Imac Not Booting From CD

I've tried just about everything at this stage, so I'm here asking for help. I have an Imac, of which I can log into the root account and has no openfirmware password. The Macos ISO is seen from within Macosx, though I cannot get it to boot from cd, whether holding down the "c" key or setting that device to boot up first from the startup disk menu. I have tried resetting the pram and nvram and reset-all within openfirmware, and the "boot-device" command within openfirmware shows exactly the same as another machine which does boot from cd. I know that both the drive and (multiple) CD's I've tried are functional.
Can anyone point me in the right direction as I am at a loss at the moment and have no further idea's of my own.

n0der,Welcome to Apple Discussions.
Is the Optical drive known good? can you read other disks?
If not do you have another Mac you could use Target Disk Mode on and hence use that Mac's optical drive rather than the iMac's internal...
Does Apple Hardware Test CD report any faults or will it not boot from that either?
mrtotes

Similar Messages

IMac not booting from HD, cannot repair disc in Disk Utility

First the problem:
I've had the imac G5 for nearly two years and its been running without a problem, now it suddenly wouldn't start up. Firstly I get two or three grey screens in succession looking as if being drawn from top to bottom very quickly, then the apple logo and timer, after a minute or so the fans start up to full power and it stays that way.
What I've tried:
Reading around discussions I tried rebooting from DVD installer and using disk utility. Result: error message: The underlying task reported failure on exit. 1 volume could not be repaired because of an error.
Because I want to sell the imac I had backed up all of my important data so I zero-wrote the hard drive in preferrence to buying a third party repair package. Reinstalled from DVD. Shut down and restarted. Everything worked except those banding grey screens appeared that were never there before. Something looks wrong. Then when i tried to reinstall microsoft office (as a test) the OS seemed to freeze and I had to shut it down again. Now it won't boot up as before. This looks like a very serious problem.
I hesitate to buy tech tool pro in case that doesn't solve it either.
Can't think if I did something to cause this. All I've been doing is transferring some data via ethernet to a newer mac. There was also a Lacie firewire drive linked to both computers as i was backing up stuff. One night I shut the iMac down and the next day it started with this problem.
Well... any educated suggestions would be most welcome,
thanks.
By the way, the memory in the mac was purchsed from a third party and installed ages ago by myself. Never been a problem with it and have been running Final Cut Studio no trouble.
iMac G5 2GHz Mac OS X (10.4.7) RAM 2GB

Long story short, I had the same problem last week, just after installing the latest software updates. I went through all the resets and disk utility verification (multiple times with phone support -- Apple Care), then took it to the local Apple store b/c nothing worked. They couldn't figure it out either and recommended that I try to backup my data on my bootable external drive before they started messing with my hard drive, since Apple stopped providing this service. I brought it home, could not boot from my external drive, so booted from the disk again, just for kicks I ran the same verification process (this was the 3rd or 4th time). This time something happened but it still failed. So I ran it three more times (each time something new happened and then it failed, until the third time when everything worked. The only problem now is that I seem to have lost all sound???? I did immediately make a duplicate of the Imac hard drive. Any thoughts on how to get my sound back? hope this helps....
Imac G5 20" Mac OS X (10.4.9)

IMac not booting from Leopard Disk

I have been given the task of helping out a friend who has recently inherited a 20" Aluminium iMac from some late family members. The machine has a password to get in which he doesn't know but other than that it boots as far as the login screen fine. I tried to get it to boot from my Leopard disk and it just reboots instead of launching OS X from the DVD. I've run a hardware check and everything is reported as running fine (although I did leave it doing a full one last night, so i'll post any updates if there are any). Does anyone know what might be the problem?
I've tried holding down alt and selecting the DVD, reboots as before.
I've tried holding down C, which it just reboots to after spinning up the DVD
I've tried holding down cmd,alt,shift,del but it seems to just ignore this key combination
I'm using an old white keyboard and a USB mouse as the ones that came with it are wireless.
Thanks in advance

It's quite possible that your retail Leopard DVD predates the release of the iMac and so lacks the necessary drivers for the newer hardware. Ask your friend if he got the disks that came with the iMac and if so use that disk set. If he didn't get them, identify the exact iMac model:
http://support.apple.com/kb/HT1758
Then you can look here:
http://support.apple.com/kb/HT1159
and see what version of Leopard came with the iMac. If your retail disk is earlier than the version that came with the iMac, it won't work. You'll need a later version of the retail disk (if available) or your friend will need to contact Apple tech support and see if he can order a replacement disk set for the iMac.
Hope this helps.

IMac not booting from retail Leopard DVD.

I am silly and posted in the wrong forum. This is the link to my problem: http://discussions.apple.com/thread.jspa?threadID=1795309&stqc=true
Edited by Max Maxwell

Moderators may have moved your previous post, as it is no longer accessible.

