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

Similar Messages

No Boot from DVD or USB HP Media Center

Hi, I have a HP Desktop Media Center M7370 NL. I want to install Ubuntu but it does not boot from DVD (or USB) though the boot order is CD first. It just passes the DVD and goes through to Windows 7.
Any ideas?

Jeroen63, welcome to the forum.
I suggest that you visit www.ubuntuforums.org for help with your problem. They are the experts on Ubuntu and will be able to help you. I have used Ubuntu for years, but still go to their forum when I have a problem.
Please click the "Thumbs up + button" if I have helped you and click "Accept as Solution" if your problem is solved.
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HP 10 Plus; Android-Kit Kat; 1.0 GHz Allwinner A31 ARM Cortex A7 Quad Core Processor ; 2GB RAM Memory Long: 2 GB DDR3L SDRAM (1600MHz); 16GB disable eMMC 16GB v4.51
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**Click the Thumbs Up+ to say 'Thanks' and the 'Accept as Solution' if I have solved your problem.**
Intelligence is God given; Wisdom is the sum of our mistakes!
I am not an HP employee.

Imac 21" mid 2011 can not boot from USB device?

Hi,
hope someone can help me.
Bought the new imac 21" and replaced the superdrive with a ssd drive.
Works great but it seems that the imac is not able to boot from any usb device.
I put my osx install disk in my external dvd drive and powered my mac.
While booting up (pressing cmd) the mac does not recognize my external dvd drive. This works great with my MBP late 2008. But the imac can not boot from the dvd drive. Also pressing "c" while booting does not work. Doing that a grey screen appears and after some time mac boots from hdd.
So i installed mac os via target mode over firewire withbmy old imac. This works.
But now i want to install windows on a bootcamp partition.
I can't boot from the windows 7 professional dvd, too. So i tried to create a bootable win 7 thumbdrive. Mac can't boot from this too. Reading many threads in some forum i tried with rEEfit. Reefit shows the usb thumbdrive whike booting, but using this will end in a black screen error from bios: "no bootable device....". Tried a knoppix on the usb thukbdrive, too.... No bootable device....
It seems that there is no way to boot from ANY external usb device like dvd drives or thumbdrives......
What more can i do? I tried for 2 evenings now, but nothing worked out for me......
Currently i don't see any any to install win 7 without an internal superdrive, but can this be??
Thanks for any comments.
Kwicks

Internal is definitely the easiest but you can boot from external HD or external optical drive, the mac is just very picky on what works and what doesn't.
For an external drive or usb stick it has to be GUID partition table and have 10.4.5 or better installed on it, for more info check this link out ( http://support.apple.com/kb/ht1948 )
Hope this helps,
Joe

Reset Password - System does not boot from DVD

My System: Macbook Pro - 2Ghz Intel Core Duo - OS X - 10.6.8
Hi everyone,
i forgot my password. So i want to boot from install DVD to reset the password. Unfortunately my macbook pro does not boot from DVD (10.6.3).
I press c all the time...but sometimes the macbook pro throws the DVD out...and sometimes nothing happens.
The DVD drive is working fine...
Any other idea?
Thanks in advance.
Fabian

So when you boot holding option it shows a padlock with a password field? Is that correct?
In that case we're talking about the firmware password, which you can't reset via the install disk. There is only one way to do this, I'm not certain if one is allowed to divulge that information publicly - might want to try googling "reset firmware password"

I can not boot on DVD

Hello,
I have a G580
I can not boot on DVD to install Linux distribution. I have tried with multiple install disks.
I access BIOS and Boot menu by the novo button.
With the Boot menu I have only choice between ATA HDD and PCI LAN. In the BIOS Setup I have changed
Boot Mode to Legacy Support
Boot Priority to Legacy First
USB Boot Enabled
Boot Priority Order :
ATAPI CD
USB FDD
ATA HDD
etc.
and in Exit menu I have changed OS Optimized Defaults to Other OS
Can someone help me
Thank you
Solved!
Go to Solution.

Hi,
In the BIOS "Boot" menu? I have the settings....
Boot Mode     [Legacy Support]
Boot Priority   [Legacy First]
USB Boot        [Enabled]
EFI
Windows Boot Manager   ( ....)
Fedora                                  ( ....)
Legacy
SATA ODD          : HL-DT-ST DVDRAM GU70N     # <=== this is the dvd.
SATA HDD            : LITEONIT LSS-24L6G
SATA HDD        : ST1000LM024 HN-M101MBB
Network Boot       : Atheros Boot Agent
In the "Exit" menu of BIOS? I have...
Load Default Settings
OS Optimized Defaults        [Other OS)
Leave nothing plugged into the USB ports.
This configuration boots off the Optical Disk (DVD) of my Y410p Win 8 64.
Oh yes ,,, and rather than click the OK Restore button? i just press F2 while the black LENOVO splash screen is up.
Oznola_
X1 Carbon 3443CTO, Intel(R) i7-3667U @ 2.00GHz 2 core 4 Logic Processors, 8GM RAM, Windows 8 Pro.

Can not boot from OSX disc

I recently partitioned my internal drive with an 80 gig partition to run Ubuntu , removed Ubuntu and now can not resize hd to recover the 80 gig that I used , there was a program with this Ubuntu install called rEFIt that was installed for the dual boot , My problem is that Itunes keeps crashing and I have spent somewhere around 8 hours trying to fix this issue and in the process I discovered that I now can not boot from the osx disc but I can boot from the Ubuntu disc , what can I do to correct this issue or is there anything that I can do to correct this and recover the 80 gig that I used ?

The only solution was to erase hd and restore from time machine backup......
According to everything that I have seen , read and tried when you partition the mac hd the way that mac is designed it will lock the hd thus preventing any access even using the startup disc to repair. As far as restoring everything after the erase and reinstall of the OSX that was easy and painless. FOR ANYONE WHO DOES NOT BACKUP THEIR DATA THIS IS WHY YOU SHOULD!!!!
Once OSX is reinstalled the migration assistant will ask if you want to restore from a backup , if you have time machine or any other sort of backup simply choose the one you wish to restore from and continue , must admit I was a bit hesitant at first , I must say that everything restored with the exception of some settings that I have had to restore but they were not major settings , after the backup is restored simply run update check and reinstall all updates , may need to do this a couple of times.
Depending on the amount of data you have will determine the length of time for restore (500 gigs about 6 hrs.) but it will restore user account settings , connection settings and network settings.
Hope this will help if anyone has experienced the same problem.

Can't boot from DVD using C key

I desperately need to use DiskWarrior on my startup disk. I have used it on my secondary internal hard disk with no problems. A couple of years ago my Apple keyboard went up on me and I needed a replacement immediately (I worked from home), so I ran out to OfficeDepot and bought a Microsoft keyboard that had software with it to make it run with a Mac. It has done fine for me. However, when trying to boot from DiskWarrior, I hold the C key down and it doesn't boot from the DVD, it just boots from my internal startup disk. I was able to install Mac OS X 10.4 with the DVD and this keyboard, however. DiskWarrior tech support dudes tell me it is the fault of the Microsoft keyboard. I'm not so sure (since I installed 10.4 with this keyboard). I don't want to buy an Apple keyboard "just in case." But perhaps this is a known issue by somebody "out there." Any help would be appreciated (before my startup disk explodes altogether). Thanks!

I have 3 Microsoft keyboards, going back to my G4 MDD. Usually plugged into an Apple Display, but on some occassions I've had to plug it directly into front USB port (or rear, front is accessible).
The one thing that I would do, is not just "zap PRAM" from cold boot, but boot into the Open Firmware screen and RESET-NVRAM, and see if that helps. Force the device ID list to be rebuilt, and does a more complete job than zapping can.
There have been a lot of major problems with Apple USB hub type support. I too was troubleshooting an issue and got the "run around."
The only time I've seen where someone could not boot from a DVD/CD was when the hard drive in the system directory was severely corrupt - OS X looks to find any and all bootable devices even when you boot from CD or another drive. And a damaged journaling file is even harder to fix usually.
Outside of the G4 PCI model (1999, early '00) a G4 can boot from Firewire, any problem I'd guess was a defective FW port; some FW cases themselves.
I never really use DW CD. Always always clone your system; create an Emergency boot drive to work from - and used only in emergency so you know it works and isn't just a backup. And, of course, a backup of your working system.
USB cables can flake out. Even new. The USB extension cable Apple includes being one such that has been known to be the culprit. So doubt and verify any cables and devices.
One G5 owner has a LaCie drive not even connected, but the FW cable was, hanging out the back, and would cause:
slow boot sometimes; kernel panic other times; pull the cable, life is back to normal again. FW cables and devices (not sure if LaCie has the market cornered or not) that "wipe out" FW ports, cause shorts, should be avoided (maybe banned).
I've used an MS keyboard for about 4 yrs on my G4, still running 10.4.11. Ever since my Apple split ergonomic keyboard died, and I've got 4 Apple Pro keyboards sitting around (I can palm a basketball but don't like typing on small keyboards). Currently use MS 3000 and 4000 keyboards.
There are lots of reports of Leopard where the system is not responding, but the mouse able to move, but no interaction - can't launch anything or even bring up the Force Quit dialogue. The system being totally non-responsive, and people force shutdown, with high potential of leaving the directory in disrepair.
Mac OS 10.2.5 was suppose to fix and solve USB hub problem. That updated lasted less than two weeks. USB issues have been around, as have Firewire problems. Even Windows Vista can loose track of and get confused by unplugging/replugging devices multiple times that it looses the device ID.

How to reset password if you can't boot from DVD?

I just bought a second external disk drive and installed Leopard on it. When it asked me if I wanted to import my information from my internal drive, I said OK, not realizing that since I had a blank password on this drive (running 10.2.8), that would not work with Leopard. One of the reasons why I bought the second disk drive is that my internal superdrive failed, and I had added on an external Lacie superdrive which does not function as a boot drive, and I wanted to run the new OS on another drive so if one drive failed, the other would work as a boot drive. However I can't boot from the DVD to reset the password on my external drive to an actual password. I disconnected the external drive and am working on my internal drive with 10.2.8. (So something I planned for worked)
I suppose one solution would be to erase the new external drive and start the whole install process all over again, making sure to add a password on this drive first. But that took about five hours and I'd really rather not. Is there some way to reset the password remotely using the OS from my internal drive to look at the external drive? Or is the non-boot from an external USB superdrive a problem unique to 10.2.8 but if I set the external drive to be the boot drive, the Leopard DVD would boot the external drive?
Thanks.

Thanks. Thankfully, when I thought about it, I realized that the computer had booted from the external superdrive to install Leopard, so I figured I'd give it a shot by selecting the install disk as the startup disk and restarting, crossing my fingers and hoping. It worked, so I was able to simply reset the password using the reset password function. Perhaps the issue with the external superdrive is that if it's not already mounted with a system disk before you restart, it won't do it after it starts up in event of failure.
And if that hadn't worked, I would have booted from my internal drive, used disk utility to wipe out the external drive, put a password on the 10.2.8 account, and done the whole install process again and migrated the account now with a password to the drive.

Not booting from DVD

Hi,
I have an issue with my macbook pro and booting from DVD.
When I try to boot from the DVD it starts reading and after a few minutes I hear the driver stops and only a gray screen with the apple logo in the screen .
I have tried two snow leopard disk and the original disk that came with the macbook pro.
I can boot into the operating system , repair permissions , verify disk and disk utility does not find any problem .
I also tried with a usb dvd and the same symptom, after a minute it stops reading the dvd .
Do you have any Idea what can be the problem ?
Thanks

I seem to be having the same problem. How long should it take to boot from the DVD? We have inserted the original DVD that came with the machine, and I can hear the machine reading from it, but it's been 10 mins and no boot up.
The install DVD is v. 10.6.3 and the current version of the OS on the MacBook is 10.6.6
Also, please can somebody indicate how to create a bootable DVD, and if I start up from that, can I then insert the 10.6.3 disc to run DiskFirstAid or equivalent?
Message was edited by: GGG332
Message was edited by: GGG332

Not Booting from DVD Solaris 10

Hi,
I am trying to install Solaris 10 on Sun 420R Sparc. I am trying to install it with DVD. But when I try to install it by using the command boot cdrom. I get the following error.
{0} ok boot cdrom - nowin
Boot device: /pci@1f,4000/scsi@3/disk@6,0:f File and args: - nowin
Bad magic number in disk label
Can't open disk label package
Can't open boot device
I have checked the DVD. I ran probe-scsi-all and it looks good.
{0} ok devalias cdrom
cdrom /pci@1f,4000/scsi@3/disk@6,0:f
{0} ok show-devs
/SUNW,UltraSPARC-II@3,0
/SUNW,UltraSPARC-II@2,0
/SUNW,UltraSPARC-II@1,0
/SUNW,UltraSPARC-II@0,0
/counter-timer@1f,1c00
/pci@1f,2000
/pci@1f,4000
/virtual-memory
/memory@0,0
/aliases
/options
/openprom
/chosen
/packages
/pci@1f,2000/scsi@1,1
/pci@1f,2000/scsi@1
/pci@1f,2000/scsi@1,1/tape
/pci@1f,2000/scsi@1,1/disk
/pci@1f,2000/scsi@1/tape
/pci@1f,2000/scsi@1/disk
/pci@1f,4000/scsi@4,1
/pci@1f,4000/scsi@4
/pci@1f,4000/scsi@3,1
/pci@1f,4000/scsi@3
/pci@1f,4000/network@1,1
/pci@1f,4000/ebus@1
/pci@1f,4000/scsi@4,1/tape
/pci@1f,4000/scsi@4,1/disk
/pci@1f,4000/scsi@4/tape
/pci@1f,4000/scsi@4/disk
/pci@1f,4000/scsi@3,1/tape
/pci@1f,4000/scsi@3,1/disk
/pci@1f,4000/scsi@3/tape
/pci@1f,4000/scsi@3/disk
/pci@1f,4000/ebus@1/flashprom@10,0
/pci@1f,4000/ebus@1/eeprom@14,0
/pci@1f,4000/ebus@1/fdthree@14,3023f0
/pci@1f,4000/ebus@1/ecpp@14,3043bc
/pci@1f,4000/ebus@1/su@14,3062f8
/pci@1f,4000/ebus@1/su@14,3083f8
/pci@1f,4000/ebus@1/se@14,400000
/pci@1f,4000/ebus@1/sc@14,500000
/pci@1f,4000/ebus@1/SUNW,pll@14,504000
/pci@1f,4000/ebus@1/power@14,724000
/pci@1f,4000/ebus@1/auxio@14,726000
/openprom/client-services
/packages/sun-keyboard
/packages/SUNW,builtin-drivers
/packages/disk-label
/packages/obp-tftp
/packages/deblocker
/packages/terminal-emulator
{0} ok probe-scsi
Target 0
Unit 0 Disk SEAGATE ST318305LSUN18G 0340
Target 1
Unit 0 Disk SEAGATE ST318305LSUN18G 0340
Target 6
Unit 0 Removable Read Only device TOSHIBA DVD-ROM SD-M14011007
{0} ok
Can anyone help me with this?
Thanks

The 420R first shipped in November 1999.
Initially, they all had CDROM drives and not DVD readers.
You might also get that same error
if you are inserting a DVD disk into a CD drive.
Next, the 390-0025 DVD drives had problems booting
from any DVD media with more than (I vaguely recall)
something such as 3GB of data on it.
They could read from them,
just not boot from them.
That was a peculiarity of the drive.
Recent releases of Solaris 10 fill those DVD disks.
Try your installation with CD media instead of DVD's.

