MacPro won't boot to DVD install media

Hi,
I have a MacPro that I'd like to do a clean install on. It's a 2010 5,1. When trying to boot to the DVD media I hold down option and select the DVD icon that comes up. The Apple logo appears but that's as far as it goes. It gets hung up on the Apple logo. I've tried it multiple times and waited over 30 minutes but it just doesn't proceed. I've also tried the DVD in 3 different drives to see if it was the drive.
The drive actually stops spinning so I know it's not even trying to read the DVD.
I installed an SSD a couple weeks ago and have been running on it just fine.

The Apple logo is not resident in the Mac's ROM. Its appearance means you got some stuff off a Hard Drive or DVD. Failure to see the gear means you did not get very far after that.
If you have "suspect" drives installed, pull them out, as they may be interfering with what you are trying to accomplish.

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Leopard DVD won't boot after bad install

I ran the leopard installation yesterday and I realized that i needed to do some more work on the drive before i installed, so i clicke cancel and restarted the computer. Now the dvd won't boot. I installed tiger again(came with laptop) and tried doing various other things with the disk. Almost any ntensive use of the disk (booting from it, trying to clone it, etc.) will result in the superdrive powering up and then down repeatedly, sans result. I left the leopard dvd to boot for hours and when it tries it gets to the grey logo and the drive does that power up/down cycle endlessly. I can boot from ubuntu's disk and the tiger disk that came with my computer. The disk mounts to the desktop, btw, and i can browse the files and everything. Apple support was no help.

I've been doing some work with the disk. I did another attempt at creating a dmg from it and got the same result, so I googled the error which led me to a thread on this site with a similar issue. The error was input/output error. They found that it was due to a corrupt file... so I did a cp -r of the disk and it said that a few files did not exist:
cp -r "Mac OS X Install DVD" /Users/mattebooks/Desktop/Leopard
cp: Mac OS X Install DVD/usr/lib/libpython.dylib: No such file or directory
cp: Mac OS X Install DVD/usr/lib/libpython2.5.dylib: No such file or directory
cp: Mac OS X Install DVD/usr/lib/libpython2.dylib: No such file or directory
cp: Mac OS X Install DVD/usr/lib/libruby.1.dylib: No such file or directory
cp: Mac OS X Install DVD/usr/lib/libruby.dylib: No such file or directory
cp: Mac OS X Install DVD/usr/lib/libtcl.dylib: No such file or directory
cp: Mac OS X Install DVD/usr/lib/libtcl8.4.dylib: No such file or directory
cp: Mac OS X Install DVD/usr/lib/libtk.dylib: No such file or directory
cp: Mac OS X Install DVD/usr/lib/libtk8.4.dylib: No such file or directory
So I set Finder to show hidden files and went to these files libpython and libpython2.5 are aliases of libpython2 and libpython2 is an alias of a file in a non-existing folder. A little more digging and I find out that the python, ruby, tcl and tk framework folders are all missing, all from the same folder... interesting. Maybe I could add the files in and reburn the disk. My guess is that the loader looks for these files repeatedly. The path to the files is /System/Library/Frameworks/... If anyone could email these to me I could try and rebuild the disk...

