Comments on: Booting Your Apple Mac From CD, DVD, iPod or External Device

By: Darren McKee

Darren McKee — Fri, 16 Dec 2011 18:54:10 +0000

I’m getting the perpetual loop of restart requests on my G4 tower. The rotating animation goes for a while, then I get the restart note. If I start from the CD, it tries to install the older system on the CD, and since the existing system is newer, I hit the “Archive Previous…” and continue with the install. At some point during the install process it stops and shows a few paragraphs of information that is meaningless to me (black with white lettering over the desktop).

I’ve verified the disk, and is says there is nothing to repair. I don’t know what to do next.

By: Vincent Roman

Vincent Roman — Sun, 11 Dec 2011 18:23:57 +0000

Do you have a CD to boot from? Is it in a perpetual loop of restarts? Do you ever see a rotating loader animation?

By: Paul

Paul — Sun, 11 Dec 2011 18:04:31 +0000

I was given an Apple Imac USB 2.0 and it turns on goes to the gray screen and then restarts. I have tried and reste the power management system and it still does the same thing. Any ideas on what to do???

By: Vincent Roman

Vincent Roman — Thu, 04 Nov 2010 08:52:17 +0000

Dave – Any joy booting off an external HD. Can you somehow get an OS on an external HD, plug it in and hold down “option” on boot and select it form the menu that appears? That at leats would help you possibly trouble shoot from there. Good luck!

By: Dave

Dave — Thu, 04 Nov 2010 06:06:09 +0000

I have an iMac iSight G5 1.9GHZ PowerPC that flatly refuses to boot from cd/dvd. I’ve used every keyboard command recommended to boot from cd/dvd and none ever work. It won’t recognise ANY cd/dvd, neither a MACOS setup disk, or a current Ubuntu disk (which is what I’d prefer to install since we don’t actually own a legal copy of the MAC disk)

By: Vincent Roman

Vincent Roman — Sat, 30 Oct 2010 10:07:36 +0000

My 2007 MBP had a GPU failure recently, and it looked like the thing was on but acted like ti was in a deep sleep. Apple,or rather NVidia, paid for the work to be completed for free. Given the fans are whirring, i would be less inclined to suspect such a scenario, and rather that for some reason the CPU is overheating and shutting down as you would expect in an overheat case. I would get a ACT to look at the thing, as I doubt you are upto ripping the thing apart and figuring it out. Hope this helps. Best, Vincent -

By: deena

deena — Sat, 30 Oct 2010 00:45:07 +0000

hey vincent

i purchased my mac around 2007 and it was running fine until last night and then all of a sudden it wont turn on at all. The little white light turns on for about 3 seconds and then just turns off again. I tried holding the power button in when i turned it on but all that did was make the light stay on a bit longer, then flicker and give out again. Tried taking out the battery, giving it a bit of a clean and putting it back in. Please help???

By: Vincent Roman

Vincent Roman — Mon, 20 Sep 2010 18:42:36 +0000

Ashley … Well if you can’t get the mac to boot off it by holding down the C key on startup then assuming you can hear the CD spinning up, then I would assume you need to find a CD/DVD you can actually boot off.

By: Ashley

Ashley — Mon, 20 Sep 2010 18:38:02 +0000

Ok. I actually just got a new hard drive, which I installed myself. I also heard I may need to format the drive? I fear I may be a bit in over my head on this matter. Do I need a new installation cd maybe?

By: Vincent Roman

Vincent Roman — Mon, 20 Sep 2010 10:30:15 +0000

Hmmmm that sounds a bit odd, Is it the right boot disk for OSX? I suppose it is plausible it doesn’t like the CD/DVD. Would seem that the HD is borked but the rest of the system is OK. Just a guess at this juncture.

By: Ashley

Ashley — Sun, 19 Sep 2010 19:48:05 +0000

I have a PowerBook g4 and need help! When I start it up I get a flashing question mark with a folder. I have the mac osx disk and when I try to install it I get to the third step “select destination” but there is no destination for me to select. Any suggestions?

By: Sam

Sam — Sat, 21 Aug 2010 01:02:43 +0000

I have a serious problem with my Macbook Pro 13″ (2009) and I urgently need help… Tried to load bootcamp and window xp but put in the windows 98se disk by mistake. Tried to cancel the install but had to do a hard reset.

