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How to setup an old iMac G4 for resale

drsox

drsox

macrumors 68000
Original poster
Apr 29, 2011
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I have an iMac G4/800 17in (this one : http://www.everymac.com/systems/apple/imac/specs/imac_800_17_fp.html) to sell for a friend. It's running OSX 10.3.9. With my new Macs I would do internet recovery or reinstall by using and then disconnecting an external drive. This iMac has no internet recovery (I'm pretty sure) and also has no install discs with it.

What can I do to remove the old stuff other than deleting it a bit at a time ?
 
maflynn said:
Your best bet is to do a clean install with the system disks. Since they're gone, perhaps pick up a copy cheaply on ebay.
Click to expand...
Thanks. What version should I look for - the original one (10.1.2) or the one that is on it now (10.3.9) or any one in-between ? How many discs are there in a single version ? Cheers
 
drsox said:
Thanks. What version should I look for - the original one (10.1.2) or the one that is on it now (10.3.9) or any one in-between ? How many discs are there in a single version ? Cheers
Click to expand...
Here's your choice of OS X: http://macintoshgarden.org/apps/mac-osx-mac-os-10-ppc
I'd go for Panther or Tiger.
You may start the imac G4 in target mode, connect it with firewire to your own Mac and run the installation without burnig a DVD from your current Mac onto the G4 iMac.
[doublepost=1469450391][/doublepost]If your friend need WiFi I'd recommend an Edimax USB mini ethernet adapter, because the seller provides drivers for early PPC-OSX (the iMacs Airport does not support current security standards).
 
bobesch said:
Here's your choice of OS X: http://macintoshgarden.org/apps/mac-osx-mac-os-10-ppc
I'd go for Panther or Tiger.
You may start the imac G4 in target mode, connect it with firewire to your own Mac and run the installation without burnig a DVD from your current Mac onto the G4 iMac.
[doublepost=1469450391][/doublepost]If your friend need WiFi I'd recommend an Edimax USB mini ethernet adapter, because the seller provides drivers for early PPC-OSX (the iMacs Airport does not support current security standards).
Click to expand...
Thanks for the info. Very helpful.
I've never used DVDs in OSX before so I'm going to have to ask some dumb questions. (Can't go the firewire route as I have no other firewire devices.) How do I burn the DVDs from the expanded files. Do I need an OSX version of Roxio (e.g. ?) or is there a native OSX burner app included somewhere ?

Cheers
 
drsox said:
Thanks for the info. Very helpful.
I've never used DVDs in OSX before so I'm going to have to ask some dumb questions. (Can't go the firewire route as I have no other firewire devices.) How do I burn the DVDs from the expanded files. Do I need an OSX version of Roxio (e.g. ?) or is there a native OSX burner app included somewhere ?

Cheers
Click to expand...
You can simply open Disk Utility, select the image and click Burn.
 
bobesch said:
Here's your choice of OS X: http://macintoshgarden.org/apps/mac-osx-mac-os-10-ppc
I'd go for Panther or Tiger.
You may start the imac G4 in target mode, connect it with firewire to your own Mac and run the installation without burnig a DVD from your current Mac onto the G4 iMac.
[doublepost=1469450391][/doublepost]If your friend need WiFi I'd recommend an Edimax USB mini ethernet adapter, because the seller provides drivers for early PPC-OSX (the iMacs Airport does not support current security standards).
Click to expand...
I tried downloading and burning these. Neither worked. Panther CD1 and Tiger CD1 were not recognised as being able to use as boot discs. What else should I be doing to get these to work ?
 
drsox said:
I tried downloading and burning these. Neither worked. Panther CD1 and Tiger CD1 were not recognised as being able to use as boot discs. What else should I be doing to get these to work ?
Click to expand...
Panther CD-images are signed as toast-images. Maybe it requires Toast to burn a bootable cd?
 
bobesch said:
Panther CD-images are signed as toast-images. Maybe it requires Toast to burn a bootable cd?
Click to expand...
No, as .toast is just a fancy .iso. The Tiger discs are .toast files as well, and I burned them fine after changing the extension to .iso. You are holding C while booting the Mac, right, @drsox? Or try holding Option during boot, sometimes it takes it a few tries and that tends to help.
 
