MB 1,1-7,1 Need advice on reinstalling 10.5.8 on Macbook 3,1

[JimBanville]

So I picked up this old mac at Goodwill for basically nothing. Last owner didn't restore it, so not a lot I can do without a password. Can someone show me the steps to either reinstall what's on it now, or preferably upgrade without spending any more money? Lol. I tried the various key combinations to get to the recovery, but none of those worked. And then I read that you have to have actual discs.
I don't plan on trying to do any real work on this. Just a project. Thanks in advance

 

[eyoungren]

So, if you want Leopard, find the install DVD, download the DMG and burn a disc. You'll need a Dual Layer disc.

https://macintoshgarden.org/apps/mac-osx-mac-os-10-ppc

Leopard is towards the bottom.

If you don't have a disk you can make a USB installer, maybe someone can guide you through that.

 

[Bigwaff]

Take a look at this page. I'm curious which MacBook you picked up...

https://everymac.com/ultimate-mac-lookup/?search_keywords=MacBook3,1

If you don't have a disk you can make a USB installer, maybe someone can guide you through that.

@JimBanville I'd be happy to help guide you. Do you have another Mac (ideally a way more recent model) available to use to create USB flash drive installers?

 

[theMarble]

Do you have another Mac (ideally a way more recent model) available to use to create USB flash drive installers?

It doesn't have to be a more modern Mac. ASR is bundled in Terminal with Tiger and newer (both PPC and Intel), so you could use anything from a G3 to an M2 Mac to make a Leopard USB.

 

[ApolloBoy]

Any particular reason you want Leopard and not Snow Leopard or Lion?

 

[B S Magnet]

Any particular reason you want Leopard and not Snow Leopard or Lion?

I am unable to speak for @JimBanville here, but Lion, whilst possible with the MacBook3,1, is compromised in other areas — namely, the inability to run any older applications, utilities, and/or games on the PowerPC side.

For Jim: Snow Leopard still has Rosetta bundled, making the running of PowerPC stuff still possible. Snow Leopard also has a much lower disk footprint and is a lot more optimized for Intel Macs than Leopard was.

There are .dmgs of SL on the garden and also on Archive-dot-org.

 

[Bigwaff]

It doesn't have to be a more modern Mac. ASR is bundled in Terminal with Tiger and newer (both PPC and Intel), so you could use anything from a G3 to an M2 Mac to make a Leopard USB.

@theMarble I’ll defer to you to help guide OP then.

 

[JimBanville]

Any particular reason you want Leopard and not Snow Leopard or Lion?

Thank you for the reply, but if you go back I wrote reinstall or upgrade

 

[JimBanville]

Take a look at this page. I'm curious which MacBook you picked up...

https://everymac.com/ultimate-mac-lookup/?search_keywords=MacBook3,1

@JimBanville I'd be happy to help guide you. Do you have another Mac (ideally a way more recent model) available to use to create USB flash drive installers?

Excellent!
I do have a macbook air. 2014, I think.
Model # on back of this A1181. It's white.
Serial # says it's a

MB061LL/B

I'm not concerned with running older apps, etc.
I'd like it to do the basics. Right now, just surfing the web is futile.
I just stuck a dvd into it and its plays fine, but I'd prefer to go the usb route is possible

 

[JimBanville]

I am unable to speak for @JimBanville here, but Lion, whilst possible with the MacBook3,1, is compromised in other areas — namely, the inability to run any older applications, utilities, and/or games on the PowerPC side.

For Jim: Snow Leopard still has Rosetta bundled, making the running of PowerPC stuff still possible. Snow Leopard also has a much lower disk footprint and is a lot more optimized for Intel Macs than Leopard was.

There are .dmgs of SL on the garden and also on Archive-dot-org.

Thank you!
I'm not concerned with older apps, etc.
I'd like to put whatever is the most modern (dare I say fastest, lol), and trouble free OS for simple things like web surfing, etc.
If you'd be kind enough to show me what to download, I can either do it on a macbook air or my windows 10 PC. The disc drive in this old macbook seems to work fine, I'd prefer to stick tot usb if possible.
The battery in this antique says it calculates it would last 6 hrs from 100%. I need to test that. Lol

 

[theMarble]

I'd like to put whatever is the most modern (dare I say fastest, lol), and trouble free OS for simple things like web surfing, etc.

Then Snow Leopard is your only option. Lion does have newer browsers (Chromium Legacy), they (and Lion) do not run well on a GMA X3100, especially when you don't have an SSD and max RAM (6GB for the 3,1 IIRC).

If you decided to add an SSD (very cheap these days, will be the single best upgrade you can do to it) and max RAM, Lion would probably run better.

If you'd be kind enough to show me what to download, I can either do it on a macbook air or my windows 10 PC. The disc drive in this old macbook seems to work fine, I'd prefer to stick tot usb if possible.

Use your MacBook Air to create the USB stick. You will never get a working bootable OS X installer made on a Windows machine.

1. Download this installer, https://archive.org/details/SnowLeopardInstall.
2. Once it has downloaded, open the file. You should now have a "Mac OS X Install Disc" volume in your Finder sidebar.
3. Plug in your USB stick and go into Disk Utility. You will need to format the USB stick as Mac OS Extended (Journaled) with GUID Partition Map.
4. Open Terminal and run this command;

sudo asr restore --source (drag your Mac OS X Install Disc volume here) --target (drag your USB stick here) -erase -noverify

 

[JimBanville]

Then Snow Leopard is your only option. Lion does have newer browsers (Chromium Legacy), they (and Lion) do not run well on a GMA X3100, especially when you don't have an SSD and max RAM (6GB for the 3,1 IIRC).

If you decided to add an SSD (very cheap these days, will be the single best upgrade you can do to it) and max RAM, Lion would probably run better.


