Hello I bought a eMac from a teacher of mine and he gave me everything for it. I have had for several months and I am wanting to reinstall OS 10.4 on it and I can't get it to boot from the CD. I have put the first disc in and held down "c" key and nothing it ejects it and continues to load up can some one help me?
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{eMac} Can't get it to boot from CD
- Thread starter brandonjb85
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The CD drive in these eMacs are very prone to failure, try to see if you can get the DVD instead. The CD drive in mine no longer works, but DVDs will still work.
first i hope your new drive is mac compatible as thats very important
http://forums.xlr8yourmac.com/drivedb/search.drivedb.lasso
i assume you got the grey discs so put it into the drive when osx is running and press install
that should work too
i hope you have pressed the "c" long enough right from startup not later at some point as its surprising how long that takes to has effect , basically you absolutly need to hold down the key already before hitting the start button and hold it until something is happening if really nothing then
try booting to open firmware (Apple-Option-O-F) and passing the command:
0> boot cd
Or, if that doesn't respond/work, try:
0> boot cdrom
Or, if that doesn't respond/work, try:
0> boot dvd
Those may force the computer to poll the cdrom/optical drive for bootable volumes
but when i reinstalled tiger on my eMac it took me about 20 attempts with the c key to get it booting...maybe a safety feature to make sure you really want to reinstall..dont know
http://forums.xlr8yourmac.com/drivedb/search.drivedb.lasso
i assume you got the grey discs so put it into the drive when osx is running and press install
that should work too
i hope you have pressed the "c" long enough right from startup not later at some point as its surprising how long that takes to has effect , basically you absolutly need to hold down the key already before hitting the start button and hold it until something is happening if really nothing then
try booting to open firmware (Apple-Option-O-F) and passing the command:
0> boot cd
Or, if that doesn't respond/work, try:
0> boot cdrom
Or, if that doesn't respond/work, try:
0> boot dvd
Those may force the computer to poll the cdrom/optical drive for bootable volumes
but when i reinstalled tiger on my eMac it took me about 20 attempts with the c key to get it booting...maybe a safety feature to make sure you really want to reinstall..dont know
I hold down the c key with or without the disc and nothing happens. It just sits there when the cd is in and spins and spins and spins then ejects. See I am not using a normal mac keyboard its a logitech keyboard it has control alt windows key so which of them would i need for option and apple?
that may cause the problem
but i never used a pc keyboard on a mac (bought for my emac the usb alloy keyboard from apple and on my other macs i use the apple pro- keyboard )
but usually the windows (on some keyboards also "start")key triggers "command"
and ALT key triggers "option"
btw i hope you dont use a wireless keyboard with usb dongle
or a ps2 keyboard with usb adapter as it wont work at startup
but i never used a pc keyboard on a mac (bought for my emac the usb alloy keyboard from apple and on my other macs i use the apple pro- keyboard )
but usually the windows (on some keyboards also "start")key triggers "command"
and ALT key triggers "option"
btw i hope you dont use a wireless keyboard with usb dongle
or a ps2 keyboard with usb adapter as it wont work at startup
Nope I use a plan jane wireless keyboard know i do have a wireless mouse but yeah hold the c key down and nothing even when i restart it from the log in screen and hold the c key own just nothing wiht or without a cd
The eMac has a new DVD Drive in it?
eMac's are quite a few years old so that DVD Drive must have been installed recently?
When I installed a new DVD Drive into my eMac I did not select the correct IDE setting so I couldnt boot from CD/DVD either. Perhaps whoever installed it did the same thing? I dont remember whether I had to choose master/slave/ cable select?
The other problem I had is that the firmware had a security lock in place that prevented you from booting from a Install Disc. But you would know it, as a strange symbol would appear on the screen if you did.
Just my experience
Peace
eMac's are quite a few years old so that DVD Drive must have been installed recently?
When I installed a new DVD Drive into my eMac I did not select the correct IDE setting so I couldnt boot from CD/DVD either. Perhaps whoever installed it did the same thing? I dont remember whether I had to choose master/slave/ cable select?
The other problem I had is that the firmware had a security lock in place that prevented you from booting from a Install Disc. But you would know it, as a strange symbol would appear on the screen if you did.
Just my experience
Peace
Okay I did all three and the only one that got a response is a boot cd when i tried the other two i got a gray screen with a circle and a line through it. When I did boot cd with the cd in it siad it couldn't boot from cd so what should I do? Should i go on mac sales and get a different cd/dvd drive for it? This is what the emac says it has when I go to the info about the emac.
That Pioneer drive should be A1+, and I doubt the problem is with the wireless keyboard.
From what you've posted, and from what others have replied, I suspect the boot disk. MacHamster has mentioned the issue of grey disks, which are machine-specific, so I hope you've been given the correct ones.
Covering possibilities, and someone will correct me if I'm wrong, but I thought Tiger (retail) came on DVD only. What are the specs of your eMac? Only the very last model of eMac, the 1.42, came with Tiger already installed [source: Mactracker].
Well I am moving on from trying to run them. I got a dmg file of mac os x 10.5 and I am trying to burn it to the dvd+r dl and it keeps ejecting them I am hoping to get a usb dvd player and fixing the problem. Or I am gonna use a usb hard drive to try to install it.
you can not install from a usb drive only from firewire
my guess is the same master slave cable select i think its master
my guess is the same master slave cable select i think its master