So my system preferences have been deleted and my installation disk is gone

I downloaded pacifist and was ready to bring my system preferences back when I realized the disk is gone. How can I go about getting a new installation disk, or is there ANY WAY I can do this without the disk?

Hi cinylouwho
You can get a new copy of OS 10.3 from Amazon for $59.99 but you may as well go all the way and buy Tiger OS10.4.6 and upgrade using the COMBO version of 10.4.8 from here
There will be other updates to do as well but your son should be able to help there just keep the dog out of the way
Also have a look at http://www.apple.com/support/tiger/install/
and http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=301270 which explains the different installation methods
DO BACK UP YOUR DATA ASAP
chris
iMac 20" Intel Core Duo 2GB RAM Mac OS X (10.4.8) G3 600 iBook 640MB OS X (10.2.8) Lacie d2 60GB & 250GB Firewire Windows XP

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This should only occur if this is a NEW computer or your first sync and you have information from another computer.
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http://theappleblog.com/2008/06/22/reset-os-x-password-without-an-os-x-cd/
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applesetupdone...
http://discussions.apple.com/thread.jspa?messageID=6059333&#6059333
http://www.askdavetaylor.com/howdo_i_reset_my_mac_os_x_admin_rootpassword.html

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natalie.xo wrote:
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Why have my system preferences all been restored to default?

Hi,
Yesterday my iMac was really playing up, it was writing to the disk, being really noisy and overall not responding much. So after failing to reach the Apple Menu to shut down, I just held the power button on the back of my Alu iMac until it switched off (not slept). This morning I awake, and turn my computer on, log in. Everything seems fine, but, the default Dock is shown, spaces are inactive and all my System Preferences have been restored to defaults, therefore I imagine the System Preferences file or something was corrupt when I force shut down the computer, meaning it started afresh. I have a time machine backup (hallelujah for time machine!) so I can retrieve a certain file and replace it if needs be.
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Thanks.

the system writes to various preference files when you quit applications or shut down normally. It does it by first deleting the old preference file and then replacing it with a new one. In the event of a crash or a hard shutdown it sometimes does the former but has no chance to do the latter. in that case that preference file is created with default values on restart.
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So my system preferences have been deleted and my installation disk is gone

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