10.4 MacBook doesn't register 10.6 USB Install Disk on Startup

I have a mid 2007 MacBook (Core 2 Duo) with a broken cd/dvd drive. It's currently on 10.4 and I'm trying to upgrade to 10.6.

I have followed the instructions of at least 10 tutorials on how to create a USB boot disk from the 10.6 DVD's .dmg file but when restarting and holding Alt I only ever see the Harddrive as a boot option.

Each attempt, the USB has been formatted GUID. I've tried to copy across both the unopened .DMG file and the mounted .DMG file. I've tried 'Delete Destination' checked and unchecked (Checked took about 4 hours!).

If I go into preferences > Startup Disk it offers my HD, the USB with 10.6 and Network as choices. This says to me that the USB is a valid boot option because it knows an OS is on it.

Restarting after selecting the USB Boot here does not work.
Restarting after opening the USB Install OS file and hitting Restart does not work.
Holding C does nothing.

Each variation just brings up the grey screen for +10 seconds and then my 10.4 OS loads as normal.

I need to do this install because the MacBook is on its last legs and needs a complete delete and install.

Any ideas how I can force the 10.6 installation to work?
Thanks

have you tried to just mount the usb and open the installer file and run it from inside of tiger?
Also are you formatting the usb to mac os journalized instead of fat ?

Thanks for the reply.

Yes, I've tried to just run the USB installer. I get the big X image screen with a Restart button. It restarts the Mac but boots 10.4 as normal.

Each attempt has definitely been formatted as Mac OS Journalized.

Im not real familiar with the 10.4 tiger but it may need to be updated to 10.5 leopard then 10.6 snowleopard.
The thing that is getting me is that if the usb is formatted correctly and restore is done correctly when you hold the option key down at startup it should show as a bootable device.

What brand is the USB Flash Drive? Reason I am asking is had a friend who got a HP branded one and it would not boot no matter what he did. He tried a Sandisk doing the exact same thing and it worked.

I can't imagine all 10 tutorials are wrong.

Another thing, where did you get the 10.6 from to make the USB drive? Also was this done on a Mac or PC?

Try holding down the c key on start up....

lol nevermind I see you tried that

From what I've read going from 10.4 to 10.6 should not be a problem.

It's a Kingston Datatraveler 112 8gb USB key. I've tried to find info about its use as a Boot Disk but nothing has confirmed either way. I don't have another to hand to test instead as I'm away from home for the week, but I will try it when I can.

It's a .DMG of the Retail Snow Leopard DVD. I made the .DMG on my brothers similar spec MacBook. I understand that making them on PC can cause issues - but that's not a worry here.

Just attempted unplugging/plugging in the USB whilst on the Boot screen brought up by holding Option - but it's still not registering,

I've given 'C' ago but it doesn't affect anything - just loads 10.4 as normal.

Thanks for the thoughts.

So if you hold Option the USB Drive does not show?

Sounds like the thumb drive is not bootable. Don't think a .dmg file of the operating system would boot. For example when making a thumb drive of Lion and Mountain lion, one has to go into the file contents, via Show Package Contents, select Shared Support and extract the InstallESD.dmg and burn that to the thumb drive, not the whole downloaded .dmg file from Apple.

dtravis7 said:

So if you hold Option the USB Drive does not show?

Click to expand...

That is what confuses me too cause if it was created correctly it would show as a boot device and his is not showing up . I think it is a usb problem of some sort. The best way to tell If you have the usb created properly is to test it in a different machine.

If he used a tutorial and made the DMG into a bootable image it should boot. Done it here many times.


Can you show us a url to one of the tutorials you are using?

Here is one that should work.

http://www.maciverse.com/install-os-x-snow-leopard-from-usb-flash-drive.html

The steps for creating a bootable usb drive are fairly simple .
I cant imagine that there are 10 different tutorials for the creation of it.
I always erase the drive first
then select partition/give it a name then select osx journalized/ click the + select current 1 / click options / select GUID / done / then apply.
After that mount the .dmg file . select the newly created partition on the usb / select restore/ drag the mounted image of the dmg to source / drag the named partition to destination / click restore and let it go.

Holding option - the USB does not show. That is correct. I have one choice which is my Mac HD.

I know I said I've followed 10 tutorials (which is true) but of course they are all pretty much the same as each other with some slight variations or recommendations. I kept looking for more just in case one offered a solution for my current problem.

The Maciverse link above is one of the ones I've already read and for all the attempts I've:

- Erase drive
- GUID/Journaled formatted USB
- Drag .DMG file to source and USB as destination. (tried both mounted and unmounted .dmg).

As I said I can't try other machines or USBs for another week, since I'm away from home, but I guess that's the only option at this point.

That should work. Some USB Flash drives have a hidden 2nd partition that boots up the software that comes on the drive. I wonder if yours has that? On one Sandisk I had to remove that with a Sandisk Utility before I could boot from the new partition. Just a thought.