Snow Leopard impossible install!

[sphoenix]

Long story short, wanted to reinstall the OS cos it was acting up, performance-wise. SuperDrive hasn't functioned in years, so that's a no. Remote Install via PC doesn't work, this feature is limited to MacBook Airs. And finally, an external DVD drive didn't do the job, cos even after starting install - once it reboots, something in the OS tells it not to read from the external. Hours were put into these attempts!

Is there any other possible way to reinstall Snow Leopard??

 

[0007776]

I've used a disk image on an external drive before, and it worked, your external optical drive should have worked as well. What model of computer do you have?

 

[sphoenix]

It's a late 2006 intel iMac. Are you saying you installed via an external optical drive or external hard drive?

 

[0007776]

It's a late 2006 intel iMac. Are you saying you installed via an external optical drive or external hard drive?

I've done it from an external Hard Drive on an intel mini, and it worked. If you have an extra external hard drive it may be worth trying. I think mine was firewire so maybe that had something to do with it.
I've also used the optical drive from another mac booted up in target disk mode to install OS X as well.

 

[sphoenix]

Ahh, that's handy! I've got a 320GB external HDD but it connects via USB. I'm assuming there's a cable like this one that goes from USB mini to Firewire, right?

And btw, what did you have to do to get OS X as a disc image on the hard drive?

 

[0007776]

I don't remember exactly what I did but this link may have been what I followed. Also your iMac should be able to boot from USB, so it would be worth trying your USB external drive, or retrying your DVD if you didn't already try booting up while holding option.