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

By: nito

nito — Sun, 21 Jun 2009 19:34:10 +0000

ok Jenna
sometimes you can zap the PRAM
here is the apple article
http://support.apple.com/kb/HT1379

sometimes you hav to zap the PRAM a few times (2-3 to be safe that it is wiped)

after zapping the PRAM try holding the C key again and see if it boots off the CD
also check out this aricle
http://support.apple.com/kb/TA22017?viewlocale=en_US

it tells you how to boot off the CD another way.
good luck

By: Jenna

Jenna — Fri, 01 May 2009 02:38:34 +0000

I need help. I have a 2.5 year old imac with a 1 year old operating system. When I turn the computer on it chimes like normal, then the grey screen comes on, then the whirly comes on, then a few moments later I hear a click and the computer shuts off and the screen goes blank.

I inserted the install disk and held down the c key but the same thing happens. I am able to eject the disk and it sounds like it’s reading it, but still it’s not booting from the CD.

Any ideas, anyone? I live in a remote area and can’t take it into the mac shop.

(Nothing has happened to it, I haven’t even moved it in months.)

Thanks a lot!
Jenna

By: Vincent

Vincent — Mon, 20 Apr 2009 20:53:19 +0000

Steve, try holding down the option key as you boot. Make sure the DVD is in. This will then produce a menu after a short period with all the available boot devices on your system. From there, select the DVD. Hope that works, though it sounds like yo might not be holding down the C key for long enough. Also make sure the DVD is actually in when you restart. Vincent =

By: steve

steve — Mon, 20 Apr 2009 20:33:14 +0000

I tried to boot from the DVD. on startup Press C and slot dvd into drive. It keeps booting from the hard drive. On my first attempt this worked and when I went to close the session it asked where Iwanted to boot from and I selected the HDD. HOw do I get it to boot from the DVD again?

steve

By: b.li

b.li — Sat, 18 Apr 2009 21:02:39 +0000

hi, yesterday i’ve been successful in my first trial using this procedure with tiger on imac intel - core duo: 1) clone the total tiger-system with carbon copy cloner on an external hdd 2) which is connected by firewire, with 3 partitions, all formated mac-typical.
3) choose external (cloned) startvolume in systemkonfiguration and reboot. that’s all.
curiously in some context-menues the reconmmended applications are shown twice thereafter.
can anybody tell me, how this can be avoided? - thanks beforehand!

By: Steve

Steve — Tue, 03 Mar 2009 01:38:48 +0000

Hi,

I have an iBook G4 that went dead on me about a month ago. Every time I try to re-start it, the blank silver screen would appear and go no further. I read some websites that said to reboot using the CD while holding down the c key. I tried that but my cpu just spit the CD back out after a couple of seconds. So still, all I get is the dreaded silver screen.

I’m thinking of taking it to a Mac store because I have pretty much no knowledge on how to handle this kind of thing. But I don’t want to spend a hundred dollars or whatever to have it fixed. Maybe they’ll look at for a couple of minutes and figure out the problem though, and not charge me…?

My question is, what is the best alternative?

Thanks,
Steve

By: Vincent

Vincent — Fri, 20 Feb 2009 16:09:28 +0000

I hate to ask a silly question but has the device been formatted and had OSX installed on it? If not then it wont show up. To install OSX on it you will require another machine, which point you might as well use one machine or the other as a firewire target disk.

Assuming you are ahead fo the game, you need to follow on with these instructions for booting a PPC from a USB 2.0 device:

http://www.macosxhints.com/article.php?story=20060301112336384&lsrc=osxh

Bare in mind, that if you are on USB 1.0 it is going to be incredibly slow.

Hope this helps. Best Vincent =

By: Mike

Mike — Fri, 20 Feb 2009 16:04:20 +0000

Got a question here… I’m trying to revive an 12″ powerbook and the Optical drive is shot. when i startup the computer now, i get th old flashing question mark and finder logo. I bought an LG external ’slim’ drive, so i can boot and reinstall OSX. BUT, when i hold down opt on startup, the drive isn’t found. i’m not sure if it’s because the USB ports don’t work until after startup? kinda lost. any thoughts?

By: Vincent

Vincent — Sun, 07 Dec 2008 20:45:35 +0000

Debbie,

What kind of Mac are we talking about? MacBook, PowerBook, iMac, PowerMac etc? I would assume that the machine is overheating and shutting down, although this shouldn’t necessarily stop you from booting, unless of course the CPU overheats exceedingly quickly.

Best, Vincent =

By: Debbie

Debbie — Sun, 07 Dec 2008 17:31:59 +0000

Hi, I have tried this as my Mac suddenly seemed to want to sleep all of the time and it did actually boot up although it still keeps going to sleep. It also sounds like the fan is having to work really hard - could it be something as simple as a fan change or clean that could cause these problems as I have tried resetting the USM (?) but with no results and my friend talked me through trying to reset the Pram also as apparently that would help. No joy.
Any advice as I am just about to check the old fan again and hopefully that will be it……