MacPro won't boot-up...I think it's hardware related

Sorry, this is detailed, but I figured I had to explain everything I've done so far and the issues I've had. Thanks much!
My MacPro won't boot up. Initially I thought it was a software problem, and went through this thread looking for help. After a while, I came to think it wasn't the OS but a hardware problem. Here's why:
The initial problem was that I couldn't login to OS X (Lion). It started with the screen flickering, and freezing up. One time I logged in, and there were these uniform dots across my screen, and a black border overlaying the screen. I restarted, and that was when I couldn't login at all. It would go the gray screen with the dark gray Apple logo. The sundial would appear below...and then suddenly freeze. At that point, nothing.
I tried to boot into Safe Mode, but this also didn't work. The same result.
I then decided I'd do a clean install from the Install DVD and overwrite my boot drive (everything is saved onto a RAID Array). However, I couldn't load the OS installer.
I then thought maybe it was the HDD itself (the boot drive), so I bought a new one and tried to format and install. Again, the same thing. The DVD drive would activate, the gray screen would appear, and then it would freeze at the sundial. But this time, the dark gray overlay would come on screen, with the small box that told me to hold down power key (the one in mutliple languages).
So I then began to suspect the problem was deeper. I ran the Apple Hardware Diagnostic test. (I disconnected everything except the keyboard and the display.) The quick version showed everything was fine, but the extended version came back with some varying results.
First, my specs.
This is a MacPro 3,1.
24 GB RAM (8GB installed by vendor, 16 GB recently installed by me)
Bay 1 - Unformatted new HDD
Bay 2 - Slice 1 of RAID Array
Bay 3 - Slice 2 of RAID Array
Bay 4 - Formatted HDD for Storage
When I ran the first test, it was as above. Here is the error message I received:
4MEM/62/40000005: 0x79600ff18
This made me think it was a memory issue. So I took out the new RAM I had recently installed and ran the test again. I got this:
4MEM/60/40000005: 0x79650d18
So I took the old RAM out and put the new RAM back in. I also put the original, formatted HDD with OS X back into Bay 1. Here's what I got this time:
4SNS/3/4000000: TMOP-128.000
The new kind of error led me to think the problem was the old HDD and old RAM (after all, when I used only the new RAM, I put the old boot drive back in). When I ran the test, with the unformatted HDD in Bay 1 and the new RAM, I got...no error message!
So I restarted my system, hoping I could load the Install DVD now and install Mac OS X on the new HDD in Bay 1. But...nothing. Same as the original result. Gray screen with a freeze on the sundial, and then gray overlay telling me to shut down. Aaargh!!!
Someone suggested trying to login to Single User mode. I was tried and was able to do that. But, what do I do from there?
So I rebooted, and then tried to login when holding down the option key. It came up with the option to load the Install DVD. I said yes, and of course, same result as before.
So, as a last step, I put my old HDD back in and started the system holding the option key. This disc is a dual boot drive with Windows 7 on another partition. It gave me the following options:
Mac OS X HDD (my Lion install)
Windows 7
Recovery HD
Install Mac OS X (DVD)
For kicks, I chose Windows 7 to see what would happen. It actually logged me in! ... but it was like I was in an old safe mode in this sense: the screen size was the smallest available (that is, all the icons were big).
This makes me think that maybe (again, maybe) the problem is the video card. (Nvidia GeForce 8800 GT) This might explain the flickering and freezing I initially had when I could actually login. But...really, I'm at a loss and don't know if I should take the time and money to get a new video card.
Any suggestions???
Thanks!
Naveen

Windows 7 DVD has a decent memtest and you are in Safe Mode probably due to Windows didn't shutdown gracefully.
You can also use chkdsk or WD Lifeguard to certify all the disk sectors are mapped out if they need be.
8800GT: you have heard of the 10 minutes in over for 350*?
But you might want a new card anyway.
Vendors and RAM. Well it was working but buying RAM esp FBDIMMs and my guess is you have some 4GB DIMMs. Also mixing sets or brands can work most of the time, but not always.
RAM probllems result in dirty files and other errrors so fix the problem, make sure you have a good pair and no errors. Or more. And then try clean install.
Windows 7 w/ AppleHFS.sys and AppleMNT.sys does not like an Apple array to be present. MacDrive gets around that and allows mounting - and avoiding BSODs.
Cheap as I have found, highest quality though, 667MHz so they run 4% slower is all, if you need one good set:
2x2GB FBDIMM DDR2 667MHz
http://www.amazon.com/BUFFERED-PC2-5300-FB-DIMM-APPLE-Memory/dp/B002ORUUAC/
Lion Recovery Disk Repair? you did or didn't?
Lion installer: hopefully you kept the ESD package for later re-install (without having to download and all that bother).
Some people play musical chairs with the Risers and DIMMs and DIMM slots. Or just RMA and get new sets but I would try with just half the 24GB or less, then test with half the 16GB set. To have one set it would be one DIMM in A1 and B1.
And of course reset the SMC - hitting power button 10 seconds while unplugged (and no devices or cables connected).

Macbook pro won't boot up after installing a Micro Trend security.

Macbook pro 13" unibody non-retina won't boot up after installing a Micro Trend security.
Please Help Thanks!

