Bought a refurbished Macbook without operating system. Trying to get an OS installed but all I get is a white screen?? HELP!

Do you know exactly which model you have? If it's an Intel Mac then you must have a retail Leopard DVD or later, but this will depend entirely on what model you have.

System discs are machine specific and not interchangable between Macs. The good news is that....

Replacement System Discs can be obtained from Apple's Customer Support - US (800) 767-2775 for a nominal fee. You'll need to have the model and serial number of your Mac available.

If you're not in the US, you may need to go through the regional Apple Store that serves your location to find the contact number - http://store.apple.com/Catalog/US/Images/intlstoreroutingpage.html

Where did you buy this from? Apple itself does not sell refurbished machines without installed operating systems and all the discs or other media that the machine would have originally shipped with.

That model originally shipped with a special Intel version of Tiger. You should be able to install any retail version of Leopard or later. I would recommend you start with Snow Leopard. Snow Leopard requires a minimum of 1 GB of RAM. If you have 2 GBs of RAM then you could install Lion or Mountain Lion.

You can purchase Snow Leopard from Apple's online store's telesales agents.[1-800-MY-APPLE (1-800-692-7753) or Customer Service and Sales Support at 1-800-676-2775.] Ask for a Sales Representative.

Third-party sources for Snow Leopard are:

Snow Leopard from Amazon.com

Snow Leopard from eBay

After you install Snow Leopard you will have to download and install the Mac OS X 10.6.8 Update Combo v1.1 to update Snow Leopard to 10.6.8 and give you access to the App Store.

Drive Preparation

1. Boot from your OS X Installer Disc. After the installer loads select your language and click on the Continue button. When the menu bar appears select Disk Utility from the Utilities menu.

2. After DU loads select your hard drive (this is the entry with the mfgr.'s ID and size) from the left side list. Note the SMART status of the drive in DU's status area. If it does not say "Verified" then the drive is failing or has failed and will need replacing. SMART info will not be reported on external drives. Otherwise, click on the Partition tab in the DU main window.

3. Under the Volume Scheme heading set the number of partitions from the drop down menu to one. Click on the Options button, set the partition scheme to GUID then click on the OK button. Set the format type to Mac OS Extended (Journaled.) Click on the Partition button and wait until the process has completed.

4. Select the volume you just created (this is the sub-entry under the drive entry) from the left side list. Click on the Erase tab in the DU main window.

5. Set the format type to Mac OS Extended (Journaled.) Click on the Security button, check the button for Zero Data and click on OK to return to the Erase window.

6. Click on the Erase button. The format process can take up to several hours depending upon the drive size.

7. When completed quit DU and return to the installer. Complete the Snow Leopard installation.

faeden75 wrote:

CMCSK -

You state: Replacement System Discs can be obtained from Apple's Customer Support - US (800) 767-2775 for a nominal fee.

Is there a place where I can download this (for a fee) and not have to wait for shipping?

No there is not. You will need to contact Apple. Cost around $40.

Your company much installed Windows on those Mac's that they had with a special DATA security scheme. The IBM massage.

I just bought a few of the EM8H machines from the IBM refurb laptop website. The deal is pretty darn good for a 15" 8GB 2.66GHz machine. Thanks to those on this post. You do need to purchase the Mac OS from the phone# mentioned above. They recommended to start with Snow Leopard and upgrade accordingly. If you buy a single OS is it $29 if you buy the family pack (5 subscriptions), then it is $39.

after inserting the OS CD, you have to hold the C button down during boot, and then at the screen, you do need to erase the disk first using the disk utilities. after erasing it, you can then proceed to install the OS.

And What "IBM" website is selling Refurbished Mac computers?

Never knew IBM sold Apple Mac Computers or that they would have Refurbished Apple Mac computers.

EDIT:

I think you are full of Bull.

FYI

http://www-304.ibm.com/shop/americas/webapp/wcs/stores/servlet/default/ProductDi splay?productId=4611686018426339667&storeId=1083978448&langId=-1&categoryId=2576 396&dualCurrId=1074766897&catalogId=-840

Actually, http://www-304.ibm.com/shop/americas/webapp/wcs/stores/servlet/default/CategoryD isplay?categoryId=2576396&storeId=1083978448&catalogId=-840&langId=-1 does sometimes seem to have used Apple machines available, with a 3 month warranty.

http://www-304.ibm.com/shop/americas/webapp/wcs/stores/servlet/default/ProductDi splay?productId=4611686018426341623&storeId=1083978448&langId=-1&categoryId=2576 396&dualCurrId=1074766897&catalogId=-840

They don't make it clear whether they are really refurbished or just used though?

That looks like a respectable deal for the price, thanks.

So much for the Bull. 😁

sig wrote:

So much for the Bull. 😁

I think the location for the Bull is clearly apparent in this thread.

Just to reinforce Kappy's notes - you will need to partition and reformat as he describes. From your description the drive will currently be formatted NTFS for Windows only.

For eniada's post, the last reported price from telesales was $19.99 for single licence, $29,99 for family licence.