My sister-in-law just gave us her used iMac G5 20" because she purchased a new iMac. She can not find what she did with the original system disks and I really would like to wipe everything and start over. Is there any way to wipe the hard drive without those disks or am I able to purchase these disks directly from Apple or another source?
iMac, Mac OS X (10.5.8)
I don't know, I'm not on the forums as much as I was and I've got at least 10 years before I retire.
Working in the trenches can will take the wind out of ones level of participation.
Oh yeah!
Had a problem last night, so didn't check back in the forums.....
I got a 32 GB WiFi only in white (didn't have the black in stock and I didn't want to wait for a shipment) - just had a back injury and have trouble sitting so I thought the iPad would come in handy. Anyway, still trying to figure it out. Dictation works reasonably well, but wrote "desk" when I said "disk". so proofreading is important! Sooo glad to hear you got a job!!!
And Dennis, glad to hear you're doing well! I haven't had much time to participate here either what with the other forums I participate in....
The computer still says it's registered to my sister-in-law. Do you know some way I can do this with Snow Leopard?
You should be able to do this with the SL install disk. First make sure you have important things/files backed up because you will be erasing the hard drive!
Insert SL disk, hold down C key while restarting. It should boot into the installer. Go past the language selection and then choose Utilities > Disk Utility in File menu. Choose your hard drive and choose erase. Make sure it is Mac OS Extended (Journaled) formatted and uses the GUID Partition scheme (under Options). Once it has been erased, the installer will automatically install Snow Leopard from scratch and you will be able to set up your own account. After that is done, use Software Update to update (if there are many, choose a few at a time) and then copy back any files if you had any.
Thank you so much to both rkaufmann87 and babowa. I was able to successfully do a clean install of Snow Leopard on the iMac because of both of your advice. I do appreciate your help!
Your welcome.
Reinstall and Reregister Second-Hand iMac G5