IMac will not boot from any mode except Target Disk

I have an Early 2008 Penryn iMac 24" MB398LL/A running OS X 10.7.4 (see specs below) that will not boot from ANY mode, It also has several strange vertical bars from top to bottom on the screen. They are about 10 px wide, with some pixels empty and looks a bit like a barcode if you squint at it.
I have tried Safe Boot, Force Boot, DVD Boot, FireWire/USB Boot, and it always gets to the same point. It gets to the apple screen with the spinning gear and then after about 8 seconds it freezes. The only way it works at all is in Target Disk Mode. It pops right up on my Macbook Pro and I was able to grab all my info!
I have run Disc Utilities and Tech Tool on it many times from my MBP and it passes every test.
I reformatted the HD and installed 10.7 again, it still freezes up at the same point.
I have tried using Single User mode and every time have had to run /sbin/fsck -fy twice because it always says the disk is ok but it was modified on the first pass.
I thought maybe it had a bad video card or logic board but and I ran the Apple Hardware Test on many occasions and it always passes. Recently I was told about Loop Mode and just completed running the AHT for just over 30 hours without any errors at all.
UPDATE...
Strange Part… I tried installing Mountain Lion in Target Disk Mode and everything went smoothly. When it restarted on its own the lines on the screen were gone for the moment, but the Mac still freezes up on the spinning gear and immediately restarts on its own. I have run every thing listed above on it and still nothing. Sometimes the lines reappear then in two more starts they are gone.
I did manage to have it start one time got a copy of the the error report (its at the bottom too) The Mac ran for at least 30 minutes with no problems, then the screen went crazy a few seconds and it became unresponsive. The mouse moved but that was all it could do. Now my iMac continually restarts itself, I don't have any more ideas, HELP!
Specs...
The iMac "Core 2 Duo" 3.06 24-Inch Aluminum (Early 2008/Penryn) features a 3.06 GHz Intel "Core 2 Duo" processor (E8435), with two independent processor "cores" on a single silicon chip, a 6 MB shared level 2 cache, a 1066 MHz system bus, 2 GB of RAM (800 MHz DDR2 SDRAM, PC2-6400), a 500 GB (7200 RPM) Serial ATA hard drive, a vertically-mounted slot-loading DVD±R DL "SuperDrive", NVIDIA GeForce 8800 GS graphics acceleration with 512 MB of GDDR3 memory, a built-in iSight video camera, and built-in stereo speakers underneath the 24" glossy TFT Active Matrix LCD (1920x1200 native) display.
Error Report…
Sat Sep 1 17:13:12 2012
panic(cpu 0 caller 0xffffff801a4b7b95): Kernel trap at 0xffffff7f9bab8654, type 14=page fault, registers:
CR0: 0x000000008001003b, CR2: 0x0000000000000010, CR3: 0x0000000011803000, CR4: 0x0000000000000660
RAX: 0x0000000000000001, RBX: 0xffffff8050e00000, RCX: 0xffffff801aa8eb00, RDX: 0xffffff80602dba38
RSP: 0xffffff80602dbb60, RBP: 0xffffff80602dbb60, RSI: 0x0000000000000000, RDI: 0x0000000000000000
R8: 0x0000000000000000, R9: 0x00000000000000ff, R10: 0xffffffffffffffff, R11: 0x00000000ffffffff
R12: 0xffffff8050e00000, R13: 0x0000000000000000, R14: 0x0000000000000002, R15: 0x0000000000000000
RFL: 0x0000000000010246, RIP: 0xffffff7f9bab8654, CS: 0x0000000000000008, SS: 0x0000000000000010
Fault CR2: 0x0000000000000010, Error code: 0x0000000000000000, Fault CPU: 0x0

