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2nd Gen Apple iMac Rebuild

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First post, by KT7AGuy

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A few years ago I inherited a 2nd generation Apple iMac in "like new" condition. I used to want one of these badly in the late 90s because they were just way too cool looking with their stupid hockey-puck one-button mice. I'm far too frugal to pay Apple's prices so I never got one. Now that I've got one I don't know what to do with it. I suppose I could play Myth on it, but I can do that on any of my Win9x boxes too, and it will probably look and run better. The best thing for this iMac is probably to put it in the hands of an Apple enthusiast or collector.

I'm strictly a PC guy; a total Apple noob. Aside from briefly supporting 1st gen iMacs for dial-up internet connectivity in the late 90s, I've got no experience with them. Is there any way to download a copy of the OS for this, wipe the hard drive, and give it a factory-fresh install before I send it on its way to a happy new owner?

I appreciate any and all assistance. Please be patient with me.

Thanks

Reply 3 of 4, by PTherapist

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If you want to wipe absolutely everything: easiest option would be to just download a Mac OS 9.2 ISO (can't link to it here, but a quick google for OS 9.2.2 Universal Install will give you what you need) and burn it to a CD. This will let you wipe the HDD and reinstall the OS. Though you'll lose any of the pre-installed extra apps that came with the iMac - I have no idea what those would be either, since every iMac I ever got all had dead HDDs anyway 🤣.

If the iMac has enough RAM, it is possible to officially run up to Mac OS X 10.4 Tiger. 512MB RAM minimum for any OS X install (it will run on less, but you really really don't want to). But if you do decide to install OS X, you'll still want to install Mac OS 9.2 first to enable the Classic Environment to run OS 9 software.

Oh and to boot from CD, switch on or reboot the iMac whilst holding down C on the keyboard until the happy Mac appears.

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