Imac OS X

Mondez

You will need to get either a USB with the Mavericks installer or purchase a Snow Leopard disc that you can then boot from to erase the existing install without needing an admin password or otherwise interacting with the existing install. If you take an 8GB USB drive to the nearest apple store and ask nicely, they may well create a mavericks installer for you at no extra cost, in which case you are golden. You can go the Snowleopard disc route and then upgrade to Mavericks from there, but that seems like a waste of money to me.

When you have the installer on USB, hold down the Alt key with the USB drive plugged in, power up the system and it should show an option to select boot drives other than the standard boot drive (it will either say Install Mavericks or perhaps InstallESD or something). From there you just need to follow a guide for clean reinstalling Mavericks which a quick google should provide (or bing if you swing that way).

I would recommend a memory upgrade though, Mavericks ran like a dog for me on 2GB.

Gratis

I’m reluctant to intervene but…

If the OP has reported correctly what the iMac is telling him about itself, then you’ve all got this wrong.

It struck me from the outset of this thread that there is a profound contradiction between the claimed “2009” vintage of this iMac and the final sentence of the opening paragraph, which states “The info I can get from the mac is 9.1 1.0 intel core duo 2ghz 2 GB.” (sic)

saxonman wrote: »

I have a imac 2009

<snip>

The info I can get from the mac is 9.1 1.0 intel core duo 2ghz 2 GB

A Mac does not lie about its CPU and its RAM. If it declares that its CPU is a 2 GHz Intel Core Duo, then that’s what it’s got – not a Core 2 Duo, which it would need to run anything later than OS 10.6 Snow Leopard.

I venture to suggest that the actual generation of this iMac is the very first model of Intel iMac, introduced by Steve Jobs at the MacWorld Expo in San Francisco on 10 January 2006.

You can see it, and him , here, at 1hr 02 min, 30 sec.

The specification of the January 2006 iMac is here. It had a 2.0 GHz Intel Core Duo and was supplied with 512 MB of RAM, upgradeable to 2 GB (maximum).

The next generation of iMac was released on 6 September 2006. Even by then, Apple had upgraded its CPU to a Core 2 Duo.

As for “2009”, even the earliest and most basic 2009 iMac (4 March 2009) came with a 2.66 GHz Intel Core 2 Duo (and they can run OS 10.9 Mavericks).

If this one is indeed what its self-reported spec indicates it to be, an early 2006 iMac with a 2.0 GHz Intel core Duo and maxxed out to 2 GB of RAM, you can forget about running even OS 10.7 Lion or OS 10.8 Mountain Lion on it, let alone OS 10.9 Mavericks. Those require at least a Core 2 Duo processor.

It would have been supplied with OS 10.4 Tiger but it should run OS 10.5 Leopard or OS 10.6 Snow Leopard without difficulty. Being limited to only 2 GB of RAM it won’t be fast, though.

The good news is that OS 10.6 Snow Leopard, when updated (free) to 10.6.8, is a very nice system and its user interface is greatly more elegant than those of its successors. It has a cult following, in much the same way that Windows XP has.

The bad news is that Apple has finally stopped supporting OS 10.6 Snow Leopard and Apple was the only one supplying its Security Updates (including those for Java). So, it has now become hazardous to venture on to the Internet with it.

You aren’t missing out by being unable to run OS 9 Mavericks on it, though. Those who extol Mavericks are those who haven’t yet encountered the many bugs that still plague it. I have. For me, Mavericks remains effectively unusable for many quite simple tasks. On all my Macs I have gone back to a dual-boot system of OS 10.8 Mountain Lion and 10.6 Snow Leopard, both of which are rock-solid and each of which can perform some tasks and run some applications that the other one can’t.

I do agree with Stratus, however. Installing Windows first, via Boot Camp, and then trying to re-install the Mac side is putting the cart before the horse and is likely to lead to all sorts of problems.

If this were my iMac, I’d put a new 750 GB, 7,200 rpm in it, think carefully about the partition sizes I wanted and then use a genuine Apple OS 10.6 Snow Leopard installer DVD to set it all up anew and from scratch.

Stratus

Interesting points raised by Gratis above.

Worth remembering that Apple often continues to supply lower spec machines to educational institutions long after they've upgraded those available in the public supply chain. Given the provenance of this machine it may explain some of the confusion.

Would be worth typing in the serial number to a site like

http://www.appleserialnumberinfo.com/Desktop/index.php

and seeing what info it throws up.

sekrapa

Just checked mine, it states it is a 20" mid 2007 iMac with a 2 ghz Intel Core 2 Duo. This came with Leopard installed and 1gb Memory. I did upgrade the memory by adding a 2Gb stick to take it to 3 Gb, and upgraded the OS to snow leopard. I have since upgraded to 10.7.5 Lion, but fear that is the limit of the machine. It is still going strong, so should do for a few more years yet.

You can get Snow Leopard at Amazon at http://www.amazon.co.uk/Mac-OS-Snow-Leopard/dp/B001AMHWP8

securityguy

sekrapa wrote: »

Just checked mine, it states it is a 20" mid 2007 iMac with a 2 ghz Intel Core 2 Duo. This came with Leopard installed and 1gb Memory. I did upgrade the memory by adding a 2Gb stick to take it to 3 Gb, and upgraded the OS to snow leopard. I have since upgraded to 10.7.5 Lion, but fear that is the limit of the machine. It is still going strong, so should do for a few more years yet.

A mid 2007 iMac will run 10.9.2 Mavericks, and run it well. 4GB of RAM would help, but isn't essential. I've modified mine to have a Fusion Drive, so for about £150 I have a machine which is little slower than a new one and will be good for another five years. Twelve years isn't a bad service life for a computer.

Moneymaker

Gratis wrote: »

The bad news is that Apple has finally stopped supporting OS 10.6 Snow Leopard and Apple was the only one supplying its Security Updates (including those for Java). So, it has now become hazardous to venture on to the Internet with it.

I agree with everything you wrote, except this. I have been "venturing onto the Internet" with Macs since 1995 - nearly TWENTY years. I have never had any form of "protection" and never acquired any malware. Consequently, I think the "risk" is highly overrated - unless you are completely and utterly stupid and/or gullible. I'll continue to use Snow Leopard until I run out of used Macs that will run it!

OP, get a "retail" OS10.6 installer disc.