Wont boot from disc

So here is the story. I work for a school district and before my current boss the man before him bought an Apple Xserve and then left and now we have been just using it as a paper weight because none of us are highly proficient with mac os x server. So today we went to take it out of the box and went to start it up and the 750gig drive in the xserve is not loaded with anything (suspect previous boss formatted the drive before he left, stupid). Also we don't have the mac os x server disc at all which might have walked off with the previous boss... So we had a few regular client mac OS X leopard discs laying around so i put one in and tried to boot with it by holding 'c' and nothing happens, just the folder with a question mark in it appears. Any reason why i cant boot off a non-server OS X disc? Is it even possible to do this?
Thanks for any help!
~Pirate

Any reason why i cant boot off a non-server OS X disc?
No, but if the disk is older than the computer, it doesn't have the resources needed to start it up. Some functions of the Xserve require Mac OS X Server.
(44917)

Similar Messages

  • G5 wont boot from disc or dvd

    My G5 will not boot at all either from an intsall disc or the internal HD. I have tried all the usual, reseting pram,nvram from open firmware, resetting the cuda switch etc but still no joy. When i start up the machine i get the apple logo on the white screen, and then the fans fire up after about a minute and carry on at full speed.If i try to start up in single user mode i get a lot of messages saying failed to load com.apple.driver.applemacrisc.pc amongst other things and then i get a kernel panic.
    Can any one help me with this one? [p.s. i have tried removing all connected devices and non apple memory but still the same]

    Can you start in safe mode?
    -mj
    [email protected]

  • 24" iMac - Wont boot from HD or disc... Help!

    Hi guys,
    Just been working on iMac, forget the exact spec but it's a 24" Intel 2.something Core 2 Duo or whatever it is, 4gb DDR2 RAM, gotta be about 2 years old to the day and after my last 2 Macs have lasted forever, never developing a fault, I didn't take out Applecare... Perhaps I had a bit too much faith...
    As I say, just working away and all of a sudden, upon putting a video in Quicktime to full screen, the whole image has kinda of condensed itself into the top 20% of the screen and started slightly flickering the image. I've tried quitting some of the programmes, but neither the mouse nor leyboard have been responding so I've just had to turn the computer off.
    I've gone to turn it back on, and after about 30 seconds, it's got as far as the grey screen but then the little spinning progress indicator pauses and it does nothing else.
    I've reset the PRAM and that made it take longer before it froze but ultimately did nothing.
    I've now tried getting it to boot from the Snow Leopard disc but this does the something, until after about 3 - 5 minutes, the screen goes all pshychedlic, like looking at an old school TV really close...
    So looking for any suggestions on other things to try before I have to take to my local store... Any hazard a guess at what may be up with it?
    I've got a back up the whole computer but I don't think this is a software problem, I'm assuming it's going to be a hardware one?
    Any help at all would be much appreciated!

    Ok, tried Safe Mode and that wont boot either. Saw a little progress bar on the grey screen though which made a change, but ultimately, it crashed once that had disappeared.
    I've just noticed that at the point when the progress wheel stops spinning, a pattern of dead pixels appears across the screen that aren't there when the progress wheel is spinning.
    The more I talk to people about this, the more graphics card seems to come back as the likely culprit, based on the fact that:
    - it started by me putting a video to full screen
    - the fact the display went weird when it first happened and also it plays up after it crashes with the psychedelic colours
    - it wont boot from HD, disc or now in safe mode either, however it does run AHT fine.
    - I've hoovered out the vents on the iMac and somehow it seems slower than it was before (bit odd)
    - the dead pixel thing mentioned above
    So now thinking it may be time to get a new graphics card?
    Reckon this is likely, even though the AHT hasn't picked up any problems? As mentioned earlier, I'm not too concerned about it would seem it doesn't particularly test the graphics card too much, so all just seems to point towards it.
    Anything else that I could do to single this out as the likely culprit?
    Guess this is a chance to upgrade!

  • Wont boot from cd???

    I have a slot-loading iMac that wont boot from a CD.
    Does anyone know why? I have tried holding C and choosing the CD as a start-up disk but it doesnt work. The CD i am trying to start-up on is the Mac OS 9 CD.
    Can anyone help??
    Thanks Daniel.

