[Danoir]

I have an iMac that I am selling. My copy of Panther is in a different state. I just got my new iBook. Can I use those system discs to wipe clean and re-install Panther on the imac for the next owner or do I need my box copy of Panther for that. I remember trying something like this once with OS 9 and it didn't work so well.

Danoir

[Mithras]

Yup, works fine. OS X has cleaned up much of the machine hyper-dependency of Classic Mac OS.

[michaelb]

Well, I don't know.

I've just got a new G5 and had a go at installing Mac OS X on a G4 using the G5 install discs. (I removed one of its drives to put in the G5 so now it's system-less).

Got as far as "Bundled software cannot be installed on this machine." No option to continue.

(Fortunately I do have a boxed copy of Panther, it just has to be updated all the way from 10.3 to 10.3.6 and iLife installed, etc.)

Of course, the iMac/iBook issue may be different.

[Danoir]

Yeah, not so much. I got the same response as our friend michaelb here. I guess I have to wait for my dad to find the Panther discs and mail them back to me.

Follow-up question. Now that I've wiped the iMac drive, can I use it in Target Disc Mode so that I can dump my iBook drive on there before replacing it, or does OS X need to be installed first?

D

[Mithras]

Ach, I was going to say, a workaround is to use the discs to boot the iBook, and mount the iMac with firewire target mode; you should then be able to install OS X onto the iMac that way. If it fails to boot up, well, fine.

Anyway target disk mode is in the firmware, so yeah, you can do it without the OS installed.

Sorry for the earlier misinformation.