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I'd go for the Tiger 10.4.6.dmg - that will require writing to DVD - though some aging Macs struggle reading/booting from DVDs.
Failing that, download Toast from the same site and burn the CD image using that.
 
bobesch said:
Panther CD-images are signed as toast-images. Maybe it requires Toast to burn a bootable cd?
Click to expand...
I renamed the files as .iso, then they burnt OK, but did not boot.
[doublepost=1469472430][/doublepost]
Daniël Oosterhuis said:
No, as .toast is just a fancy .iso. The Tiger discs are .toast files as well, and I burned them fine after changing the extension to .iso. You are holding C while booting the Mac, right, @drsox? Or try holding Option during boot, sometimes it takes it a few tries and that tends to help.
Click to expand...
Yes, I tried that also. Does the process fail if I'm trying to boot with a .iso that is "lower" than the existing OS ? i.e trying to overwrite a 10.3.9 structure wth a 10.3.1 version ? But in this case the 10.4.x (Tiger) also failed on a 10.3.9 drive.
[doublepost=1469472473][/doublepost]
Dronecatcher said:
I'd go for the Tiger 10.4.6.dmg - that will require writing to DVD - though some aging Macs struggle reading/booting from DVDs.
Failing that, download Toast from the same site and burn the CD image using that.
Click to expand...
Where's the toast .dmg ? On the same site ?
 
Dronecatcher said:
http://macintoshgarden.org/apps/toast-5-titanium

Another point to consider is preferably burn to -R disks - Macs can be fussy. Although it plays DVDs and CDs fine my G4 iMac will not boot from one, in fact any attempt completely locks it up, you can't even reach Open firmware - I have to prize it from the mechanism.
Click to expand...
Thanks. Tried that. I burnt a CD-R of Panther CD1 - that didn't work either.
 
It may well be the drive is not fully functional same as mine.

Another way in is to write a disk image to a USB stick then get the iMac to boot from that - it's not something I've done but there's plenty of guides in this forum.
 
Does it spit out the disc? Again, try holding the Option button on the keyboard while it boots. It will show all the boot devices. If it spits it out, put it back in and hit refresh, and maybe, just maybe, it will accept the disc. I've had to do this with my Quicksilver every time I wanted to boot it off any disc, but it works!
 
I might have solved this ! I had the inkling that the files that my 2x CD writers were writing were just too "new" for the iMac's CD reader to see (as far as a boot is concerned). So I made a new CD-R using the iMac's writer and the .iso files I had already burnt to disc. (Copied to the iMac's desktop from the iMac CD reader). Well, CD1 was recognised as a valid boot option, but not CD2. Would CD2 be expected to be bootable as well or does CD2 just follow on from CD1 in the install process ? CD3 also fails to be recognised.
 
Last edited:
Dronecatcher said:
It may well be the drive is not fully functional same as mine.

Another way in is to write a disk image to a USB stick then get the iMac to boot from that - it's not something I've done but there's plenty of guides in this forum.
Click to expand...
Any comment on my question #19 ?
[doublepost=1469597511][/doublepost]
Daniël Oosterhuis said:
Does it spit out the disc? Again, try holding the Option button on the keyboard while it boots. It will show all the boot devices. If it spits it out, put it back in and hit refresh, and maybe, just maybe, it will accept the disc. I've had to do this with my Quicksilver every time I wanted to boot it off any disc, but it works!
Click to expand...
Any comment on my question #19 ?
 
drsox said:
I might have solved this ! I had the inkling that the files that my 2x CD writers were writing were just too "new" for the iMac's CD reader to see (as far as a boot is concerned). So I made a new CD-R using the iMac's writer and the .iso files I had already burnt to disc. (Copied to the iMac's desktop from the iMac CD reader). Well, CD1 was recognised as a valid boot option, but not CD2. Would CD2 be expected to be bootable as well or does CD2 just follow on from CD1 in the install process ? CD3 also fails to be recognised.
Click to expand...

I have the Tiger 4 CD set and CD2 can't be booted from which makes perfect sense - it's always worked fine after using CD1.
 
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The second, third and fourth CDs are not bootable. The installer will ask you to swap the discs, it doesn't reboot.
 
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What I've done in the past is to simply create a new admin user with a simple password and then delete the original user you had. That way the applications are intact and your user account is deleted.
 
Slix said:
What I've done in the past is to simply create a new admin user with a simple password and then delete the original user you had. That way the applications are intact and your user account is deleted.
Click to expand...
Going into the single user mode and deleting the user account is better. Upon reboot, it will play the Welcome video and guide the new user as if it were a clean install.
 
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