Not booting from DVD drive | Flashing Question mark and face folder SOS!

Hey there! I am hoping one of you folks can help.
I noticed my iMac running really slow.
I could not find my OS disks, so I bought OS X Leopard
When I tried to boot from DVD it would flash the question/face folder for about 30 seconds then reboot normal. (I was able to install the OS. Just can't boot from the disk in order to run disk utility)
Time got away from me and now my system is REALLY slow...
I went and bought Disk Warrior
Same issue, only my drive spits out that disk. (I can run and burn other disks)
I won't discuss my failed attempts at getting help from the Apple store and by having the geniuses (not) call me. I would rather not pay an arm and a leg to have an approved repair center run the disk utility for me. I've already spent $169 on the OS and $100 on Disk Warrior... PLEASE HELP

I think you are going in a totally wrong direction. Your profile indicates you have Leopard (10.5.X) however I don't believe that what you recently purchased. I think you purchased Snow Leopard (10.6.X), these are two totally different OS's! Unless you got extremely lucky and found someone selling 10.5.x then naturally you would have the problem you did trying to boot from it. My advice is:
1. Look to see what version of OS X you are running (click the Apple in the upper left of this screen and then choose About this Mac) then cross check what version of the OS you recently purchased.
2. If you are running 10.5.x then you will need to call Apple and purchase replacement discs for a nominal charge. Once received you should be able to boot from that disc and run Disk Utility from it.
3. If you are running 10.6.x then re post (with an updated profile) so we can determine what the next step is.
It seems like you don't know what you are doing and in an effort to save money you are probably going to spend more than taking your machine to an Apple Authorized Service Provider.
Regards,
Roger

Not booting from DVD drive | Flashing Question mark and face folder S

Hey there! I am hoping one of you folks can help.
I noticed my iMac running really slow.
I could not find my OS disks, so I bought OS X Leopard
When I tried to boot from DVD it would flash the question/face folder for about 30 seconds then reboot normal. (I was able to install the OS. Just can't boot from the disk in order to run disk utility)
Time got away from me and now my system is REALLY slow...
I went and bought Disk Warrior
Same issue, only my drive spits out that disk. (I can run and burn other disks)
I won't discuss my failed attempts at getting help from the Apple store and by having the geniuses (not) call me. I would rather not pay an arm and a leg to have an approved repair center run the disk utility for me. I've already spent $169 on the OS and $100 on Disk Warrior... PLEASE HELP

Hey,
No, I'm not running Snow Leopard. Running Leopard. 10.5.8
I'm guessing the problem is either with my computer itself, or perhaps the DVD drive. Hard to tell. Maybe even something corrupt in my software?
My problem is:
I desperately need to run a disk utility of some sort, however am not able to make my computer use my OS disk or Disk warrior as a startup disk (either by holding down C, or by assigning it in System Utilities.)
I was hoping someone might have a tip, or trick to get my machine to use one of these disks as the startup disk.
Thanks!

Flat Screen imac iMac won't boot up, will not boot from DVD

My 24" imac flat screen will not boot. I only get a blank gray/white screen. Reset the PRAM and tried to boot from the DVD. I held the C key down when I powered on but the system will not boot from the DVD. If I wait long enough, the DVD will eventually be ejected. I have had HD issues and Disk Warrior indicated that the drive was damaged. Will a dead hard drive cause the system to not boot from the DVD? Is there any way to get the system to boot from my DVD?