Here is the complete error log...
Sat Sep 1 17:13:12 2012
panic(cpu 0 caller 0xffffff801a4b7b95): Kernel trap at 0xffffff7f9bab8654, type 14=page fault, registers:
CR0: 0x000000008001003b, CR2: 0x0000000000000010, CR3: 0x0000000011803000, CR4: 0x0000000000000660
RAX: 0x0000000000000001, RBX: 0xffffff8050e00000, RCX: 0xffffff801aa8eb00, RDX: 0xffffff80602dba38
RSP: 0xffffff80602dbb60, RBP: 0xffffff80602dbb60, RSI: 0x0000000000000000, RDI: 0x0000000000000000
R8: 0x0000000000000000, R9: 0x00000000000000ff, R10: 0xffffffffffffffff, R11: 0x00000000ffffffff
R12: 0xffffff8050e00000, R13: 0x0000000000000000, R14: 0x0000000000000002, R15: 0x0000000000000000
RFL: 0x0000000000010246, RIP: 0xffffff7f9bab8654, CS: 0x0000000000000008, SS: 0x0000000000000010
Fault CR2: 0x0000000000000010, Error code: 0x0000000000000000, Fault CPU: 0x0
Backtrace (CPU 0), Frame : Return Address
0xffffff80602db800 : 0xffffff801a41d5f6
0xffffff80602db870 : 0xffffff801a4b7b95
0xffffff80602dba40 : 0xffffff801a4ce4ad
0xffffff80602dba60 : 0xffffff7f9bab8654
0xffffff80602dbb60 : 0xffffff7f9baa218c
0xffffff80602dbbb0 : 0xffffff7f9baa20e2
0xffffff80602dbbd0 : 0xffffff7f9ba73554
0xffffff80602dbc00 : 0xffffff7f9aa8d470
0xffffff80602dbc40 : 0xffffff7f9aa8d3df
0xffffff80602dbc60 : 0xffffff7f9aa926ec
0xffffff80602dbcf0 : 0xffffff7f9aa8af20
0xffffff80602dbd20 : 0xffffff7f9aadacc7
0xffffff80602dbd70 : 0xffffff801a833b9b
0xffffff80602dbdc0 : 0xffffff801a862d57
0xffffff80602dbe30 : 0xffffff801a497cef
0xffffff80602dbe80 : 0xffffff801a420abd
0xffffff80602dbeb0 : 0xffffff801a410448
0xffffff80602dbf00 : 0xffffff801a4195fb
0xffffff80602dbf70 : 0xffffff801a4a5ad6
0xffffff80602dbfb0 : 0xffffff801a4ced13
      Kernel Extensions in backtrace:
         com.apple.iokit.IOGraphicsFamily(2.3.4)[2600903C-EEDE-321B-A023-169DC9B26EA6]@0 xffffff7f9aa81000->0xffffff7f9aab8fff
            dependency: com.apple.iokit.IOPCIFamily(2.7)[8C9E06A4-13D0-33F5-A377-9E36F0ECC229]@0xffffff 7f9aa4d000
         com.apple.NVDAResman(8.0)[6A699209-FB98-316B-A3C0-DCA82AA8C86B]@0xffffff7f9aad8 000->0xffffff7f9addafff
            dependency: com.apple.iokit.IOPCIFamily(2.7)[8C9E06A4-13D0-33F5-A377-9E36F0ECC229]@0xffffff 7f9aa4d000
            dependency: com.apple.iokit.IONDRVSupport(2.3.4)[99CA4184-8D92-31B2-8726-46139E8E3DFF]@0xff ffff7f9aac4000
            dependency: com.apple.iokit.IOGraphicsFamily(2.3.4)[2600903C-EEDE-321B-A023-169DC9B26EA6]@0 xffffff7f9aa81000
         com.apple.GeForce(8.0)[4B9BE287-5251-398E-96B0-BB16C9BFB2D9]@0xffffff7f9ba72000 ->0xffffff7f9bb34fff
            dependency: com.apple.NVDAResman(8.0.0)[6A699209-FB98-316B-A3C0-DCA82AA8C86B]@0xffffff7f9aa d8000
            dependency: com.apple.iokit.IONDRVSupport(2.3.4)[99CA4184-8D92-31B2-8726-46139E8E3DFF]@0xff ffff7f9aac4000
            dependency: com.apple.iokit.IOPCIFamily(2.7)[8C9E06A4-13D0-33F5-A377-9E36F0ECC229]@0xffffff 7f9aa4d000
            dependency: com.apple.iokit.IOGraphicsFamily(2.3.4)[2600903C-EEDE-321B-A023-169DC9B26EA6]@0 xffffff7f9aa81000
BSD process name corresponding to current thread: WindowServer
Mac OS version:
12B19
Kernel version:
Darwin Kernel Version 12.1.0: Tue Aug 14 13:29:55 PDT 2012; root:xnu-2050.9.2~1/RELEASE_X86_64
Kernel UUID: 3005059E-270B-3B9F-940D-7A66C05DDC9D
Kernel slide:     0x000000001a200000
Kernel text base: 0xffffff801a400000
System model name: iMac8,1 (Mac-F227BEC8)
System uptime in nanoseconds: 26349024446
last loaded kext at 22534854703: com.apple.driver.AppleHDAHardwareConfigDriver          2.3.0f2 (addr 0xffffff7f9c489000, size 12288)
loaded kexts:
com.apple.driver.AppleHDAHardwareConfigDriver          2.3.0f2
com.apple.driver.AppleHDA          2.3.0f2
com.apple.driver.AppleTyMCEDriver          1.0.2d2
com.apple.filesystems.autofs          3.0
com.apple.iokit.IOBluetoothSerialManager          4.0.9f8
com.apple.iokit.IOBluetoothUSBDFU          4.0.9f8
com.apple.driver.AppleLPC          1.6.0
com.apple.driver.AppleMuxControl          3.2.6
com.apple.driver.AppleBacklight          170.2.3
com.apple.driver.AppleUpstreamUserClient          3.5.10
com.apple.driver.AppleMCCSControl          1.0.33
com.apple.GeForce          8.0.0
com.apple.driver.AppleSMCPDRC          1.0.0
com.apple.iokit.IOUserEthernet          1.0.0d1
com.apple.Dont_Steal_Mac_OS_X          7.0.0
com.apple.driver.ApplePolicyControl          3.2.6
com.apple.driver.ACPI_SMC_PlatformPlugin          1.0.0
com.apple.driver.AppleIRController          320.15
com.apple.iokit.SCSITaskUserClient          3.5.1
com.apple.driver.AppleFileSystemDriver          3.0.1
com.apple.AppleFSCompression.AppleFSCompressionTypeDataless          1.0.0d1
