Difficulty Loading Original OS X 10.4 Tiger on Aluminum iMac

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Level 1

7 points

Difficulty Loading Original OS X 10.4 Tiger on Aluminum iMac

Hi All

I'm have problems loading the original OS on an 20" Aluminum iMac I've been given (from reading the forums I believe that this is a mid-2007 vintage Intel iMac). The PO erased (formatted?) the HDD and gave me the original OS 10.4 DVD (2Z691-5811-A). I'd expect that I should be able to pop the DVD in and reload the OS. Upon boot all I get is the grey screen. Pressing the C key at boot gets me to the OS X UTILITIES. But what should I do from here?

I'm thinking that this iMac was previously set up with OS X 10.10 (Yosemite). As when I access 'Reinstall OS X' from the 'OS X Utilities' menu, the only option I get is "OS X Yosemite To set up the installation of OS X 10.10, click Continue." When I do that, It asks me to agree with the terms and then asks which disk to install to (iMAc HD, Mac OSX Install DVD or Recovery HD). The only option is the iMac HD as the Recovery HD is locked. I try selecting the iMac HD and I'm prompted for my Apple ID & PW. When I provide this and sign in I get "This item is temporarily unavailable". As I've tried this over several days, receiving the same message, I suspect that I'm running into a registration issue as my apple ID doesn't match with a OS X 10.10 purchase. BTW... I successfully log on to my home WiFi before I attempt this.

To summarize... I'm trying to downgrade the OS back to OS X 10.4 on an Aluminum iMac. I only plan on using the iMac to sync my family's iPhones (5s) and be a music repository.

I'm a wiz at PCs, however this is my first Apple computer, so please don't assume I know anything. 🙂

iMac, Mac OS X (10.4), 20" Aluminum iMac

Posted on Jan 24, 2016 12:44 PM

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Answer 1

Kappy

Level 10

361,741 points

Jan 24, 2016 12:54 PM in response to RonVX

Boot from the DVD. Select your language and click on the Continue button. Wait until the screen menubar appears, Select Disk Utility from the Utilities menu. Select the out-dented entry for the Hard Disk Drive and click on the Partition tab in the toolbar on the right side of the window. Set the Format type to Mac OS Extended, Journaled. Click on the Apply button. Wait until the process is complete. Quit Disk Utility and return to the installer. Proceed to install OS X. This should take anywhere from 30 to 45 minutes or so.

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Answer 2

rccharles

Level 6

12,957 points

Jan 24, 2016 2:27 PM in response to RonVX

I only plan on using the iMac to sync my family's iPhones (5s)

Are you planning on using iTunes to sync? What version of ios? Check whether the version of iTunes you need to sync with the iPhone will run on 10.4. [ I doubt it. just a guess ]

Hold down the option key power on the machine. This will bring up the startup manager. leave figure off of option key. Click on dvd. click on arrow to boot.

R

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Answer 3

RonVX Author

Level 1

7 points

Jan 24, 2016 8:05 PM in response to Kappy

Sorry Kappy, I don't know how to boot from the DVD. It does not come up by default. If I restart and press no buttons the boot process stops at a grey screen, regardless if I have the DVD inserted or not. BTW... I have never received a language selection screen. Did that go away with 10.10?

The choices I see do not match up with what you are directing me to do.

Restarting while holding the OPTION key boots to the following screens in sequence:

1. Picture of HD in a circle with "Recovery 10.10.1" below the picture. No other options, so I click it.

2. Apple logo appears with a progress bar below the logo. The "OS X Utilities" appears on the screen after about a minute or two.

3. The four choices are:

a. Restore from Time Machine Backup.

- This choice asks me to select a backup source. There are none to choose.

b. Reinstall OS X

- I get "OS X Yosemite To set up the installation of OS X 10.10, click Continue." and the process fails as described in detail in my 1st post.

c. Get Help Online

- This opens a safari window and I'm prompted for Login Keychain

d. Disk Utility

- Selecting this and the out-dented HD provides me the following tabs on the top: First Aid, Erase, Partition, RAID, Restore. Selecting Partition I find that I the format is already "Mac OS Extended (Journaled)". Format, Options, Revert and Apply are grey and can not be clicked.

The above description happens every time and it's the same every time - DVD inserted or not so I'm assuming that OS X Utilities is loading from a recovery partition somewhere.

Is there a way to force it to load from a DVD?

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Answer 4

RonVX Author

Level 1

7 points

Jan 24, 2016 8:28 PM in response to rccharles

Thanks for the input R.

Are you planning on using iTunes to sync?

