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Repair information for the iMac G4.

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I can't force the computer to boot from the cd

I bought a surplus "desk lamp" G4 from our local university to use as an auxiliary desktop, ie, I use Linux Normally, and most of my colleagues can't access my files easily.

Anyhow, the university has a deal with Apple that allows them to sell the computer with a broken OS, so that the buyer has limited access, and can see if the machine works. Mine is missing the OSX AND OS9 system folders.

I bought a new black label OSX, Tiger 10.4, which came with additional disks of other software.

I try to boot the new system, and it bypasses to the default hard drive startup.

I've pressed C while booting; I've changed the boot order in Settings. Nothing works.

The cd drive is working. It reads, and even installs from the additional disks I got.

The OSX disk is working, because it boots right up on my wife's laptop MacBook.

How can I solve this problem?

If it is the missing system files, how can they be replaced? Isntherena way to format the hard disk, and just start over with the new OSX disk I have?

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The fact that the 10.4 disk is black would lead me to believe that it is a retail disk and not machine specific. Here are the system requirements for it:

To use Mac OS X v10.4, your Macintosh needs:

A PowerPC G3, G4, or G5 processor

Built-in FireWire

At least 256 MB of RAM

DVD drive (DVD-ROM), Combo (CD-RW/DVD-ROM) or SuperDrive (DVD-R) for installation

At least 3 GB of free disk space; 4 GB if you install the XCode 2 Developer Tools

Check to see if it has "Drop-In" printed on it, meaning it is a "upgrade disk". Meanwhile you can contact Apple and get an original 10.3.1 system installation disk for $16. Then do an upgrade.

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