Boot to safe mode and uninstall Micro Trend from there.
http://esupport.trendmicro.co.jp/Pages/JP-2075680.aspx

System won't boot to USB Recovery Media

I have a Satellite P55-A5312 with pre-installed Windows 8 (upgraded to 8.1), Intel i5 processor and 6GB Ram. I created a set of DVD recovery media and a USB Flash (Toshiba brand 32GB) recovery drive. I set the boot order in BIOS to USB, then DVD, then HDD. Secure Boot is enabled.
Question I have is, how can I verify that the reovery media will boot if needed? If I power on the laptop, neither the DVD nor USB will boot and it goes directly to Windows, which kind of makes sense. If I then restart, the DVD recovery media will in fact boot, but the USB recovery media won't boot. Even if I restart with F12 and choose USB as the boot device, the USB media will not boot. The only way I can get the USB recovery media to boot is if I disable Secure Boot.
I find it hard to believe that USB recovery media will only work if Secure Boot is disabled. What am I doing wrong?
Ken
Solved!
Go to Solution.

Sure would be nice to know what the recovery media boot behavior is suppose to be with Secure Boot enabled...
With a little luck, Peter will stop by and let us know.
-Jerry

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?

MBP won't boot - "GRUB_" - tried installing ubuntu on an external drive

so i tried installing ubuntu netbook remix onto an external drive, and upon restarting my MBP won't boot to my internal HDD, once it displayed "GRUB_" with a blinking cursor, but is otherwise unresponsive.
now i just get the folder with the ? on it.
I've run disk util, repair permission, repair disk and still no luck.
i can boot the MBP into target disk mode and see the HDD on my other system and all appears to be good, and if i boot to the install dvd, the HDD shows up under the "startup disk" menu, but it just doesn't boot.
any thoughts on how to fix this?

So I have an imac that I have had for about 3yrs. About several months ago, it started acting a little strange, it wouldnt pick up the mouse or the keyboard at times even thought they were plugged in properly to the usb port, sometimes both would work sometimes one or the other would work and other times they worked fine. About a month or 2 ago, I went to turn my imac on and it got to the screen where the little circular icon pops up implying it is loading, stayed that way for 2-3min then turned of and turned itself back on and did the same thing, made the apple sound got to the load screen turned of after 2-3min then turned back on, it has been doing that for the past month. What do I do?

MacPro won't boot from any disk but the original

We picked up a lightly used MacPro 2 x3.2G Quad Intel Xeon at work. The plan was to remove the internal drive (which is also the boot disk) and replace it with a brand new WD Caviar Black 500G drive with OS 10.5 freshly installed, and then use Migration Assistant to transfer from the old machine.
The problem is that when trying to run the OSX install disc on this new machine, it will restart, but then not boot from the install disc. Rather, the apple logo pops up, it thinks for a bit, then the grey curtain drops and i get the multi-language "you must restart your machine" message.
So, after successfully doing an install of the OS on the fresh drive using a different machine, i put it back into the new one, restarted holding OPT, and selected the fresh OS drive. I get the same multi-language message, and the machine will not boot. I've tried installing the OS on a different HD as well, to the same results.
The new machine will restart using the startup disk (internal HD) that came with it and will run Apps, etc. To confuse things further, i pulled my startup HD out of my personal tower at home (also running OS 10.5, but it's been updated to 10.5.8), stuck it in the new machine, and tried to reboot from that. This DID work (normal time startup, apps work, etc).
I thought this might be a HD problem, but now it seems like a machine problem. Maybe it doesn't like the OS install? I dunno.. Thoughts?
I just had one. I'll try to clone my HD/OS from my personal computer to the new WD 500G drive, and if that works, i'll just go from there...maybe i just had to type this out to think of something different to try, but i'll post it anyways...

So you're saying essentially that this new machine, when it came out of the Apple factory, had OS 10.5.x installed on it, and because that was the original install, it won't recognize something that has OS 10.5.0, even if that install is on a fresh HD? Basically the hardware inside the tower can't/won't recognize any OS prior to the original 10.5.x factory install?
well, if that's the case, then 1)that's ridiculous of Apple to do, and 2)it makes this whole problem make more sense, and it's good future knowledge for me to have.
I cloned my personal OS (but not the users, docs, etc) and stuck that in the new tower, and it works well so far. I'm in the process of copying files to other internal drives, and i'll be using Migration Assistant to transfer users from our old system to the new one, and if all still works fine after that, i think we'll be good to go. So, based on what you've told me about the factory OS install, etc, i think we're on the right track.
Thanks very much for your input!

