Wow. This is my first time interacting with a mac and I have broken it already. I need the files for reinstalling the operating system. Also, instructions on how to do that.
well. I have been at it since Wednesday. Have yet to fix this damn mac. I cannot get it to see bootable usb drives.
I have 2006 MacBook Pro and it will not boot from USB either. For these models you need to boot installers from Superdrive - the firmware will not boot anything except for a full OSX install from USB (so no installers will work and you can't run Windows or Linux on external drives). The easiest therefore is to write ISO to an actual DVD. If your DVD player is broken and your iMac works at all you can make another partition on the internal drive and install to that. Failing that you can remove the hard drive and connect it to another PC via USB. It doesn't need to be a Mac - you can install OSX in VirtualBox, connect the USB hard drive in RAW mode then use this to install to your hard drive. This worked for me as my Superdrive is broken.
Haven't I been using a full OSX install? The DVD player is working, I just finished install Windows 7 on the 2006 iMac using a retail Windows DVD. I was trying not to spend any money on this thing, I guess I will have to if I want to go back to Mac OS X.
Humphrey: Since I'm a new member, still I can't post a comment with links on it. Privately, I sent you a link where you can download a genuine OS X 10.7 installer. To install, burn the dmg or iso file to a DVD and boot from there.There is no other way since your iMac is too old to be restarted from a USB disk or pendrive.