com.apple.AppleFSCompression.AppleFSCompressionTypeZlib          1.0.0d1
com.apple.BootCache          34
com.apple.driver.XsanFilter          404
com.apple.iokit.IOAHCIBlockStorage          2.2.1
com.apple.driver.AppleFWOHCI          4.9.5
com.apple.driver.AppleUSBHub          5.1.6
com.apple.driver.AirPortBrcm43224          600.36.17
com.apple.iokit.AppleYukon2          3.2.3b1
com.apple.driver.AppleAHCIPort          2.4.0
com.apple.driver.AppleIntelPIIXATA          2.5.1
com.apple.driver.AppleUSBEHCI          5.1.5
com.apple.driver.AppleUSBUHCI          5.1.5
com.apple.driver.AppleEFINVRAM          1.6.1
com.apple.driver.AppleRTC          1.5
com.apple.driver.AppleHPET          1.7
com.apple.driver.AppleACPIButtons          1.6
com.apple.driver.AppleSMBIOS          1.9
com.apple.driver.AppleACPIEC          1.6
com.apple.driver.AppleAPIC          1.6
com.apple.driver.AppleIntelCPUPowerManagementClient          196.0.0
com.apple.nke.applicationfirewall          4.0.39
com.apple.security.quarantine          2
com.apple.driver.AppleIntelCPUPowerManagement          196.0.0
com.apple.driver.DspFuncLib          2.3.0f2
com.apple.iokit.IOAudioFamily          1.8.9fc9
com.apple.kext.OSvKernDSPLib          1.6
com.apple.kext.triggers          1.0
com.apple.iokit.IOSerialFamily          10.0.6
com.apple.driver.AppleSMBusPCI          1.0.10d0
com.apple.driver.AppleBacklightExpert          1.0.4
com.apple.driver.AppleSMBusController          1.0.10d0
com.apple.nvidia.nv50hal          8.0.0
com.apple.NVDAResman          8.0.0
com.apple.iokit.IOFireWireIP          2.2.5
com.apple.driver.AppleHDAController          2.3.0f2
com.apple.iokit.IOHDAFamily          2.3.0f2
com.apple.iokit.IOSurface          86.0.2
com.apple.iokit.IOBluetoothFamily          4.0.9f8
com.apple.driver.AppleGraphicsControl          3.2.6
com.apple.iokit.IONDRVSupport          2.3.4
com.apple.iokit.IOGraphicsFamily          2.3.4
com.apple.driver.AppleSMC          3.1.3d11
com.apple.driver.IOPlatformPluginLegacy          1.0.0
com.apple.driver.IOPlatformPluginFamily          5.2.0d16
com.apple.iokit.IOUSBHIDDriver          5.0.0
com.apple.driver.AppleUSBMergeNub          5.1.5
com.apple.driver.AppleUSBComposite          5.0.0
com.apple.iokit.IOSCSIMultimediaCommandsDevice          3.5.1
com.apple.iokit.IOBDStorageFamily          1.7
com.apple.iokit.IODVDStorageFamily          1.7.1
com.apple.iokit.IOCDStorageFamily          1.7.1
com.apple.iokit.IOATAPIProtocolTransport          3.5.0
com.apple.iokit.IOSCSIArchitectureModelFamily          3.5.1
com.apple.iokit.IOFireWireFamily          4.5.5
com.apple.iokit.IOUSBUserClient          5.0.0
com.apple.iokit.IO80211Family          500.15
com.apple.iokit.IONetworkingFamily          3.0
com.apple.iokit.IOAHCIFamily          2.2.0
com.apple.iokit.IOATAFamily          2.5.1
com.apple.iokit.IOUSBFamily          5.1.6
com.apple.driver.AppleEFIRuntime          1.6.1
com.apple.iokit.IOHIDFamily          1.8.0
com.apple.iokit.IOSMBusFamily          1.1
com.apple.security.sandbox          220
com.apple.kext.AppleMatch          1.0.0d1
com.apple.security.TMSafetyNet          7
com.apple.driver.DiskImages          344
com.apple.iokit.IOStorageFamily          1.8
com.apple.driver.AppleKeyStore          28.18
com.apple.driver.AppleACPIPlatform          1.6
com.apple.iokit.IOPCIFamily          2.7
com.apple.iokit.IOACPIFamily          1.4
com.apple.kec.corecrypto          1.0
Model: iMac8,1, BootROM IM81.00C1.B00, 2 processors, Intel Core 2 Duo, 3.06 GHz, 2 GB, SMC 1.30f1
Graphics: NVIDIA GeForce 8800 GS, NVIDIA GeForce 8800 GS, PCIe, 512 MB
Memory Module: BANK 0/DIMM0, 1 GB, DDR2 SDRAM, 800 MHz, 0x2C00000000000000, 0x38485446313238363448445A2D3830304531
Memory Module: BANK 1/DIMM1, 1 GB, DDR2 SDRAM, 800 MHz, 0x2C00000000000000, 0x38485446313238363448445A2D3830304531
AirPort: spairport_wireless_card_type_airport_extreme (0x14E4, 0x8C), Broadcom BCM43xx 1.0 (5.10.131.36.16)
Bluetooth: Version 4.0.9f8 10405, 2 service, 18 devices, 1 incoming serial ports
Serial ATA Device: WDC WD5000AAKS-40YGA1, 500.11 GB
Parallel ATA Device: MATSHITADVD-R   UJ-875
USB Device: Built-in iSight, apple_vendor_id, 0x8502, 0xfd400000 / 2
USB Device: BRCM2046 Hub, 0x0a5c (Broadcom Corp.), 0x4500, 0x1a100000 / 2
USB Device: Bluetooth USB Host Controller, apple_vendor_id, 0x820f, 0x1a110000 / 5
USB Device: IR Receiver, apple_vendor_id, 0x8242, 0x5d100000 / 2
USB Device: Hub in Apple Extended USB Keyboard, apple_vendor_id, 0x1002, 0x1d100000 / 2
USB Device: Trackball, 0x046d (Logitech Inc.), 0xc404, 0x1d120000 / 4
USB Device: Apple Extended USB Keyboard, apple_vendor_id, 0x0204, 0x1d110000 / 3

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

I have a mid-2010 27" Quad Core i5 iMac running 10.8.3. Startup disk recognizes the primary hard drive as a startup volume but will not boot from it. Have tried zapping PRAM, ran disk utility. No errors reported Any thoughts?

I have a mid-2010 27" Quad Core i5 iMac running 10.8.3. Startup disk recognizes the primary hard drive as a startup volume but will not boot from it. Have tried zapping PRAM, ran disk utility. No errors reported Any thoughts?

My bad Eric. The startup preference recognizes the primary as a 10.8.3 startup volume but when u select it the system does not boot. I can only boot from my external backup drive

Imac g5 ALS will not boot from internal HD or portable drive or eject disc

I cannot get my g5 ambient light sensor Imac to boot from the internal hard drive or a portable drive. I have tried multiple keystroke combinations (c + power on, option + power on, and others) upon startup and all get the same response: the computer powers on and the screen displays the apple logo. after a minute or two, the screen darkens, and a multilingual message appears telling me that I need to restart the computer. I cannot get far enough to start from a different drive or a system software disk. I cannot eject the disc currently in the drive. I cannot run any diagnostic software, cannot reinstall system software or put another disc in the drive. obviously, I am experiencing hard drive problems, but I cannot seem to get past this frustrating stumbling block. any troubleshooting or problem solving would be greatly appreciated. I have checked other discussions and support forums, but cannot find any that reference the specifics that I have mentioned. I have researched and tried the logic board check and many other potential "solutions", but none of the discussions mention the gray screen "you must restart your computer" message that I continually receive.

What you are experiencing is called a Kernel Panic.
First, to get the disc out of the drive, hold the mouse button down as you reboot.
Have you tried resetting the SMU?
1. Turn off the computer by choosing Shut Down from the Apple menu, or by holding the power button until the computer turns off.
2. Unplug all cables from the computer, including the power cord.
3. Wait 10 seconds.
4. Plug in the power cord while simultaneously pressing and holding the power button on the back of the computer.
5. Let go of the power button.
6. Press the power button once more to start up your iMac.
Then try booting from your install disc and running Disk Utility:
1. Insert the Mac OS X Install disc that came with your computer, then restart the computer while holding the C key.
2. When your computer finishes starting up from the disc, choose Disk Utility from the Installer menu. (In Mac OS X 10.4 or later, you must select your language first.)
Important: Do not click Continue in the first screen of the Installer. If you do, you must restart from the disc again to access Disk Utility.
3. Click the First Aid tab.
4. Click the disclosure triangle to the left of the hard drive icon to display the names of your hard disk volumes and partitions.
5. Select your Mac OS X volume.
6. Click Repair. Disk Utility checks and repairs the disk.
Please post back with results,

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.

Why won't my iMac 27" boot from external hard drive?

I have a new 27in Intel i5 dual core 3.6GHz iMac. It works wonderfully.
My question is this. I have a Pleides Ice Cube external hard drive with a USB 2.0/Firewire enclosure with a 500GB hard drive. I used diskutility to format the hard drive as a GUID Partition Table. I then used SuperDuper to clone the iMac OS 10.6.7 and Apps over to it.
I can select the external drive in System Preferences/Startup Disk to boot from, but when booting the iMac gets as far as the white screen then just stops loading.
I have tried both the USB connection and the Firewire connection (with a Firewire 800 to 400 cable).
I have run Disk Utility and repaired the disk and the preferences.
I have used Disk Warrior to rebuild the directory as well, but the iMac will not boot from the drive.
It does boot from the original DVD's and its own hard drive.
My old 24" iMac had no trouble booting from this hard drive or any of the others I have collected over the years, so I am reluctant to think it is the external drive. It is something to do with this particular processor Snow Leopard and external drives.

It sounds like something in the SuperDuper clone might not have copied well. To get the full answer on that I would check with Apple or SuperDuper to see if they support each other.
As a quick test, if you restart and immediately press and hold "option" on your keyboard do you see your external HD as an option to boot from? If so, click it and see if the boot runs any differently, but if you don't see it at all that could show that the problem is more deep rooted.
Personally, if looking in to either of those didn't give me any other info to go on, I would reformat and start the clone again. BTW, do you know for sure GUID Partition is the format you'd want to do this on? Generally macs use "Mac OS Extended" and some external HDs can use "FAT32" (if you want them to work well with Windows)
Hope that gives a little direction
Alex

Quicksilver G4 will not boot from a cloned firewire external drive.

