Can't boot from OSX Install disc.

Hello,
I am trying to restore my iMac from a Time MAchine backup and to do that I remembered that I had to boot off of the OSX install disk and choose Disk Utility. I thought that restoring from timeMAchine would be the hard and long part, but I am having trouble booting off of the OSX disc.
1.) I popped it into my iMac and it mounts and loads. Its runs fine so I know there is nothing wrong with the disc.
2.) I restarted my iMac and held C.
3.) The grey screen appeard and then the Apple logo and then the spinning icon underneath it. But it gets stuck there and doesn't boot off of the disk.
4.) I shutdown the machine by holding the power-button and when it restarted I held D. It ran the hardware test fine and I passed the hardware test.
5.) I shut it down again, same way in four, and held option. This time I chose to boot form the Mac OS X Install DVD. It again got stuck at the Grey screen with the Apple logo and the spinning icon.
Does anyone know how to or can help me get my iMac to boot from the OSX install disc or how I can use Disc Utility to restore my iMac from TimeMachine?
Thanks in Advance & Best Regards,
theirf.

Sorry, OE = Original Equipment - the grey discs that came with your Mac.
SL = Snow Leopard - Mac OS X 10.6.x.
theirf wrote:
What do OE and SL mean?
I think i understand though. You mean that any disc with a higher version of something will still work on a machine with a lower version of that thing right?
Not any disc. The only grey ones that will work are those that came with that Mac.
Any retail disc of a later OS version will work, and in most cases it would boot from an external HD with a later OS installed.
However, as Snow Leopard only came on two retail versions, 10.6.0 and 10.6.3, the choice is a bit limited.
The current retail version is available here.

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Message was edited by: hooddy
Message was edited by: hooddy

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