OS install disc won't boot

I've got a 2007 15" Macbook Pro (MacBookPro3,1, Boot ROM version MBP31.0070.B07) which is currently running Lion and aside from the battery flaking out occasionally, it runs fine. I'm trying to install Leopard on it for testing purposes (I work in IT, and we try to have one machine running every version of every OS we support). When I try to start up using the "Mac OS X Install Disc 1" that came with the machine, it just spits the disc back out. This disk has Tiger (10.4), and the machine came with a "CPU upgrade" to 10.5. I've also tried booting to 10.5.4 and 10.6 retail discs with same result.
So, my best guess is that at some point, whether by a firmware upgrade or installing Lion, I've lost the ability to install any version of OS X OLDER than Lion. I can't seem to find any documentation for either firmware updates or Lion to support or disprove this assumption, though.

Well in order to install Snow Leopard you will need a partition for that if you also want to keep 10.7 on the machine, you use the 10.7 Disk Uitity to create a new partiton on the drive, then option key boot (wired or built in keyboards only) from the 10.6 disk and install in there.
If you want to wipe and install only 10.6, the entire internal drive needs to be erased (hold option or c key boot off the 10.6 and use Disk Ulility, select the entire drive), then install 10.6.
The 10.6.3 white retail disk should still work unless it's defective, smudged, dirty etc or unless it's a gray or black disk from another Mac, then it won't work.
However it is possible Apple did send a firmware update down the pipe that won't allow booting of earlier OS X verisons, they did that with 10.4 and 10.5 supposedly.
Unless you didn't upgrade the EFI firmware or have a older copy to revert too, Apple won't provide older EFI versions on their website, only the newer ones.
It's possible in some magic way to extract the EFI firmware off the 10.6 disks and then create a EFI boot disk installer that will install the older EFI verisons, but I haven't explored that possibility.
Far as I'm concerned, Apple can keep their Lions and their machines, I'm not going along with them anymore if they continue on their ******** path.

Similar Messages

Software Install Disc Won't Boot

Please help, I found a Power Mac G4 that somebody had thrown away(M# 5183 450 MHz DP/2X1M Cache/128 MB Ram It has vertical sound ports and a AGP Card. Has the year 2000 on back) . It would not boot, I found a pinched wire on the power supply, now it boots with some version of X. But it is password protected, I want to wipe the drive and install an OS from an install disc I got off ebay(For a Power Mac G4 year 2000 SSW version 9.04 691-2739-A).
Now the fun begins. The CD will not boot with C depressed, I've tried resetting the PRAM, and sometimes I get a screen telling me to reboot and after I do the protected os will load. I tried booting with cmd-opt-O-F; this said I had a power mac 3,3 3.1f1 BootROM built on 6/28/00. Tried booting with options depressed it just shows me the drive I want to get rid of. Tried cmd-opt-shift-delete on startup nothing would load as long as the keys were down, the protected os loads when they are released. I also tried moving the jumpers on the hd from master to cable select.
Do I need an osX install disc to get rid of X ? any thoughts would be appreciated .
G4 Mac OS 9.0.x

Hi, macaraina -
Welcome to Apple's Discussions.
Your G4 450MHz DP machine is a Gigabit Ethernet model. Those models originally shipped with a model-specific version of OS 9.0.4; later models may have shipped with OS 9.1.
I suspect the CD you got on eBay is not valid for your machine.
In addition, the version of Drive Setup that came with OS 9.0.4 and earlier had a defect - when used to format a drive as Mac OS Extended (which is the correct format for OS 9 and also valid for OSX), such as when wiping a drive, it can leave the drive vuknerable to getting a wrapper error.
Article #31056 - HFS Wrapper Partition Damaged
For those reasons, particularly the second one, I suggest you get either a retail OS 9.1 Install CD or a retail OS 9.2.1 Install CD - either is suitable for your model. All retail OS 9 Install CDs those are white, with a large gold 9 on them; the retail OS 9 Install CD's have a universal installer; model-specific Install CD's do not.
You can often get retail OS 9 Install CD's in various versions at sites like these -
http://macsolutions.com/
http://www.allmac.com/
http://store.yahoo.com/hardcoremac/index.html - Apple Reseller
http://www.applerescue.com/