Hi all,
Just as the subject line says. I know this is a problem for many PPC users. I simply want to erase the HD so I can sell this Mac. In order to do that, I need to boot from an external source. I do not have the original disks that came with this system long ago. I have Panther and Leopard disks (10.5 is the terminal OS for this non Intel based Mac)... but neither of them will boot this Mac... I've tried. I've used a WD firewire drive as well as a Maxtor, but no luck. I've cloned the entire internal drive using Super Duper, with the external HD first formatted to Mac extended format. The system recognizes both drives and they even appear in the list of 'start up discs' but no matter what I choose or even 'option C' or 'command-option P-R' on start up, will not get this sucker to boot to anything else except the internal drive. The Mac also has a second internal drive, which was wiped easily. Is there any clever way I can make this work so I can erase the main drive and prepare the Mac for sale? I've researched this a lot and for some reason, many of these PPC's are fussy about what type of external drive they will boot to. My understanding is that Firewire is the only way to go. Thanks... MIke

That Leopard Disc should work...
2Z691-6037-A Mac OS X Version 10.5.0 Leopard...
Compatible with eMac, eMac (ATI Graphics), eMac (1.0 GHz G4), eMac (USB 2.0), eMac (2005), iBook G4 (Mid 2005), iMac G5 17-inch (ALS), iMac G5 20-inch (ALS), iMac G5 (17-inch iSight), iMac G5 (20-inch iSight), iMac (Early 2006 17-inch), iMac (Early 2006 20-inch), iMac (Mid 2006 17-inch), iMac (17-inch Late 2006 CD), iMac (17-inch Late 2006), iMac (20-inch Late 2006), iMac (24-inch Late 2006), iMac (20-inch Mid 2007), iMac (24-inch Mid 2007), Mac mini, Mac mini (Late 2005), Mac mini (Early 2006), Mac mini (Late 2006), Mac mini (Mid 2007), Mac Pro, Mac Pro (8-core), MacBook (13-inch), MacBook (13-inch Late 2006), MacBook (13-inch Mid 2007), MacBook (13-inch Late 2007), MacBook Air, MacBook Pro, MacBook Pro (17-inch), MacBook Pro (15-inch Glossy), MacBook Pro (15-inch Core 2 Duo), MacBook Pro (17-inch Core 2 Duo), MacBook Pro (15-inch 2.4/2.2GHz), MacBook Pro (17-inch 2.4GHz), MacBook Pro (Early 2008), Power Mac G4 (QuickSilver), Power Mac G4 (QuickSilver 2002), Power Mac G4 (QuickSilver 2002ED), Power Mac G4 (Mirrored Drive Doors), Power Mac G4 (FW 800), Power Mac G4 (Mirrored Drive Doors 2003), Power Mac G5, Power Mac G5 (June 2004), Power Mac G5 (Late 2004), Power Mac G5 (Early 2005), Power Mac G5 (Late 2005), PowerBook G4 (1GHz/867MHz), PowerBook G4 (12-inch), PowerBook G4 (17-inch), PowerBook G4 (12-inch DVI), PowerBook G4 (15-inch FW800), PowerBook G4 (17-inch 1.33GHz), PowerBook G4 (12-inch 1.33GHz), PowerBook G4 (15-inch 1.5/1.33GHz), PowerBook G4 (17-inch 1.5GHz), PowerBook G4 (12-inch 1.5GHz), PowerBook G4 (15-inch 1.67/1.5GHz), PowerBook G4 (17-inch 1.67GHz), PowerBook G4 (15-inch Double-Layer SD), PowerBook G4 (17-inch Double-Layer SD), Xserve, Xserve (Slot Load), Xserve (Cluster Node), Xserve G5, Xserve G5 (Cluster Node), Xserve G5 (January 2005), Xserve G5 (January 2005 Cluster Node), Xserve (Late 2006)
http://www.welovemacs.com/2z6916037a.html
Does it still not boot from that Disc?

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.

Imac wont boot from DVD

just got my imac back after hard drive replacement, but it will not boot from the dvd? and now I can't get the dvd out?

Zap the PRAM and Reset the SMC, then try again.
As for the stuck disc, this is the simplest, from LousyFool's link, if restarting, holding down the mouse doesn't do the tridk.
Open Terminal and type "drutil tray eject" to eject the disc/tray, and "drutil tray close" to close the tray. If you have an external drive, e.g. the MacBook Air Superdrive, use "drutil eject external".

