Leopard Install Disk Won't Boot

I have Tiger installed on my PowerBook G4 right now, and just got it repaired so thought now's as good a time as any to upgrade to Leopard. Only problem is I can't get the install disk to boot. I've tried both methods. Inserting the disk and clicking install OS X, restarting from there and allowing the system to restart using the DVD as the destination volume. Also tried just holding down C during a restart with the DVD in there. Both result in the same incomplete boot. It stays on the grey Apple screen for an abnormally long time before going to a light blue screen, then to a black/dark grey screen where I get a beach ball that spins for all eternity. The disk sounds like its spinning and processing and wanting to do something in the drive, but alas, it does not. Now I tried to boot with the same Leopard install disk on my iMac, and didn't have a problem at all. So needless to say, a little confused. If anyone has any ideas on how to remedy the situation, please let me know. Thanks.

Is your Leopard installer a retail installer which looks like *, and it does not say:
DropIn, Update, or Upgrade on it?
If not, you must purchase Leopard retail.
If your Powerbook lacks 512 MB of RAM, that could also prevent it from installing.
- * Links to images hosted on my website may give me compensation.

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Leopard Install Disk Won't Boot on Mountain Lion

I am wanting to install a family pack copy of Leopard on an external disk that is connected to my Mountain Lion system. When I follow the instructions it says restart with the disk in the superdrive. That all goes well but then it never gives the installer screen but has a gray screen with an apple on it.
I need to run some s/w under Leopard that won't under Mountain Lion so that is why I am tryiing to put it on an external drive.
Thanks,
Randal

Welcome to the Apple Support Communities
You have a Mid 2010 MacBook Pro. This computer came with a special Mac OS X Snow Leopard version, so the Snow Leopard Family Pack you have bought contains a Mac OS X version which isn't compatible with your MacBook. That's why you can't start from the Leopard or Snow Leopard DVD.
Instead of using that DVD, you have to use the Mac OS X Install DVD that came with your Mac. Then, insert it, hold the C key while your Mac is starting, and install Mac OS X onto your external drive. After installing it, your Mac will start by default onto the external drive, so open System Preferences > Startup Disk, and choose the OS X Mountain Lion drive.
If you haven't got the DVDs that came with your computer, call Apple to get replacement DVDs > http://support.apple.com/kb/HE57

MAC OS X Snow Leopard install disk won't install "with this version"

I am trying to get ready for the Snow Leopard install disk to migrate from Mobile Me to ICloud. However, the disk install I received to start the process won't allow me to install saying I have the incorrect version to do so. I am up to date in all my software installs. What am I doing wrong?
Thanks!

If you have an iMac running 10.7.4 as it says in your profile, why are you installing Snow Leopard? If this is a different computer then it would really, really help to know something about it.

Pismo G3 Tiger Install Disk won't boot

Hey, I just got a G3 Pismo off eBay and I am having trouble reinstalling Tiger onto it. It's a 500 Mhz G3 and it's been upgraded to 1 gig of Ram and a 100 gig hard drive. It's currently running 10.4.11, so I know it can handle it. Whenever I try installing it just hangs on a white screen after start up. I've tried from both the internal DVD drive and an external DVD drive. One thing I have noticed is that the install disk won't show up as an option in the Startup Disk panel when it's in the external drive, even though it will mount normally.
I've tried booting as the startup disk from it's current install and from Os 9.2.2 but no luck. I've reset the PRAM/NVRAM and reset the PMU and still nothing.
Any ideas?

