Restoring a Rev. A 12" PowerBook G4 - questions

[sethypoo]

Please see new question below (post #5)! Thank you!

So I need to restore my Rev. A 12" PowerBook G4 before I sell it to a friend. The thing is, I've misplaced my restore disks that came with the PB when I bought it. I do own Mac OS X Tiger: my questions are these:

1. Can I restore my PB G4 from the Tiger disks, and
2. Will it also remove iLife, and every other similar "core" program on the computer?

 

[sethypoo]

A third question is this: can I use an iMac G4's restore disks on my PB G4?

 

[aquajet]

So I need to restore my Rev. A 12" PowerBook G4 before I sell it to a friend. The thing is, I've misplaced my restore disks that came with the PB when I bought it. I do own Mac OS X Tiger: my questions are these:

1. Can I restore my PB G4 from the Tiger disks, and
2. Will it also remove iLife, and every other similar "core" program on the computer?

1. Your Tiger disk will only install Mac OS X Tiger, nothing more.

2. iLife is not included on the Tiger retail disk. Only the original Mac OS X restore disks include iLife. Other applications bundled with the system will be lost as well.

3. In my experience, it is possible to reinstall Mac OS X using install disks for a different computer. However, the software restore function, which installs all the additional bundled applications, does not work. Also, the legality of this is questionable.

I would recommend creating a new administrative user account for your friend and deleting your current account. At this point, you could delete your old Home folder along with all your personal files (after you back up, of course). Then open disk utility, select your hard drive from the left column, click the "Erase" header below the main toolbar, and click "Erase free space..." in order to ensure all of your personal files are permanently removed from your hard drive. This will ensure all your personal information is gone and you won't have to worry about selling your friend a computer with an incomplete software package.

 

[sethypoo]

1. Your Tiger disk will only install Mac OS X Tiger, nothing more.

2. iLife is not included on the Tiger retail disk. Only the original Mac OS X restore disks include iLife. Other applications bundled with the system will be lost as well.

3. In my experience, it is possible to reinstall Mac OS X using install disks for a different computer. However, the software restore function, which installs all the additional bundled applications, does not work. Also, the legality of this is questionable.

I would recommend creating a new administrative user account for your friend and deleting your current account. At this point, you could delete your old Home folder along with all your personal files (after you back up, of course). Then open disk utility, select your hard drive from the left column, click the "Erase" header below the main toolbar, and click "Erase free space..." in order to ensure all of your personal files are permanently removed from your hard drive. This will ensure all your personal information is gone and you won't have to worry about selling your friend a computer with an incomplete software package.

Thanks for the advice, but if I create a new account for my friend, will the computer still be call "Seth's Computer"? I'd like it to have my friend's name.

 

[sethypoo]

I guess this could be considered a bump post, but I would like to know if creating a new admin account for my friend and deleting my main admin account would allow the computer to be named something other than "Seth's Computer." My friend's name is Nate, and I'd like it to be called "Nate's Computer," or whatever or wants to call it. Does anyone know if this is possible?

 

[Makosuke]

The computer's name is whatever you set in the Sharing Preference pane. Any authenticated user can change it to anything, and it's not at all permanent--just go in and change it to something generic, and if you'd like explain to your friend how to do change it to something else.

 

[sethypoo]

Thank you! I actually figured it out on my own. I appreciate the help!

Seth