[no use for a nick]

So I'm working on a MDD PowerMac that needs a fresh installation of X and I discover that not only will it not boot from the X discs or the system restore discs but it also won't boot from my firewire hard drive.

The current installation of X offers up both the CD's and the Firewire drive as valid startup disk, but after the restart it defaults back to the internal drive. When holding down Option at startup, it only offers the internal drive as a boot option.

I'm not sure where to go next with this one.

--
nick

[awcopus]

One of the beautiful things about OS X is that if you perform a clean install of the system, and since all of your preferences are stored in your Users folder, which is untouched, you'll basically end up with a fully functioning system with perhaps only one or two minor anomalies that are easily solved by resinstalling an app or two and repairing permissions.

Put in the install disc and install a new system folder without reformatting your drive, a clean installation. Then throw out your old system. Should solve your problem.

Good luck.

[Macola]

Originally posted by no use for a nick:
So I'm working on a MDD PowerMac that needs a fresh installation of X and I discover that not only will it not boot from the X discs or the system restore discs but it also won't boot from my firewire hard drive.

I had this problem with a MDD 867. After trying a lot of other options, I ended up booting it in Firewire target disk mode, connected it to my TiBook, and installed OS X from there.

[awcopus]

To force the Mac to boot from your install disc, you hold down the "c" key. Not the option key. Go for it.

[jmiddel]

I have a similar problem, the internal and external cd drives are recognized by System Profiler, but when I insert a cd it does not mount and when I try to boot from one (OSX, DW), by holding down the c key I get the grey screen of death. So since this must be OS independent, what comes online before the OS boots? Could it be a hardware problem despite the totally different input channels (ATA, FW)

733/1G, 2x 40G hds, OSX 1.1.5

[awcopus]

As a brand new owner of a 1.42 MDD, I decided to test this out. Lo and behold, NO BOOT FROM THE OS X CD. Well that's stupid. With the "c" key depressed, it just sort of powers through to an HD startup.

Placing a call to Apple tomorrow. Will report back with official feedback. Meanwhile, anybody know anything about this? Any ideas?

[Macola]

Do you have another bootable CD, like Diskwarrior 3? Can you boot from that?

[no use for a nick]

Originally posted by awcopus:
One of the beautiful things about OS X is that if you perform a clean install of the system, and since all of your preferences are stored in your Users folder, which is untouched, you'll basically end up with a fully functioning system with perhaps only one or two minor anomalies that are easily solved by resinstalling an app or two and repairing permissions.

Put in the install disc and install a new system folder without reformatting your drive, a clean installation. Then throw out your old system. Should solve your problem.

Good luck.

Unless you want to install a the entire thing from scratch. I don't want any users there. I want a brand new installation...which is what the restore CD's are supposed to do. I think you see what I mean now that you've tried it for yourself though.

Originally posted by awcopus:
To force the Mac to boot from your install disc, you hold down the "c" key. Not the option key. Go for it.

The Option key is useful at boot, because it will show you all available boot options. Quite handy. I'm aware of the C key function though.

Originally posted by awcopus:
As a brand new owner of a 1.42 MDD, I decided to test this out. Lo and behold, NO BOOT FROM THE OS X CD. Well that's stupid. With the "c" key depressed, it just sort of powers through to an HD startup.

Placing a call to Apple tomorrow. Will report back with official feedback. Meanwhile, anybody know anything about this? Any ideas?

What did you hear from Apple?