Need OS on my Early 2008 24

[Brooklin Canvas]

Hi all. I have an early 2008 (8,1) 24 inch IMac. It developed issues a year ago when updating the OS I think. At the time I went ahead and picked up a new machine for the family. I took a crack earlier this week at getting the 24 inch going again. I found the original 10.5 install disks. My first attempt I managed to get 10.5 running and updated to the extent it would update. However...I cant find the 10.6 physical disk to get it to Snow Leopard...thus enabling easy download and upgrading to say...10.11 On my second attempt..I tried a full restore (picking a date forward enough in Time Machine from my external G Drive) to get to 10.8 No luck ..even though it said it installed..it wouldn't boot. No matter on the personal files on the 24...they are on other Macs. I was just looking to get the OS to a point that I could use the OS upgrade from Apple. So..now my machine pretty much has nothing on the drive...or at least it will when I use the disk Util again. My question is this....is there a way to get my 24 inch back running without having to buy the physical Snow Leopard disk? I have a new Mac sitting beside the old and would like a clean install of an OS that the Early 2008 will handle.

 

[Mr_Brightside_@]

http://www.apple.com/ca/shop/produc...cb8fa909f1834ac2e5db695c47ffe703b49585b6e269c

I also live in Toronto and have a copy you can borrow. PM me if you want.

EDIT sorry read the last line about buying it so my link doesn't help

 

[roadkill401]

You said in your post that you picked up a new machine. If that machine happened to be another mac, then would you not have access to the OS through that machine? I gather that you could from the other mac make a bootable USB drive that could be used to install the os from

 

[DeltaMac]

Just to expand on that -
If you go to the newer Mac, then the App Store - do you have any OS X installs on your Purchased tab?
Mountain Lion, or Yosemite might be a good choice. You can download whatever might show in your Purchased tab, then make a bootable install on a USB flash drive from that download. There's steps to make those that are pretty easy to do. Then, with a bootable flash drive, you can upgrade that 2008 iMac easily.

 

[Fishrrman]

For a 2008 iMac with a platter-based internal hard drive, I'd recommend that you go NO FURTHER "forward" than OS 10.8.5.

If you try putting El Capitan or Sierra on it, I predict you may be VERY dissatisfied with the iMac's performance. The "modern" OS's really need either an SSD or a fusion drive to yield good performance.

I realize that "perceived performance" is a very individual trait, and what would seem "slow" to me, might not be to you.

OS 10.6 "Snow leopard" is also a good OS, getting a little dated by now.

I suggest you "hunt up" a copy of 10.8 "Mountain Lion".
You probably -can't get it- from Apple.
BUT...there are other sources and other ways.
Choose carefully, and you'll have no problems.

Sometimes a man's got to do, what a man's got to do.