Reinstall failure

Question

Hi guys
I'm running into some problems with my iBook. Lately it has been extremely slow..nothing will start with less then 10 bounces. I figured it's time to re-install my OS, but then i realized i lost my install disk. I tried using the disk from my mini, but that didn't work either. I booted the iBook into target mode to try and re-install that way when i received the error "the disk you inserted was not readable by this computer" I'm stuck, anyone know what i should do? thanks.
-alex

Answer 1

Hi there:
You may have to use the computer's Activity Monitor and other internal
means to see how full the hard disk drive is getting; since that may be
the cause of the slowdown and sluggishness you've observed there.
If you have many saved files, music, images, .mov and other stuff,
you probably should see about making an off-computer archive and
then go into the computer and remove the originals saved in there.
You may be able to order a replacement boot-install disc specific to
your computer from Apple Support (or sales support, maybe) for a fee.
There may not be enough free-space on the Mac's hard disk drive to
support a new system folder; so installing one may be out. And this
problem, if based on too-full a hard disk drive, won't change that way.
An 'archive and install' would create a new System folder and put
the old one into a non-bootable file named 'previous system' on
the hard disk drive of your computer; if there were enough room to
have the correct installer do this. You can't use a different model
Mac installer (as you are finding) to do this; the OS X on retail boot
disc must be newer OSX version than the one shipped in the Mac.
There are some basic rules that have remained consistent overall.
And a few work-arounds, if you happen to have more tools.
Good luck & happy computing!