    Did you have any luck on this?
    I am having the same quandry. I have a slot-loading 450MHZ imac which I purchased used with 10.2 installled on it. When I tried to upgrade to 10.3 using my black retail CD I own I was told I needed to upgrade the firmware. Then I discovered that Classic had been deleted from this computer, so had no way to boot in 9.2.2 to install the Firmware update....so I figured I would have to start from scratch from my white 9.0 retail CD and do the upgrades to 9.2.2, but it wouldn't boot from the white CD.
    Then I followed instructions I found here and used my 10.3 disc to access Disk Utility and reformatted the HD with the OS 9 Drivers (losing the 10.2 install it had in the process), and reset the PRAM twice.
    So now I just get a gray screen with the flashing Question Mark in a folder. I have tried an external CD drive to confirm it's not a problem with the optical drive and have booted from the OS 9 CD on another slot-loading imac to confirm it's not a problem with the Disk. I have a 9.0 CD and a 10.3 CD but nothing in between.
    Still no luck...

  • IMac wont boot from CD

    I am selling my iMac so want to reformat the HD and do a fresh install of Leopard.
    When I try to boot from the system CD I get the grey screen, I hear the CD Drive reading the disk, then the computer reboots. The same thing happens every time no matter how I try to boot from the CD. When I eject the CD, or boot from HDD, it loads the OS fine. It just wont boot from the CD.
    I have tried:
    Booting from CD by holding the C key during startup
    Booting from CD using Startup Disk in System Preferences
    Installing OS from the 'Install Mac OS X' application on the disc
    Holding the option key during startup and selecting the CD drive
    Resetting the NVRAM
    Verifying the HD in disk utility
    Verifying the CD in disk utility
    Verifying and repairing HD disk permissions in disk utility
    Running the install on my MacBook to check the CD (booted to the CD and started install process fine)
    I have searched for previous discussions that reference this issue but could find none with this specific problem. The CD drive reads other media fine so I don't think it's a hardware issue.
    Any help would be much appreciated.

    Clean the disk?
    Dirty lense?
    The bottom of the disk must be free of scratches and especially human fingerprints which the oils can trasfer insdie the machine.
    Use a bit of rubbing alcohol on a very soft clean cloth and polish ot a shine before using the optical drive.
    Order a replacement disk from Apple, buy jewel cases that suspend your disk, the plasic/paper sleeves Apple provides aren't good.

  • G5 wont boot from installation disk?

    Any suggestions for a G5 that wont boot from the installation CD? Regular starts fail at the grey screen with the apple logo. I've re-set PRAM and SMU, and replaced the battery. G5 passed the Disk Utility tests and the hardware test run over firewire from a PowerBook. I've tried booting from the CD while holding down the various keys. Runs fine in terminal mode so I've saved all my files. Not sure where to go from here. Any help would be appreciated.

    Hi choriocapillaris, and a warm welcome to the forums!
    Can we assume it booted from this Install Disc before, or could this be an Install Disc from another Mac?
    If it is the right Disc, put it in the PB, boot the PB into Target mode...
    http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=58583
    Boot the G5 with the Option key held down & see if the Install Disc in the PB eventually shows up as a boot choice for the G5.

  • Satellite P300-1A8 will not boot from disc drive

    Hi,
    I had a little play with start up programs, partitioning the hard drive and marking as active and deleting programs i thought i did not need.
    I obviously had no idea what i was doing!
    Laptop will go to toshiba screen then goes blank, i can not boot from the disc drive.
    I put the hard drive into another laptop and it works fine.
    I put the hard drive of that laptop in the buggered one and that works fine.
    How the hell do i put the original one back with it working??
    Really really stuck with this!!!!!
    Any help would be appreciated.
    Only thing i havent tried is the recovery disc but im not paying for one if it wont boot as itl be a waste of money.
    Seems like its a compatability problem with cpu and hard drive as they dont want to be friends anymore!!
    Thank you in advance

    Hi!
    Can you boot in the safe mode?
    If you dont have a recovery disk, use the Microsoft installation disk and try to boot from it.
    And you said that you cant boot from disc drive, did you tried different disks?
    Maybe some are not readable or not bootable.
    The best way would be a recovery disk. The installation takes a few minutes and you have a clean installation with all drivers and tools from Toshiba.
    Bye