Install disc won't re-install Leopard on my Macbook

So, I recently upgraded my Hard Drive in my Macbook. After I upgraded, I thought it would be cool to have Windows XP on my Mac also. So I partition 20 gb of my Hard Drive off for XP. I ran boot camp to install XP and I kept getting an error. This left me with an empty partition of 20 gb on my Hard Drive. I read many posts on here and I decided that the best thing to do was to re-install Leopard completely and start over, fresh and clean. Well, I put my Leopard install disc into my dvd drive, and when the install starts up, I get an error message that says, "Mac OS X can not be installed on this drive." Also, the install disc will not eject, even before the install starts. My hard drive is completely blank right now, and I have no idea why my install disc won't work. What should I do?

Open Disk Utility again (from the installer DVD), click on the drive's name as described in the previous post, & click the blue "i" button to get the disk's info. Copy that to a reply in this thread so we can see it. Or just note the "Partition Map Scheme" info, which should say "GUID Partition Table."
If not, you did not succeed in repartitioning it, perhaps because you did not click the "Apply" button or something.
If so, make sure you are using the installer disk that came with the MacBook & not some other model-specific installer disk.
BTW, you can never eject the DVD if you have started up the MacBook from it, so that much is normal behavior. To eject the DVD, you must restart from some other boot volume.

Snow leopard installation disc won't boot. Can I reset computer to boot from internal hard drive at startup?

I recently installed snow leopard on my macbook (mid 2006). I used system preferences to set the snow leopard boot disc as the install disc, and now my computer won't boot. It stalls at the apple icon with the grey screen. Is there any way I can set my computer to reboot from my internal hard drive at startup without having access to system prefernces (a keyboard code or something)?

Thank you so much for responding. I actually just pushed the trackpad button at startup. It ejected the install disc and automatically booted from the internal. I am sure your method would have worked as well. Thanks again!

Just bought new PC running Windows 8.1. I have Install discs for Photoshop 4 and an upgrade to Photoshop 7. Unfortunately the Photoshop 4 Install disc won't run as it's incompatible with 64 bit. How do I install Photoshop 7 on my new PC? Is there a place

Just bought new PC running Windows 8.1. I have Install discs for Photoshop 4 and an upgrade to Photoshop 7. Unfortunately the Photoshop 4 Install disc won't run as it's incompatible with 64 bit. How do I install Photoshop 7 on my new PC? Is there a place I can download the Install files from?

Pagemaker is ancient, obsolete and unsupported. It was discontinued over 10 years ago. (Though why it is still sold is a mystery.)
If you want to run PageMaker, your best bet is to use a Win2K or WinXP PC.
Otherwise move to Indesign or look at Serif's PagePlus or Scribus.

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

Recovery Disc won't boot

Hello,
I have a HP Compaq nx7400. I've created Recovery Discs but they won't boot from start up screen. When I press F9 and pick optical drive the DVD is spinning from time to time and nothing happens until windows startup.
I've suspected that there might be a problem with my optical drive so I've borrowed an external DVD. The same thing happens when I startup from DVD USB external drive.
I have suspected that there might be somekind of a Recovery DVD problem so I've tested them on a different laptop. The recovery disk have booted without any problem.
I run out of ideas. Any solutions, please?

Try repeatedly pressing F2 immediately after pressing the power button and see if it will at least take you to the laptops BIOS screen (usually blue with a lot of hardware options). If you can do this, you could try going back to the toshiba site on a secondary computer, redownloading the BIOS update accept follow the secondary manual install procedure (usually requires a disc to be burned or put on a USB drive). By not completely loading the BIOS update correctly, you may have corrupted your BIOS firmware which is the essential hard coded software on the motherboard that tells the system how to initially load everything before handing it all off to Windows when windows starts. All that "start up" form the BIOS is what happens with the laptops POSTs or shows you the "Toshiba" screen initially for 3 to 5 seconds as soon as you turn the system on. Let me know if this helps.

