Shadrack Posted January 13, 2010 Share Posted January 13, 2010 Hi! I'm trying to reinstall the OS on my 1st gen Mac Mini. The problem I'm having is I can't get it to boot from my external USB 2.0 optical drive. The internal optical drive is shot, and just spits out whatever disc you insert. I don't plan on replacing the internal drive :p. When I hold down the option key at bootup only my internal hard drive comes up as an option (tried hitting refresh a couple of times). I searched Google, and found that G4 PowerBooks seem to have the same problem... I have booted from this external drive before w/ a Samsung NC-10 netbook. I tested the disc on my MacBook Pro and it does boot. Any input is greatly appreciated. -Shad Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Shadrack Posted January 13, 2010 Author Share Posted January 13, 2010 I found this guide: http://www.macosxhints.com/article.php?sto...060301112336384 Which may be a possible solution. The poster describes booting from a USB 2.0 drive (like a hard drive) that has Mac OS already installed. Would the same procedure perhaps work for a USB 2.0 Optical installation disc? Also, I have a firewire hard drive available. I'm pretty sure that G4 Macs can boot from Firewire w/o any problem. Is there anyway I can load the installation media onto that hard drive and install from that? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Elliott Posted January 13, 2010 Share Posted January 13, 2010 You can use Disk Utility to "restore" the CD to the FireWire HD you have lying around. That would probably be the cleanest way to do this. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Shadrack Posted January 13, 2010 Author Share Posted January 13, 2010 You can use Disk Utility to "restore" the CD to the FireWire HD you have lying around. That would probably be the cleanest way to do this. Thanks Elliott. I will give that a try. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Shadrack Posted January 15, 2010 Author Share Posted January 15, 2010 Yeah! It worked! :D **** optical drives. Who needs optical drives? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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