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Can't boot my Powerbook G4 from a DVD

I am going to give my Powerbook G4 to a friend, so I thought I would wipe the drive and reinstall to OS. I was running 10.39. I started zeroing the drive and it locked. It finally quit booting from the DVD, so I connected it to my MacPro Intel with firewire and initialized the hard drive.

I reset the Pram several times and have tried to boot from the 3.9 DVD with C and option keys, neither will boot up from the DVD. The option key gives me 2 folders, 3/4 circle arrow and straight arrow. Clicking them doesn't get me anywhere.

I tried to load the OS from my MacPro but it won't let me, since I have 10.5 loaded on it.

Any ideas?

Powerbook Titanium G4 400MH, Mac OS X (10.3.x)

Posted on Mar 24, 2008 4:12 PM

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5 replies

Mar 24, 2008 4:38 PM in response to Maplegrove Bob

Hello MaplegroveBob,

I thought I would wipe the drive and reinstall to OS. I was running 10.39. I started zeroing the drive and it locked. It finally quit booting from the DVD


Panther 10.3 only came on cd's if I remember correctly. What "DVD" are you using exactly?

Booting with the option key held down only boots to the startup manager which is for selecting a startup volume.

See: Startup Manager: How to select a startup volume

When installing from cd/dvd you need to hold the "c" key while rebooting.

hope that helps some,

littleshoulders 🙂

Message was edited by: littleshoulders

Mar 24, 2008 8:20 PM in response to Maplegrove Bob

MaplegroveBob,

The flashing question mark folder means that the computer can not find a valid system folder to boot to.

What does it say "exactly" on the cd or dvd that you are trying to boot to? It should have an OS version # and say if it is a cd or dvd disk. Is this the original install disk for the PowerBook or a full retail install disk for 10.3.x Panther?

What happens when you reboot holding the "x" key down (without the disk you are trying to use in the drive)? edit: Strike that, as you said you wiped the drive so there won't be a system to bootup to. If the disks are the correct original install or a full retail install disk for 10.3 and it does not boot then either the drive is damaged or the disk your using is damaged I would imagine.

littleshoulders 🙂

Message was edited by: littleshoulders

Mar 24, 2008 9:22 PM in response to Maplegrove Bob

I am using a retail 10.3 startup disc. It is fine. I finally hooked up a firewire external cd player and got it to boot from it. I re-initialed the powerbook drive, Mac extended (journaled) and verified the disc and tried to install the software. I get the red! on the powerbook drive and it says I can't install OS X on this volume because I can't start up using this volume.

I don't think it was the cd drive either, I put in a 10.4 startup disc and I get a kernel panic.

Any idea why I can install the software now?

Can't boot my Powerbook G4 from a DVD

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