iMac G3 Hard Drive Upgrade. Won't Install Tiger

[Alecness315]

I purchased an iMac G3 on ebay. It only had a 13 GB hard drive so I bought a 40 GB internal drive. I installed the new hard drive and went to install Mac OS X Tiger (10.4) on it and I got a note that said "In order to upgrade to Mac OS X v10.4, you must have Mac OS X v10.3 or later already installed on your computer". I don't know what to do because I do not have 10.3 install discs or anything. Can I please have help?

[MacHamster68]

sorry sounds like you got a UPGRADE version of OSX tiger (10.4)
then there is no other way as buying a OSX panther (10.3)
or selling the upgrade version and buying a Retail version of tiger

and depending which OS ? was on the iMac before (on this 13gb HDD)
it might be necessary to do a firmware update to 4.1.9
read here on the support page

http://support.apple.com/kb/HT3036

and just before you fall into the ebay trap when sellers try to sell you OSX discs DO NOT BUY the grey 2 disc set as they ONLY work on the specific Mac they had been made for

[quantum003]

Hey, good for you.. style points for rocking one of those cool G3 iMacs. :)

Yeah, you just need a Tiger 10.4 install DVD, not an upgrade disc. Check craigslist or something... kind of pricey on eBay for something like that. Or maybe a local retailer that sells used software? I got a 10.4 DVD for $40 at a local used retailer here in Phoenix.

[noodlemanc]

Well, you'll either:

A. Buy the full Panther install disks.

B. Sell the Tiger upgrade disks and buy the full Tiger install disks.

If I were you I'd try get my hands on the full Tiger install disks. Good luck!