OS X install disks: black versus gray

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Level 1

143 points

OS X install disks: black versus gray

Hi:

We have a PowerBook G4 15" that is currently running OS 10.3.9. I would like to upgrade it to OS 10.4.x or 10.5.x.

Looking on E-Bay for system software disks, there seem to be two kinds of disks for sale, one set that is black and one set that is grey. Can anyone explain the difference between these disks?

I have heard that grey are system specific and sometimes needed for installation on a particular piece of Apple hardware. If this is true, why did Apple sell the black disks? Or can I purchase a set of the black disks and be confident that they will function to upgrade my PowerBook?

Thank you!

OS X Yosemite (10.10)

Posted on Nov 28, 2014 3:59 AM

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Answer 1

BDAqua

Level 10

250,747 points

Nov 28, 2014 10:34 AM in response to CharPatton

Hello,

You heard right, Gray Discs are Machine specific & most of them IntelMac also, there is one other type of gray Disc, that is an upgrade Disc, requiring the previous version of OSX to be installed first.

Go for the Black Retail Disc(s) only, besides the DVD there was a rare 5 CD version of Tiger/10.4

Tiger Requirements...

To use Mac OS X 10.4 Tiger, your Macintosh needs:

* A PowerPC G3, G4, or G5 processor

* Built-in FireWire

* At least 256 MB of RAM (I recommend 1GB minimum)

* DVD drive (DVD-ROM), Combo (CD-RW/DVD-ROM) or SuperDrive (DVD-R) for installation

* At least 3 GB of free disk space; 4 GB if you install the XCode 2 Developer Tools (I recommend 20GB minimum)

http://support.apple.com/kb/HT1514

http://www.ebay.com/sch/i.html?_nkw=mac+os+x+tiger+retail+10.4

See Tom's, (Texas Mac Man), great info on where/how to find/get Tiger...

https://discussions.apple.com/thread/3089008?answerId=15305521022#15305521022

old: http://discussions.apple.com/thread.jspa?messageID=9755670&#9755670

Or Ali Brown's great info on where/how to find/get Tiger...

http://discussions.apple.com/thread.jspa?messageID=10381710#10381710

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Answer 2

CharPatton Author

Level 1

143 points

Nov 29, 2014 10:17 AM in response to BDAqua

Great answer. Very useful information. Thank you!

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Answer 3

BDAqua

Level 10

250,747 points

Nov 29, 2014 10:39 AM in response to CharPatton

Great news, thanks & good luck! 🙂

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