Q: I need an Apple Recovery Disk for an iMac4

I believe this is the iMac in question. Complete specs are here http://www.everymac.com/systems/apple/imac/specs/imac_800_17_fp.html

You won't get discs from Apple for a machine that old/ Your best bet is eBay to try to find a retail set. The max OS is 10.4 which is several years old and not supported in any way. You may find that your son can't do much with this iMac. Wireless connectivity was optional on that model so it may not have an Airport card installed.

Hi mjdryna,

All is not lost, althoughTiger was never available for download. Came with optical disc only.  You can contact Apple and ask if they have copies but it is extremely unlikely and you will have to revert to sources such as eBay. Make sure your get black, retail version discs, not grey, machine-specific ones.

Oh, if this is for booting a Mac Pro you will need the version of the discs which came with the computer originally, not the retail ones which were supplied for PPC Macs. Contact Apple support (not customer service) but again it is unlikely they will still have any.  Maybe check Google Groups Low End Mac

Call Apple Customer Support 1-800-767-2775 (telephone numbers for other countries - https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT201232). Provide the serial number and specifications of the Mac.  They may be able to provide a replacement set of discs for a fee.  These discs will be for whatever OS was installed on the computer originally, so if you have an upgraded version you will need to obtain the discs some other way.

You can also look at http://www.macmaps.com/usedrefurbished.html for some more sources and possible solutions.Further http://lowendmac.com/2005/mac-os-x-10-4-tiger/offers also some answers

Leo

This is not an Intel Mac, its a G4 (Motorola PPC), but provided its a real copy of 10.4 it should work

Just read the post again, you need http://www.ebay.com/itm/Apple-Mac-OS-X-10-4-Tiger-Retail-1-User-s-Full-Version-D VD-M9639ZA-NEW-NIB-/252352316056?hash=it… or similar. It must be the black DVD's.  Not the grey ones, which are machine specific. Only if yours was a Mac Pro it would be different.

Leo

There might be a cheaper one if you really search, but the appraisal for this guy is good and the product seem to be the correct one based on your information, yes.

After installing Tiger, you would be able to update that to the latest with the Combo Update from Apple.

Leo

Just wanted to add that you will be able to download a Combo Update for the latest version of Tiger after this purchase. If the information supplied by you is correct, the latest version that the iMac will support will be OS X 10.4.11. And to quote a source: