DVD drive won't boot from Leopard or Tiger disks

Hi,
I have had some issues booting from the OS install disks with my DVD drive, is it the drive or is it the software?
Can this be fixed?
Thanks
Tom

There are known issues with some Leopard discs not booting, but if your Tiger disc won't boot either, I would say you probably have a defective optical drive.
-Bmer
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MacBook Pro Won't Boot from Leopard DVD

My brother's MacBook Pro (2009 13") won't boot from the Leopard install DVD. Here is what happened:
- I tried to do Bootcamp on it. I installed Windows 7 but realized that there were no Bootcamp drivers for that.
- Deleted Widnows 7 and put the XP install disc in. Somehow, it formatted my Mac partition instead of my Windows partition.
- Now that the MBP was only running Windows XP, I connected it to my iMac in target disk mode and wiped it (GUID, one Mac OS Extended (Journaled) partition).
- I tried to put the Leopard (10.5.0) install DVD in there so I can restore from the Time Machine backup, and it sees it when I hold option at bootup but refuses to boot from it.
- I reset the PRAM and tried again, no luck.
What is going on here? Does it have to do with the fact that it was doing Bootcamp? I either want to boot from the disc or somehow restore from Time Machine some other way. I can use another computer (my iMac) if I need to.

Haha yeah, I posted right before. The thing I'm wondering now: Does this mean that a Mac that came with Lion cannot be downgraded to Snow Leopard? Well, I'll save it for another question if I ever cross that bridge.
Limnos wrote:
Just so we know, this is the original OS disc that came with this computer? Even if you're trying to use a retail installer disc I am not sure those came out the the sufficient sub-version required to boot the computer (I think it needs at least 10.5.7 but don't have the specifics of your model).
Edit: I guess I'm a slow typist.

IMac can't/won't boot from Leopard DVD

My 1GHz G4 iMac can't or won't boot from the DVD, although I know the media is good.
I get stuck on the grey screen, the rotating bug stops rotating after about 5 minutes.
It will still boot from the hard disk fine, and will boot with other DVDs as well. Hardware diagnostics check out fine.
I did try single user mode, it will get there OK.
Verbose mode spits out a lot of messages (who knew? - lol), but nothing that seems to point to any one issue. It too stops spitting out messages after about 10 minutes.
Any ideas?

I did try the clicking the mouse thing just for the heck of it... no joy.
I do see a few other threads like this one, so I'm not alone on this.
The error messages I see are (not going to type them out all the way):
launchd[1]: Failed to count the number of files in /System/Library/StartupItems no such file or directory
Then a bunch of mDNSResponder errors, also saying either no such file/directory or invalid destination port.
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kextd[47]: root filesystem is read-only; skipping kernel link data generation
followed by a couple of errors from configdp[41]
Then nothing....
Still stuck...

2008 MacBook Pro won't boot from Leopard DVD or Target Disk

Yesterday I was working on my MacBook Pro. I use FontExplorer to manage fonts. I ran the conflicts diagnostic looking for missing font files, which returned about 200 results (I was expecting this). I've moved the fonts installed by Adobe/Microsoft out of my fonts folder in my user library (user library, not system). For some reason the computer started to become very slow, to the point of beachballing. The freezing seemed to start and stop. I was able to close FontExplorer and Illustrator without force-quitting. I tried to shut it down gracefully at that point but it froze up again, so I hit the power button to force a restart. It started up but now it hangs on the gray screen right before the Apple logo. The logo doesn't come up, I can hear the drive spinning as normal but it doesn't do anything.
I've tried booting from a retail copy of the Snow Leopard, but it doesn't work. I can hear the disc spin up in the DVD drive as though the computer is about to read it, but nothing happens. It just stays on that same blue screen. I've tried booting my MBP in Target Disk mode from my iMac. The target disk icon appears, however it just sits in the middle of the screen and my drive doesn't mount on the iMac. I've noticed now that the white status light on the front of the MBP (on the latch) doesn't come on, and if I cover the speakers the backlight doesn't turn off.
What do I do now? I have an enclosure I could use to try and boot the MBP's drive from, but I'm running out of options. I'm really starting to worry about my data. I have a major school project that's already late which is on there, and I don't have a recent backup. If I don't hand it in... let's not go there. I don't understand how this could happen; I take very good care of my computer, I turn it off when it's not in use, and I run Cocktail on it once a day which does a SMART status check.
Help?

sig,
The first thing I tried was booting from the install disk. The 2008/2009 MBP's aren't able to boot from a retail DVD of Snow Leopard, which is why I ended up using the original hardware-specific install disk that shipped with my computer. That didn't boot either. I was able to view the drive in Disk Utility when it was in the enclosure, but the partition with my data on it would not mount. I attempted a repair disk on the drive but that failed. It wouldn't mount in Terminal either. I considered trying to rebuild the volume catalog using TechTool Pro but there's the possibility that could actually make things worse. So I've taken it to the repair shop. They're running it through DiskWarrior overnight, last I heard there were 60-something thread errors. Yesterday my SMART status was fine, today my drive is dead. What happened? Hoping for the best (but expecting the worst).

BRAND NEW Mac Pro won't boot from Leopard DVD, kernel panics!

I just received my brand new Mac Pro today. It's a BTO machine with the upgrade to the NVIDIA 8800GT, a second optical drive and a Mac OS X Server license. The system has Mac OS X server installed on the default 320GB drive. I decided to use the server license as a virtual machine running in Leopard client. So, I installed 2 new 500GB Seagate 7200.11 (Retail) drives in the machine, zeroed them out in prep for installing Leopard client.
At this point, I pop in a freshly-purchased retail copy of the Leopard DVD and restart. When I try to boot from the DVD and install Leopard to one of the new Seagate drives, I get kernel panics - need to restart the machine. Also tried booting from the Mac OS X Server DVD and this too only caused kernel panics. The DVD's read perfectly from within Mac OS X Server and boot from hard disks is flawless.
I spent an hour on the phone with a level 2 tech at Apple - Tried swapping out the RAM and moving around the DIMMS to no avail. I am at a loss to what this could be. Seems to be a hardware issue and the tech thought it was likely a problem with one of the memory risers but couldn't send replacements. Anyone else with a similar issue?
This is my first Mac and it looks like this Mac Pro is going back for an exchange and I'll have to wait yet another 10-12 days for a replacement to arrive. Bummer.
Am I missing something simple here? Does this seem to be a hardware issue?
If anyone has any ideas before I ship this one back, please write!!!

New Mac Pros will not install the Leopard retail disc. They will only install the Leopard disc which shipped with them labeled Mac Pro. That has always been true. Macs can only boot the system that ships on DVD in the box that came with them, and newer retail releases. They can never boot from an older retail release than what shipped in the box.

Powermac Won't Boot From Leopard Disc, Hard Drive, etc.

I've tried to boot the computer from the cd, hard drive and other things but it will not boot because i don't know the open firmware password. Any ideas?

In fact, I have but I first saw yours.
This seems to be a relatively frequent problem.
I've even checked that Firmware Password Protection thing.
Apple procedure is puzzling to say the least. They say
it could prevent boot from DVD and advise to install
the app from the App DVD (the # 2 DVD delivered with the
MBP to correct this and deactivate FPP if it was activated in the first place.
I checked : no Firmware Password Protection in the DVD.
Usually, Apple never behave like Micro$oft, God forbid…
Message was edited by: Hellstan

IBook G4 won't boot from Leopard 10.5.6

I recently acquired a used iBook G4. Unfortunately the seller had a password on the system, and I am unable to get past the login screen. I've got a fresh Mac Box Set of OS X Leopard 10.5.6 and was planning to do a clean install anyway, but I can't get the system to boot from the Install DVD. I've spent almost my entire day scratching my head over this. Any help would be appreciated.

jrquebe:
I'll be honest here... I'm not really a Mac guy.
That's okay. Welcome to the club of Mac users. Someone just wrote in another thread, "I think Macs make the world a better place."
In any case. You said you are able to login with Panther, but it doesn't load the GUI. That is not normal behavior. So there must be a problem with the installation.
Here are the Leopard installation system requirements. Let us assume that your system meets the minimum requirements. Now, to booting from the install disk. Try this:
• Insert install disk in optical drive
• Hit Power button and immediately after chime
• Hold down the Option/alt button.
• If this works bootable volumes should show up on a gray screen.
• Select the install disk and click the straight arrow.
If this does not work you have either a defective optical drive or a defective disk. Please post back with an update of how/if this works.
cornelius

After attempting secure erase, iMac w/homemade fusion drive won't boot from *anything*

2009 iMac with homemade fusion drive (SSD installed in optical bay). Was working fine with Yosemite until I attempted to secure erase it before giving away the machine.
Now the drive is borked. Disk utility could make no sense of it, can't reformat, it can't repartition it. And now it has completely stopped booting. I cannot even get it to boot of an external USB drive anymore (the original operation was performed while booted from a Yosemite installer drive on a USB stick).
I've reset the PRAM, reset the SMC, and just nothing. All boots are attempted from internal messed up fusion drive, which eventually ends in the "prohibitory sign".
I'm not even sure what to try at this point. Any suggestions out there?

Thank you for the reply. I have since resolved the problem, although not in the most satisfactory way.
Here's what I did:
Pulled both drives out of the iMac, put them into a USB dock, and reformatted each one. Both drives appeared at this point to be fine.
Reinstalled both drive into the iMac, and started up from a USB drive. No problem.
Recreated the fusion drive from the terminal. No problem.
Now, because I am a glutton for punishment, I tried wiping the fusion drive again. This time, part way in, it kernel panicked. Luckily, I was able to reboot once again to the external drive.
At this point, the fusion drive was in the exact same messed up state as when I started. Disk Utility app could do nothing with it.
Fortunately, this time I went right to the command line, and was able to fix things up and recreate the fusion drive before anything else bad happened.
I gave up on wiping the drive for now. If I need to do so in the future, I will disable the fusion drive and try to wipe each physical drive separately.
I should note that this iMac has never given a spot of trouble before now, so I am highly suspicious of the way disk utility tries to wipe a fusion drive. I certainly won't try it again. (I don't know if it has ever kernel-panicked before in the 5 years I've owned it).

DVD drive won't work but it will burn disk?

imac 2.4Ghz - 10.5.8
For sometime now my DVD drive spits out Cd's/DVDs as soon as I put it in. Strange thing is, it will let me put blank media in and will allow me to burn disks.
It's getting really annoying now as can't do so many things I need to do.
I want to upgrade to Snow leopard but until this is sorted I can't. I know I can attach an external drive or replace it but I need to know that I've covered all areas before resorting to this.
Wondering if an upgrade caused this possibly?
Would be very grateful for any help anyone can give me?
Many thanks

Hello kfq
Welcome to Apple Support Communities
1. Check and clean those CDs and DVDs, SuperDrives are picky and don't like dirty, filmy, scratched, warped, out of balance media with labels on them!
2. Check the Apple > System Preferences > CDs & DVDs to make sure that they were set correctly. To include toggling/re-setting them to something else and back, forcing the system to re-write the preferences.
3. Download the 10.5.8 Combo Update from the following Apple Support page and install it over the top of the current 10.5.8 > http://support.apple.com/kb/DL866
Dennis

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

Spotlight reindexing drives when booting from Leopard to Tiger & vice versa

Hi,
I have two HDs, one with Leopard and the other with Tiger. Whenever I boot into the other HD I find that Spotlight re-indexes my two 750GB music & data drives which takes some time. Why is this? Do they use different versions of the index?
It's a bit of a pain as I have to boot into both OS's every day and cannot use Spotlight while the indexing is running and it also slows the system down. I do not want to turn indexing off as I need it during my work.
Any help/ideas?

dickie001x wrote:
Hi,
I have two HDs, one with Leopard and the other with Tiger. Whenever I boot into the other HD I find that Spotlight re-indexes my two 750GB music & data drives which takes some time. Why is this? Do they use different versions of the index?
yes, they do.
It's a bit of a pain as I have to boot into both OS's every day and cannot use Spotlight while the indexing is running and it also slows the system down. I do not want to turn indexing off as I need it during my work.
Any help/ideas?
I don't think there is any way around this. may I ask why you have to use both tiger and leopard?
you can try using some spotlight alternatives such as [EasyFind|http://www.versiontracker.com/dyn/moreinfo/macosx/11706] when you are using one of the two OS ( either tiger or leopard) and spotlight for the other os.

BRAND NEW LENOVO K300 5316 1BU (WON'T BOOT FROM DVD SUPERJULTI DRIVE/CD-WRITER

Would appreciate info from the Lenovo Community as to what might be the problem and a fix.
I just received my new Lenovo K300 5316 1BU. As one of the first tasks I made a Lenovo Repair Disc.
To test my disc I rebooted my computer with disc in drive. During reboot I pressed F12 to get to the proper menu.
I chose the cd/dvd drive as the first boot option. It showed that the drive was recognized stating Boot Priority but then went directly into my Windows 7 deskop.
I called Tech Support and tried everything with them with the same results.
They instructed me to do a complete System Restore to see if that corrects the problem.
I have not done this yet since I will do a backup of my present setup, not to loose all my hard work and time setting up all my programs and settings.
Before I do a complete system restore I would appreciate any comments or suggestions from the community regarding this situation.
Do you also believe that doing a full system restore will help or should I send this computer back?
I do find it hard to believe that a computer less than a week old would have this problem with the DVD Supermulti Drive /CD writer.
If I still have no success after a full restore or a resolve from the Lenovo IdeaCentre Community then I will return this computer back to TigerDirect.
To conclude I would like to mention the following regarding this brand new Lenovo K300 5316 1BU top of the line desktop computer.
One of the reasons I purchased this particular desktop was because of the Lenovo Windows 7 ENHANCED operating system that Lenovo has been advertising so much.
To my surprise and disappointment, this BRAND NEW Lenovo Windows 7 Home Premium 64bit does not have the Enhance version, it is Windows 7 Home Premium 64bit only.
Apparently, Lenovo is making some with Enhanced and some without.
Finally, another reason I purchased the 1BU version is because it has a TV Tuner.
To my surprise again, the TV Tuner card in this model does not have an FM Tuner, which almost all TV Tuner Cards have. So, as a result, no FM Radio with Windows 7 Media Center.
Thank you for taking the time to read this long post, but thought it was important to share with the community.
Comments and Help will be most appreciated.
MateusMan
Moderator note; e-mail address removed to stop the spambots getting it

What brand DVD drive did you install? Some third-party drives won't boot by holding down the C key at startup, because they lack the Apple/OEM drive's ROM programming. I recently installed a Memorex (manufactured by LG) DVD burner in a B&W G3, which is recognized by Toast and (with PatchBurn) the iApps. The compatibility problem occurs when selecting a CD/DVD as the startup disk using the Startup Disk Preferences/control panel or by holding down the C key during the restart. In either case, the drive ejects the disk during the POST, so that I have to immediately close the tray and hold down the C key again, to persuade it to boot from the disk. Is this similar to what you're experiencing?

Problem: installed new hard drive but can´t boot from leopard dvd

So I just installed a new hard drive in my ibook G4. At first I started up the computer using the leopard DVD I had purchased. Got to Disk Utility and after a few seconds in the spin wheel came up and froze. So, I shut the computer down and when I tried to boot it again from the DVD I wouldn´t even reach the apple screen. Tried it a few times unsuccessfully.
As an alternative I just tried booting the comptuer using the original CD and it did read it.
I am currently at the installer page but I am concern about installing the old CD as I really would like to run the leopard dvd 10.5.
Is it that my ibook g4 can´t be booted from leopard dvd?
Please advise. thanks!!

OK, so I decided to leave my computer resting all night and give it a new try this morning.
This morning I was able to boot from the Leopard DVD, so I don´t really think it is a problem with my superdrive. Started to format at 32 minutes to complete. Then towards the 10th minute the spinning wheel appeared, I heard the fan running, then it stopped and then I heard the superdrive making some reading noises. Then all noises stopped and now the spinning wheel continues..not sure what to do now.
In the meantime, I wanted to share also another problem that I´ve been having for quite some time which I don´t know if it is related to my current problem. It is with the computer power:
- I´ve been experiecing load surges that take my computer from 100% to 1 or 0% and then goes to sleep or shuts down. The same thing happens when I am charging the computer.. it starts charging and showing 2 or 3% charge and then jacks up to 100% in minutes.
- My computer also makes like a slight humming noise sometimes when the ring around the power cable is in orange color, so I move it around until it stops. When I do that sometimes it goes from orange to green eventhough it is not fully charged. There has been times that under green it appears to be charging (battery charging icon on desktop shows up), and other sometimes like right now when it is in green color and the battery icon on the desktop says ´99%´. Weird enough, once I get the cable in a certain position it enables the battery to charge, if I keep it without moving it, the load surges disappear (at least for some days).
Should I try resetting the PMU? I´ve not done it because I don´t know what consequences it may have.
NOTE: When I bought the computer I never calibrated my battery because I was (and still are) clueless when comes to computer technicalities. I tried using a different power adapter and get the sample problem.
Below is the information I get from coconut battery:
My battery is in its 256 load-cycle. current battery capacity 58512mAh (original battery capacity: 4400 mAh).
The last system profiler I was able to pull shows:
Battery Information:
Charge Information:
Charge remaining (mAh): 58320
Charging: No
Full charge capacity (mAh): 58512
Health Information:
Cycle count: 256
Battery Installed: Yes
Amperage (mA): 0
Voltage (mV): 16250
System Power Settings:
AC Power:
System Sleep Timer (Minutes): 15
Disk Sleep Timer (Minutes): 10
Display Sleep Timer (Minutes): 15
Dynamic Power Step: Yes
Reduce Processor Speed: No
Automatic Restart On Power Loss: No
Wake On AC Change: No
Wake On Clamshell Open: Yes
Wake On LAN: Yes
Wake On Modem Ring: Yes
Display Sleep Uses Dim: Yes
Battery Power:
System Sleep Timer (Minutes): 5
Disk Sleep Timer (Minutes): 10
Display Sleep Timer (Minutes): 5
Dynamic Power Step: No
Reduce Processor Speed: Yes
Automatic Restart On Power Loss: No
Wake On AC Change: No
Wake On Clamshell Open: Yes
Wake On Modem Ring: No
Display Sleep Uses Dim: Yes
Reduce Brightness: Yes
Hardware Configuration:
Clamshell Closed: No
UPS Installed: No
AC Charger Information:
AC Charger (Watts): 26
Connected: Yes
Charging: No
Any help is greatly appreciated.
Thanks a bunch!!!

MS-6728 won't boot from DVD drive?

I have a MS-6728 motherboard with bios v2.5 that won't boot from a bootable DVD disk. Here's what I've tried so far:
- Made sure the DVD drive was the first one in the BIOS boot device list.
- Tried two different DVD drives. One plain DVD drive. The other was a DVD dual layer writer. Both were PATA.
- Booted the DVD from three other machines to confirm it's not the DVD disk. It worked fine on all of them.
- Put the DVD drive from one of the machines that booted it correctly into the MS-6728 machine. That didn't fix the problem.
- Removed all drives except the PATA DVD drive and one SATA hard drive. No luck.
- Booted the MS-6728 machine from a bootable CD. That worked it was a Windows XP Pro install CD.
The DVD is a Debian install DVD BTW. Also I tried it each time by doing the F11 (select boot device) and just letting the BIOS auto detect everything. Each time I see a quick flash of "boot record not found" but I know the DVD is bootable since it worked with three other machines. The DVD was made from a ISO image downloaded from the net. I have booted the machine several times before from CDs.
I'm wondering if the BIOS only supports bootable CDs and not bootable DVDs?
Any ideas would be greatly appreciated.

How many IDE controllers does you board have? If it has more than 2, make sure that the DVD drive is connected to Intel controller and not Promise Controller.

Why won't my Intel iMac boot up, either from the internal hard drive or the DVD drive? It just displays a light grey screen, without any other icons, etc. The fact that it won't boot from the original system DVD is what baffles me the most. Any ideas?

Why won't my Intel iMac boot up, either from the internal hard drive or the DVD drive? It just displays a light grey screen, without any other icons, etc. The fact that it won't boot from the original system DVD is what baffles me the most. Any ideas? It uses the latest version of Mavericks. Thanks!

If the C key for Install Disc or R Command for OS X Recovery startup commands are not working, try holding the Option key for the Startup Manager.
see > Startup Manager: How to select a startup volume
If that does not work and you using a wireless keyboard, it may have become unpaired and you need to dig up a USB keyboard to invoke the startup commands.
For more on gray screen, see > Mac OS X: Gray screen appears during startup

DVD drive won't boot from Leopard or Tiger disks

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