Not booting from 10.4.8 volumes after upgrade from 10.4.7

I'm sorry to report that my aged G4 450 MHz AGP with 4 internal Hard disk drives no longer boots from any of the 2 volumes upgraded to Mac OS X 10.4.8 as soon as it was started from another volume!
All was working fine as long as 10.4.7 was installed on the 2 232 GB disks connected to the SIIG ATA133 controller. I could boot from any OS on any of the 4 disks, 5 partitions:
internal ATA66 bus:
18 GB disk, 2 partitions: 'IBM_18GB' with OS 9.2.2 and TechTool Pro's 'eDrive' with 10.4.7
71 GB disk, 1 partition 'IBM_71GB' with OS 9.2.2
PCI SIIG ATA133 controller:
232 GB disk, one partition 'I1232GB' with 10.4.7, now upgraded to 10.4.8 and no longer bootable
232 GB disk, one partition 'I2232GB' with 10.4.7, now upgraded to 10.4.8 and no longer bootable
Now I can only boot from the Mac OS 9.2.2 or the eDrive 10.4.7 partitions.
What I did so far: 'I2232GB' was my main OS X startup volume, 'I1232GB' contains a clone of it, plus additional folders like software base and backups.
After upgrading 'I2232GB' to Mac OS X 10.4.8 through Software Update and repairing permissions all was OK as long as the Mac was just shut down or re-started: it always booted up in Mac OS X 10.4.8 from 'I2232GB' without any problems.
The next day I booted from 'I1232GB' to do the same there.
Afterwards I could no longer boot in Mac OS X 10.4.8 from 'I2232GB' nor in in Mac OS X 10.4.8 from 'I1232GB': it just gets to the grey screen with the Apple logo, but the round circle underneath indicating some progress never appears. I left it there for hours: it just hangs.
With the Option key held at startup I could boot from the other partitions with Mac OS 9.2.2 or the eDrive with 10.4.7. None of their Startup Control Panels was able to get me back to 10.2.8!
So I booted from the TechTool Pro 4.5.1 DVD to Optimize both volumes, 'I1232GB' & 'I2232GB', always Files only.
Then I booted from the DiskWorrior 3.0.3 CD to rebuild the directories of both volumes, 'I1232GB' & 'I2232GB'.
Still I can not boot from either 'I1232GB' or 'I2232GB' in Mac OS X 10.2.8!
Downloaded the Mac OS X 10.2.8 Compo Update (for PPC) and installed it onto both 'I1232GB' & 'I2232GB' while booted from the eDrive which I keep on Mac OS X 10.4.7 - no luck either, still I can not boot from either 'I1232GB' or 'I2232GB' in Mac OS X 10.2.8!
Then I backed up the users folder from 'I2232GB' onto 'I1232GB', booted from Mac OS 9.2.2 and used Intech's Hard Disk Speedtools 3.6 to format 'I2232GB', afterwards initialized it with Alsoft's Plus Maximizer Extension for a Block Size of 512 Bytes.
Installed Mac OS X 10.4 from DVD, as well as iLive '06 and upgraded everything to the latest releases with Software Update. All was working fine with all the required reboots until another startup volume was chosen: afterwards again I can no longer boot back into Mac OS X 10.2.8 on the fresch installed 'I2232GB'!
Any help would be appreciated.
Here is some information found by System Profiler from Mac OS X 10.4.7, eDrive, let me know if you need more:
Hardware Overview:
Machine Name: Power Mac G4 (AGP graphics)
Machine Model: PowerMac3,1
CPU Type: PowerPC G4 (2.8)
Number Of CPUs: 1
CPU Speed: 450 MHz
L2 Cache (per CPU): 1 MB
Memory: 2 GB
Bus Speed: 100 MHz
Boot ROM Version: 4.2.8f1
Serial Number: XA00715VHSF
Sales Order Number: M7628LL/A
ATA Bus:
IBM-DPTA-372050:
Capacity: 19.12 GB
Model: IBM-DPTA-372050
Volumes:
IBM_18GB:
Capacity: 13.12 GB
Available: 6.96 GB
eDrive:
Capacity: 6 GB
Available: 3.03 GB
IBM-DTLA-307075:
Capacity: 71.59 GB
Model: IBM-DTLA-307075
Volumes:
IBM_71GB:
Capacity: 71.59 GB
Available: 39.65 GB
ATA Bus:
PIONEER DVD-RW DVR-107D:
Model: PIONEER DVD-RW DVR-107D
Firmware Revision: 1.21
Interconnect: ATAPI
Burn Support: Yes (Apple Shipped/Supported)
Cache: 2000 KB
IOMEGA ZIP 100 ATAPI:
Model: IOMEGA ZIP 100 ATAPI
ACARD,6880M:
Name: ACARD,6880M
Type: scsi
Bus: PCI
Slot: SLOT-C
Vendor ID: 0x1191
Device ID: 0x0009
Subsystem Vendor ID: 0x1191
Subsystem ID: 0x0009
Revision ID: 0x0003
SCSI Parallel Domain 65536:
Initiator Identifier: 7
ATA HDT722525DLAT80:
Capacity: 232.89 GB
Manufacturer: ATA
Model: HDT722525DLAT80
Revision:
Removable Media: Yes
BSD Name: disk2
OS9 Drivers: Yes
SCSI Target Identifier: 0
SCSI Logical Unit Identifier: 0
S.M.A.R.T. status: Not Supported
Volumes:
I1232GB:
Capacity: 232.89 GB
Available: 14.1 GB
Writable: Yes
File System: HFS+
BSD Name: disk2s3
Mount Point: /Volumes/I1232GB
ATA HDT722525DLAT80:
Capacity: 232.89 GB
Manufacturer: ATA
Model: HDT722525DLAT80
Revision:
Removable Media: Yes
BSD Name: disk3
OS9 Drivers: Yes
SCSI Target Identifier: 2
SCSI Logical Unit Identifier: 0
S.M.A.R.T. status: Not Supported
Volumes:
I2232GB:
Capacity: 232.89 GB
Available: 180.11 GB
Writable: Yes
File System: Journaled HFS+
BSD Name: disk3s3
Mount Point: /Volumes/I2232GB
The RAM consists of 4 identical modules and is about 1 year old:
DIMM0/J21 to DIMM3/J24:
Size: 512 MB
Type: SDRAM
Speed: PC133-333
Status: OK
Many thanks for your help!
Josef
Apple G4 AGP Mac OS X (10.4.8) 4 internal hard disks, dual layer DVD-RW, 2GB RAM