If leopard won't boot from dvd, use disk utility mount to partition

wanted to share a way that i successfully installed os 9, tiger, and leopard on 1 hard drive. first of all, leopard was the only installation that i had difficulty with. it would not boot off the original dvd, no matter if i held down the 'c' key or the option key, so this is what i did after a lot of reading on the internet to try and troubleshoot this issue.
First thing i did was partition my internal hard drive in 3 partitions using disk utility. the 3rd partition was around 9gb. I installed os9 first on the 1st partition, i then installed tiger on that same partition. then i put in my leopard dvd, and opened up disk utility. and clicked on "restore", and dragged the dvd image as the "source", and chose the 9gb partition as the destination, and clicked on restore. then, i changed the "startup disk" to start from the 9gb where i just restored the image, and rebooted, and went through the leopard setup and chose the 2nd partition as the place to install. this should work with the dvd, or if you made an image from the dvd. I hope this helps someone else whose dvd won't boot, because it was very frustrating after you purchase a faster processor, and faster video card so that your system meets the requirements, and then the dvd won't boot.

Two ways. Use another computer to restore the install disc to one of those ext HD. Then, use it to boot the other machine. Get an ext CD/DVD reader and use it to read the install disc and boot the machine. However, if both the HD and optical reader are kaput, then a trip to an Apple repair station is in order.

Mac won't boot after leopard install

hi - installed leopard on my imac but now my mac won't boot:
i have already tried the following:
1) safe mode - but won't boot
2) single user mode - ran fsck - said no issues
3) did target mode with firewire cbale to my macbook and ran disk utility - no repairs needed - and i can see all my files on original computer
4) reinstalled leopard from holding down options key - leopard installed again
but for all of abv - when i reboot i still get white apple logo screen and the spinning wheel...
any other way to get into safe mode - as that is only thing i have not been able to start....
thanks!
susan

tigerswim, welcome to Apple Discussions.
Did you already have Tiger installed or did you have Panther 10.3 installed? Tiger is not a free upgrade; you have to buy it & then update (for free) using the download updates from Apple. Also, you have to use a universal/retail install DVD (or CDs) to install Tiger. You cannot use the install DVD from another model Mac.

Hangs or Kernel panic on boot -- won't boot off DVD or hard drive

I have a MacBook running OS X 10.5, and when I tried to turn it on today it froze at the gray screen with the apple logo. No spinning progress wheel appeared.
In an attempt to fix this, I unplugged my external hard drive and my ethernet cable, leaving only the power cord attached. Attempting to boot from the install DVD results in a kernel panic. It won't boot in safe mode or single-user mode. In verbose and/or single-user mode the text displayed for the boot sequence appears normal until the following block of text that comes right after "The Regents of the University of California. All rights reserved.":
MAC Framework successfully initialized
using 5242 buffer headers and 4096 cluster IO buffer headers
devfsmakenode: not ready for devices!
IOAPIC: Version 0x20 Vectors 64:87
ACPA: System State [S0 S3 S4 S5] (S3)
This is the last block of text displayed; the system hangs at this point. I've also tried resetting the PRAM (no effect), and on the offhand chance that this could be caused by a loose RAM module I ejected them both from their slots and reinstalled them, so I know they are seated with good connections.
Any suggestions or help would be much appreciated!
Thanks,
Steve

It has 1 GB of RAM, so I tried booting up with only one module. Neither one of them solved the problem, although oddly enough in Verbose mode this time instead of stopping on the error the I mentioned before, it continued a bit further and gave a kernel panic. This was the same for each module.
I'm coming to the conclusion that at this point it's probably either the logic board or the CPU, and will probably be expensive to fix -- the warranty ran out in August. I suppose that it's possible both RAM modules are bad, but it seems very unlikely that both of them would be.
I suppose I'll just have to bring it in for servicing and have it checked out.
Thank you for the suggestions.

C55-A won't boot from DVD or USB thumb drive.

I'm trying to boot Linux Mint from a DVD or USB stick and this laptop just says that the media failed when trying to initilize either the DVD or USB stick. I've disabled secure boot in the bios thinking it was UEFI problem but it still won't boot. These discs and usb sticks work in other computers.
Not sure where to go from here, any advice would be much appreciated.

