Installing OS on iBook with no DVD?

[Maury]

I have a clamshell iBook (not sure which model) with what appears to be a non-functional DVD drive. Is there any way I can install off of some other media? I'd like to zero it and re-install... its still a perfectly good web surfer.

 

[davidlv]

I have a clamshell iBook (not sure which model) with what appears to be a non-functional DVD drive. Is there any way I can install off of some other media? I'd like to zero it and re-install... its still a perfectly good web surfer.

Use the info from the About this Mac item in the Apple Menu and MacTracker (freeware) to determine what model it is and what CPU it has. Check out the CD or DVD capability too. The media drives in that old model were CD-ROM only (firewire equipped models had DVD-ROM too) so they could read/write to CDs only and were not able to read from a DVD. The latest OS they could use was Panther 10.3.9.

 

[OllyW]

Years ago I installed Tiger on my old iBook using FireWire target disc mode from my G5 tower.

 

[Rreini]

What davidlv said is true for the oldest clamshell iBook models. Ones that have Firewire can indeed take advantage of Target Disk Mode and can run Tiger (10.4.11).

 

[Maury]

What davidlv said is true for the oldest clamshell iBook models. Ones that have Firewire can indeed take advantage of Target Disk Mode and can run Tiger (10.4.11).

Sorry for my tardy reply everyone. This is very helpful, I'll get to work on this today.

 

[Maury]

Ok, it is definitely a 1st gen machine "Special Edition", with a CD only. It already has 10.3.9 on it. There's no FireWire on it.

The original owner split the drive into several partitions. My goal here is to re-form these into a single logical drive. Preferrably I would like to wipe the drive completely and re-install. I'm preparing to give it away.

Any suggestions?

 

[California]

Ok, it is definitely a 1st gen machine "Special Edition", with a CD only. It already has 10.3.9 on it. There's no FireWire on it.

The original owner split the drive into several partitions. My goal here is to re-form these into a single logical drive. Preferrably I would like to wipe the drive completely and re-install. I'm preparing to give it away.

Any suggestions?

You can get Tiger on CD. I may have these discs somewhere. PM me and I might sell them to you.