10.3.9 Fresh Install.. Yup..!

[MacOG728893]

My friend brought over his old 17" iMac G5 for me to back up his photos and music and wipe it so he can give it to a friend.

Problem is that I do not have the disk or even leopard install disks.. All that I have is SL and Lion.

Any ideas on what I could do?

 

[cal6n]

Do you mean 10.5.9, which is Leopard or 10.3.9, which is Panther?

Either way, if you can't get hold of the installation media you can do a certain amount of wiping the hard way, by hand.

First, set up a new admin account in the name of the new owner and log into it. Then, delete any applications from the Applications folder that you do not want to pass on. Finally, using the Accounts pane in System Preferences, delete all the obsolete user accounts, electing to "delete immediately" if offered the option.

If the iMac is running Leopard, you can now open Disc Utility select the OS X partition and choose to "Erase Free Space" and zero out the data, ensuring that all the previous users' data has been deleted securely. If it's running Panther, you can't do this as the feature was introduced with Tiger.

 

[MacOG728893]

Do you mean 10.5.9, which is Leopard or 10.3.9, which is Panther?

Either way, if you can't get hold of the installation media you can do a certain amount of wiping the hard way, by hand.

First, set up a new admin account in the name of the new owner and log into it. Then, delete any applications from the Applications folder that you do not want to pass on. Finally, using the Accounts pane in System Preferences, delete all the obsolete user accounts, electing to "delete immediately" if offered the option.

If the iMac is running Leopard, you can now open Disc Utility select the OS X partition and choose to "Erase Free Space" and zero out the data, ensuring that all the previous users' data has been deleted securely. If it's running Panther, you can't do this as the feature was introduced with Tiger.

Yes it's panther and I want to do a clean install. But with no discs it looks like Im straight out of luck. So doing it manually is the only way?

 

[cal6n]

Yep. Without the installer, you're pretty much boned!

But...

I've read tales on the internet of people who've lost their discs and phoned Apple. Apple sometimes have copies of the original installation media that they are prepared to sell for a nominal charge.

Give them a call. You may be surprised.

 

[MacOG728893]

BUMP

How to I boot from a CD on 10.3? Holding C does not work and I don't have an old wired apple keyboard just a couple new bluetooth ones so I can't hold option... Im using a dell keyboard

Any help..

Never mind this...