Thought some of you following this might find this of interest. I was never able to get Tiger to load no matter what I tried, Appple could not find the proper version so I was asked to take it into my nearest store where they worked some magic and loaded Snow Leopard on it for me. I'll have to forgoe Photoshop for now.
While I was there they wanted to zap the PRAm but as it turns out these older iMacs came with a white plastic keyboard that apparently is different from the newer aluminum ones. We couldn't zap the PRAM with the newer keyboard (the original plastic one had coffee spilled on it years ago). Thet tech at the store said they used to keep an old one around but it had finally given up.
So I took my machine home with 10.6.8 loaded on it with a clean install. Tonight I set up my new 2013 iMac as a Target and used Migration Assistant to load my stuff onto the older iMac.
But when I went to try and log in I couldn't do it, it would not accept my password. I found that this is a common problem when the source is newer than the recipient iMac. The work around is to start up from an install disc and go toUtilities/Change Password.
But this would not work no matter what I tried, option at start up, C key at startup, Command S (single user), nothing. I was on the phone with tech support and after about 30 minutes the guy says "lets try to zap the PRAM". I told him "no go" the keyboard is too old.
Then I remembered that when this happened a few weeks ago I wondered after I left the store if an even older keyboard than the one that shipped with the machine in 2006 would work.
Tonight I got out an old Raspberry keyboard from a 1999 iMac and lo and behold, it zapped the PRAM. Even better, it allowed me to start up from the disc and change the password.
The problems were all in the keyboard. Besides Apple no longer having the right startup discs.
I have two of these old colored keyboards and will hoard a few more if I can find them.
Just some good info.
thanks to all,
Rob