Hello PMcDer,
Welcome to Apple Discussions!
By what you are describing you're correct in believing your drive is probably gone. The sad news... if Disk utility can no longer see the drive, your ability to retrieve any data off of it is getting slim.
There are a couple of options for data retrieval.
1. If you still have Apple Care have them fix it. But make sure they know that you do not have a backup.
2. If you do not have Apple Care, have an Authorized Apple Tech replace the drive and make sure that they will give you back the old drive. This may prove to be a challenge. Or you can replace the drive yourself. It is not easy for some but take your time and you'll have no problems. Lots of youtube videos on this as well as on-line tutorials.
3. You could try a Hard Disk Utility program like Disk Warrior to see if it can help, but it's not free.
4. You could pay someone big bucks for Data recovery in order to get the data of the drive for you.
If you decided to do the HDD swap yourself. You could purchase a 3.5" firewire enclosure that you could put your old drive into once you do the swap. Plug it into the iMac and prey that it recognizes it. Then "MAYBE" you could copy the data over to the new drive, but that is a stretch.

Can't boot from windows 7 usb installation media

When trying to boot from windows 7 usb installation media no efi boot option availiable. Using "boot from efi file" option whith each and every .efi file on installation media results in a message saying "The selected boot device failed. Press <Enter> to Continue".
USB installation media created using original windows 7 iso image and couple diskpart commands(resulting in clean flash storage with a single active primary partition) plus simple copying of the iso image's contents on usb flash.
Enabling/Disabling SecureBoot doesn't have any impact whatsoever.
Installation boots from aforementioned media successfully when CSM enabled, though i would really prefer installing Windows 7 in uefi mode. Which microsoft claims Windows 7 supports.
Any help or suggestions would be much appreciated. Thanks in advance.
PS: my disappointment in this particular HP notebook is unspeakable. Aside from issue of the current topic, It keeps defaulting to windows boot manager when dual-booting windows & linux no matter what i do, and windows 8.1 Pro is constantly BSODing whenever i try to run fullscreen games on high-performance GPU whith every graphics driver i could possibly install (including both hp's own and amd's). Found silly workarounds for both of these issues, however still hate HP treating it's customers that way.

Booting from USB 2.0 port or DVD with SecureBoot disabled gets me to a screen saying "starting windows", just before the actual setup begins and then system simply hangs. Still unable to install. Thanks for your suggestion though.

Can no longer boot from DVD or USB HD since installing Win10

5/2/15
I download and installed the latest Win10 last week and popped it on a spare HD I have in the system;
the mistake I made was to leave my SSD which has Win7 on it connected during the install.
Now I’m in a bit of a pickle. When I boot up with the Win10 disk disconnected I get a splash screen that tells me:
A required device isn’t connected or can’t be accessed. It offers me an option to press F9 to boot to another OS and indeed it does boot me into Win7 but insists all my hard drives need a chkdsk. They are fine
So I thought I’d simply boot from a DVD or USN drive and “fix” the Win 7 install.
Lol , it won’t boot from a DVD or the USB HD. If I pull the Sata cable from the SSD containing Win7 it boots right up from either the DVD or the USB HD.
I’d really not like to do a clean install of Win7 on my SSD just to get around this.
When the drive I loaded Win10 is connected it still won’t boot from a DVD but does allow me to boot into 7 or 10.
Yeah, yeah I know I should have installed it in a VM but I didn’t. Any suggestions?
Mobo ASUSTeK Computer INC. P8P67 Rev 1.xx
12G Ram
CoreI5-25K
Win7 Ultimate on the SSD
Last weeks build of Win10 on a spare HD in the system

press Windows+R then in the box, msconfig
this will allow you to modify the boot settings as desired
this tool works as well to clean up programs that want to load with windows unnecessarily
Place your rig specifics into your signature like I have, makes it 100x easier!
Hardcore Games Legendary is the Only Way to Play!
Vegan Advocate How can you be an environmentalist and still eat meat?

I can not boot from DVD or USB to install

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