boot from disc problems

I have a mac mini running panther 10.4. It wont boot from the "install disc". I get to the white screen with apple symbol. then the symbol turns into a circle with a line through it and freezes up. Boots fine from the hard disc. Any ideas? really want to format the drive and start clean

G'day and welcome to the forums.

Did this install disc come with the computer when new, or are you referring to an after market disc? Panther is O X.3 and Tiger is OS X.4. If the disc is silver grey then it will NEVER install as it is a model specific disc.

As far as I know the discs came with the mini when purchased. I purchased it used from a 3rd party. Discs are a 3 disc set. Blak face with a grey X says panther 10.3. But the Mac says 10.4 panther

OS X 10.4 is not Panther, it's Tiger. If your disks are indeed 10.3 Panther, that's why they won't work to boot the Mini if the Mini originally came with Tiger installed.

So I need to find a copy of tiger to try? Next question is can I purchase lion and install it directly from tiger? Or is there a specific way I would have to upgrade? Sorry I'm new to Mac. Always has a windows computer and tryin to figure this out as I go. Somewhere told me I had to go from current, to leopard to lion. Which is honestly more than im willing to do lol