What I did so far: 'I2232GB' was my main OS X
startup volume, 'I1232GB' contains a clone of it,
plus additional folders like software base and
backups.
After upgrading 'I2232GB' to Mac OS X 10.4.8
through Software Update and repairing permissions all
was OK as long as the Mac was just shut down or
re-started: it always booted up in Mac OS X 10.4.8
from 'I2232GB' without any problems.
The next day I booted from 'I1232GB' to do the same
there.
Afterwards I could no longer boot in Mac OS X 10.4.8
from 'I2232GB' nor in in Mac OS X 10.4.8 from
'I1232GB': it just gets to the grey screen with the
Apple logo, but the round circle underneath
indicating some progress never appears. I left it
there for hours: it just hangs.
With the Option key held at startup I could boot from
the other partitions with Mac OS 9.2.2 or the eDrive
with 10.4.7. None of their Startup Control Panels was
able to get me back to 10.4.8!
So I booted from the TechTool Pro 4.5.1 DVD to
Optimize both volumes, 'I1232GB' & 'I2232GB',
always Files only.
Then I booted from the DiskWorrior 3.0.3 CD to
rebuild the directories of both volumes, 'I1232GB'
& 'I2232GB'.
Still I can not boot from either 'I1232GB' or
'I2232GB' in Mac OS X 10.4.8!
Downloaded the Mac OS X 10.4.8 Compo Update (for PPC)
and installed it onto both 'I1232GB' & 'I2232GB'
while booted from the eDrive which I keep on Mac OS X
10.4.7 - no luck either, still I can not boot from
either 'I1232GB' or 'I2232GB' in Mac OS X
10.4.8!
Then I backed up the users folder from 'I2232GB'
onto 'I1232GB', booted from Mac OS 9.2.2 and used
Intech's Hard Disk Speedtools 3.6 to format
'I2232GB', afterwards initialized it with Alsoft's
Plus Maximizer Extension for a Block Size of 512
Bytes.
Installed Mac OS X 10.4 from DVD, as well as iLive
'06 and upgraded everything to the latest releases
with Software Update. All was working fine with all
the required reboots until another startup volume was
chosen: afterwards again I can no longer boot back
into Mac OS X 10.4.8 on the fresch installed
'I2232GB'!
I found several typos in above post, wherever it was 10.2.8 it should have read 10.4.8 - I'm very sorry for confusing you, this would not have made sense, but I found no way to edit the existing text therefore I modified the quote of it here.
I do not need Mac OS X 10.2.8 back, but it would be nice to boot back in Mac OS X 10.4.8 from another volume as the current one - which was working fine before with Mac OS X 10.4.7.
Many thanks,
Josef

Mid-2009 MacBook Pro sees internal SATA hard drive, but will not boot from or format

I inherited a Mid-2009 MacBook Pro (15-inch, 2.53 GHz model) with a very strange issue.
It first presented itself as not being able to boot from the internal SATA hard drive that came with the computer. Nothing I tried could get it to boot, so I assumed the file system was corrupted beyond repair and booted from a CD to try to format the drive. Disk Utility on the CD would not format the drive, giving me strange error messages like "Unable to write to the last block of the device".
At this point I figured the drive itself must be toast, so I pulled it out and put another known-good SATA hard drive in, booted from CD, and attempted to format. Again, same error messages and an unsuccesful format.
So I had the bright idea of formatting one of the drives in an external enclosure and then putting it in the MBP to see if OS X would even install. No dice. Get a cryptic error message before installation even begins.
So I installed OS X on the drive in the external enclosure and put it in the MBP, and it attempts to boot, but never goes anywhere.
So to sum up, the symptoms I'm seeing:
MacBook Pro CAN see internal SATA hard drives.
MacBook Pro WILL NOT boot from any internal SATA hard drive and cannot format or install OS X to any internal SATA hard drive.
MacBook Pro WILL boot from any CD or external device and seems to work properly otherwise.
At this point I'm thinking it's one of two things: the hard drive ribbon cable or the SATA controller on the logic board.
Since the MacBook Pro seems to work completely fine other than this one issue, and will boot properly from both external devices and the CD (also a SATA device), I'm thinking and hoping that it's just the hard drive ribbon cable. From my searches online, I've heard that this batch of MacBook Pros is known to have issues with the hard drive ribbon cable, but it seems in most cases this manifests itself by the Mac not being able to see a drive at all.
I've done quite a bit of troubleshooting to get to this point, but right now I'm just looking for any feedback at all. Specifically I'd love to know a way I can easily test to see whether it's the logic board or the cable.

UPDATE: An interesting development!
I just tried a third known-good SATA hard drive, one which I believe supports SATA I only (but I'm not sure), and unlike the other drives that the Mac sees but cannot properly interact with, the Mac can't even see this one when I put it inside.
Frustrating as this may be, I believe I'm actually getting closer to a solution since my symptoms now appear to be closely aligned with people having SATA ribbon cable issues.
Onward!

Imac Not Booting From CD

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