow leopard. Thanks everyone.