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pcs are junk

macrumors 65816
Original poster
Sep 28, 2009
1,046
0
Hi guys, I've been reading some things, about people saying that a copy of Mac OS X that came with a Mac, will not work on another Mac. Then I've also heard that people have been saying it doesn't have the right drivers. So a few months ago I've managed to make a Hackintosh, and that didn't have the right drivers either so I managed to get all the drivers except Wi-Fi and HPWebcam drivers. Now drivers are called drivers on a PC, but on a Mac sometimes people called them kexts. (Kernel Extensions). So if a copy of Mac OS X ran on a PC, which it didn't have the right drivers for, then shouldn't a copy of Mac OS X that came with a Mac work on another Mac? Because I can just hunt down the required kexts...right?
 
The installer does a check for the machine ID on your Mac. Otherwise it does support every Mac released up to that point and that the version of OS X does.
 
I'm wondering if the install disk will over-write everything on the other mac? I would hate to see it wipe everything off.:(
 
It won't. Even a non-system-specific installer disc wouldn't unless you explicitly tell it to, and it would be very obvious what you were about to do (and its consequences) if you did. The disc utility on the installer disc does much more than reformat the drive for a fresh install of OS X; it can do an in-place repair of OS X, repartition unused portions of the hard drive, repair errors on the hard drive, etc.
 
I'm wondering if the install disk will over-write everything on the other mac? I would hate to see it wipe everything off.:(

No because you cannot boot off of it, and you can execute the installer if you just pop it into the mac w/o rebooting. In both cases it will check the machine type and if its different, it will stop and not let you proceed.
 
there are some grey labled CDs that came with a certain model and work on others. For example the CDs that came with the eMacs, they work on iMac G3s.

But safest way is to use a black labled retail version, which will work in every Mac that has the Systemrequirements. This was what I had experienced.

I had a private copy of a CD that worked in nearly every Mac tested, but refused to install on an iMac G3 (it started doing and then after having done some percentage of the whole, it stopped).

But you can connect your Mac via target mode and use a grey labled (model stuck version) in the one, that you are using as the main one. You put in the CD and the Installer will act, as if the other Mac connected via target mode, was a second drive or partitition of the one you have the CD in.

After doing that you will sometimes have to reset PRAM on the Mac you had the CD in, because it still thinks it has to search for the "second external" drive. But it wil start right away after a half of a second still, if you don't reset PRAM.

Unfortunately after resetting PRAM my ibook forgot all Apple Work files and folders, when searching them via spotlight. I did have to open every Apple work file and type spacebar once (so that it thinks you have changed the file) and then click on save. Folders have to be made new, and the old ones erased. Quiet anoying...
 
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