Imac G3 does not boot from CD

Hi,

I have a Imac G3 running on 10.3.9.
Now I like to upgrade it to 10.4 or even better 10.5
I have both a 10.4 CD version and a 10.5 DVD version.
The Imac only has a cd player and a fiewire connection.
I also have a firewire dvd drive.

When I boot the Imac with the "C" pressed the system will not boot from the CD.
When I boot with the "T" pressed it does not show me any other possibilities to boot then the hard drive it self.

When I have either the CD in the drive or the DVD in the external DVD in both cases the system will show them, after the OS has started.

When is there to do to make the system start from either the firewire DVD or from the internal CD?

thanks

Is this the CD you have


Click for full size

or this one;


Click for full size

the gray ones are unlikely to work on the G3 Also keep in mind these are DVDs so check specs to see if your G3 can read them.
To select a start up disk hold the Option key after powering on.

For sure, check here Mactracker - get info on any Mac for the specs of your iMac, especially the model number. Both Tiger and Leopard were issued on dvd, so if you iMac doesn't have dvd read function (slot load), there's a problem.

Leopard will not run on a G3.

The leopard DVD is correct.
The Tiger one I also have but I have taken from the web a CD version 4 CD's.

I will do the Mactracker and see what it can do.
Is it correct then that the G3 could do 10.3 but no later versions?

Certainly the iMac G3 500 600 and 700 will do Tiger nicely, slower units - check this the 400 will.

I have done a check on the Imac.

It is a Imac 600 MHz PowerPC G3 original it had 256 MB but now it holds 384 MB.
It runs on 10.3.9 perfectly
It has a CD drive

When I boot and hold the option key down it does only show me the harddrive but not the CD for booting with or without the CD in the drive.

When I connect the firewire DVD drive it will not show me the DVD drive as well.

Seen in Mactracker it must run with 10.4 but the question is how do I get it on my system?

What firmware is on the iMac? It should be 4.1.9. An update, if required, is available from Mactracker.

You say you acquired the Tiger CDs from the internet. Is there no clear indication which is Disk 1, ie. the boot disk? I'm wondering if you've somehow been sold the Tiger System Restore disks, which will not work with anything but the original Mac with which they were issued.

Does the firewire drive (which will read both CDs and DVDs) show in Disk Utility? Put a music CD in the external drive, wait a minute, and then open Disk Utility on the iMac. The external drive and music disk should show there. If not, there's a problem with the firewire connection or, as indicated earlier, the iMac firmware.

If you should get Tiger installed eventually, I strongly recommend that you take your iMac to its maximum RAM of 1 Gb: 2 x PC-100 3.3V 168-pin SDRAM. You can use PC-133 (more readily available) but the Mac will only read them at 100.

Yall got upgrade fever or what...even maxed out your pushing the machine past its limits what it was designed for...unless theres some earth shaken reason to upgrade... leave it alone.

hughvane,

The Imac is at 4.1.9.f
When I have the system running at 10.3.9. both internal CD and firewire DVD are available.

The tiger Disk1 is disk one.
when I put it in either the internal CD or firewire DVD I can click the osx icon and the system asks for a restart. When I OK this it will restart but simply boot 10.3.9 not the internal CD and not the external firewire DVD.
With the option key I not select any other drive then the hard disk
I have also tried selecting the start up disk in the system preferences. When I have the Tiger or Leopard in the CD or DVD I can select it as startup drive but it will not start from it.

There is something wrong with that disc, basically it is not a boot disk for some reason.

It maybe that that 4 disc image you got from the web is somehow machine specific

It worked.
The Tiger CD version from the net I had not burned it as bootable.
After I had done that it worked.
Now the G3 is on Tiger