MAC OSX 10.4 Reinstall

I recently purchased a used MAC book from a friend, it did not come with any restore cd's or dvd's how can i reformat and reinstall the OS. I do have a copy of Tiger on DVD. Pleae help

 

You can simply use your Tiger DVD. Apple's OS X v10.4 Tiger Support Page.

 

I cannot get into the MAC OS SOftware. The Mac has windows XP SP2 installed

 

You didn't mention that before. Your MacBook probably has both Windows XP and Mac OSX installed via Boot Camp. To get into the Mac Operating System Restart and hold Option during the boot process until you see what looks like 2 hard disk drive images, then select OSX.

Or if you're in Windows go to the Control Panel --> Startup Disk and select OSX. When you Restart the next time OSX will load. Or if you've held Option and booted into OSX go to System Preferences --> Startup Disk and select OSX. Both will make Mac OSX the default Operating System.

Once you're in OSX use your Tiger DVD to reinstall.

 

MAC OS is not installed on the MacBook. It has Windows XP installed only. I want to restore it to OSX All i have received with this MacBook is the MacBook a OSX 10.4 Install DVD.

 

Ohh trust me the macbook has only windows xp installed. I talked to the guy that sold it to me and he said that he put in an original windows xp cd booted from it the cd and formated the drive and installed windows xp. no dual boot no partition.

 

that sounds bad man.. haha

 

Are you sure? Did you actually try any of those suggestions?

If so, good luck. I really do not know the best solution in that case.

I have some ideas of what you could, but I'm unsure and don't want to give you any bad advice. It involves erasing/unformatting your hard drive; then you would be able to use the Tiger Install DVD just like a MB Hard Drive Upgrade Installation (PDF). But you should definitely wait for someone else's input.

Sorry I could not help.

 

If you have the OS X dvd then just boot to it. All you have to do is put the DVD in the drive, start the machine and hold down the option key when you here the dong. After a few seconds it will give you the choice to boot to the OS or DVD. BTW, likely, OS X will also be an option.

If that does not happen then your friend did something stupid, and you will need to completely wipe the drive with something like Derik's Boot and Nuke:
http://dban.sourceforge.net/

 

I highly doubt there is only XP installed. Windows XP doesn't recognize EFI interface (which is what Macs use), thus BootCamp is needed to install Windows. Bootcamp requires OS X, ergo if you have XP on a Mac, you also have OS X. The only way he could have gotten around this is if he used a hacked copy of XP or some special engineering sample that supported EFI (Intel engineers have copies for example). Just try holding the Option key down when you start it up and see what happens.

 

Is it some guy that sold it to you or your friend? You changed your wording about who he is on your 4th post. At any rate it's highly unlikely that OS X is not installed but if that's so he should be able to tell you what he did and restore the computer for you since he sold it to you. It's easier for him to tell you then us since we can't see it. Good luck.
One other note, your Tiger DVD has to be UB. If it's PPC then you can't use it.

 

Thanks for all your help guys but i think that i will need to purchase the original restore cd/dvd from apple or even e-bay. I formatted the drive using D-Ban secure wipe and tried booting from the Tiger DVD but i don't think it's bootable as when i hold the Option key it displays a folder with a question mark

 

thats because the tiger dvd you bought off of the shelf is ppc only.

every intel mac that apple has ever sold comes with the tiger dvd, so there is no need for them to sell the UB version. again, if you buy an intel mac, you are the only person who is allowed to use the UB version anyway, and the physical media comes packaged with your laptop.

you won't be able to install tiger from the dvd you have now. you need to return it to the store you bought it from. also, you need to get the tiger dvd from your friend / some guy who sold you the laptop.

otherwise, you can wait a month or two for them to release leopard, which you can buy as a universal binary.

 

Thank you that explains everyhting.

 

If you bought this off a friend, ask him for the DVD. If he does not have it, call Apple. They will likely replace the DVD for you. It is at least worth a shot.