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MacBook problem

B

Bizzyfingers

macrumors newbie
Original poster
Oct 31, 2009
6
0
Hi all, this is my first post so please be gentil.

I've just bought a MacBook (White, 2.1ghz, 1 gig ram). Thing is the previous owner had a friend install xp as he didn't like the operating system. When I turn the computer on it boots straight from xp and no choice to choose osx. I've tried holding down option which brings the selection for windows only! I have a mac mini so I tried the software disc from that (knew I had no chance but worth a try)... No joy

I found boot camp on control panel, inserted mac os disc, selected it to boot from it... No joy just a White screen then black, and the xp logo starts.


Any ideas how to get this vile software off my MacBook please???
 
What Mac OS Disc did you take? From the Mini?

Didn't come any installation disks with the purchase?

If not, you could get Snow Leopard for 29USD at an electronic market near you and try it with that.

And when a DVD is inside the drive, that is also bootable, you can boot from that DVD by pressing and holding down "C" after turning on the Mac.
 
spinnerlys said:
What Mac OS Disc did you take? From the Mini?

Didn't come any installation disks with the purchase?

If not, you could get Snow Leopard for 29USD at an electronic market near you and try it with that.

And when a DVD is inside the drive, that is also bootable, you can boot from that DVD by pressing and holding down "C" after turning on the Mac.
Click to expand...

The guy i bought it from did not have the original disc which is SO annoying! I was trying to install 10.4 (tiger) i know now that this is impossible to do.

Id now like to know where to buy the original 10.5 disc? Ive looked on ebay, just missed out on a full pack... gutted

(thank you for the speedy reply)
 
You need at least Mac OS X 10.5.2 till 10.5.5/6, as a Mac cannot get a system installed prior to the one they were delivered with. As your model was introduced in Mid-2008 till before January 2009.

Why don't you get a Snow Leopard DVD? It's only 29USD, and many auctions I've seen selling Leopard still sometimes want the original price of 129USD.
Thee are also some wanting "only" 79USD.
 
spinnerlys said:
You need at least Mac OS X 10.5.2 till 10.5.5/6, as a Mac cannot get a system installed prior to the one they were delivered with. As your model was introduced in Mid-2008 till before January 2009.

Why don't you get a Snow Leopard DVD? It's only 29USD, and many auctions I've seen selling Leopard still sometimes want the original price of 129USD.
Thee are also some wanting "only" 79USD.
Click to expand...

I hope that works, it just seems as if my macbook has no mac os at all left on the machine. Will the snow leopard disk work as its not really going to be an upgrade, it will be a re-installation? That would be great as i can walk in a shop and buy it instead of relaying on people ebay for it.
 
It worked for me, and according to many threads here and some on AI, it will work.
It even works with machines, that came with Tiger, although that is a violation of the EULA.

But in your case it wouldn't be, as your machine came with Leopard, even though you didn't get the Installation DVDs.

Another tidbit of information: you can get replacement installation DVDs with Leopard for your MacBook from Apple for a fee of 30USD as far as I know.
 
spinnerlys said:
It worked for me, and according to many threads here and some on AI, it will work.
It even works with machines, that came with Tiger, although that is a violation of the EULA.

But in your case it wouldn't be, as your machine came with Leopard, even though you didn't get the Installation DVDs.

Another tidbit of information: you can get replacement installation DVDs with Leopard for your MacBook from Apple for a fee of 30USD as far as I know.
Click to expand...

I will purchase the upgrade disk tomorrow and give it a try, as for the apple replacements ive just been reading on the apple website of advice on questions and answers, "Apple stores do not sell older operating systems - such as Leopard 10.5 - you will have to get Leopard 10.5 if you want it from Ebay or somewhere similar", thats a shame really.
 
Bizzyfingers said:
I will purchase the upgrade disk tomorrow and give it a try, as for the apple replacements ive just been reading on the apple website of advice on questions and answers, "Apple stores do not sell older operating systems - such as Leopard 10.5 - you will have to get Leopard 10.5 if you want it from Ebay or somewhere similar", thats a shame really.
Click to expand...

I think you have to contact Apple Support via telephone or maybe eMail, but Apple offers replacement installation DVDs for their machines. They just don't sell it in stores as it seems.
 
spinnerlys said:
I think you have to contact Apple Support via telephone or maybe eMail, but Apple offers replacement installation DVDs for their machines. They just don't sell it in stores as it seems.
Click to expand...

Excellent! Ill contact them tomorrow, thank you very much. I will buy snow leopard anyway and try that, if it does not work I will upgrade when i do find a replacement. Your advice is worth a thousand £$.

I will read into it but as an overview (as ive never used it yet, just tiger), what are the main differences in leopard/snow leopard?
 
thank you spinnerlys for the advice, i bought snow leopard. it worked pretty much painlessly. once again thank you very much, its much appreciated!
 
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