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I recently bought a 12" PowerBook G4 on eBay. I'd like to reinstall OS X to have a clean setup, but I can't find any original install discs online.

However, I found this one which says it's for 15" and 17" PowerBooks. Does that really matter? Could I use these disks with the 12" PowerBook?

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  • Yes it matters, you have to use one that is designated for your system, make, model and year, otherwise it will not install. That said, why would you purchase such an old piece of equipment that the latest version of Max OS X it supports is no longer supported, has security issues that are not patched and will never be, as we'll as does not support a Browser that will work with modern e-commerce sites, banks, etc.
    – user3439894
    Commented Sep 30, 2016 at 20:59
  • @user3439894 because I need a 10.4 installation to run certain old software (iTunes + Xcode)
    – lukas
    Commented Sep 30, 2016 at 21:03

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Generally as long as you use an OS X build later than the one that came with the machine you should be good to go. In your case, it looks like all the 12 inch G4s can run 10.3, so most likely any retail 10.4 version should be fine.

For maximum safety, I'd go for 10.4.3 or later, as it seems that the last packaged version for a 12 inch G4 was 10.4.2 (build 8E90A), according to MacTracker.

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  • The Mac OS X OEM Install DVD's are locked to various groups of hardware. As an example from 10 years ago, MacBook Pro and MacBook purchased at the same time the DVD's could not be swapped between the two. Two MacBook's purchased three months apart, the latter being a newer model, the DVD's could not be swapped between the two. Lukas will need to acquire a DVD that is designated to work with his specific system.
    – user3439894
    Commented Oct 3, 2016 at 10:27

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