Cannot boot from OSX install disk

I need to run disk utility to repair my boot drive.
I am attempting to startup from my OSX install disk. However, I can't seem to get my machine to do this.
My computer recognizes my install disk when it's in my superdrive. It mounts on the desktop and I can read from it.
However, when i go into system preferences>startup disk, OSX does not show my mounted OSX install disk listed as an option. Also, when I hold down C on startup, my machine ignores the command. And when I hold down the Option key on startup, the only startup option shown is my boot drive, not my OSX install disk.
I've tried zapping my p-ram. I've tried booting up in safe mode and then re-trying the above.
I don't know what else I can do, short of typing in scary UNIX command lines.
I'm going completely mental here. Please help me, somebody.
If it makes any difference, I've got gobs of apps installed, notably Adobe CS3, Final Cut Studio, Firefox, MS Office 2004.

Not that this solves the booting problem, but I recommend installing AppleJack, which is free (and does run on Intel). This provides easy commands for doing a disk check in single user mode (it's the same in the end as typing the Unix commands but much easier to use), and it's much faster than booting from the CD (even if you can).
Having installed it, restart holding command-S: after a lot of text you will get the line 'Type Applejack at the prompt' - you simply do this and then it's just a question of typing 'd' to check the disk and so on. (Incidentally do not run it from the Terminal when booted normally: you must use it only in single-user mode.)

Similar Messages

Is there any way to browse a USB disk while booted from OSX install disk?

My hard drive died on me the other day (the mac partition anyway) and I'm trying to use a data recovery program to get my data back. I have the application on my USB key, and I assumed I'd then be able to use the OS X installer disk to boot up and then run this program from the USB drive but the installer doesn't let me browse folders or quit... Is there any way to do this? I don't have another mac to firewire or anything so it's either this or order a recovery program on a bootable disk, which I really don't want to do as I need this done fast... Any suggestions?

Your utility for data recovery usually should have come with a Mac bootable DVD with its own application on it. If it didn't, contact them for a disc that will boot your Mac with the utility on it. Your other option is to get a Firewire hard drive, partition it, and install the operating system there on one partition large enough for the operating system, while leaving the other partition large enough to recover the entire unbootable hard drive.
Partitioning is described here, and will WIPE your entire hard drive:
http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=61301

Cannot boot from OSX DVD - ACPI error

I am unable to boot from my OSX installation DVD. While booting I receive the following message:
Panic (cpu 0 caller 0x003A934F) Unable to find driver for this platform: ACPI.
I have tried re-installing the combo updater and flashing the PRAM, without any success.
Can anyone PLEASE HELP? My hard drive needs repair and I must boot from DVD in order to gain access to make the repairs with the Disk Utility.
Much thanks!

Will it run the Extended Tests from Apple Hardware Test (Boot while holding "D")?
If it won't boot from the install disk, it is not a problem with any software on your hard drive. It has to be a hardware problem; probably the DVD drive, since OSX is mostly working. If you have another Mac that can read DVDs and has FireWire, put the DVD in that Mac and boot it in Target Disk Mode (hold "T" while booting. Connect it to the Mac Pro with a FireWire cable, and boot the Mac Pro while holding Option. If the DVD shows up, select it and click the straight, right-pointing, arrow.
If that doesn't work, try booting the Mac Pro in Target Disk Mode (Boot while pressing "T"), connect it to another Mac via FireWire, and try to repair the Mac Pro disk with Disk Utility (Tiger version), or Disk Warrior (version 4 or later).

My imac wont boot from the install disk

My IMAC will not boot from the install disk.

Hello, your installation disk is running under OSX??? If no the media has a problem!!!
1. Restart your mac and hold the alt (option key) to select media to install.
2. Restart you mac and hold the "c" key to boot.
an other solution is to make a partition on the hard drive and put a restore image of the Mac os X Installation dvd inside it then Restart your mac nad hold the "option" key and you will see the partition with mac os x installation and you can make a new installation from there.

