Modern Vespa

My brother erased his hard drive to install Mountain Lion. He restarted his computer after Mac 10 was installed and it will not reboot. He has powered down, restarted the computer and cannot eject the installation CD.

I know nothing else, but thought someone here might be able to point him in the right direction to get him going again.

EDIT:He wants to install MOUNTAIN LION, not Snow Leopard, my bad. iMac is four years old.

Press C during startup : Start up from a bootable CD, DVD, or USB thumb drive (such as OS X install media).


That will read the OS from the CD- From there he can run Disk Utilities (it's on the CD) to check his hard drive's OK (properly formatted etc) and re-install Snow Leopard.



The page gives the possible startup options for Macs:
http://support.apple.com/kb/HT1533?viewlocale=en_US&locale=en_US

Thank you Harvey. He has tried pressing C and that did not work. I'm going to send him a link to the support page you suggested.

How old is the Mac? Snow Leopard is thought of as one of the best OSX versions, but it's getting a bit old now - if his computer is newer than Snow Leopard, it won't work.

The computer is four years old.

I said he was looking to install Snow Leopard, but I think the newest OS is Mountain Lion and that is what he wants to install.

Not a problem- Mountain Lion should run fine. However, there is no such thing as an official Apple CD/DVD for Mountain Lion, it's download only. If your brother has a large enough USB drive (8GB I think), he can use the links from this article to create a bootable disk:

http://www.macrumors.com/2012/07/25/create-a-bootable-mountain-lion-usb-key-installer/

If the hard disk has been wiped, and he doesn't have access to another Mac, the answer would be to either restore from his backup, or reinstall from the disks that came with the computer first.

I hope this helps.

[quote="Orangezorki"] I can make him a copy from your link. The problem is getting the CD drive open to remove the old disc. Thanks for your help!

Isn't there a little pin-hole that a paperclip should fit that releases the latch?

Not on a Mac, Jim.

Hold down the mouse button (or left button) during the boot and it should eject the DVD. If it makes a noise, but doesn't come out, hold the dust shroud open with a tooth pick.

You can also hold down the ALT key (the half bath tub) during the boot and it will let you selct the boot medium. Perhaps there's a Windows partition left.

[quote="ScooterGirlinAL"] I wouldn't worry about getting the old disc out - use the USB drive method. I don't think ML fits onto a single layer DVD-R anyhow. 8GB thumbdrives cost next to nothing anyhow, are rewriteable, and should be much faster. Just hold down the option/alt key when booting and you should be able to select the right disc.

David

Thanks guys. My brother works night shift and had to get some sleep so I haven't spoken to him this afternoon to try these suggestions. It might be tomorrow or even Tuesday before he gets back at it, but I will keep you posted on the results.

Holding the left mouse button on boot up worked on getting the CD out. I don't believe he will get much more accomplished over the next day or two with his work schedule, but at least the CD is out. Again, thanks for the help. Thumbs up for all the replies!

Mountain Lion found in backyard taken to Tulsa Zoo