I'm planning on using iTunes... for loading music and ringtones on three iPhones

What version of ios?

I'm running 8.4.1

Check whether the version of iTunes you need to sync with the iPhone will run on 10.4. [ I doubt it. just a guess ]

Will do... I'm thinking maybe 10.6 or 10.8. Per the forums 10.6 runs best on my iMac version. 10.8 runs if I add enough RAM. But I'll need to check what works once I can get this iMac to boot.

Hold down the option key power on the machine. This will bring up the startup manager. leave figure off of option key. Click on dvd. click on arrow to boot.

As described in my response to Kappy above I only get the HD as an option no DVD.

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Answer 5

Kappy

Level 10

361,741 points

Jan 24, 2016 8:32 PM in response to RonVX

Booting From An OS X Installer Disc

1. Insert OS X Installer Disc into the optical drive.

2. Restart the computer.

3. Immediately after the chime press and hold down the "C" key.

4. Release the key when the spinning gear below the dark gray Apple

logo appears.

5. Wait for installer to finish loading.

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Answer 6

ChitlinsCC

Level 7

20,924 points

Jan 24, 2016 8:45 PM in response to RonVX

get details of your Mac here > http://www.everymac.com/ultimate-mac-lookup/ (read the fine print for non-Apple stuff like RAM maximum, etc.)

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Answer 7

rccharles

Level 6

12,957 points

Jan 24, 2016 9:08 PM in response to RonVX

Hold down the option key power on the machine. This will bring up the startup manager. leave figure off of option key. Click on dvd. click on arrow to boot.

As described in my response to Kappy above I only get the HD as an option no DVD.

-- That means the firmware didn't recognize the dvd as being bootable on your machine.

-- no dvd in drive.

-- bad drive.

Mac machine are very pickie about what dvd they will boot. Not any os x dvd will do. Only the apple defined ones for your machine are allow.

There is a little circler arrow to re-scan system for valid boot media.

I'm pulling this from memory. OS X 10.6 version of itunes support ios 8.x; it doesn't support 9.x To support ios 9.x you need a later version of OS X.

You may want to consider buy the 10.6 dvd from apple. It's still on sale $19.95.

Apple Phone Sales 1-800-692-7753 [ i think. you need to call wasn't in apple online store. could have changed of course. ]

verify that your machine will run 10.6

find out your exact machine with one of these sites.

when you take to apple they will let you know.

Query by serial number

Apple's warrenty database will identify the type of Mac you have. Your serial number is securely sent. Provides more information for newer machines.

https://selfsolve.apple.com/agreementWarrantyDynamic.do

This site provides more information. Best for older machines. Note, serial number is sent in the clear.

"A serial number is a unique, identifying number or group of numbers and letters assigned to an individual piece of hardware or software. It's used for various things depending on the product / brand but what is your Mac's serial number for and more importantly... what is it hiding and what can it do for you ?"

http://www.appleserialnumberinfo.com/Desktop/index.php

or

This site provides more information, but lacks security too.

"A serial number is a unique, identifying number or group of numbers and letters assigned to an individual piece of hardware or software. It's used for various things depending on the product / brand but what is your Mac's serial number for and more importantly... what is it hiding and what can it do for you ?"

http://www.appleserialnumberinfo.com/Desktop/index.php

http://www.chipmunk.nl/klantenservice/applemodel.html

( hint by K Shaffer )

R

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Answer 8

RonVX Author

Level 1

7 points

Jan 25, 2016 7:18 PM in response to RonVX

Thanks Kappy, ChitlinsCC and rccharles.

A quick update...

I tried a few other disks and the DVD drive sees them at boot. A Windows7 DVD and a PLOP Boot Manager CD. I can't boot from them, however they appear as options. So I don't think I'm fighting a DVD drive issue.

I've contacted the previous owner and he does have the Snow Leopard Box Set discs. I'm going to pick them up and give it a try. I post my results.

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Answer 9

ChitlinsCC

Level 7

20,924 points

Jan 25, 2016 8:22 PM in response to RonVX

I have every confidence that the original disks will bring you much joy!

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Answer 10

RonVX Author

Level 1

7 points

Jan 25, 2016 9:05 PM in response to RonVX

Success! Thanks all for the support on this.

I got OS X 10.6 to load on the iMac... It is updating to 10.6.8 as I type this.

The process was fairly easy once I was able to select the HD. After erasing the HD and making one large partition I was getting the message "You Cannot Install OS X on This Disk" and the install button was grey. I remedied this by making two partitions, the first 30GB and the second 220GB. I was still prevented from using the first partition (regardless of the size I made it). So I made it as small as possible and installed OS X 10.6 on the second partition.