  • Pavillion zv5000 laptop wont boot from cd after mobo and hdd replace

    So I inherited a dead zv5000 laptop with no hdd.  I replaced the motherboard and CPU, and it powered up and booted from the cd drive with no hdd installed.  I was able to run memtek and the original hp os recovery discs, with no hdd installed. 
    Then I put in an empty hdd.  The bios sees the hdd ok, but I suddenly can't boot from the cd drive.  The bios settings are correct, and the discs spin in the cd drive, but it wont boot with the recovery discs, memtek, or an original xp install disc.
    When I remove the hdd, it still wont boot from the cd drive. 
    So I google and I read stuff about hp tattoos on hdds and motheboards and dmi, and no passwords for the average person to do the tattoo. 
    So what do I need to do ?  I don't understand why it was good with the new motherboard, but as soon as I plugged in an hdd it wont do anyting.  I cant update bios because I cant boot past the bios, and not sure how that would help anyway. 

    If you have an open firmware password, delete it. It will not boot off anything but HD with OF password. Or at least thats what it was for me.

  • Macbook Pro Wont Boot from Retail 10.6.3 DVD

    Just like the title says.  It wont boot off the retail 10.6 disk I got a couple weeks ago.
    I think my EFI partition might have been corrupted...so I want to repartition the HD and reinstall the OS but the computer wont boot from the DVD.
    Any ideas?

    Hi Alexander,
    If your MBP shipped with an OS later than 10.6.3, it won't boot from that disc. Use the install disc that shipped with your MBP.

  • After OS Upgrade, Computer will No Longer Boot from Disc, Enter T-Disc Mode

    I purchased the Leopard update about a week ago and proceeded to install it (upgrade option) on my MacBook Pro previously running Tiger. After this update, I no longer seem to be able to boot from a disc(c on startup), enter target disc mode(t on startup), enter single user mode(command s on startup), basically anything that requires hitting a key on boot. In short, the operating system seems to override any of those commands and just loads regardless of what I press.
    How can I fix this?? I fear that if my mac suddenly dies, I won't be able to fix it with archive and install via the CD, since I can't boot from it. I also won't be able to recover my files with target disc mode or anything.
    For more in-depth details:
    -My hard drive does have an open firmware password- it was recommended as part of the undercover anti-theft program that I use. Although I can tell putting the password on was a mistake, since I've read that single user mode is no longer accessible with this password active. I don't think this is affecting my inability to boot from disc or target disc mode though, as I was always able to do this with Tiger, even with the firmware password active.
    -I have tried booting from other discs, like my old tiger OS disc that came with the laptop- that fails too.
    -My Leopard installation was not clean. Like many others, I used the upgrade option and it appeared to work ok- until restart, where I was faced with the blue screen. Since I was unable to boot to single user mode and try removing potential APE files, I let the computer sit for an hour on the blue screen until it finally loaded. Upon getting in, I found that I did not even have APE's installed. I proceeded to reinstall the operating system via an Archive & Install. Upon boot after this reinstall, I still received a blue screen that lasted a long time, and the OS loaded very slow. It did this for a few additional boots afterwards, and has appeared to smooth itself out now, a week later. The OS now loads fine and works alright (from what I can see), but I still can not boot from disc or anything else.
    If anyone at all knows a solution for this, it would be much appreciated. I wanted to suspect something like the disc drive going bad, but being that things like the target-disc mode aren't working either- I'm hesitant to believe its just the disc drive. Being that it also happened just as I upgraded to Leopard and faced issues, I have more of a hunch that its something to do with Leopard.
    I apologize if this has been answered before, but I've looked all over the site, google, everywhere I could think of and came up with no answer.
    Thanks ~Brian

    Hi, I have been having the exact same problem with a late 2011 MBP 15 inch. I replaced the hard drive with a samsung SSD 1.5 years ago, along with a samsung SSD in the optical drive. It worked great until the Yosemite upgrade. The MBP seemed to work reasonably well for a few days after the upgrade, but then it started stalling on various programs (spinning beach ball on Mail, Safari, etc). Start-ups were also longer and had a loading bar each time, which was new since the upgrade. I left the MBP to sleep last night and when opening it, it crashed and tried to restart. On restart it loads to the login screen, then after I enter the password it partially loads (based on the loading bar), then shuts off. I removed the SSD and plugged it in with a USG, but that didn't change anything. Here is a picture after using CMD-V before it shuts off.

