iMac CD Booting for Idiots.

OK... I'm at my wit's end here, and I'm not a standard Mac user. A dark blue iMac just recently came into my repair shop for some work. I figured, peace of cake, back up the data, reformat, install everything again, and it's ready to go. iMac's are made for the novice, right?

Well, first of all, simple as it should be, it says right on the recovery CD's for OS 8, that you hold down the C key while the computer is turning on to boot from CD. I've tried it without the CD in the drive, inserting it as the post chime goes off, and I've tried it with the CD already in the drive. It boots from the hard drive every time. So, I tried wiping the hard drive clean of all partitions on my hard drive scanning PC... and all I get is an icon that alternates between the question mark symbol, and the mac os symbol. It does nothing else... even then, when I hold down the C key during bootup. I even tried using the boot menu, and it doesn't even list the CD.

I've also done the Option+Command+P+R bootup key sequence... I've updated the firmware to the latest for the iMac... (I managed to come across another iMac hard drive that still had an OS on it... however, loaded to the brim with errors too) and nothing seems to work.

Now... pirated software reporters, here we come... but for what I used this for, it's pretty legal, because I was only curious if it would boot from an OS X CD... so I downloaded a copy with Limewire, burned it, and it will not boot from that either.

I downloaded a copy of Mandrake 10.1 .... and THAT boots no problem. Every time, don't even have to push any keys. However... as much as I personally would prefer Linux, the customer does not want Linux on her computer, so I'm faced with still trying to get OS 8 back onto that machine.

Anyone got any clues on how to get this to go?

Sounds like the CDs you're using aren't bootable. Either they are copies, which, if not done the right way (like your ILLEGAL OS X copy! Sorry, couldn't resist ;-) ) are not bootable, or, if you're using the original discs, they are faulty. I had that same problem with an original 10.0 CD.

If the CD is bootable (like your Mandrake CD obviously is) holding C while booting with the CD in the drive will boot from CD. If it doesn't show up in the boot menu (I guess you mean the menu when holding alt while booting) it is not bootable.
As you don't have a system on the HD anyway, it will even boot from a bootable CD without pressing any key, as the Mac always tries all available drives to find a system to boot with.
And you should have formated it on a Mac, using the Mac's HFS filesystem. I'm not sure if you can install OS8 (which you mentioned) on a PC formated HD. Especially not if it is NTFS formated, which is not writeable for Macs, not even with OS X.

Avalon said:

Sounds like the CDs you're using aren't bootable.

Click to expand...

The OS 8 cd is a factory CD, that came with the iMac, and says right on it, "Hold C during bootup to boot from this CD." I'm pretty sure it's bootable, but I don't understand why it won't...

Is there a specific boot path that I can type from Open Firmware to activate the boot sequence for this CD? It's the iMac Recovery CD for the G3 400mhz model...

And, I didn't add any partitions, I just wiped it clean, one big blank empty space. Just like factory for a brand new hard drive pretty much.

maybe you should have installed some os on it, have you tried holding option during startup and choosing to boot from the disc? also, as old as that disc is, is it scratched or dirty?

Macman said:

maybe you should have installed some os on it, have you tried holding option during startup and choosing to boot from the disc? also, as old as that disc is, is it scratched or dirty?

Click to expand...

I just broke the seal... it's brand new... as stated above, I held down C to boot from CD... Holding down Option does not list the cd drive... I used the startup options in the OS 9 that was on the spare hard drive I had, to boot from the CD... nope. I tried using this in Open firmware:

boot cd:,\\:tbxi

Gives me a Load Size error, and spits me back into a prompt. I tried resetting the PRAM, and so far I've had no luck. Mandrake boots like it was made for it, but the recovery CD doesn't do a single thing. I have two copies of the recovery CD as well... both factory copies, they both do the same thing. I've even tried replacing the CD Drive.

wow, perhaps the discs are faulty. if you call apple, they should replace them free.

Macman said:

wow, perhaps the discs are faulty. if you call apple, they should replace them free.

Click to expand...

even if the machine is out of warrenty...?

Can you find out more information about that iMac, except that it is dark blue? And which OS8 version you have?

Because there are several revisions of iMacs, with different minimum requirements concerning the OS.
The tray-loading iMac Rev. A and B. need a specific 8.1 for the iMac or later
The tray-loading Rev C. and D. need 8.5 or later
The 1999 slot-loading needs 8.6 or later
The summer 2000 slot-loading needs 9.0.4 or later
The last series, starting 2001, needs 9.1 or later

You can find all this information here:
http://www.lowendmac.com/imacs/index.shtml

The tray loading iMac didn't come in Indigo-blue (which is dark blue), that color was only introduced with the slot-loading iMac.
Rev A-B were only available in Bondi-blue (kind of greenish light blue).
Rev C-D were available in tangerine (orange), grape (purple), lime (green), blueberry (light blue), and strawberry (light red).

I presume that the recovery CD isn't the one that originally came with that iMac, having an older OS version on it than the one needed by that iMac.
As you stated that Mandrake-CD boots, there's nothing wrong with the iMac itself, as it is able to boot from CD.
Try to get a copy of a retail OS8.6 or 9.1 version, it should boot up find with either one.

......

then Apple must've packaged the wrong disks with this machine. Very strange... I'll have a look around and see what I can find.

How can you be sure that the CD the owner gave you was the one Apple originally packed in? ;-)
If the owner bought the iMac from eBay, there's no guarantee that the CDs coming with it were the ones originally delivered with that same Mac.

I have no idea... I only said I'd try to fix the dern thing.

If you have a copy of OS 9, try installing it.

yea, apple should for free replace them, when I bought panther, a disc was faulty, so they sent me a new one.