Cannot boot from osx or cd, help

Hi,
I have a problem. My macbook 5.1 boots only to windows, not to cd or osx. I am not sure what has happened but I think I installed the latest security update. I have a backup with time machine (osx) and vista with windows backup. I can wipe the whole disk clean (I do this only if I am absolutely sure it will work, CD is now unresponsive, what about if network fails...).
However, I cannot boot from CD, to verbose mode or to single user mode. None of the keys work (eject, c, s, v, cmd+c, cmd+v, cmd+s) anymore at startup. My installation dvd is stuck into the cd-rom. The eject button does not work in windows (otherwise the vista works perfectly). Also the refit screen has disappeared.
This problem is caused (to my knowlege) due to following actions:
1. security updade => failure to boot osx (hangs to apple-logo and shuts down)
2. recovery from time machine to 2 days old configuration (last known working)
3. current status, no cd, osx or startup buttons
This is my work computer and I need the linux (osx) part on monday. Please help.
Juha
Technical details:
- refit
- osx leopard
- macbook 5.1
- vista created with bootcamp
- timemachine 500Gb

I got the problem worked out. Now that I have the possibility to boot from cd I used the recovery from timecapsule again. Now it worked more properly. There is some issues with some programs and data (missing), but thats another story.
Last time I left the recovery program calculating the space needed (step 1) overnight, as takes a lot of time. I finished the step 2 (choose recovery date and copy the files) in the morning. I was not at the computer when it did the thing and I only saw the text 'recovery complete'.
Apparently there is a 'feature' that if you lose the connection between steps 1 and 2, the recovery program copies the network path that is empty (connection lost -> empty path). The program thinks everything is copied and gives 'recovery complete' message.
The problem is now mostly solved, some programs are not recovered. This is seen as question mark icons in the tray. Overall I have succesfully recovered from the latest security update.
Juha
P.S. My original login name has disappeared from this forum. I am the same guy as Dv3. Could some admin mark this as solved.
Message was edited by: dve_

Having trouble installing software AND restarting from OSX Install disks

This may be a previously answered problem, but I couldn't find it in the forum.
My recently-purchased MacBook has iPhoto v. 2.x on it, but this is really old -- the current version is 6 or so.
I thought a newer version might be on my Install disks, but I can't seem to get past the screen that tells me to restart in order to install System X. When I do click it, it restarts back to my login screen, and then I need to relaunch the OSX installer, and the loop starts over.
The obvious solution is to restart from the Install disk, however, I cannot start up from that disk; I hold down C while restarting, but I get a flashing folder-with-a-question-mark in it. Note the grey install disk is 10.2.4 and my computer is running 10.4.11 with upgrades. Is this the issue?
Besides hoping one of you can help me 1) start from my Install disk and 2) find and install iPhoto, perhaps someone knows which version of iPhoto I will have, if any, on this disk (CD vers 1.0, 2Z691-4306-A).
Vielen Dank!
-A-

Your question was answered unless we didn't understand it correctly. You are trying to boot an Intel Mac with "Note the grey install disk is 10.2.4." 10.2.4 cannot boot any Intel Mac. BDAqua addressed that in his reply. You have not responded to either his or my original reply.
You're original question was about iPhoto. I replied that you can reinstall all originally pre-bundled software for your computer by running the Install Pre-Bundled Software installer contained on your OS X Installer Disc One that came with the computer. There's no need to boot from the installer disc in order to reinstall pre-bundled software.
So, is there a part of your question that still needs addressing? Please let us know, and we will be glad to help if we can.

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.

Possibly dumb Q: Running Disk Utility when booted from OSX Install DVD

Hey there Mac folks. I was wondering about this:
I'm running OSX 10.4.5 on a 2x2.0GHz G5 with 4 internal drives. (I stuffed 2 into the PCI bay with a G5Jam bracket kit.) I use Disk Utility v10.5.3, which is current for OSX 10.4.5, when doing basic maintenance/repair on my secondary drives, as well as to repair permissions and do a verify (but not repair) on my startup drive. When I have to do a repair on my startup drive, barring the use of other 3rd party apps, I have to boot from my OS 10.4 DVD, and use the Disk Utility there. However, since it's a 10.4.0, the Disk Utility there is v 10.5.0.
So, the question: Should I care? Any chance of a problem? I know the Disk Utility's repairing doesn't really care what OS, if any, is installed on a drive it's repairing (at least I think that's true?), but I have no idea what changes/improvemnts have been made to Disk Utility. Actually, I've always wondered about this sort of thing since OS 10.0.
I think I can make a copy of my Tiger install DVD with the newer version of Disk Utility inserted onto it, replacing the old one with v10.5.3. I don't know if it's worth the trouble though. I figure that for the newbie users, Apple would have thought of this, and addressed it if it were a potential problem. (Despite this Q, I'm not a newbie!)

