Flashing question mark folder A1224

[rufuszombot]

My friend gave me an old Mac he got from his company when they upgraded and dumped all their old stuff.
He doesn't know what was done to it before they cleared out, or if it even has a hard drive, but it seems unlikely someone would have went to the trouble of taking it.
Anyway, when I try to turn it on all I get it the chime followed by a flashing folder with a question mark on it. From what I've gathered it means it can't find an OS, so the HDD was probably wiped. I don't have a Mac keyboard, just a Windows one, and I'm trying to boot into some sort of recovery menu but so far no combos I've found for a Windows keyboard have worked. Furthest I've gotten was a mouse cursor and a blank grey screen. Does anyone know how to get any OS on this? I would prefer OSX because I've never had a Mac and if like to mess around with it, but I would settle for being able to run Win or Linux on it. Thanks in advance.

 

[JellyPerson]

My friend gave me an old Mac he got from his company when they upgraded and dumped all their old stuff.
He doesn't know what was done to it before they cleared out, or if it even has a hard drive, but it seems unlikely someone would have went to the trouble of taking it.
Anyway, when I try to turn it on all I get it the chime followed by a flashing folder with a question mark on it. From what I've gathered it means it can't find an OS, so the HDD was probably wiped. I don't have a Mac keyboard, just a Windows one, and I'm trying to boot into some sort of recovery menu but so far no combos I've found for a Windows keyboard have worked. Furthest I've gotten was a mouse cursor and a blank grey screen. Does anyone know how to get any OS on this? I would prefer OSX because I've never had a Mac and if like to mess around with it, but I would settle for being able to run Win or Linux on it. Thanks in advance.

A Windows keyboard is functionally similar to a Mac keyboard.
https://www.lifewire.com/what-are-windows-keyboard-equivalents-to-mac-2260203 Refer here.

 

[Ryccardo]

An A1224 from a quick search is a 2008 iMac, which never had the boot-from-apple-servers with command/Windows/Super+shift+R, so simply* write an OS to optical disc or USB, hold Option (alt) while turning on the power, and select that!

* not too much, as BIOS-based operating systems can only be booted from a disc, I think - while early Intel Macs use 32-bit EFI, meaning it will only accept 32-bit EFI bootloaders (bootia32.efi) and even then there are significant implementation differences from a modern 32-bit EFI as found in the cheap windows tablets of the 2015s; a CD-RW and the "Mac version" (which just has the EFI bootloader removed) of Ubuntu are probably your best bet for testing

 

[rufuszombot]

An A1224 from a quick search is a 2008 iMac, which never had the boot-from-apple-servers with command/Windows/Super+shift+R, so simply* write an OS to optical disc or USB, hold Option (alt) while turning on the power, and select that!

* not too much, as BIOS-based operating systems can only be booted from a disc, I think - while early Intel Macs use 32-bit EFI, meaning it will only accept 32-bit EFI bootloaders (bootia32.efi) and even then there are significant implementation differences from a modern 32-bit EFI as found in the cheap windows tablets of the 2015s; a CD-RW and the "Mac version" (which just has the EFI bootloader removed) of Ubuntu are probably your best bet for testing

So just make a Mac CD-r of linux? Is there anyway to load OS X or Windows from there?

 

[Ryccardo]

So just make a Mac CD-r of linux? Is there anyway to load OS X or Windows from there?

If you find (or "find") a copy of a suitable DVD of Mac OS X (full retail version, or the OEM disc that came with that computer or same-generation equivalent) or Windows (XP is probably the official one for that model, though newer ones will likely work) yes, you can boot them from the usual Option boot menu (or holding "C" while turning on the power with said disc in)

 

[Joom]

So just make a Mac CD-r of linux? Is there anyway to load OS X or Windows from there?

Sure.
https://linuxforums.org.uk/index.php?topic=1072.0

You'll need a copy of Lion (the OS is free for Mac owners, so don't feel conflicted over finding a torrent).

 

[Ryccardo]

You'll need a copy of Lion (the OS is free for Mac owners, so don't feel conflicted over finding a torrent).

Technically Lion was the last paid one, but also the first one with icloud crap so don't lose your sleep about not supporting the developers

 

[rufuszombot]

Sure.
https://linuxforums.org.uk/index.php?topic=1072.0

You'll need a copy of Lion (the OS is free for Mac owners, so don't feel conflicted over finding a torrent).

I successfully installed Lion, and am now upgrading to El Capitan because it doesn't seem like anything is compatible with Lion anymore. The interwebz says it's compatible, so I've got fingers crossed.