04-21-2006, 11:41 AM

I cannot reinstall the operating system on my G4 - the machine will not boot from the installation disk even though it will happily view it in Finder and wiith restart when you double click the install icon when the machine restarts it flashes between the question mark and face inside a folder icons. so far I have tried

hold down c and restarting
selecting the disk in start-up disk and restarting
2 different OS 10.2.x intallation disk 1
1 OS 10.0 disk
All of the above with CD/DVD reader that came with the G4 AND and external DVD drive.
And booting from the hardware test CD.

All give me this question mark on restart.

Please help, I'm really at the end of my tether

04-21-2006, 10:22 PM

are the discs dirty or scratched? also, cleaning the drive may help. also, try holding option on startup and select the disc if it allows you.

04-24-2006, 05:52 AM

All three of the discs are in very good condition, although from everything I've read I'm coming to the conclusion it has to be the discs, as that has been the solution for others with this problem.

I am amazed that 3 discs would be unbootable (although not unreadable) after only 3 years stored at room temp in thier original packaging. Doesn't say much for Apples standards.

04-24-2006, 12:06 PM

I believe that only one disk is bootable and the rest are mountable.

05-04-2006, 11:05 AM

Originally Posted by rman

I believe that only one disk is bootable and the rest are mountable.

I'm pretty sure that they should all be bootable as they are all installation disk 1 from different versions of OS X. How ever it's not the disks as they boot fine on another mac. And it's not the drive as I've tried a 2nd one of those too. I've tried evrything on every thread I can find except restting the nvram and taking out the battery, which I'll try this weekend and hope for the best...