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)
As far as I know Apple no longer sells Leopard 10.5.x discs but you might find one on Ebay. However you can call AppleCare and ask if they have Leopard discs available, you never know when you will get lucky. The contact info can be found using the AppleCare Contact Info link. Also the G5 is a PPC (Power PC) based system, this forum is for Intel based iMacs. If you need to post again for the G5 please post on the PPC iMac forum.
Good luck.
Hi,
Thank you for your reply! I will call AppleCare on Monday to see if they can help me. If not, I'll check out eBay. Incidentally, my iMac is an Intel based iMac. When I go to About this Mac, I see 2.66 GHz Intel Core Duo and when I just scanned the iMac with Crucial for a memory upgrade, it identified the device as:
iMac 2.66GHz Intel Core 2 Duo (20-inch - DDR3) MB417LL/A
My sister-in-law is the one who described it to me as a G5, so I'm not really sure what I've got! 😮
Although your system originally came with 10.5, you might be better off simply buying a retail snow leopard disk. That would be 10.6 and the cost is only $29, whereas Leopard is far more,expensive. SL retail disks are available at various online resellers including the Apple store.
Additionally, you do,have an Intel iMac and there is no need to reregister it since it is out of warranty.
Babowa is spot on about buying a license of Snow Leopard, that is exactly what I'd recommend.
Sorry I jumped in here - trying out my iPad - found out you can't edit posts......
You can now get Snow Leopard free from Apple if your sister-in-law had mobile me.
Well looky there, a new iPad.... 😎
Congratulations
babowa wrote:
Sorry I jumped in here - trying out my iPad - found out you can't edit posts......
Oh no problem at all, thanks for jumping in and enjoy the new fangled iPad. Which one did you get?
Hey Dennis,
How are you?
Great Roger thanks for asking, how is it going.
Normally we only go as far as Sac for family visits, but I did think about you while doing 82 mph on the way up to Placerville a couple of weekends ago.
Thanks, guys! I actually did purchase Snow Leopard and installed it yesterday, but I can't figure out how to wipe the computer and start over with it. I didn't get an option to do that. The computer still says it's registered to my sister-in-law. Do you know some way I can do this with Snow Leopard?
I'm doing well, just started a new job downtown Sac last week so I'm pretty excited.
LoLo365 wrote:
Thanks, guys! I actually did purchase Snow Leopard and installed it yesterday, but I can't figure out how to wipe the computer and start over with it. I didn't get an option to do that. The computer still says it's registered to my sister-in-law. Do you know some way I can do this with Snow Leopard?
Here is a good video that will show you how to do it, the kid is kind of annoying but he's spot on...Clean Install Of Snow Leopard video
Awesome, good for you.
It's unlikely that I will catch up or pass you in the forum, at least not unless I retire sooner than the projected 5 years from now. 😝
Reinstall and Reregister Second-Hand iMac G5
