are install discs machine specific?

QCassidy352 · May 20, 2003

i.e. would the system software disc from say, an ibook, work on say, an imac? (or a powermac disc on an emac, or whatever)

Let me establish (before someone asks) that I am not talking about installing illegal copies of Jag on machines that shouldn't have it; I'm just asking 'cause I was looking through the cds that came with my ibook 900 and noticed that the jag discs say "ibook" on them. But I don't see how system install discs would have to be any different for an ibook as opposed to any other mac...

thanks!

edit: oh, I guess this could be posted in software discussion too, but I put it here because it's about software compatibility with different types of hardware...

vniow · May 20, 2003

My Jag discs are labeled 'iMac' and they're installed fine on my iBook and a Powermac I used to own.

Duff-Man · May 20, 2003

Duff-man says....In general, the install discs are not machine specific, however in most cases the discs may not work on hardware that is newer than the discs are because of the system mods req'd to accomodate new hardware....oh yeah!

strider42 · May 20, 2003

before OS X, they were almost always machine specific. If you tried to installthe OEM imac OS 9 on an iBook or something like that, the machine just wouldn't boot. The OS is always slightly tweaked to work with each machine. OEM copies would only include those tweaks necessary for a particular machine.

However, my impression now is that since OS X, apple just uses a general version of the OS for all hardware.

Freg3000 · May 20, 2003

I am wondering something about OS X. Like, in energy saver on my PowerBook, there are different features than on my Power Mac for obvious reasons. How does it know? Firmware, or different OSes?

QCassidy352 · May 20, 2003

Originally posted by Freg3000
I am wondering something about OS X. Like, in energy saver on my PowerBook, there are different features than on my Power Mac for obvious reasons. How does it know? Firmware, or different OSes?

say, that's a really good point. There do have to be minor differences between models such as the energy saver options. I don't know what accounts for that... does anyone?

mmmdreg · May 21, 2003

I like the install dvd for my eMac. Sure beats the two cd's + appz that came with my old iMac. And it's even got the software restore stuck in for good measure. But yeah. My iMac has a dvd drive as well so I figured, as I own jaguar, as well as the eMac install discs, I might as well just use on on both of them.

ninjachild · May 21, 2003

just an interesting aside,
My girlfriend has an Ibook 700,
and i bought mine a couple of months later
the 800 with the new graphics card.

well my second install disc had a flutter (sounded like it was going to rip off the drive)

so i finished it with hers. worked great.

later on with a clean install i used both discs from her set,
and my display would only show up at 1/2 size.

so moral of the story use what came with it, esp. the first disc,
they usually have the new drivers or whatever.

unc32 · May 21, 2003

I've used to disks to install OSX on 4 different types of computers (all legal, just didn't want to use different disks). There seems to be no difference. My computer has no DVD drive but it has the dvd/cd preference pane. I click on it and it says, no dvd. No biggy.

the_wallcrawler · May 21, 2003

what about when you purchase the OS after you get your computer? like in my case my computer came with 10.1 so i had to buy Jag when it came out. i dont remember having to specify what kind of computer it was for when i bought it.

Mblazened · May 21, 2003

New Powermac and imac cds are not compatible.

strider42 · May 21, 2003

Originally posted by the_wallcrawler
what about when you purchase the OS after you get your computer? like in my case my computer came with 10.1 so i had to buy Jag when it came out. i dont remember having to specify what kind of computer it was for when i bought it.

retail versions of mac OS have always been general releases good for all machines. This goes back even to pre-OS X.

QCassidy352 · May 21, 2003

Originally posted by ninjachild
just an interesting aside,
My girlfriend has an Ibook 700,
and i bought mine a couple of months later
the 800 with the new graphics card.

well my second install disc had a flutter (sounded like it was going to rip off the drive)

so i finished it with hers. worked great.

later on with a clean install i used both discs from her set,
and my display would only show up at 1/2 size.

so moral of the story use what came with it, esp. the first disc,
they usually have the new drivers or whatever.

sounds like you had the problem duff-man described- using older install discs on a newer machine. Perhaps the same thing would not have happened had your gf had the "fluttery" cd and used your newer cd.

Mblazened,
may I ask how you know, and how they are incompatible? What goes wrong with one machine when you try to use the install discs of the other?

unc, did you use retail jag discs on all of them, or the disks from one of them (labeled with that computer name) on the others?

bennetsaysargh · May 21, 2003

Originally posted by QCassidy352
say, that's a really good point. There do have to be minor differences between models such as the energy saver options. I don't know what accounts for that... does anyone?

it probably checks stuff like that in the startup process. the grey screen is when it finds everything to use, so that's probably when. i could be wrong though.

tjwett · May 21, 2003

Originally posted by Freg3000
I am wondering something about OS X. Like, in energy saver on my PowerBook, there are different features than on my Power Mac for obvious reasons. How does it know? Firmware, or different OSes?

i think it's a firmware thing or something similar because i used iBook install disks to install Jag on my PowerMac and everything was fine. all the preferences were PowerMac-specific, so it must be a hardware thing.

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