  • Satellite C50-A634 wont boot from USB or DVD

    My new toshiba Satellite C50-A634 wont boot from usb, or dvd ,
    i have downloaded win 8.1 and burn image to dvd but i still get an error message "no bootable device......please restart system" .
    Can some one plz help?

    Hi
    Does Satellite C50-A634 supports internal CD/DVD drive or did you try to boot from external optical disk drive?
    You have to know that _Satellite C50 & Satellite C50D models *without* a built-in ODD_ are not able to boot from an external ODD due to a technical limitation.
    Details here:
    [Limitation of external boot media for Satellite, Satellite Pro C50 & C50D devices|http://aps2.toshiba-tro.de/kb0/TSB3B03JA0000R01.htm]
    Only USB flash drives are supported as external boot devices!
    It is necessary you can use a USB flash drive as recovery media on notebooks without a built-in ODD.

  • M30x bios does not detect hard drive, wont boot from HD

    Can someone help me in this issue.
    My Sat m30x wont boot from Hard Drive, instead tries to boot from network.
    Tried to load setup defaults and Hd wont show on the settings
    tried to reistal origin CD software by toshiba and the message no target drive displays
    Can this be a hardware problem, some damaged fisical conection, or is it a bios problem
    thanks in advance for some ligth on this problem

    My M30x has the same problem. I just have used it for 2 months.
    I sent it to the repair center as I was told to do, because it has warranty.
    I'm still waiting for a response from them. I don't know what caused it.

  • Cannot boot from disc

    Holding down "C" does not boot from disc.  Computer does boot normally.  After entering password -- which is accepted -- there is no dock or access to apps.
    Reset PRAM does not work.

    I just found another possibility:
    So you cannot get to single user mode... can you get to open firmware, and reset the non-volatile RAM?
    Cmd-Opt-O-F at boot
    reset-nvram
    set-defaults
    reset-all
    (each line exactly as shown, followed by <return>)
    I'm now able to repair the volumes.  Waiting for it to finish and reboot.

  • My mac mini wont boot from disk

    My 2010 Unibody Mac Mini wont boot from disk, i need to open disk utility to repair my drive but it wont boot, any ideas?

    it started yesterday, and nope, not changed anything apart from the apple update for S.L. a week or two ago, and its stuck at the spinning gear, this has never happened before

  • MSI NF980-G65 freezes when trying to boot from disc

    I just recently purchased and received an MSI NF980-G65 motherboard to work with my AMD Phenom II x6 1055T, but sadly I have had nothing but trouble.
    So far the motherboard posts its bios and has the ability to detect any (and all) of my hard drives when I have them plugged in. The hard drive that has Windows installed on it currently informs me that I need to put in my Windows disc and run the repair utility, which makes sense since I was using a completely different motherboard and CPU before.
    It is when I try to press any key to boot from disc that the problem arises. When I press a key on my keyboard while that prompt is on screen, the cursor jumps as if I had hit the tab key and does nothing further.
    I have a total of three copies of Windows 7 at my disposal to use, two are DVDs I had burned from using my student discount to get them, and one set (32-bit and 64-bit) were in a retail copy of home premium, all of the discs performed the same action. I had tried using different SATA cables, different power adapters, and even different DVD players to try and remedy the situation.
    The hard drive with windows is an IDE hard drive, but I have tried my other SATA hard drives just to be sure, none of which fixed the problem.
    I have heard briefly about m-flash, but as far as I can tell, it would appear this new motherboard did come with the latest bios version (1.4).

    For the boot, I have tried both setting up the DVD player as the initial boot, and I have tried just selecting it in the boot menu.
    As per the posting guide, here are more specific information:
    Processor: AMD Phenom II X6 2.8 GHz, 9.0 MB Total Cache, AM3 Socket
    Motherboard: MSI NF980-G65 v. 1.2 bios (I'm going to try and flash this to a later now, I didn't know where to look for it before) , 601-7612-010B1004183389
    RAM: G. Skill Ripjaw DDR3-1600 PC3-12800 2gb x 1 until I get this working, then it will be x4
    Power Supply: Tagan BZ Series 700W
    DVD: Samsung SH-S223 DVD burner with Lightscribe
    HDD: Western Digital 250GB IDE drive

Maybe you are looking for