How to Install operating system to iBook A1005

Question

Level 1

4 points

How to Install operating system to iBook A1005

I needed a working Mac and finances are very limited, so I found an online seller with 99% positive ratings selling an iBook A1005 (white rectangle iBook) that has no operating system, for the hard drive has been wiped clean. The iBook has been purchased and is being shipped.

I've owned 2 non-deceased iBook clamshells and have the following installation disks:

OS X Panther 10.3 Panther (3 disks) and OS X 10.4.2 Tiger (4 disks). There's also an install disk for OS X XCode Tools Version 1.0 which requires OS X 10.3 or later. I have no idea if I ever installed XCode in anything.

When the iBook A1005 arrives should I install OS X Panther 10.3 or OS X Tiger 10.4.2? With a blank hard drive do I just power up my iBOok, put in the first disk, and follow all prompts, or is there another step needed to get the process started when starting with nothing?

Should I install XCode Tools?

Thanks for any help you can give me.

iBook A1005-OTHER, iOS 10.3, G3; 600MHz; RAM 20 GB; Memory 128 M

Posted on Jul 21, 2017 10:26 AM

Reply

Answer 1

Top-ranking reply

macjack

Level 10

111,204 points

Jul 21, 2017 10:34 AM in response to NonTechKaren

Hopefully, the new iBook will arrive with the OEM installation discs, you are going to need those as they are hardware specific for that model iBook. It should have been shipped with the original OS installled.

What to do before you sell or give away your Mac - Apple Support

When you boot from the correct install disk, you can install the original OS and then upgrade from there. If you don't have it you could try using one of your other install discs and see if it will work.

Reply

Answer 2

Niel

Level 10

732,113 points

Jul 24, 2017 9:40 PM in response to NonTechKaren

1. Probably Mac OS X 10.3; install DVDs for 10.4.2 are either specific to a different Mac model or for Mac OS X Server.

2. You may need to use the Disk Utility to reformat the drive as Mac OS Extended (Journaled).

(152336)

Reply

Answer 3

NonTechKaren Author

Level 1

4 points

Jul 24, 2017 10:10 PM in response to Niel

Noel, OS X 10.3 is officially installed.

I've never used an iBook A1005 before, so it took some guessing, plus research on my Kindle to figure out what to do.

I held down the Option key when I powered up my iBook, and I got two icons -- a half-circle / rotate arrow and a right-facing arrow. I didn't know how to open the disk tray, but found the answer online -- hold down the Command + E keys. (That only worked the first time, but later I was able to use the Help feature and learned to use the F12 key to open tray.)

I put in the first install disk and nothing happened, so I clicked the half-circle arrow icon and got an Install Disk icon. Then I clicked the right-arrow icon and the installation started so I followed the prompts, and knew to have a password ready when I needed to enter one.

Once the operating system was installed I installed software programs, and then transferred the files saved on my thumb drive. Hurray all my work files and writing manuscripts are back in the land of the living.

My A1005 is slow to bring up files, but it works, and that's all that matters to me.

Thanks for your help.

Reply