Hi, JonYo.
Booting from your Tiger Install DVD to Verify or Repair your startup disk is fine. No worries!
The major changes in Disk Utility from 10.5 to 10.5.3 were:
• Better handling of overlapped extent allocation errors. Third-party utilities, such as Alsoft’s DiskWarrior may still be better at this task.
• The addition of live verification: the ability to Verify your startup disk while booted from such. One of the intermediate releases
The key point is to only use Tiger-compatible disk utilities with Tiger.
If you've implemented a proper backup and recovery solution where you are creating a bootable duplicate of your startup disk, you could also start up from the duplicate and run the latest version of Disk Utility on such to Verify or Repair your usual startup disk. For advice on the backup and recovery solution I employ, see my "Backup and Recovery" FAQ.
Computing without a comprehensive backup and recovery solution is like driving without auto insurance.
Good luck!
Dr. Smoke
Author: Troubleshooting Mac® OS X
Note: The information provided in the link(s) above is freely available. However, because I own The X Lab™, a commercial Web site to which some of these links point, the Apple Discussions Terms of Use require I include the following disclosure statement with this post:
I may receive some form of compensation, financial or otherwise, from my recommendation or link.

Cannot Boot from OSX on external firewire drive

I recently bought a seagate hardrive and installed it in an external firewire casing. I partitioned it into two partitions, and installed osx 10.4.10 on one of the partitions, the same as is running on my Ti Book.
I tried selecting the os on the firewire drive as the startup disk, but when i restart, after the grey screen i get the flashing question mark icon, until the mac recognises only the default osx on the internal drive and boots with that instead.
That not working, i created a clone of my startup disk using DejaVu in my system preferences and saved it on the other, empty partition on the external drive and tried booting from that.
On restarting, i get the grey screen once again as the backlight fires up, and nothing more. the screen remains grey without any further ado until i hold the power button and force it to turn off. then as i start it up again, up comes the flashing question mark icon followed by a boot from the internal drive.
Any Solutions on this?
Many Thanks, Neptune.

Hi Dale,
Whoops- everythings not as smooth as i thought it was!
since i restored my internal drive, a lot of things have been really messed up, starting with, for example, iTunes reverting to version 4 instead of 7. that wasnt a problem, i still had the 7 installer, and soon had my whole music library back again. but the computer appears to have a problem with the handling of graphics. the finder wont create previews of even simple jpeg images, nor will it for video. quicktime wont open any video file, i get some random error message which i cant remember stating it could not open the file. and if i view my finder window in grid icon view, the usual blue mac os desktop image that i keep as a background in the finder window isnt there, instead its pitch black. same goes for the slideshow feature in the application graphic converter, i can start a slideshow and it will scroll through the images, but every image will instead be completely black. there are no scroll bars in itunes. i can scroll down randomly by clicking where the scroll bar should be, but there is nothing visual there at all, no scroll bar, no arrows. when i connect my ipod, the main ipod window of itunes wont display any graphics either, be it the picture of the ipod or the capacity bar indicating usage of the drive for music, videos, data, etc. instead, fine print says something similar to 'cannot display image, quicktime and lzw tiff decompression plugin (?) required' I cant remember word for word what it says, dont quote me on that.
the computer also came to a dead freeze twice in ten minutes, i had to hold the power button down to get it to shut off.
im sure there are other issues too which i havent yet noticed, but even these, i havent the faintest clue what could be causing them!
do you?

