Given computer yosemite

[Cartridge]

Hello everyone,

I'm new to Mac, a pro at Linux and windows so I'm familiar. So this person
At work told me this computer is garbage and if you get to fix it you can keep it. Only to find out its the charger cable only that is shorting out. She told me its from someone who worked at bell and she wanted me to destroy all of its contents. I did so before her eyes by going into the bios and erased it from there not knowing it would remove the os aswell. Now I've been left and right looking for a solution because the Yosemite online installer is not working anymore and I don't know what to do. How do I reinstall a Mac os? She don't own the CD neither do I. What do I do?

 

[casperes1996]

"BIOS" Is an incorrect term to use for what you did. You cannot "enter the BIOS". Macs with Intel chips use en EFI. Macs with PowerPC chips use OpenFirmware if I remember correctly.

What you did, was probably to go into recovery mode, and erase through disk utility - and since you wiped the drive, of course you'd also wipe the OS.

Why exactly isn't internet recovery working for you? What error message are you getting?

Do you have access to another Mac that you can use to download a copy of Mac OS to put on a USB flash drive?

 

[Cartridge]

No one I know uses Mac and neither did I. The error says An error occurred while preparing the installation. Try running this application again.

Over and over even if I'm connected.

So no I don't have access to a Mac.

 

[casperes1996]

No one I know uses Mac and neither did I. The error says An error occurred while preparing the installation. Try running this application again.

Does it say that immediately as you try and boot into internet recovery? What type of wi-fi are you connected to? Internet Recovery has been known to dislike certain types of setups.

Just so we're clear - you are using internet recovery right? (cmd+alt+r whilst booting)

 

[Cartridge]

Yes I am. Should I be using Ethernet rather than wpa2 WiFi? A1181 model number

 

[casperes1996]

Yes I am. Should I be using Ethernet rather than wpa2 WiFi? A1181 model number

If ethernet is an option, yes, try that. Though WPA2 usually shouldn't give any issues, unless the connection is a bit unstable.

Can't hurt to try though.

If it fails too, report back and I might be able to help you out in a different way

 

[Cartridge]

Yes I am. Should I be using Ethernet rather than wpa2 WiFi?

Same error with ethernet
Forgot to mention this is a a1181 model

 

[casperes1996]

Check PM in a second

 

[DeltaMac]

The early MacBooks are all A1181 models, 8 different released models from 2006 until the mid-2009
None of those will work with Internet Recovery - too old.

The near-ten year old DVD drive may not work well enough to install from a DVD - and the best suggestion would be to make a bootable USB drive from the downloadable Yosemite installer - a USB flash drive is ideal for that.