Are you using a retail Tiger install DVD (black with silver X)? A gray, model specific installer for a different model Mac won't work.
I suspect your external DVD drive is connected via USB, which can't be used for a boot drive. You need an external Firewire drive if you want to boot from a DVD/CD.
What's wrong with the 10.4.11 OS currently installed? We might can recommend some fixes if there are problems.
 Cheers, Tom

Tiger install disks won't boot

I'm trying to install OS 10.4.6 on a "new-to-me" older PowerMac G4 AGP grapics. The machine came with no software and an uninitialized 15G hard drive, 128M memory and a functional DVD. I've added an 80 gig 2nd drive and 512 of "new to me memory (2X 128 + 256). I've installed OS 9.2 from my old iMac's original disk and the machine works fine but I want to finally upgrade to OS X and I can't get my new install disk to boot up. I can read the disk when the when I'm using the OS 9.2, but if I click on install or try boot while pressing the "C" key it won't work. I get a gray screen with an apple, a circlar timer spins for about 40 seconds then everyting freezes.
Things I've tried that didn't help:
I've updated the firmware successfully.
I've swapped out the memory sticks leaving only one new one at a time, so unless they are all bad I don't think they are an issue.
I've disconnected all devices except my USB keyboard.
A possibly relevant fact- the system profiler says I have a PCI card in slot B, whatever and whereever that is (maybe to run the small hard drive?)
The install disk is from a retail, family-pack, a black disk with a gray "X". I bought it from a 2nd party dealer on Ebay but it came in a sealed Apple box and looks legit and undamaged.
Any suggestions?

You need to check if your Mac requires a firmware (Boot ROM version) update. Mac OS X: Available firmware updates
http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=86117 If an update is required, the update must be installed (using OS 9) BEFORE you install OS X.
If all of the RAM doesn't work after you install the firmware update use DIMM First Aid - Check & recover disabled (missing) RAM from Apple's latest
firmware updates http://www.versiontracker.com/dyn/moreinfo/macos/10415
 Cheers, Tom

Install disk won't boot -- strange optical drive error

Hi all,
I have a very strange problem with my install disk. Some background:
-I have two separate install disks, one burned several months ago and one burned fresh today. Both are dual-arch netinstalls.
-The old disk worked perfectly at least twice on my old machine.
-Both disks behave identically as far as I can tell. I only made a new one because I thought the old one may have been scratched when it didn't work.
So, I just finished a new rig today, and as I planned a dualboot for it, I installed Windows first (because we all know how nice the Windows installer is to pre-existing OSes). That ran fine: I'm making this post from that installation. One of the first things I did after the install finished was put in a music CD, which also worked fine. When I tried to install Arch, though, I get a mysterious I/O buffer error (which, unfortunately, I can't paste because I have no way to extract a log or copy the output). It says something about an unhandled sense code. I've googled all over and the unanimous consensus is a borked optical drive, but I know that isn't the case because it has operated normally for other data disks (Windows install) and for the music CD I've had in there for about half an hour. My next guess would be a borked CD, but both function normally on other machines.
Any ideas?

Try a new iso for your new machine, perhaps your machine has hardware not covered by a 14 month old kernel.
http://releng.archlinux.org/isos/

OS X 10.5 Leopard install disk won't mount

I'm running OS X 10.4.11 on an iMac G4 and want to upgrade to OS X 10.5. I bought a retail 10.5.1 installation DVD set but I can't get the disks to mount on my iMac G4. I've tried loading it in with OS 10.4 running and I've tried starting up from the 10.5 disk holding down the C key. I've also tried starting up holding down the option key. Nothing seems to work. The disk does not show up in disk utility. The disks are apparently ok because I can mount them on my intel iMac as a test.
Any help would be greatly appreciated.
Thank you

Some Macs are not able to boot from USB drives.
These options come to mind:
1 - Make a bootable USB stick - very slow and painful - several tutorials on the web
2 - Make a reduced (single layer DVD) - not too difficult - I have done it several times - let me know if you decide to do this - I can give you a list of items to remove.
3 - Partition your G4 hard drive, boot into installer on one volume and install onto the other volume - very fast and easy - useful in the future - if G4 has important data this will need backing up to another disk first as partitioning normally erases the whole disk.
For 3:
1 - If necessary backup all data, and perhaps whole disk, to another disk with eg Carbon Copy Cloner
2 - Use Tiger install CD/DVD to partition G4 disk - can be equal volumes or perhaps make one about 10 GB for installer.
3 - Install Tiger onto one volume - the larger one if they are different
4 - Boot into Tiger volume
5 - Use Carbon Copy Cloner to clone Leopard installer onto the other volume
6 - Boot into installer and use it to replace Tiger with Leopard
In future you can use the installer volume in the same way that you would use an installer DVD for repair or reinstalls etc.
Good luck.

