Can't boot from DVD or external drive

Because of recent slow performance on my iMac G5 I ran disk utility and repaired permissions, then clicked Verify Disk. It reported minor errors in directory files and said I should repair them. I tried starting up from the MacOS X installation DVD, but I get a spinning beach ball and a symbol with a circle with a diagonal line through it (like a Do Not Enter sign). I had to unplug the computer to reboot.
Using another computer, I made a startup disk on an external hard drive and tried booting the iMac from that, but I get the same beach ball and symbol. Tried another OS X DVD with the same result.
I am able to boot from the internal hard drive only, but then I can't do a disk repair. I have already reset the PRAM, but that didn't help.
Any suggestions ??? Thanks.

Because of recent slow performance on my iMac G5 I ran disk utility and repaired permissions, then clicked Verify Disk. It reported minor errors in directory files and said I should repair them. I tried starting up from the MacOS X installation DVD, but my G5 still starts from the hard disk and I am therefore unable to repair rthe hard disk.
Can I create a new startup disk by copying my installation disk, leaving off the installation software, and then start my Mac using Option "C".
On my previous Macs I always used Norton Utilities to repair my disk and recover files - are ther any similar packages available for OS X (10.4.7)?

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  • I can not boot from DVD or USB to install

    I have a 27 in iMac with i7 processor. For reasons I wont get into (lets just assume I have the right reason) I want to do a complete fresh install of Snow Leopard and start completely over.
    When I use OPT to select the SL DVD to boot, all I get is the apple logo, no spinning wheel, i let it sit that way all night still didnt work. If I force boot the SL DVD using C, same thing. So I tried formatting an external USB hard drive as a GUID drive and had the install residing on there, when I use OPT when booting the USB is not an option, nor is is listed in startup disks either.
    I can not do a fresh install, and i have followed loads of tutorials online, but my DVD never does boot.

    You need the discs for your computer. No other discs will work.
    The retail copy of 10.6.0 doesn't have the necessary drivers for your computer, nor does 10.5. Your computer should have shipped with 10.6.1.
    I think the inability to boot from USB is due to an invalid operating system being installed on the drive.
    ~Lyssa

  • Booting From SD Card, External Drive, USB Stick, etc...

    If you configure an external HD, usb stick, sd card, etc. to be a startup volume for your mac, does the computer write or otherwise use the computer's 'default' internal hard drive?
    For example, if I insert an sd card into an iMac and boot off of that and open safari and visit a website, once I startup again from the iMac's internal drive, will that appear in the safari's history when booting up again form the internal HD?
    Will there be any trace otherwise of anything I do while booted from the sd card?
    If I sent the iMac to DriveSavers or some other computer forensic analysis place would they find anything on the internal drive?
    I'm inclined to think they would not, but I was hoping this could evolve into a technical discussion with somebody perhaps being knowledgable enough to explain how data travels from the internet, over the ethernet connection, to the motherboard, and then the hard drive. I try to visualize it, myself having a basic understanding, and I think that if there is an entirely different boot volume being used, the 'secondary' volume wouldn't even get written to - unless I obviousy elected to save a file to it.
    *Oh, without sending super sketchy I thought maybe I should put this question into context. So, I'm a college student and I was thinking that maybe I could just spend a hundred bucks on an sd card and always have it with me and just go to the library or lab (or local apple store? thought I think they don't allow it) and boot from a 'host mac'. My concern is that I don't want to leave traces of a paper, or email, or private chat, or browsing history on the computer's internal hard drive.  If this works I'll save like $1,000 - to a college kid that's like a billion dollars, even in this economy.
    Thank you very much!
    Tom