Original install disc won't work!

Hey all, I am trying to take my eMac back down to OSX 10.2, which is the original OSX that it came with when I bought it. It had tiger on it and I can not get the original install disc to boot when I try and do a restart while pressing "C". On startup, it goes to the screen that says "You computer needs to be restarted, press your on button for several seconds". So, I just used DBAN to completely wipe the HD, hoping that would help it, since maybe it was having trouble since tiger was still on there. The HD is now completely wiped blank and the disc still won't mount. I put in my Leopard disc just to see if that would work and it booted right up and was ready to start installing. Why won't the original disc work? The disc looks brand new, there are no scratches or anything like that on it. Any ideas? Thanks for any input!

I'd need to check notes i don't have with me at the moment, but if I recall correctly, part of the update from 10.2 to 10.4 on an eMac involved a firmware update, which could be why you can't boot to the 10.2 disc anymore.
Most OS 9 programs run fine under OS X 10.4 using Classic. You could try reinstalling 10.4, then put OS 9 on from your original 10.2 set of discs; the exact steps will depend on just which version of the discs you actually got. See e.g. OS X: How to Perform Mac OS 9 Clean Install and Mac OS X 10.2, 10.3: How to perform Mac OS 9 clean installation with Restore CDs

Install disc won't load?

I'm trying to re-install the OS on a MacBook Pro that i'm selling so as to erase all my data from it, however the Install Disc will not start up to run the Installer. I load it, press install, it says it has to Restart, i click ok and it then begins to restart but then just stops at a white screen. The disc drive goes quiet as well. I've tried just starting and holding C down as well. Same result.
Just wondering if anyone knows a way around this? Or is it probably a dodgy disc? It seems to be fine until it tries to start up from the disc.

Clean the disk with a very soft cloth and a bit of rubbing alcohol, polish.
Hold c or option key with a wired keyboard with the disk in and rebooting the machine, it should work.
The only time it won't work if it's the wrong disk for that computer, it's possible with 10.5 Apple may have updated the firmware so one can't boot off the 10.5 disks, boot off the 10.6 disk instead.
Call Apple for replacement machine specific disks with the free iLife if 10.6 or later, if 10.5 or earlier, order the 10.6.3 retail disks at Apple, no free iLife.
Use Disk Utility under the Utilities menu to Erase W/Zero (or 7x if your paranoid and willing to wait many hours) the entire drive before installing OS X.
Once OS X is installed it will reboot to Welcome Video, just shutdown and it will stay like that.

Powerbook crashed during 10.4.7 install now won't boot!

Hi everyone,
This is what happened to me on Powerbook G4 17" 1.5Ghz - hope my solution helps someone else... although solution is same as what others are saying - just more to let you know my symptoms
I installed in this order:
1) did the 10.4.7 update (64Mb)
2) powerbook crashed during the update (black/white - you need to turn off your powerbook by using the power button)
3) a sinking feeling hit my stomach
4) rebooted - no go - on grey screen again reboot using power button
5) again
6) again
oh sh*t
1) So put in install disk and run disk utility
2) oh no - not good
3) repair permissions - ok that works
4) repair disk - no go - catalog something or other errors which can't be fixed
I have downloaded the combo update on another PC - burnt the dmg to a CD
then safe boot the Powerbook (hold down shift)
then after like 10-15mins log in
put CD in
open dmg
do combo update
then restart
then it restarts itself again after the grey screen
and now it's working - well booting and logged in ok
time to test
l8r all
Jase

Michael, I don't think Apple needs to withdraw the
update at all. The fact that the Combo update fixed
your problem just means that it replaced something in
your system that was missing before you updated with
the decimal updater. The decimal updater will update
a perfect 10.4.5 to 10.4.6 but if there is something
missing in your 10.4.5 the decimal update won't
replace the missing part but just update the parts
that need to be updated.
So do we assume bad package/patch management.. or maybe insufficient preinstall checks? I think as so many people are having issues apple should withdraw this patch, and only supply the combo patch!
I'm sorry to harp on here, but apple need to get q&a in order. These things shouldn't happen, and if they do,the recovery steps should be clearly defined (and no, re-install isn't recovery, that's last resort stuff). Apple really need to address their many deficiencies in the recovery department... The OsX dvd install disc recovery has some serious issues, like /tmp being read only (that ones a basic!), single user mode not supporting wireless keyboards... and requiring a meta key not on standard usb keyboards to access it...
Oh, and if it's not too much trouble, can someone from Apple please acknowlegde this problem, and at least say they're looking at it... would be nice.

Even with a new hard drive and fresh install, it won't boot

Here's my story. On Wednesday last week, we had a power outage. (Yes, I had a surge protector. It didn't matter.) The next morning, when I turned my iMac on, it wouldn't boot. It got to the startup icon, but it just spun forever. I restarted and ran fsck, and it gave me a bunch of invalid sibling link errors. I used my Mac Mini to look at the hard drive in Target Disk mode and got the same result. I also tried using Disk Warrior, which hung a couple times before rebuilding the directory, but that didn't help. I took the iMac into the Apple Store, where a Genius checked it out, reset the PRAM, and then got a kernel panic. He told me I'd have to "erase and install," which I did (I had most of my important stuff backed up, but still lost some data, unfortunately.) I rebooted with the Apple install CD and reinstalled the OS. Then I rebooted into the clean install. The machine was extremely slow and took forever to get to the desktop. Then it hung with the spinning beach ball when I tried opening the Applications folder. A couple more pokes around the desktop eventually produced another kernel panic.
Yesterday, we got the hard drive replaced. I just finished reinstallation the OS, and guess what? It still won't boot. I get the Apple icon after the start up chime, then we get a blue screen that's quickly replaced with a gray screen. Then a black screen, then a gray screen again. This repeats forever with an occasional spinning beach ball until I restart.
I should note that I can boot into single-user mode and run fsck, and it reports no problems. I'm running DiskWarrior now for lack of any other ideas, and while it booted into the CD, it took forever to do so. I'm completely out of ideas, so other than throwing this machine in the trash and buying a new one, is there anything else I can try to diagnose the problem? Please note I was able to boot into a CD and reinstall the OS twice so far, so it still seems to be functioning to some extent.
Any ideas?

Did you format the new drive, if not it has to be formatted to Mac OS Extended (Journaled) before the OS can be installed. Here is a simple how-to guide:
http://howto.wired.com/wiki/Format_Your_Mac_Hard_Drive

Startup disc won't boot

I've got a PPC G5 iMac (not the Intel version) running OS 10.4.11. I wanted to run Disc Utility to repair my drive. It's been a long time since I've bothered with any basic maintenance, and the Verfy shows minor repairs that need to be made. However, my install disc 1 will not boot into the Mac OS. It keeps wanting to run the installer when I try to boot from that disc. So I quit the installer and direct it to restart from the startup disc (Install Disc 1 in the drive), and it just goes back to the installer. Is there a simple way to make a startup disc that just has the bare bones system I currently have so I can run the Disc Utility Repair. You can't run the repair utility on the internal drive when booted to the system on the local / internal hard drive. I've read that booting in Safe Mode will automatically verify / repair the drive. Just not sure where to go from here.

Yes, it boots to the Installer, but at one point, a Menubar will show up at the top, look for Utilities>Disk Utility and use that.
You don't want to write anything to that HD until it's fixed, but after that you might consider getting Applejack...
http://www.versiontracker.com/dyn/moreinfo/macosx/19596
After installing, reboot holding down CMD+s, then when the prompt shows, type in...
applejack AUTO
Then let it do all 5 of it's things.
At least it'll eliminate some questions if it doesn't fix it.
The 5 things it does are...
Correct any Disk problems.
Repair Permissions.
Clear out Cache Files.
Repair/check several plist files.
Dump the VM files for a fresh start.

