Needing LOTS of help setting up an eMac...

This eMac forum is mainly concerned with the eMac as hardware.

Your questions are typical OS issues and there are Tiger and Leopard forums that have a lot more traffic than here. If you need lots of help you'll get a wider audience in those forums.

That sound like a good eMac you bought. The 1.42GHz model was the lastest and fastest.

As for expanding your RAM, that is the later version,

PC2700 DDR333 184pin SDRAM

and even though at the time Apple says the maximum is 2 x 512Mb to make 1GB

it is possible to install 2 x 1GB to make 2GB maximum.

An example of these RAM chips is found here.

PC2700 DDR333 184pin SDRAM

Your eMac has two RAM slots so you can put one in each or just one on its own.

Your lack of disks is unfortunate. Whether it is a private sale or from a local school, every Mac should also include its original (or better) install disks.

As the school is local, contact them again and ask them to find the software install disks for your eMac, if possible.

At some point you'll need your Install disk to;

1. Reinstall the OS

2. Perform Disk Repair operations on the internal drive.

Also using an OS version without the disks is outside of the licensing agreement.

If you look on eBay at Retail Tiger or Leopard disks, (not the grey ones) their price is expensive, probably more than what you paid for your eMac. My point is the accompanying software is an overlooked but valuable asset.

Here are two forums that might be more specific to your quest.

Mac OS 10.4 Tiger

Mac OS 10.5 Leopard

Message was edited by: roam

Hi Icy,

You can contact Apple at 1 800 MY APPLE and ask for software sales to see if they have anymore

OS X 10.5 Leopard retail disks in stock. You'll pay Apple's original price of $129 instead of the waaay inflated

prices from third party resellers.

Also, your eMac can take 2 GB of RAM. I would max the RAM out as OS X Leopard needs as much RAM as it can get.

Once you've obtained a retail DVD disk of OS X leopard and upgraded the memory in your eMac,

I would do a complete clean install of OS X Leopard.

If you want to partition the drive before the installation, you can use the Disk Utility app on the OS X disk

when you boot the disk. Once you have booted from disc and the Finder appears, look in the Applications folder>

Utilities folder for the Disk Utility app and launch it. From there you should be able to setup partitions for the drive.

Once you've done this and installed OS X 10.5, you have two choices. If you have a 9 pin to 6 pin FireWire cable you could start your eMac in FireWire Target Disk Mode and select the target Mac that has the data to migrate from.

Here's the procedure.

http://support.apple.com/kb/ht1661

Your eMac has USB 2.0 ports so if you have a proper USB cable, you should be able to transfer your Time Machine data/backups from your MacBook to the eMac. You cannot do a restore of the OS, obviously since your MacBook has Snow Leopard and the eMac has just Leopard. The OSes have to be compatible in order to do a restore of an OS from Time Machine. You should, however, be able to transfer all of your data and, I think, your applications as well.

Keep in mind that if you have applications that run specifically on OS X Snow Leopard or aren't universal PPC/ Intel apps, these may or may not transfer or work on the eMac.

I haven't put Time Machine to use as I do fairly regular manual backups of my data and never seen a reason to use it myself.

Here's a link that may help you with using TM do transfer your Macbook's data to the eMac.

http://forums.macnn.com/90/mac-os-x/363711/time-machine-restore-to-another-compu ter/

Here's an Apple support forums link that may help you with the Time Machine transfer, also.

https://discussions.apple.com/thread/1755085?answerId=8304881022#8304881022

I just remembered, if your going to upgrade the RAM while you are inside the eMac, I would replace the half height AA PRAM battery while you are there. It will be visible to remove and replace once you remove the old RAM

Sticks. This battery is 3.6 volt battery that, in all likelihood, is close to being exhausted and needs replacing.

It might be dead if the eMac has not been plugged into a power outlet for quite awhile.

Can be bought, expensively, through Radio Shack stores or ordered cheaply online from here.

http://eshop.macsales.com/item/Newer%20Technology/BAA36VPRAM/

Plus I need to know Can I Turn the eMac Off without doing any damage... since I haven't setup the OS?

Sure, you can turn it off for now, it will start up again OK. That welcome screen, if that is what you are stopped at, will re-appear when you restart next.

I can't offer you any advice about Time Machine as I don't use it.

Pondini is the Time Machine expert. He usually hangs out in the Leopard forum.

https://discussions.apple.com/profile/Pondini

Since you have no discs with your eMac and you need either a way to boot off of an OS CD/DVD, you'll still need to have an OS to work off of. Buying a retail version of Leopard would let you do either.

Either boot off the retail DVD to intiate the Time Machine to see your eMac or you'll have to install it directly onto the eMac in order for Time Machine to recognize the eMac as another drive to transfer to.

Either way you need the disc and OS.