How to recover an old Mac (2007 - A1224)

[forestpct]

New to this forum and not a Mac expert. I've no doubt my query isn't new but any help would be appreciated. I am trying to recover an old Mac (2007) for my sister. The hard disk has crashed so have a 256GB SSD I'd like to use in its place. As new, the machine came with OS X 10.4 (Tiger) but was upgraded to Leopard (10.5.4). I have access to the DVDs for these versions but believe the model can run later OSX versions (up to Yosemite). Can anyone advise on the best way to locate and install (ideally) Yosemite? Do I need to purchase Snow Leopard DVD and install that first? Have successfully installed Snow Leopard using a USB boot disk created from a download site but any attempt to get to Yosemite fails (presumably because I have no "proof of purchase" of a Snow Leopard licence.

Thanks

 

[Cory Cooper]

Hello and welcome.

It sounds like it is an iMac (20-inch Mid 2007), correct? If so, it did originally come with 10.4 Tiger and later 10.5 Leopard as you stated. It will actually run up to 10.11 El Capitan.

Since you have Snow Leopard installed, and I assume running, you should be able to download either the Yosemite or El Capitan installer DMG from Apple and install it:

How to upgrade to OS X Yosemite
How to upgrade to OS X El Capitan

See if that works for you.

C

 

[forestpct]

Hello and welcome.

It sounds like it is an iMac (20-inch Mid 2007), correct? If so, it did originally come with 10.4 Tiger and later 10.5 Leopard as you stated. It will actually run up to 10.11 El Capitan.

Since you have Snow Leopard installed, and I assume running, you should be able to download either the Yosemite or El Capitan installer DMG from Apple and install it:

How to upgrade to OS X Yosemite
How to upgrade to OS X El Capitan

See if that works for you.

C

Thanks for your reply. I've already tried to download and install the Yosemite upgrade from the Apple Support pages. I can get the dmg file OK (5.3GB) but the install fails with the error message " an error occurred while extracting files from the package essentials.pkg" Have downloaded several times but get same error each time. Googling this message produces lots of hits with many suggestions to resolve including removing/replacing any OEM ram, resetting date, repeating install until it works etc! Obviously, a problematic upgrade so not sure it's worth the effort to try and resolve what's happening on this specific Mac!

 

[Cory Cooper]

No worries.

Maybe try the El Capitan and see if it gives the same error?

C

 

[forestpct]

Just trying! Let you know the outcome!

 

[forestpct]

No joy I'm afraid. Had real problems getting a completed download and when I did get one and ran the installer got a "The operation couldn't be completed. (com.apple.installer.pagecontroller error -1)" message. Wasting too much time so giving up. Have to say that compared with Windows installations this has been a nightmare!

 

[Cory Cooper]

Hmmm...

You had mentioned "Have successfully installed Snow Leopard using a USB boot disk created from a download site". What site? I wonder if it could be something up with that, as it isn't an official Apple install?

It could also be a hardware-related thing. OS X installers can be finicky with regards to non-Apple RAM and some drives.

C

 

[forestpct]

Hi Corey. Using Crucial ram which I believe is Apple certified. It's certainly not been a problem for the past several years whilst the Mac was running with the old disk and was present when the machine was updated to Leopard. I agree with you that the source of Snow Leopard is probably the problem so will try and source a retail DVD version and try that as a last effort!