12-16-2008, 08:44 PM

1st gen MacBook:
Bought Leopard upgrade DVD today.
Put it in, chose upgrade, came to "checking DVD integrity" or whatever it is, thinking "ah shucks it's a new DVD what the heck, skip". And what do you know, it comes to a read error some way down the line.
Repeat the process, this time with checking the disk, detects a fault with disk.
Can't get the disk out: Disk Tools wont let me eject it, Option-ALT-F-O doesn't do anything, chosing "select startup disk" to my old MacOS installation simply results in spinning wheel, which is where I'm stuck now. So in brief, I can't boot from HD, I can't boot from DVD anymore because it now always boots from HD. I can't get the disk out, AND my trackpad mouse button is broken, so can't keep that pressed either. Have a USB mouse, but keeping the mouse button pressed doesn't do anything.

Tricky one, eh?

Got any suggestions? Would really love for Apple to stay out of this one!

Thanks!

12-16-2008, 08:52 PM

Typically an external mouse will allow you to eject with the button held down, especially a wired model. I'd give that another try - or try a different USB mouse and see what happens.

If it's just a read error on the disc and nothing mechanical, it really should just be a matter of getting the machine to recognize that you want to do a power-on eject. Have you tried holding the eject key during startup (i.e. immediately after turning on the power)?

12-16-2008, 08:56 PM

Thank you very much, I just tried the eject button again, although I had tried it before. But I guess I didn't hit it at the right moment in time or something.
Anyway, the DVD is out, looks ok though. Might be the drive then. Are these known to be a bit dodgy? The machine is not that old, less than 1 1/2 years. Easy to replace yourself?

MacOS doesn't boot up from HDD - guess that install is shot...

Thanks for the help!

12-16-2008, 08:58 PM

Originally Posted by naujoks

Thank you very much, I just tried the eject button again, although I had tried it before. But I guess I didn't hit it at the right moment in time or something.
Anyway, the DVD is out, looks ok though. Might be the drive then. Are these known to be a bit dodgy? The machine is not that old, less than 1 1/2 years. Easy to replace yourself?

MacOS doesn't boot up from HDD - guess that install is shot...

Thanks for the help!

Cool.

It wouldn't be unheard of to get a bad disc from the factory, then again, I've already had a defective SuperDrive in a fairly new MacBook Pro. So, it could go either way.

If a friend has an external DVD drive that you could borrow, that would be ideal. If you're otherwise convinced that it's a bad internal drive, you can see replacement instructions out on ifixit.com.

12-16-2008, 08:59 PM

Oh I guess the more interesting question is:
How do I get the system to boot from DVD, now that startup disk is set to HD but it's stuck at the boot screen? Short of taking the HD out and formatting it on a different machine...

12-16-2008, 09:11 PM

Turn the machine on, hold the option key down immediately after power-on. That should present you with boot options. Once you insert the DVD, it should pop up (after a few moments) as a boot option.

12-16-2008, 09:16 PM

Thank, you that worked!

First day on this forum, but already very impressed and grateful for the extraordinary speedy reply! Thanks a lot!!

Gave the DVD a good clean. Now let's see where the problem really lies.

Bedtime soon, but will write a quick update as soon as I got news.