Chosen Solution
The exact model I am trying to restore is the iMac Intel 20"/2.1GHZ/1GB/250GB/SD/BT/AP - Model A1207 - EMC 2118 I have no disks, grey or otherwise that came with the machine. I assumed they were lost or never given to the current owners of the machine. They have a tendency to buy used models rather than new ones to save money (and yet here we are). I tore down the machine to inspect the hard drive, assuming it had failed and discovered it was a 2TB replacement. I removed it and put back in a 1TB drive and it tried to boot finally with the QFolder blinking. I thought I was on the right track and sought out disks to reinstall the OS. This is definitely is EOL, but there are some great resources for outdated Mac disks. I managed to make a copy of 10.4.7 (2Z691-5859-A) from archive.org. It starts off great, Apple logo shows and the wheel turns… then NOPE. Not the right disk? The question was asked here: How to identify which machines gray system installation disks are for? Answered by Erik I am assuming I have the wrong disk to match the system, but I am at a loss and would like to know if there is a solution. Target disk mode works, but aside from building another disk using Firewire, any ideas? I’m going to dig a little deeper and explore the install disk idea from The 8-Bit Guy: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ngJ9q9wH…
Pre-Installed MacOS:X 10.4.7 (8K1106)Maximum MacOS:X 10.7.5* I’d go with a Snow Leopard installation 10.6. Those installation disks are plentiful and the last stand alone installation DVD from Apple. I would not go with the machine specific Grey installation disks. Here’s one on eBay: https://www.ebay.com/itm/125469245186?ep…
@overknight th 8-Bit guy is using an older OS that still offered DVD imaging within Disk Utility. So that may not be possible with your other Mac system you are using to create a bootable OS installer using a Grey disk set. This series supported upto OS-X Lion 10.7.5. Here’s a direct link to the image file Mac OS X Lion InstallerMac OS X Lion Installer directly from Apple and here’s a link on how to create the disk Create a Bootable DVD Copy of OS X Lion Installer We still have the elephant in the room to deal with! This series SATA port is only SATA II (3.0 Gb/s) so you do need to make sure the drive you use is able to run at this slower I/O speed. Many drives are now fixed SATA III (6.0 Gb/s) so they won’t work properly! Some drives have auto sense technology so it matches the I/O speed of the system. Make sure you review the given drives spec sheet that it clearly states will run at SATA II (3.0 Gb/s)
