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“This software cannot be installed on this computer”

F

fiskah

macrumors newbie
Original poster
Nov 6, 2008
27
0
I have a problem :)

I have a Macbook Pro from 2007 that came with OS X 10.4 Tiger. After Leopard came out I upgraded, and now I want to reformat it all to get a clean install. Therefore I chucked in a Leopard DVD that I had laying around, and started to install. It said that install failed and that I had to format my drive with Disk Utility from the DVD. So I did that.

After that I got an error just stating that it could not install because apparently the DVD I had was a upgrade DVD, and since I formatted my harddrive I didn't have Tiger on it anymore.

Therefore I am now stuck with an empty harddrive and a DVD that won't install OS X for me. Therefore I thought I'd go for the Tiger DVD - which I of course couldn't find... Or rather the Tiger DVD I have seems to be from another Mac because it says "This software cannot be installed on this computer".

What do I do now? I have 3 sets of Tiger DVD's, 2 sets of Leopard DVD's, but none of those will install on my Mac. Any ideas?
 
So, you've lost the Tiger install disc that came with your Mac originally, and your Leopard install disc is only an upgrade.

You have Tiger install discs, but by the sounds of things they came with other Macs, and so won't install on this particular machine.

In a word, you're stuffed. You need to buy or "locate" a retail full version of Tiger or ideally just Leopard.
 
edesignuk said:
In a word, you're stuffed. You need to buy or "locate" a retail full version of Tiger or ideally just Leopard.
Click to expand...

Crap :)

I've "located" a retail Leopard DVD, problem is that it won't boot. I chuck in the DVD, reboot, hold C, after a minute or so, the DVD pops out... Wtf? :)
 
uberamd said:
Can your drive read dual-layer DVD?
Click to expand...

Yes, both read and write :)
I have a dual layer Leopard upgrade DVD that works fine... Except that it can't upgrade when there is no Tiger installed already.

I guess my next step will be to install Tiger from a Tiger retail DVD if I can find one.
 
Is the other Mac that boots off the DVD an Intel Mac with Firewire?

If so:
-Boot your Macbook into Target Disc Mode (hold 'T' while booting and you will see a Firewire logo)
-Connect to the bootable Mac via Firewire
-Boot the good Mac off of the DVD
-Install Leopard onto the Macbook

This would likely also work with any other Intel Mac you may have using that computers model specific install disc.
 
velocityg4 said:
Is the other Mac that boots off the DVD an Intel Mac with Firewire?

If so:
-Boot your Macbook into Target Disc Mode (hold 'T' while booting and you will see a Firewire logo)
-Connect to the bootable Mac via Firewire
-Boot the good Mac off of the DVD
-Install Leopard onto the Macbook

This would likely also work with any other Intel Mac you may have using that computers model specific install disc.
Click to expand...

That worked! I put my Macbook Pro into target mode, booted the Macbook from the DVD, installed onto the Macbook Pro.

Its currently installing, so it'll be interesting to see if it can boot afterwards :)
 
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