Old iMac OS download. Please help!

On that Mac model, you need a disk.

If it's an Intel Mac, buy a Snow Leopard DVD from the online Apple Store.

If it's a PowerPC Mac, buy a retail 10.4 or 10.5 DVD from a source such as Amazon or eBay; the compatible DVDs depend on its exact model.

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You cannot use a Windows PC.

You could make a Genius Bar appointment at an Apple store and ask them to install an OS X version on your system.

It is possible to get an external DVD drive and install Snow Leopard that way.

If your Mac supports Lion 10.7

<System requirements for OS X Lion and Mac OS X v10.6 - Apple Support>

or Mountain Lion 10.8,

<OS X Mountain Lion system requirements - Apple Support>

AND you have a friend with a Mac, you may be able to use their Mac to login to your Apple ID account, and purchase a Lion or Mountain Lion redemption code. Then take that code to the Applications -> App Store on your friends Mac, and still logged in with your Apple ID, redeem the code and download Lion or Mountain Lion (quit the installer when it starts).

Once you have a copy of Lion or Mountain, you can use DiskMaker X to create a bootable USB installer

<http://diskmakerx.com/>

If you have a friend with a Mac capable of running a version of OS X that will also run on your Mac, you could have them format and install the copy of OS X you downloaded on to your new disk in an external enclosure, then transfer the disk into your Mac.

If Snow Leopard is going to be installed, if you have a friend that can run Snow Leopard, you can have them use their DVD drive to install Snow Leopard onto your new disk in an external enclosure, then transfer the disk to with Snow Leopard to your Mac.

As has already been stated, you cannot, use a Windows PC to do this. It will not work from a Windows PC.

You can use an external DVD drive to bypass the internal one if it does not work.

There is no internal recovery menu in a Mac that old without a functional OSx installed hard drive, which you say is unusable. You absolutely need to do it from Discs.

No other way.

The CD/DVDs are useful, but only if you get an external USB based CD/DVD drive to read them, or if you have a friend with an identical Mac (as install DVDs shipped with a Mac are machine specific), then you could use that Mac to apply the install disks to your boot disk stored in an external enclosure.

Or one of the other ideas I presented above.

I DO NOT KNOW if this will work, but the following Apple support article

<Use the CD or DVD drive from another computer with your Mac - Apple Support>

describes how to share another computer's DVD drive, including a Windows PC.

What I do not know is whether your specific Mac when booted holding the "Options" key will see the remote DVD drive.

BobHarris wrote:

I DO NOT KNOW if this will work, but the following Apple support article

<Use the CD or DVD drive from another computer with your Mac - Apple Support>

The thing about that article is it does not state the cabling necessary. All it mentions is network access which means it may not be like in old days when you could boot from another computer's drive with a Firewire cable: Installing 10.4/10.5 on a Mac with a broken/or incompatible optical drive - https://discussions.apple.com/docs/DOC-1020 I suspect to get network access the computer needs higher level functionality, i.e. it has to be booted to an OS. With modern Macs you can use Internet Recovery and that article is likely written with modern Macs in mind.

Limnos wrote:

BobHarris wrote:

I DO NOT KNOW if this will work, but the following Apple support article

<Use the CD or DVD drive from another computer with your Mac - Apple Support>

The thing about that article is it does not state the cabling necessary. All it mentions is network access which means it may not be like in old days when you could boot from another computer's drive with a Firewire cable: Installing 10.4/10.5 on a Mac with a broken/or incompatible optical drive - https://discussions.apple.com/docs/DOC-1020 I suspect to get network access the computer needs higher level functionality, i.e. it has to be booted to an OS. With modern Macs you can use Internet Recovery and that article is likely written with modern Macs in mind.

I agree, but if Kian Brose Brito wants to try it, then an Ethernet cable, from the iMac to the network router's Ethernet switch ports, would be the minimum.

Configure the other computer to share its DVD drive according to the article.

Boot the iMac holding the "Option" key, and see if the iMac sees the remote DVD drive.

It will either work or it will not, but it will not cost anything to try, except some time.