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The Neverending Snow Leopard Saga

R

RCGMac

macrumors regular
Original poster
Aug 21, 2007
198
12
I have a 2.16 GHz C2D Macbook that currently has OS 10.5.8 on it (it does not have AppleCare). Yesterday, I eagerly went to Best Buy to purchase my copy of Snow Leopard and attempted to install it when I got home.

Popped in the disk and began the installation process. I waited for the installation to be completed. The progress bar got to 45 minutes remaining and the screen stated that the computer needed to restart and installation would continue. The computer restarts and I hear the disk spinning up, the it gets quiet and the disk is ejected. The computer continues to restart into Leopard. I try this 3 times, all with the same result. I try to boot from the disk by pressing "C" during restart, no dice, the disk is ejected. I tried making the SL disk the startup disk, same situation. Frustrated I call Apple last night and they come to the determination that it sounds like a bad disk. I am informed I should go to Best Buy and exchange the disk.

This morning I wake up and drive to another Best Buy, closer to my house and exchange the disk. I drive back to my apartment and try to install again. SAME THING HAPPENS! :mad: I call back up Apple and go through the install process with their 2nd tier support, same thing happens. They look at my installer log and tell me it looks like a faulty disk again. I am informed to try to exchange the disk again.

I go to another Best Buy and pick another copy up. Come home and try it again, same issue. I am so frustrated with this whole situation. :mad: I am not sure if I should restore my MacBook with the factory disks (Tiger) and try again. I misplaced my Leopard disk in a move. The support person e-mailed me back, the engineers think it may be an issue with my SuperDrive. This is the first problem I have ever had with my SuperDrive. It works for any of my other disks, I just tried a DVD move with no problems. This is really pixxing me off. It looks like I will have a nice $29.00 coaster! :mad:
 
RCGMac said:
I have a 2.16 GHz C2D Macbook that currently has OS 10.5.8 on it (it does not have AppleCare). Yesterday, I eagerly went to Best Buy to purchase my copy of Snow Leopard and attempted to install it when I got home.

Popped in the disk and began the installation process. I waited for the installation to be completed. The progress bar got to 45 minutes remaining and the screen stated that the computer needed to restart and installation would continue. The computer restarts and I hear the disk spinning up, the it gets quiet and the disk is ejected. The computer continues to restart into Leopard. I try this 3 times, all with the same result. I try to boot from the disk by pressing "C" during restart, no dice, the disk is ejected. I tried making the SL disk the startup disk, same situation. Frustrated I call Apple last night and they come to the determination that it sounds like a bad disk. I am informed I should go to Best Buy and exchange the disk.

This morning I wake up and drive to another Best Buy, closer to my house and exchange the disk. I drive back to my apartment and try to install again. SAME THING HAPPENS! :mad: I call back up Apple and go through the install process with their 2nd tier support, same thing happens. They look at my installer log and tell me it looks like a faulty disk again. I am informed to try to exchange the disk again.

I go to another Best Buy and pick another copy up. Come home and try it again, same issue. I am so frustrated with this whole situation. :mad: I am not sure if I should restore my MacBook with the factory disks (Tiger) and try again. I misplaced my Leopard disk in a move. The support person e-mailed me back, the engineers think it may be an issue with my SuperDrive. This is the first problem I have ever had with my SuperDrive. It works for any of my other disks, I just tried a DVD move with no problems. This is really pixxing me off. It looks like I will have a nice $29.00 coaster! :mad:
Click to expand...

Can you not boot and install via USB by making a disk image that way?
 
CrackedButter said:
Can you not boot and install via USB by making a disk image that way?
Click to expand...

That is a thought as well, although I don't want to go buy an 8GB flash drive.

P.S. How would I go about making a disk image for a USB drive? Just go through disk utility and then transfer the file to the drive?
 
CrackedButter thank you for your idea of using a USB drive to install SL from. It worked flawlessly and I now have SL up and running. Thanks again for your help! :)
 
Easier solution for those affected

I had the same thing happen to me last night when I was installing-- the disk ejected after booting up with the 'C' key. I just re-inserted the disk immediately (and I might have held down the 'C' key again, I think). It then booted from the CD as I expected it to and was able to clean install the OS with no problems.

FYI I'm also running on a C2D MacBook but a revision B from 2006. Snow Leopard is great on this machine, it's faster than it's ever been. That $29 probably added another couple years of usefulness to this old beast.
 
Just to point something out here, I've seen the issue being described with server systems that the company I works for make.

In many cases it is that the optical drive seems to be working, but in fact it's not working quite right.

This could then crop up when trying to read a dual layer disc (which the SL installation media IS), etc.

In any event the idea proposed is an excellent fix/workaround in this event, simply make a disc based copy of the OS and install from that.

Or, host the install from a machine with a good optical disc to the problem machine over a fast network connection.
 
CrackedButter said:
Cool, glad I could help. How did you do it?
Click to expand...

I erased my flash drive and formatted it with disk utility. Once the drive was formatted for Mac OS, I restored the Snow Leopard disk image to the flash drive. After it finished (approx. 45 minutes later) I popped out the SL DVD and restarted the computer while holding down the option key. Selected the flash drive as the boot drive and voilà! the installer started, approx 33 minutes later SL was installed. My SuperDrive must have not liked the DVD. This workaround was a life saver. Thanks again!
 
RCGMac said:
I erased my flash drive and formatted it with disk utility. Once the drive was formatted for Mac OS, I restored the Snow Leopard disk image to the flash drive. After it finished (approx. 45 minutes later) I popped out the SL DVD and restarted the computer while holding down the option key. Selected the flash drive as the boot drive and voilà! the installer started, approx 33 minutes later SL was installed. My SuperDrive must have not liked the DVD. This workaround was a life saver. Thanks again!
Click to expand...

If I were you, I'd get the SuperDrive checked at a local Apple Store. It seems to not read dual layer discs properly. DVDs are single layer and not many problems exist (since it's been manufactured for quite some time, all the kinks are worked out). DL discs are trickier and even a tiny problem could trigger your problem.
 
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