Mac OS X install disc won't run

In Disk Utility, it says that 'Volume Bitmap needs minor repairs' so I need to repair volume. In order for me to repair it in Disk utility I have to start up from the install disc but upon inserting it into the cd drive of my powerbook G4, it fails to run and ejects it after about a minute.
What shall I do?
thanks.

Hi nebula32, and a warm welcome to the forums!
Tough without the Install disc or something like DiskWarrior, but some things to try...
Does it boot to Single User Mode, CMD+s keys at bootup, if so try...
/sbin/fsck -fy
Repeat until it shows no errors fixed.
(Space between fsck AND -fy important).
Resolve startup issues and perform disk maintenance with Disk Utility and fsck...
http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=106214
Tough without the Tiger Disk problems, but try fsck...
To use fsck, you must run it from the command line. Unlike using your mouse to open an application to do something, you'll need to type a text command at the prompt (#) to tell fsck what to do. The Terminal application (/Applications/Utilities) and single-user mode are two examples of command-line interfaces in which you can type such commands. To use fsck:
1. Start up your computer in single-user mode to reach the command line. Hold CMD+s keys down at bootup. Note: If necessary, perform a forced restart as described in the Emergency Troubleshooting Handbook that came with your computer. On desktop computers, you can do this by pressing the reset/interrupt button (if there is one) or holding down the power button for several seconds. On portable computers, simultaneously press the Command-Control-power keys. If your portable computer doesn't restart with this method, you may need to reset the Power Manager.
2. At the command-line prompt, type /sbin/fsck -fy
(SPACE between fsck AND -fy important)
3. Press Return. fsck will go through five "phases" and then return information about your disk's use and fragmentation. Once it finishes, it'll display this message if no issue is found: 
The volume (nameofvolume) appears to be OK  If fsck found issues and has altered, repaired, or fixed anything, it will display this message: *** FILE SYSTEM WAS MODIFIED ***   Important: If this message appears, repeat the fsck command you typed in step 2 until fsck tells you that your volume appears to be OK (first-pass repairs may uncover additional issues, so this is a normal thing to do).
4. When fsck reports that your volume is OK, type reboot at the prompt and then press Return.
http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=106214
Then Safe Boot, (holding Shift key down at bootup), & use Disk Utility from there to Repair Permissions, reboot once more.
Then Safe Boot from the HD, (holding Shift key down at bootup), run Disk Utility in Applications>Utilities, then highlight your drive, click on Repair Permissions, reboot when it completes.

Leopard Install Disc won't restart into installer.

I have a G5 quad core and am trying to install Leopard from my family pack installation disc. My superdrive is malfunctioning and will not accept any discs (spins as though it's loading, clicks and tries again, only to spit the disc back out). I purchased an external DVDRW drive by USB quite a while ago because of this. I put the disc in, I can double click to install, it asks me to restart and on restarting it loads right back to asking me for my password. I have tried holding down "c" on restart and the Install Disc never shows up. I have tried holding down "option" on restart and only my hard drive shows up. I tried to load from another computer that I have assuming to share it's drive, but when holding "option" on restart it doesn't give me an option to pick a network.
I'm Lost, Please Advise! Thanks.

A PPC such as your G5 will not boot from a USB connection. However assuming that the other computer has a FireWire port, you can probably "borrow" its DVD drive to install Leopard, even if the other computer is an Intel. You will need an appropriate FireWire cable that can connect the two computers.
I would try the following:
Shut down the G5. Insert the Leopard DVD into the other computer, and restart the other computer while holding down the T key, booting the other computer into [FireWire Target Disk Mode|http://support.apple.com/kb/HT1661] . Connect it to the G5 and then start the G5 while holding down the Option key. This should boot the G5 into the startup manager, and hopefully you will see the Leopard OS X install DVD as one of the startup choices. Select that, and proceed with the Leopard installation. Be sure you pick the correct "Macintosh HD" (the G5's HD!) for the install.

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

OS install disc won't boot

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