    Each boot drive will use a different set of home folders, so the history and other settings created in one will not be available in the other.
    The operating system is just software that loads from a storage device. For Macs this can be the internal drive, an external drive, a DVD, or a networked volume. This software loads at boot and allows use of the system's hardware (mouse, keyboard, graphics processors, etc.). Booting does not require the use of the internal drive. When the system is powered on it gets a list of all attached storage devices and will preferentrially try to load an operating system from the default boot device, but if it cannot or if it's instructed to look elsewhere (e.g., if you hold the C key to boot to a DVD), then it will load the operating system software from a different location.
    When the system has an specific boot drive loaded, it will reference every location of where to save things from that drive. This is the "root" of the system, on which the system has references to storage locations both on the "root" drive and to those on other storage devices. Very briefly, the system sees your external drives simply as folders on your boot drive.
    If you boot to an external drive, then this will be the "root" drive, and your system's internal drives will be likewise seen as folders like any other secondary storage locations.

  • Can I boot from an internal hard drive with a different verison of OSX?

    My wife had a MBP5,5 running a version of OSX earlier than Mavericks (came with snow leopard, believed we upgraded to Lion or Mountain Lion at some point but can't recall right now, for the life of me) and my daughter spilled a drink on it the other day ending its run.  As a result, I bought a used MBP MD101LL/A with Mavericks installed and planned on just swapping its hard drive with hers (which I know survived the spill...I've been able to access it via a tethered enclosure since) and choosing her old drive as the startup volume on boot.  All went according to plan, but the boot gets no further than the Apple logo.  Any suggestions?  Because I was swapping out the hard drive, I didn't take the drive that was in the new MBP when I bought it but I'm sure I can get it if need be.  Same applies to the installation discs.  I have the 10.6 installation DVD and tried to boot from it and get to Disk Utility to no avail.  Any information/guidance would be greatly appreciated.

    If your New to You Used Mac is froom mid 2012 and originally came with Lion installed on it you will need to Reinstall that version using the Online Internet Recovery system and then at first boot of the new install use the Setup Assistant system to copy over all the data from your wifes old hard drive.
    To access the Online system at startup hold down the Command + Option/alt + r keys and keep them held down until you see a globe on the screen. From the resulting screen that cames up, Mac OS X Utilities, select Disk Utility and then the top most entry for the hard drive, left hand panel, drive model number and size, and then the Partition tab. Repartition the drive as One Partition, You Must do that to get ride of the Mavericks Recovery HD partition which is hidden. Name the partition Macintosh HD with a format of Mac OS Extended (Journaled).
    Once that is done exit disk utility and select Reinstall Mac OS X.

  • Mac Pro will not boot from cd or external drive

    My Mac has an issue whith the boot drive, and I would like to format the drive and reinstall OS-X Mountain Lion and then use Time Machine to resore the Data. When I try to boot my Early 2009 Mac Pro (OS-X 10.8) using the option key, it loads the scrren that allows me to choose among the bootable drives. Once I choose either an external drive or CVD, it loads to the apple screen, stays there for about 5 minutes, then loads the OS on the main drive... Any ideas would be greatly appreciated.
    Bill Mueller

    At first I was just going to say it sounds like you have a bad optical drive, but then you had to go and say that it also won't boot from a HDD.
    That just makes things a whole lot worse.
    Start by removing the side cover and checking the RAM to see if any of the LEDs are lit up indicating bad RAM. Usually if there's any bad RAM found, it will just automatically disable that stick, but maybe yours isn't for some reason.
    Look for any other LEDs that may be lit. Generally speaking, the only time you should see an LED (outside of the power LED) lit consistently is if there's a problem.
    You should also see if you can get Apple Hardware Test to run, which may or may not find some problem.
    But sorry to say, it's sounding very suspiciously like a bad logic board.
    One other thing to try, is putting the SL drive into a different slot. So if you were putting it in slot 2, try slot 3 or 4. If you just have a bad SATA port, you might be able to just work around that until you get a new system.
    If by chance this system is still under warranty, do not walk, do not pass go, do not collect $200, RUN to the nearest AASP or Apple store to make it THEIR problem to sort out.

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