How to make BOOTABLE mac INSTALL DVD (from ISO file) on XP?

Ambushed

Active Member
A brand new retail copy of Snow Leopard is only $29.....just saying. As for disk utility not running from the command line, that is due to SUM only loading minimal kernel extensions so it won't run unless you manually launch them from the command line.

So, your Mac just boots to the apple logo and nothing else right?

I would buy the retail copy but my CD/DVD drive is broken :/, yeah it goes just to the apple logo and a circle thingy looking like its loading. I have the .iso image extracted onto flashdrive and have tried holding c on bootup but it stays white and doesn't progress. I will try download another image file and re extract it.
 

tlarkin

VIP Member
I would buy the retail copy but my CD/DVD drive is broken :/, yeah it goes just to the apple logo and a circle thingy looking like its loading. I have the .iso image extracted onto flashdrive and have tried holding c on bootup but it stays white and doesn't progress. I will try download another image file and re extract it.

Do you have access to two or more macs? Target disk mode boot it, and then install it off a working Mac.
 

speedyink

VIP Member
I seem to remember poweriso burns .dmg files. Thats what I used to burn my 10.3 disc for my old imac.
 
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Ambushed

Active Member
Alright update,

I've downloaded another image file just puzzled on how I would extract it to my USB drive and what program to use.

Screenshot of files



Helppppppppp
 

Ambushed

Active Member
that's just an archive....right click and extract. It should extract to a single file

Yeah after awhile I managed to figure it out, extracted all files (which turned into a .dmg file) to the USB drive (after formatting with NTFS). But when I hold down C or Option on bootup it's not getting past a white screen. (This white screen has nothing on it)

Any ideas?
 

tlarkin

VIP Member
Yeah after awhile I managed to figure it out, extracted all files (which turned into a .dmg file) to the USB drive (after formatting with NTFS). But when I hold down C or Option on bootup it's not getting past a white screen. (This white screen has nothing on it)

Any ideas?

You need to install the OS on the drive actually and boot from it. Then hold down the option key to get the boot menu to find and locate all boot-able media.
 

tlarkin

VIP Member
The drive is fu*ked :(, I read up online that you can boot from the usb drive.

Yes you can, but there has to be an OS installed on it. You cannot boot from an image file on an external. It is just like booting from a USB hard drive on a PC that supports it.
 

speedyink

VIP Member
I just got snow leopard to install off a usb drive yesterday. All I did was take the dmg file, put it on the mac which still had leopard on it, formatted my usb to fat32, put it in the mac, and opened up disk utility, and using the recover option I made a bootable usb out of it, which worked perfectly fine (even though it took 4 hours to write the install dvd to the usb). If you have access to a mac that seemed easiest to me. I'm really not sure if you can do the traditional windows way and have it work (using dos diskpart to properly format the disk, mount disc, drag contents onto newly formatted thumb drive)
 
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tlarkin

VIP Member
I just got snow leopard to install off a usb drive yesterday. All I did was take the dmg file, put it on the mac which still had leopard on it, formatted my usb to fat32, put it in the mac, and opened up disk utility, and using the recover option I made a bootable usb out of it, which worked perfectly fine (even though it took 4 hours to write the install dvd to the usb). If you have access to a mac that seemed easiest to me. I'm really not sure if you can do the traditional windows way and have it work (using dos diskpart to properly format the disk, mount disc, drag contents onto newly formatted thumb drive)

Yes you can use disk utility to restore an image to an external. Though you may have to use the "scan for restore" option in disk utility to ensure it is bootable.

The problem with his mac is that it won't boot at all, so no disk utility and apparently the optical drive is dead?
 

Ambushed

Active Member
Hmm I'm still trying to get hold of another imac to do this on, in the meantime is there anything else anyone can think off?
 

tlarkin

VIP Member
Hmm I'm still trying to get hold of another imac to do this on, in the meantime is there anything else anyone can think off?

With no optical drive and no external drives with OS X already loaded on it you will need to either target mode boot that mac into another mac, or use another mac to install OS X on an external drive then boot yours. Alternatively you can pull out the HD and take it to another mac that works and hook it up that way.

Or you gotta replace hardware. You would be in the same boat if this happened with any computer.
 
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