Mac Pro gets kernel panic while trying to boot from Leopard install disk

Hi all,
I'm finally getting around to installing leopard on my 2006 Mac Pro. It has the x1900 video card from Apple and all firmware is up to date. The install disk upgraded my Macbook with no problems.
When booting I get the wipe to grey, kernel panic, "You must restart your Mac" screen. Any suggestions?
BTW the Leopard install disk installs OSX 10.5.0
Thanks
Pax

I finally found that the mac pro needs installer 10.5.2 or it will do the kernel panic thing. I did find a way around this though.
1) I took an external drive hooked to my macbook and installed 10.5 on it. Then booted from it and did all the updates, installed all my necessary software (ilife 08, parallels, and so on).
2) I then made sure my Mac pro's drive was currently backed up and then booted up from the backup and then used Carbon Copy Cloner to clone the new OS 10.5.4 Leopard disk onto my Mac Pro boot drive.
3) After that I used migration assistant to transfer all my user settings and such.
It all worked great and I now have Leopard on my Mac Pro.
Just thought I'd let everyone know how I got around it.
Pax

Video Ram failed, won't boot from Leopard Install Disk

Hello,
Recently, I ran the techtools software, and got a report that my video ram had failed. It was suggested that I attempt to reinstall OSX. I put in the Leopard install disk, click the install or setup button or whatever it is, click to restart. When it restarts, a gray screen comes up, but the computer never actually boots up, from either the DVD or my hard disk.
Any suggestions?

Welcome to the Apple Discussions!
Since your MacBook is still very new, you shouldn't have an problem with the DVD. If I were you, I'd call AppleCare Support and have someone walk you through re-installing Mac OS X. However, I really doubt this will help resolve what seems to be a hardware failure on your MacBook. Hopefully the folks at AppleCare Support can help figure out if you need to send your MacBook in for repairs.
-Doug

Cannot boot from time machine disk

I have a 2012 MacPro with 1 SSD and 3 Mechanical Disks installed. The disk in Bay 4 I use as a time machine disk, but upon booting the computer and holding down option I was only able to select my primary OSX Boot device ("Macintosh SSD") with no other bootable devices listed. If I have Time Machine on an external disk, I am able to select it as a boot device.
I just had a recent scare with a completely currupted disk that needed reformatting, so I'm checking everything I have to make sure it works as expected. Not being able to actually boot from the Time Machine disk to restore my computer if anything should go wrong with the Primary SSD and Hard Disk is quite worrysome.
How would I boot from an Internal Time Machine disk?
UPDATE:
I have found that I do not have internet recovery and I also do not have a Recovery HD.
I am downloading Mountain Lion from the App store again and will try and create some recovery media from that.
Message was edited by: Ginger-Ben

You should be using Carbon Copy Cloner to put a bootable copy of your SSD on another disk drive (it will offer to create ML Recovery volume also).
Cloning
Using Cloning as a Backup Strategy
http://www.macupdate.com/app/mac/7032/carbon-copy-cloner
You can have one drive that has clone of all the other drives in multiple partitions.
You could have more than one TimeMachine drive and a copy (cloned partition) of the system on each.
I do NOT understand why you can boot from TimeMachine on an external drive.
I have never even tried to boot from TimeMachine. You mean Recovery mode, not a standard system?
Mac Basics: Time Machine
Hold down the Option key at startup to boot into the startup manager. Select the Recovery system of the Time Machine backup to start from. Once started, you will have all of the functionality of Recovery.
https://support.apple.com/kb/HT1427
Mac OS X Recovery: http://support.apple.com/kb/HT4718
What I do and what I think you should include and add to your backup strategy:
An SSD *NEEDS* to have a disk image for restore if and as needed (and you need TRIM Enabler, and you need TE on your secondary drive.
You / we always have needed an "emergency / maintenance boot drive"
You can shrink and create 120GB partition on your backup drive but never have just one backup set or drive, "all your eggs in one basket" does not work forever.
Your OPTION boot should, if you installed ML or it came with it and you installed or cloned to the SSD, had one, or using "Command + R" on startup to boot from Recovery Mode. Trouble with that is if the drive needs to be formatted, and an SSD should be at times, you can only erase another partition, not the entire device.
Mac OS X & Mountain Lion Community
https://discussions.apple.com/community/mac_os
https://discussions.apple.com/community/mac_os/os_x_mountain_lion?view=discussio ns
Recovery Mode
http://support.apple.com/kb/HT4718
Cloning
Using Cloning as a Backup Strategy
http://www.macupdate.com/app/mac/7032/carbon-copy-cloner
http://www.bombich.com/software/updates/ccc-3.5.html
OS X Lion Install to Different Drive
How to create an OS X Lion installation disc MacFixIt
Migration Assistant Update for Mac OS X Snow Leopard
http://www.apple.com/support/lion/installrecovery/
Create an OS X Lion Install disc
http://reviews.cnet.com/8301-13727_7-20080989-263/how-to-create-an-os-x-lion-ins tallation-disc
http://www.coolestguyplanettech.com/how-to-make-a-bootable-osx-10-8-mountain-lio n-disc-or-drive-from-the-downloaded-mountain-lion-app/
How to clone your system:
http://macperformanceguide.com/Mac-HowToClone-backup.html
http://macperformanceguide.com/Mac-HowToClone.html
http://www.macupdate.com/app/mac/7032/carbon-copy-cloner
http://www.macperformanceguide.com/blog/2012/20120711_2-MacPro-internal-clone-ba ckup.html
Before you clone, install TRIM Enabler!
And after you clone, run Disk Utility's REPAIR DISK on the SSD -- just to be on the safest side. http://www.macupdate.com/app/mac/37852/trim-enabler
TimeMachine 101https://support.apple.com/kb/HT1427
How to relocate system and user data to another drive:
http://support.apple.com/kb/HT4337
http://chris.pirillo.com/how-to-move-the-home-folder-in-os-x-and-why/

