Paperweight Macbook a1181 challenge...

[Otterbotanical]

I'm trying to figure out what I can do. I have a macbook a1181 with a completely empty hard drive. I can't boot it using any fancy boot option keys. I received the computer from my friend who got it as a birthday present quite a few years ago. The computer was purchased legitimately. The only issue is that he tried to install Windows XP on it, and at the time didn't know what Bootcamp was. Currently, the computer will give the waking 'gong' sound, and after a few seconds, regardless of which keys are pressed, it will show a grey folder icon with a question mark in it (as if to say "the balls is my operating system?" or a more accusatory "what have you done to me? why? I feel cold")


I currently own a fully-equipped windows 7 computer. I also have a nifty cable that allows me to hook any hard drive up to my USB ports and it makes any hard drive act like an external.


What can I do with this computer? I'll take any possible installation tips, I just want the thing running so that I can use it for school (I'm banking on it not being powerful enough for games and such), but I'd prefer the option to use XP. Can I install a mac-friendly version of XP on the internal macbook hard drive through a PC? Can I install mac OSX 10.6 (I believe that's the version I should be starting it out on) on the internal hard drive using a Win7 PC?

 

[Gav2k]

You need the OS X tiger install disk. If you have an Apple Store near by they are usually very helpful. Other than that there are plenty of places online offering the install disk at next to nothing

 

[Otterbotanical]

Any chance I can create a bootable USB? Could I perhaps burn tiger onto a DVD?

 

[Gav2k]

Yes you can. You insert the usb before powering on then hold the option key and it'll boot to the start menu

 

[Otterbotanical]

Yes you can. You insert the usb before powering on then hold the option key and it'll boot to the start menu

Alright. How would I go about installing a bootable version of tiger onto a usb? This is assuming that I have a valid copy of tiger and a large enough (32 gig) flash drive. I'm assuming I will require a program that will handle the formatting and the creation of the bootable drive? Something akin to Universal Installer for Linux?
(also, toothless, yessssss~)

 

[Gav2k]

Do you want to create and install drive or do you want the actual OS bootable on the stick?

 

[Otterbotanical]

Do you want to create and install drive or do you want the actual OS bootable on the stick?

Either one would be wonderful. My end goal would be to have the laptop work on it's own. Is it possible to install Tiger on a macbook from a usb?

 

[T'hain Esh Kelch]

Absolutely.

 

[Otterbotanical]

Well, how do I do that?

 

[Gav2k]

Well, how do I do that?

What working system do you have to make one?

You'll need either a Mac or a PC to do it.
The install disk or image of one.
A usb stick.

 

[DeltaMac]

Sorry, Tiger won't install on ANY MacBook, even the oldest (2006). Let me explain: If you find Apple's commercial Tiger (OS X 10.4) installer (on a black DVD), it is PPC only, and not a universal installer. Apple never sold a Tiger client installer that will install on both PPC and Intel Macs. The ONLY Tiger install that will, well, install, is the grey DVD that came with a MacBook.
Better (and likely what you really meant anyway) is Snow Leopard (OS X 10.6), which will install on most any older MacBook (all of the A1181 models), and is still for sale on DVD from Apple.com.
Here: http://store.apple.com/us/product/MC573Z/A/mac-os-x-106-snow-leopard
Only $20
And that, my friend, will get your old Macbook up and running again - including Boot Camp, if you should still want to do that.

 

[Otterbotanical]

What working system do you have to make one?

You'll need either a Mac or a PC to do it.
The install disk or image of one.
A usb stick.

I have a Win 7 PC, I have a USB drive, and I've already ordered snow leopard. I'm imagining I can flash the disc onto the USB.
So what's the process for creating a Mac-friendly bootable USB drive?

 

[DeltaMac]

Your Snow Leopard installer will be on a DVD, so you can just boot to that in your MacBook DVD drive.
Insert the DVD, start up while holding the C key, and you will boot to the installer. Follow the steps to install OS X.

After you have the system installed, you can use the built-in Disk Utility to make a bootable installer. An 8GB USB flash drive would be ideal.
Run Disk Utility, insert the DVD, and your USB flash drive.
Click the Restore tab, then drag your DVD drive to the Source line. Drag your flash drive to the Destination line - and click the Restore button. and - Wait. Probably will take about 20 minutes to complete, and then you have a bootable USB installer, to use whenever you need to install or reinstall.

 

[Otterbotanical]

Well, say I maybe kind of broke the CD drive in my attempt to retrieve a disk that the macbook wasn't wanting to eject for me. If I didn't have a functional macbook CD reader, would I have to use the disk utility on another mac in order to create a bootable USB? My original question was never answered: Is it possible to create a bootable USB through PC? Can I download Disk Utility on my PC and install Snow leopard onto a USB?

 

[DeltaMac]

I'm pretty sure you can do that with TransMac
You can download TransMac, and do the job with the free trial.