iMac 2008 install OS X on SSD

[ebuzatti]

I have a beautiful iMac 2008 20" (A1224) OS X 10.4.11 installed, 320GB HDD.
I bought a new SSD and tried to install OS X on it. I've pressed the Command-R and after a while I've got a folder icon with question mark in it. What did I wrong?
After a couple of googles I tried to make a backup from the HDD but no Timemachine or any other kind of backup software found.
I would like to install the possibly most newer version of OS X.
Any advice welcome

 

[Roman78]

Well... CMD+R is booting from the restore Partition, but there is non on the new SSD. So that would not work.

Hmmm 10.4.11 did not even has a Restore Partition as far as i know.

You would need a newer OS, either from a retail (colored not gray) DVD (Official are 10.6 or 10.6.3) or an non-official installation USB-Stick. Or even better, if you own a second Apple Computer, you could clone the installation from there. You could also clone the 10.4.11 from your old harddisk to the new SSD using Carbon Copy Cloner, but you would need an older version.

 

[CoastalOR]

I have a beautiful iMac 2008 20" (A1224) OS X 10.4.11 installed, 320GB HDD.
I bought a new SSD and tried to install OS X on it. I've pressed the Command-R and after a while I've got a folder icon with question mark in it. What did I wrong?
After a couple of googles I tried to make a backup from the HDD but no Timemachine or any other kind of backup software found.
I would like to install the possibly most newer version of OS X.
Any advice welcome

I think you have a 2007 iMac since it shipped with OS 10.4 and the 2008 shipped with 10.5. The 2007 20" and the 2008 20" were both a A1224. The 2007 20" iMac was produced August 2007 - April 2008.

Time Machine wasn't available for 10.4. The maximum macOS for your iMac is El Capitan (10.11.6).
https://support.apple.com/en-gb/HT206886

You can make a clone of your working 10.4.11 HDD to the new SSD (you will need an external enclosure since both drives need to connected at the same time). I recommend Carbon Copy Cloner (fully functional trial for 30 days). You need version 3.4.7 for support of 10.4 (see the link towards the bottom of the CCC download page):
https://bombich.com/download

In order to download 10.11 you need a minimum OS of 10.6.8 (Snow Leopard).
Getting there is a problem. It appears that the Apple site does not sell the Snow Leopard commercial DVD anymore. To download any other macOS you need a Mac with a working OS of 10.7 to 10.11.
Do you have any other working Macs that is capable of running El Capitan that could be used to download El Capitan?

 

[ebuzatti]

I think you have a 2007 iMac since it shipped with OS 10.4 and the 2008 shipped with 10.5. The 2007 20" and the 2008 20" were both a A1224. The 2007 20" iMac was produced August 2007 - April 2008.

Time Machine wasn't available for 10.4. The maximum macOS for your iMac is El Capitan (10.11.6).
https://support.apple.com/en-gb/HT206886

You can make a clone of your working 10.4.11 HDD to the new SSD (you will need an external enclosure since both drives need to connected at the same time). I recommend Carbon Copy Cloner (fully functional trial for 30 days). You need version 3.4.7 for support of 10.4 (see the link towards the bottom of the CCC download page):
https://bombich.com/download

In order to download 10.11 you need a minimum OS of 10.6.8 (Snow Leopard).
Getting there is a problem. It appears that the Apple site does not sell the Snow Leopard commercial DVD anymore. To download any other macOS you need a Mac with a working OS of 10.7 to 10.11.
Do you have any other working Macs that is capable of running El Capitan that could be used to download El Capitan?

I try to contact a friend of mine who has such a machine and as far as I remember there it has newer version of OSX. That machine has 500DB SSD, I have 240GB, can I clone from bigger to smaller?

 

[CoastalOR]

I try to contact a friend of mine who has such a machine and as far as I remember there it has newer version of OSX. That machine has 500DB SSD, I have 240GB, can I clone from bigger to smaller?

Yes you can, it is not the size of the drive but how much data is on it, if you are using something like Carbon Copy Cloner to SuperDuper! which copies the files. If the Source drive contains 100 GB of data then that is what it copies to the Target drive. I can't speak about other copy software that I have not used.

 

[ebuzatti]

Getting a cloned OS wan't succesfull I have got an El capitan installer instead on USB. Installer started normally but after a while - at about 60% of progressbar - an aslope scored circle presented and the installer seems to by stalled.
What can I do?

 

[CoastalOR]

Getting a cloned OS wan't succesfull

Tell me more about what you mean by "cloned OS". What did do?

( I have got an El capitan installer instead on USB. Installer started normally but after a while - at about 60% of progressbar - an aslope scored circle presented and the installer seems to by stalled.
What can I do?

You have to have a minimum of Snow Leopard (10.6) installed to install El Capitan.
https://support.apple.com/en-gb/HT206886

 

[ebuzatti]

About clone I thought one of my friend's machine available yet but it isn't.

About Snow Leopard: I try to install it on a brand new SSD which isn't formatted either so I have to install OS from scratch.