Incomplete Leopard install, now won't boot

Been running OS 10.4.11 on my G5 iMac. Started to install Leopard OS X 10.5 and because of damaged disc, install didn't complete.
Problem is now the iMac will not boot up at all. Tried to bootup from disc by holding "C" down, no luck. Tried the OS X 10.4 disc,
and no luck there either. Help?

An external hard disk with a clone of your 10.4 would be handy Oh Ye of Great Faith.
Have you tried restarting holding down the option key on restart to allow the selection of the 10.4 disk?
Failing that do you have another Mac you could connect to using Target Disk mode and see if your 10.4 disk works in it to reinstall onto your iMac?

Don't have Apple original DVD drive. Now install disks won't boot. What????

The past 3-4 hours, I have tried installing 10.5 (first) 10.4 (as 10.5 failed) from original discs in perfect shape without success.
After seraching help on the net, it seems as if Apple in its incomprehensive wisom is blocking such attempts if the user has been illoyal enough to purchase and install a non-Apple driver.
At http://support.apple.com/kb/HT2956 Apple says:
"Is this this original optical drive? If you have issues, make sure you're using the original Apple optical drive that was included with your computer (CD-ROM, DVD-ROM, DVD-RAM, CD-RW, Combo drive or Super Drive). This is only a concern in three scenarios: if you have replaced your original Apple drive with a non-Apple drive, if you have added a non-Apple drive to the second bay of a Power Mac G4 model with two drive bays, or if you are attempting to install from an external drive."
No, I bought a Pioneer DVD driver (yes, it reads DL). So does that really mean that I cannot make a new installation? And if so, are there any workarounds?

Yes, it shows and mounts. What happens is this:
When trying the "normal" way: inserts the disk, it mounts and opens a window. I click button "install". Computer restarts, starts reading the DVD, but after 10 seconds, it spits it out from the DVD driver and boots from regular system, already installed on hard drive.
When selecting the installation disc from the Startup Disks in the system preferences: Computer restarts, starts reading the DVD, but after 10 seconds, it spits it out from the DVD driver and boots from regular system, already installed on hard drive.
When booting with C key down: starts reading the DVD, but after 10 seconds, it spits it out from the DVD driver and boots from regular system, already installed on hard drive.
When trying Opt key down on boot: starts reading the DVD, but after 10 seconds, it spits it out from the DVD driver and only optional system remaining to boot from is the regular system on the hard drive.

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

I have a copy of Windows 7, and I am trying to bring up Boot Camp on my MacBook with Snow Leopard. But my Snow Leopard install disk is too old for Windows 7, so attempted Boot Camp install of drivers fails.

I have a copy of Windows 7, and I am trying to bring up Boot Camp on my MacBook with Snow Leopard. But my Snow Leopard install disk is too old for Windows 7, so attempted Boot Camp install of drivers fails.
I have hand-installed the NVidia graphics driver, and I have keyboard, minimal trackpad, and hardwire to internet all working. So the WIndows machine is usable. But I am hurting for wi-fi, better trackpad, and whatever else is delivered by Boot Camp. I can't use any of the Boot Camp upgrades because I do not have XP or Vista.

While we all have MacBooks in this forum not all of us use Boot Camp. There's a Boot Camp Support Community where everybody uses Boot Camp. You should also post this question there.
https://discussions.apple.com/community/windows_software/boot_camp

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

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

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

My MACBOOK Pro turned out to be Snow Leopard, and later upgraded to LION. And update the EFI, I would like to replace the Snow Leopard, EFI can not boot, how do? How to use the Snow Leopard install disk to reduce EFI?

