Installing iMac (OS X Tiger) w/o original CD's

[DennizZ]

Hi guys,

I've bought a iMac late 2007 (Intel C2D) 20" second hand a while ago.
It didn't came with the original DVD's (in fact: no DVD's at all).
Snow Leopard was installed by the previous owner, which I continued working with (even updated to Lion eventually).

I've replaced the harddrive for a 1TB one, but I can't install the iMac.
When booting from the Snow Leopard DVD i get a error message saying that the iMac is unsupported for this installation.
Originally there should be Tiger on it, but I've downloaded several Tiger DVD's, but my iMac won't boot from Tiger DVD's.

Is there a way to install Lion or Snow Leopard directly?
Or what are my chances to find a Tiger DVD?

 

[old-wiz]

Apple will replace the original install DVDs for a small fee; they are called fulfillment disks I believe.

 

[r0k]

So you replaced your HDD with a 1TB drive? Did you consider cloning it before swapping? When I replace a HDD, I first clone the old HDD to the new one, then I boot from the new one and if it boots I open the machine and swap it. My method requires an SATA to USB cable and the freeware Carbon Copy Cloner. You might still be able to use this method by using an SATA to USB cable, booting from your old drive and then cloning to the new 1TB drive.

Even if Apple charges only $10 for a replacement disk, you might be better off spending your ten bucks on an SATA to USB cable.