Use your MacBook Air to create the USB stick. You will never get a working bootable OS X installer made on a Windows machine.

1. Download this installer, https://archive.org/details/SnowLeopardInstall.
2. Once it has downloaded, open the file. You should now have a "Mac OS X Install Disc" volume in your Finder sidebar.
3. Plug in your USB stick and go into Disk Utility. You will need to format the USB stick as Mac OS Extended (Journaled) with GUID Partition Map.
4. Open Terminal and run this command;

sudo asr restore --source (drag your Mac OS X Install Disc volume here) --target (drag your USB stick here) -erase -noverify

Thanks! I'm on it 🏃‍♂️

 

[JimBanville]

Then Snow Leopard is your only option. Lion does have newer browsers (Chromium Legacy), they (and Lion) do not run well on a GMA X3100, especially when you don't have an SSD and max RAM (6GB for the 3,1 IIRC).

If you decided to add an SSD (very cheap these days, will be the single best upgrade you can do to it) and max RAM, Lion would probably run better.


Use your MacBook Air to create the USB stick. You will never get a working bootable OS X installer made on a Windows machine.

1. Download this installer, https://archive.org/details/SnowLeopardInstall.
2. Once it has downloaded, open the file. You should now have a "Mac OS X Install Disc" volume in your Finder sidebar.
3. Plug in your USB stick and go into Disk Utility. You will need to format the USB stick as Mac OS Extended (Journaled) with GUID Partition Map.
4. Open Terminal and run this command;

sudo asr restore --source (drag your Mac OS X Install Disc volume here) --target (drag your USB stick here) -erase -noverify

Which format do I download it in? ISO?

 

[theMarble]

Which format do I download it in? ISO?

I would use the Torrent option if possible. You will get the same .iso file, however the torrent version will download way faster than the standard HTTP download.

If you don't have a torrent app already, I suggest Transmission. It's extremely lightweight, free and works really well.

 

[JimBanville]

I would use the Torrent option if possible. You will get the same .iso file, however the torrent version will download way faster than the standard HTTP download.

If you don't have a torrent app already, I suggest Transmission. It's extremely lightweight, free and works really well.

Doing it now. Thanks!

 

[JimBanville]

Then Snow Leopard is your only option. Lion does have newer browsers (Chromium Legacy), they (and Lion) do not run well on a GMA X3100, especially when you don't have an SSD and max RAM (6GB for the 3,1 IIRC).

If you decided to add an SSD (very cheap these days, will be the single best upgrade you can do to it) and max RAM, Lion would probably run better.


Use your MacBook Air to create the USB stick. You will never get a working bootable OS X installer made on a Windows machine.

1. Download this installer, https://archive.org/details/SnowLeopardInstall.
2. Once it has downloaded, open the file. You should now have a "Mac OS X Install Disc" volume in your Finder sidebar.
3. Plug in your USB stick and go into Disk Utility. You will need to format the USB stick as Mac OS Extended (Journaled) with GUID Partition Map.
4. Open Terminal and run this command;

sudo asr restore --source (drag your Mac OS X Install Disc volume here) --target (drag your USB stick here) -erase -noverify

Ok. I haven't used a mac in many YEARS. I assume I'm supposed to replace the items in parenthesis that I'm pasting in terminal?
The "Mac OS X Install DVD" folder is in downloads and the untitled usb physical volume is on the desktop.
I "erased" the usb stick with disk utility as mac os extended journaled, but I see nothing about guid partition.

 

[theMarble]

I "erased" the usb stick with disk utility as mac os extended journaleded, but I see nothing about guid partition.

Ah forgot a step.

In Disk Utility, go into the view menu at the top and select "Show All Devices". Then, click on the USB stick media, not the partition/volume:

On the right tab, you should see "USB External Physical Disk", rather than "USB External Physical Volume".

When you click the Erase button, you should now see the GUID option:

 

[JimBanville]

Ah forgot a step.

In Disk Utility, go into the view menu at the top and select "Show All Devices". Then, click on the USB stick media, not the partition/volume:
View attachment 2271475

On the right tab, you should see "USB External Physical Disk", rather than "USB External Physical Volume".

When you click the Erase button, you should now see the GUID option:
View attachment 2271476

Sorry. I got hung up at the terminal command.
I assume I need to replace what's in the parenthesis with locations or names?

 

[theMarble]

Sorry. I got hung up at the terminal command.
I assume I need to replace what's in the parenthesis with locations or names?

Yes.

You'll want to drag the Mac OS X Install Disc volume from your desktop into the Terminal where the (drag your Mac OS X Install Disc here) is. Make sure to drag in the volume, not the .iso file.

Do the same for the USB stick.

 

[JimBanville]

Yes.

You'll want to drag the Mac OS X Install Disc volume from your desktop into the Terminal where the (drag your Mac OS X Install Disc here) is. Make sure to drag in the volume, not the .iso file.

Do the same for the USB stick.

Thanks again. I didn't realize how looooooooong the "restoring" process would take setting up the usb stick (validate target, validate source, erase contents, validating sizes, all went quickly), so I wasn't able to get it done last night. Working on it now.

BUT, I ran across this VIDEO on YT that was fast, super simple, and IT WORKED as far as restoring the old macbook to factory settings!
I'm still going to upgrade using the USB stick though, lol

 

[JimBanville]

Yes.

You'll want to drag the Mac OS X Install Disc volume from your desktop into the Terminal where the (drag your Mac OS X Install Disc here) is. Make sure to drag in the volume, not the .iso file.

Do the same for the USB stick.

So the stick is finished. Do I just stick it in, tell it to install on the current disk and click the install icon?

 

[JimBanville]

I did it! Found some instructions on using the disc utility in the installer to erase the old volume. Thanks!!