Now can’t restart my Macbook in OSX 10.6.??. I have tried:
1- restarting holding down “v
2- restarting holding down “t”
3- restarting holding down “c”
4- restarting holding down “alt”
5- restarting holding down “alt,cmd,c,p”
6- restarting holding down “power button” waiting for second blip but no sound
7- restarting with original Macbook Pro install disk and Snow leopard disk (which is the upgrade disk)
8- restarting holding down “power button” for more than 10 seconds

Nothing works, if I put the window 98se disc back in the Macbook ask whether I want to boot from the CD or Hardisc.

I have tried booting from the HD just get black screen flashing cursor but keyboard does not work
I have tried booting from the CD which works and your presented with a dos prompt A:\ tried fdisk and deleted all partitions hoping this would be like a new disc, but did not work.

So I am stuck help!!!!!!!!

Samuel
I am trying to boot from the “Install disk” that came with my mac but after the apple-and-spin screen, it gets to the screen where the directions should begin but that screen is SERIOUSLY pixelated, like it is broken. I can barely see the directions at the back, I have my mouse pointer that is useless and I have to turn my mac off again to get to the normal mode without being able to use the cd. What should I do?? Could this be a display resolution issue?? It is very urgent for me to do that, I thank you in advance for your help…

By: Vincent Roman

Vincent Roman — Fri, 06 Aug 2010 21:19:20 +0000

Matt – Yes! Just put the CD/DVD in hold down C are you boot and then select the drive during the installation process. Best, Vincent =

By: Matt

Matt — Fri, 06 Aug 2010 16:48:47 +0000

Hi – Sorry if this has been answered in advance…

I have an early Intel Imac. The hd died a few days ago. Instead of breaking it open and installing a new hd, is it possible for me to attach an external hd (w/ firewire), boot to the installation dvd, and install to the external drive? I’m lazy.

Thanks for your help,

Matt

By: terry

terry — Thu, 20 May 2010 06:03:44 +0000

my computer was not starting correctly so i pressed the C key….
now i m back to an older desktop and seams to have lost all the folders that were on the previous desktop
Am I screwed?
T

By: Tony

Tony — Wed, 19 May 2010 06:38:55 +0000

Hi- I have a macbook pro and when I power up, I get a blinking “?”, so I have held down option key during power up and my hard drive appears. I choose my hard drive and/or arrow key pointing at my HHD and it just sits there. I am assuming that my mac cannot find my OS. Is there a way to resolve this. I am also not home and do not have my boot disk with me. Thanks for your help!

By: Vincent Roman

Vincent Roman — Mon, 10 May 2010 09:10:36 +0000

Try holding down the option key and see if it shows up in the list of available boot devices. Do you hear the CD spin up? Is it the right kind of install dvd?

By: Dave Mccoll

Dave Mccoll — Mon, 10 May 2010 04:30:49 +0000

Hi I installed a hard drive in my G4 powerbook and I am trying to run my mac install so I can get to the time machine to restore but I cannot see the install dvd. I am using a firewire external dvd. Thanks

By: Valia

Valia — Sun, 11 Apr 2010 19:50:31 +0000

I have a serious problem with my Macbook Pro and I urgently need help… I am trying to boot from the “Install disk” that came with my mac but after the apple-and-spin screen, it gets to the screen where the directions should begin but that screen is SERIOUSLY pixelated, like it is broken. I can barely see the directions at the back, I have my mouse pointer that is useless and I have to turn my mac off again to get to the normal mode without being able to use the cd. What should I do?? Could this be a display resolution issue?? It is very urgent for me to do that, I thank you in advance for your help…

By: Chuck

Chuck — Sun, 04 Apr 2010 01:22:45 +0000

I made a mistake on my Powerbook G4. I was going to save the hardrive to my external so i dragged it to my external. the i saw the system on the external so i dragged that to the trash. i thought that might be good so i tried to drag it back to the external and aciddentally put it back on the hardrive. Oops, it did something funny and i shut it down. it has been a mess ever since. I tried to reinstall Leopard from the DVD but it won’t happen. I was able to reinstall OX 10.4.2 but i can’t get Word to work where all my passwords are saved, etc. i also have a G5 workhorse and i ca using that to connect to the internet. Any ideas how to get Leopard reinstalled on laptop? I really have tried it all i think. Thanks, Chuck