How to do a clean install of OS X on my iBook?

February 20, 2007 10:12 PM

How do I do a clean install of OS X on a used iBook G4 if I don't have the original discs?

I recently bought a used Apple iBook and want to format it and do a clean install. Unfortunately, the original owner lost all the CDs that it came with. How do I obtain a copy of the disc for cheap? Can I use OS X 10.4 Tiger that came with my MacBook? The stats of my iBook are the following: iBook G4, 1.33 GHz, 256 MB memory, Mac OS X version 10.3.9.

posted by apple to Computers & Internet (3 answers total)

Your MacBook disc set has an Intel OS X installer, and will not work on your PowerPC-based iBook G4. You'll need to buy, beg or borrow a 10.4 (PPC/Universal) or 10.3 installation disc set.
posted by Blazecock Pileon at 10:22 PM on February 20, 2007

As a former Apple Store employee, I know the Genius Bar at your local Apple Store has external hard drives (and discs) with installation images for every system you can think of.

They probably won't give you Tiger for free, but any Genius can set you up to do a fresh install with your iBook's original OS.

Make a reservation first, though.
posted by coolhappysteve at 10:43 PM on February 20, 2007

Delete all of the user folders except shared (maybe using Target disk mode from the MacBook), and you'll get the initial setup wzard the next time you restart. Also, there'll probably be all sorts of crap in /Library/ and elsewhere on the disk (NB don't touch /System/Library/). That'll give you close to a clean install.
posted by cillit bang at 5:46 AM on February 21, 2007