Can I boot from tiger install disk without wiping my hard drive?

I have an old mac install disk with tiger on it and I want to be able to boot from it. Can I do that without damaging my hard drive?

You can boot from it, but if you continue through without stopping eventually it will try to install Tiger. However, if you want to install Tiger on a USB flash drive or HDD, then when you arrive at the screen for selecting a Target device, be sure to select the USB device before clicking on the Install button.
If the USB device has not been properly partitioned and formatted already, then be sure you do this:
Clean Install of OS X
     1. Boot the computer using the Tiger Installer Disc or the Disc 1 that came
         with your computer. Insert the disc into the optical drive and restart the computer.
         After the chime press and hold down the "C" key. Release the key when you see
         a small spinning gear appear below the dark gray Apple logo.
     2. After the installer loads select your language and click on the Continue
         button. When the menu bar appears select Disk Utility from the Utilities menu.
         After DU loads select the USB drive entry from the left side list (mfgr.'s ID and drive
         size.) Click on the Partition tab in the DU main window. Set the number of
         partitions to one (1) from the Partitions drop down menu, click on Options button
         and select GUID, click on OK, then set the format type to MacOS Extended
         (Journaled, if supported), then click on the Apply button.
     3. When the formatting has completed quit DU and return to the installer. Proceed
         with the OS X installation and follow the directions included with the installer.
     4. When the installation has completed your computer will Restart into the Setup
         Assistant. Be sure you configure your initial admin account with the exact same
         username and password that you used on your old drive. After you finish Setup
         Assistant will complete the installation after which you will be running a fresh
         install of OS X. You can now begin the update process by opening Software
         Update and installing all recommended updates to bring your installation current.
If you wish you can download any updates using Software Update preference panel.

How to boot from Panther install disk?

Hi,
May be a stupid question but I want to boot to my Panther install disk1 to repair my hard disk. I start the computer with the cd in the drive but it never boots from the cd. How do I do it?
Thanks,
Dave

Dave,
Insert the Panther Install disc, then restart the computer while holding the C key.
You may also want to read Using Disk Utility and fsck to resolve startup issues or perform disk maintenance.
;~)

Is booting from Tiger install disk possible to repair disk?

I have leopard 10.5.3 installed and updated, but I don't have the install disks on me, just the Tiger install disks. Can I boot from the Tiger install disks and repair the HD?

repair disk - yes,
repair permissions - no.
you can also repair disk without using an install DVD at all.
boot into single user mode by holding command+s at the chime on restart. at the prompt enter
/sbin/fsck -fy
that's the command to run "repair disk". when it's done type
reboot
to restart normally.

Cannot boot from OSX install disk

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