Any recommendation on how to recover the 30GB on the HD and make it accessible? Could it be that the first partition contains some left over system files from the previous Yosemite install? Should this be a new question? If already covered, what terms do you suggest I search for.

Thanks again

Ron

20" Intel AL iMac, Core 2 Duo 2.0GHz, 4 GB Ram

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Answer 11

ChitlinsCC

Level 7

20,924 points

Jan 25, 2016 10:07 PM in response to RonVX

You could consider the 30GB partition as a just another "folder" (or filing cabinet) and be done with it (??)

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Answer 12

rccharles

Level 6

12,957 points

Jan 26, 2016 12:00 PM in response to RonVX

"You Cannot Install OS X on This Disk" and the install button was grey. I remedied this by making two partitions, the first 30GB and the second 220GB. I was still prevented from using the first partition (regardless of the size I made it).

That's a mystery to me. You should be able to put it on the first shown partition. It's frustrating.

Should of been able to make the partition a gig or even a few megs.

-- formatted correctly?

-- what I do is to make two partitions. check to verify true. then make one partition. This way I am sure the data was "erased".

It's working. Does the partition mount on your desktop?

You could get a copy of partition magic to merge the partitions. Suggest a complete backup before using.

Could use the space. Can put the partition any where in you folder tree.

Install SymbolicLinker. SymbolicLinker is a tiny contextual menu plugin that, once installed, allows any user to create symbolic links to files inside the Finder.</p>

http://www.macupdate.com/info.php/id/10433/<br>

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Answer 13

a brody

Level 10

82,941 points

Jan 26, 2016 7:52 PM in response to RonVX

Just a note for future reference:

The Aluminum 20" iMacs could only run 10.4.10 iMac if it was iMac 7,1 in the Machine ID in the System Profiler application. And

could use any retail installer from 10.5 on.

iMac 8,1 shipped with 10.5.2 iMac, and could not run any version of 10.4, and must use 10.5.4, 10.5.6, 10.6, or 10.6.3 retail in terms of installer discs.

iMac 9,1 shipped with 10.5.6 iMac CD or 10.5.8 iMac CD, and must use the 10.6 retail or 10.6.3 retail.

These were the only 20" Alumnium iMacs, not to be confused with 21" iMacs. Make sure you have properly identified your iMac:

http://discussions.apple.com/docs/DOC-6413

System specific discs can not be used between model vintages.

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Answer 14

RonVX Author

Level 1

7 points

Jan 30, 2016 1:30 PM in response to rccharles

That's a mystery to me. You should be able to put it on the first shown partition. It's frustrating.

Should of been able to make the partition a gig or even a few megs.

-- formatted correctly?

-- what I do is to make two partitions. check to verify true. then make one partition. This way I am sure the data was "erased".

It's working. Does the partition mount on your desktop?

You could get a copy of partition magic to merge the partitions. Suggest a complete backup before using.

Could use the space. Can put the partition any where in you folder tree.

rccharles

It may have something to do with drive permissions from what I've been reading. But that needs some more time to research.

The 30GB partition does mount to the desktop and I can move files to and from it without issue. I may do as ChitlinsCC suggested and just us it as is. My main focus was to get the iMac running and I've accomplished that. I'll look at the partition issue as I have time. Thanks again for your input.

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Answer 15

RonVX Author

Level 1

7 points

Jan 30, 2016 1:37 PM in response to a brody

Just a note for future reference:

The Aluminum 20" iMacs could only run 10.4.10 iMac if it was iMac 7,1 in the Machine ID in the System Profiler application. And

could use any retail installer from 10.5 on.

iMac 8,1 shipped with 10.5.2 iMac, and could not run any version of 10.4, and must use 10.5.4, 10.5.6, 10.6, or 10.6.3 retail in terms of installer discs.

iMac 9,1 shipped with 10.5.6 iMac CD or 10.5.8 iMac CD, and must use the 10.6 retail or 10.6.3 retail.

These were the only 20" Alumnium iMacs, not to be confused with 21" iMacs. Make sure you have properly identified your iMac:

http://discussions.apple.com/docs/DOC-6413

System specific discs can not be used between model vintages.

For clarification... The iMac referenced in this topic is a 20' Aluminum iMac7,1 with 4GB of DDR2 ram, 2.0GHz Core 2 Duo CPU, 250GB HD. I was provided the OS X10.4 (Tiger) disc with the iMac, however as I'm not the original owner, I can't confirm its provenance.

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