My MACBOOK Pro turned out to be Snow Leopard, and later upgraded toLION. And update the EFI, I would like to replace the Snow Leopard, EFIcan not boot, how do? How to use the Snow Leopard install disk to reduce EFI?

Do you mean some of your software does not work in Lion? Do you want to return to using Snow Leopard? If so, then do this:
Downgrade Lion to Snow Leopard
1. Boot from your Snow Leopard Installer Disc. After the installer loads select your language and click on the Continue button. When the menu bar appears select Disk Utility from the Utilities menu.
2. After DU loads select your hard drive (this is the entry with the mfgr.'s ID and size) from the left side list. Note the SMART status of the drive in DU's status area. If it does not say "Verified" then the drive is failing or has failed and will need replacing. SMART info will not be reported on external drives. Otherwise, click on the Partition tab in the DU main window.
3. Under the Volume Scheme heading set the number of partitions from the drop down menu to one. Set the format type to Mac OS Extended (Journaled.) Click on the Options button, set the partition scheme to GUID then click on the OK button. Click on the Partition button and wait until the process has completed.
4. Quit DU and return to the installer. Install Snow Leopard.
This will erase the whole drive so be sure to backup your files if you don't have a backup already. If you have performed a TM backup using Lion be aware that you cannot restore from that backup in Snow Leopard (see below.) I suggest you make a separate backup using Carbon Copy Cloner 3.4.1.
If you have Snow Leopard Time Machine backups, do a full system restore per #14 in Time Machine - Frequently Asked Questions. If you have subsequent backups from Lion, you can restore newer items selectively, via the "Star Wars" display, per #15 there, but be careful; some Snow Leopard apps may not work with the Lion files.

Install Mac Drivers for Boot Camp without right Leopard install disk

This is my first post so please excuse my lack of knowledge. I am currently in Dubai for a week of work and was having a problem with my Windows OS. I removed the partition and reinstalled Windows XP with the Windows disk I brought with me. When I went to install the Mac drivers from the Leopard Install disk 10.5.0 that I had also brought with me, I noticed it was the Leopard disk that I bought last year to upgrade my prior MBP from Tiger and not the Leopard 10.5.2 disk that came with my current MBP that I bought last month. I tried it anyway and as it was loading it would always crash in the same place- as it was loading the Broadcom driver. It was the blue display of death. Is there anyway that I can find Mac Drivers for a MBP from a 10.5.2 disk and extract them without actually having the right install disk which is back at my home in Los Angeles? I really need help! Thanks and sorry for the long post.

You could use Disk Utility to "Restore" the installation DVD to a USB Flash Drive. Boot from it to do the work. Your optical drive could be having "issues", or the DVD could be hard to read for some reason. You should be able to hold down the Option key during boot to choose to boot from the flash drive.
If you can't do the work from your Mac because of a hardware problem then you could try a different machine to make the flash drive.
If a different machine can't make the flash drive, then the media is bad.

I Baught A iMac 2010 From Someone it came with lion but for the programs i use i need snow leopard but when trying to install it won't boot from usb or cd what can be the problem i've been at this for over 24 hours if anyone ca help it'd be greatly apprec

I Baught A iMac 2010 From Someone it came with lion but for the programs i use i need snow leopard but when trying to install it won't boot from usb or cd what can be the problem i've been at this for over 24 hours if anyone ca help it'd be greatly appreciate it! Thanks!

Downgrade OS X Lion To Snow Leopard [Video How-To]
http://www.cultofmac.com/110614/downgrade-os-x-lion-to-snow-leopard-video-how-to /
How To Downgrade OS X Lion To Snow Leopard: The Complete Tutorial
http://www.redmondpie.com/how-to-downgrade-os-x-lion-to-snow-leopard-the-complet e-tutorial/
How To Downgrade from Apple OS X Lion to Snow Leopard
http://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,2817,2389334,00.asp

Leopard Install Disk Won't Boot

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