Try this.
In the UEFI, go to the Advanced tab, enter "System Configuration" and set the Boot Mode to "CSM Boot."
Always tell us which Satellite C55-A you have when you post here. There is a label on the bottom.
-Jerry

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.

MacBook Pro boot issue (constant rebooting / won't boot from DVD)

Hello all --
I have read a few other threads that have similar issues, but slightly different.
Today I went to get a new internal HD for my MacBook Pro 15"... just swapped it out at the store and put the old one in an external enclosure. No problem there. Got home and went to put the OS on the new internal HD. The MBP would not boot from the OS X 10.5 DVD. Weird, I thought. Tried a few more times - holding down the 'C' key, the 'option' key and so on. Each time it failed to boot -- it would just reboot after getting to the grey screen (no Apple). However, the machine would boot from the old HD in the external enclosure via USB port. Everything appeared normal, the DVD mounted and the new HD showed up in disk utilities - and I was able to format it ... tried rebooting to OS X DVD with no luck
Luckily I have an iMac as well, I put the MBP in target mode and was able to install 10.5 onto the new HD. Tried rebooting. No luck. Got a flashing folder with a ? mark. Once again tried various tricks to get it to boot - safe mode, single user mode etc. I tried resetting PRAM and the SMU. Nothing. I am at the point now, where the new HD with a fresh OS install won't boot -- it just keeps rebooting after flashing to the grey screen briefly. OS X DVD will not boot the machine, but the external USB drive (with the old HD) will boot the machine.
I did try putting the old drive back into the MBP, but the machine failed to boot.
I am at a total loss.
Help, thoughts, suggestions?
Thanks,
Michael

Seems to consistently work with the old HD inside the MBP and not the new drive.
There is an OS installed on the new drive (it shows up in Startup Disk preference, and when holding down option key at startup).
The new drive will show up as an external when it's in an external enclosure connected to the MacBook (the old one back inside the MacBook).
I did format GUID and Extended (Journaled).
The MacBook Pro 15" unibody late 2008 2.4GHZ -- this one: http://support.apple.com/kb/SP499. It has 4GB RAM, the 250GB 7200 RPM drive.
The new drive is a 750GB Seagate Momentus 2.5 7200RPM 16 MB Cache Interface.
Never had any issues with the machine previous to this.

Mac Mini won't boot from dvd

I just picked up a used Mac Mini and the previous owner didn't wipe the hard drive. He did include the original install disks in the package, though. I inserted the install disk & it says that OS X Tiger can't be installed on the mini (currently it is running Snow Leopard 10.6.8). I tried to boot from DVD but if I hold down the c key, nothing happens and it boots to the HD like normal. If I hold down the option key, the only boot option shown is the HD. I don't get any request for a password, so this mini doesn't appear to have a firmware password set. The DVD drive appears to be functioning fine since it can read the DVD - I just can't boot from it. If I use the Startup disk utility the only option shown once again is the HD. I even tried upgrading to Mavericks, but get an error message that it can't be installed on this mini (I checked the requirements and this machine meets them - running 10.6.8, at least 2 Gig ram, 1.83 GHz Core 2 duo, 60 Gigs free space on the drive.......
I want to do a clean install but am at a loss on how to do so. Any suggestions?

I inserted the install disk & it says that OS X Tiger can't be installed on the mini (currently it is running Snow Leopard 10.6.8).
You can't install an older version of OS X on top of a newer version. You would have to erase the disk first.
I tried to boot from DVD but if I hold down the c key, nothing happens and it boots to the HD like normal.
Make sure you're using disk# 1 of 2 of the two gray disk set., and that you hold the C key down for enough time, the boot process from the DVD is much slower than from a hard drive. However, since you have Snow Leopard installed now, there is no point in trying to install Tiger, unless he didn't give you his Admin password; you wouldn't be able to add yourself as a new user or delete his user name without knowing the admin password.
If you did get Tiger installed, then you would have to buy a copy of Snow Leopard on DVD.
I checked the requirements and this machine meets them - running 10.6.8, at least 2 Gig ram, 1.83 GHz Core 2 duo, 60 Gigs free space on the drive.......
Those aren't the complete requirements. It has to be an Early 2009 MacMini, Model Identifier number 3.1, to be compatible with Mavericks. Click on the Apple Menu's, "About This Mac," More Information, then System Report, to locate that information.

MacPro won't boot to DVD install media

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