Bootable CD Drives?

[Sunoo]

Does anyone know which CD drives are bootable? It sounds like only certain drives or firmwares actually are able to boot certain machines, but finding specific information is a nightmare. The best I’ve been able to find is a reference in a thread: https://discussions.apple.com/thread/3774685

My Performa came with an AppleCD 600i (Sony CDU75S-25) but that is dead, I swapped in a AppleCD 12X, but that doesn’t seem to want to boot from it (it also doesn’t line up with the eject button on the case.

 

[Unknown_K]

Any CDROM drive should be bootable if the CD is bootable.  Try holding down the C key when the machine boots. Make sure the HD and cdrom drive are not using the same SCSI ID (boot HD should be 0, CDROM should be 3).

 

[Sunoo]

Any CDROM drive should be bootable if the CD is bootable.  Try holding down the C key when the machine boots. Make sure the HD and cdrom drive are not using the same SCSI ID (boot HD should be 0, CDROM should be 3).

I've done that, and no dice. And the Performa has an IDE hard disk, so no conflicts should exist, my CDROM is on 3 though.

I've also managed to find another source for only certain drives being 'bootable': http://www.siber-sonic.com/mac/Vintage/CD_DVDdriver.html (number 5 in their list)

 

[beachycove]

Hey, that is a really useful website. Never seen it before, so thanks for the reference.

http://www.siber-sonic.com/mac/index.html

 

[beachycove]

Have you tried a 12x-CD-ROM-era Extension, or the full FWB Toolkit?

 

[Sunoo]

The drive works in the computer just fine, so I don't think it should be the extension or software. It just won't boot from it.

 

[techknight]

I remember back in the old days when these machines were commonplace, Only apple firmwared drives would actually boot. Thats something I have encountered several times. 

I cant speak for every single machine, but in general consensus of my experience. 

 

[Sunoo]

Do you know if it should be any Apple branded drive that works?

 

[techknight]

Yes any apple branded drive works unless the drive is bad. 

Some computers dont respond to the "C" code. You have to use a command-shift something another with the SCSI-ID which escapes my mind currently. 

 

[IlikeTech]

Command Option Shift Delete SCSI ID

 

[Sunoo]

For what it's worth, neither C not Cmd+Opt+Shift+Del+3 worked to boot from the AppleCD 12X I have.

 

[Realitystorm]

I skipped trying to find the right driver etc. to create a bootable CD, instead I grabbed an iso image of an Apple CD I have that is bootable on my LC III with a NEC MultiSpin 8x.   I did have to use the trick of holding down Command-Option-Shift-Delete-{scsi-id} to get it to boot.

I then mounted the ISO in Basilisk II, removed what I didn't want, added what I did, then set the free space to zeros.  I was able to make a new CD from the image, with a different System version (7.5.5. instead of 7.1), and it also booted no problem.

I've attatched the iso image I created with the minimum version of 7.5.5 on it (the bare minimum to boot) for you to try.

View attachment OS_755_650MBCD.iso.zip

 

[techknight]

And you know for a solid fact that this CD is bootable? And the machine being used to boot it is compatible with the system? 

is it an original or burned copy? Also, boot from a floppy and run SCSI probe. how does SCSI probe see the drives when scanned? itll alert you with a bus issue. 

if SCSI probe comes up clean, and you can consistently mount CDs once booted up from another source, then the CD your using is simply not bootable, or not bootable from that machine. 

There is also the rare likelyhood that the bootsector is barely readable and the machine gives up the boot process before the CD drive catches up reading that sector. I see this ALOT on burned CDs or weak drives. 

 

[Sunoo]

It's a burned disk from Macintosh Garden. I've been trying to get my hands on an original copy of Mac OS 8.5, but they're all far too expensive.

SCSIProbe reports no issues, and sees the 12X drive as MATSHITA CD-ROM CR-8012 1.0g on SCSI ID 3.

 

[MrGasS27]

Have you burned image on good media? My Performa 6200 drive (with a 600i) sometimes doesn't read the Verbatim CD-ROMs I use today and it refuses to boot from these "bad" discs, but for example it reads perfectly the MacOS 8.6 copy that my father burned in 1999 on a very solid Imation CD.

 

[Sunoo]

I burned them at slow speed on what was the only discs I could find at this point, which was Best Buy store brand. I also tried a few Memorex discs that I had around. Nothing I've done will make them boot, but they mount just fine when the machine is running.

 

[MrGasS27]

Also in my case sometimes the Performa mounts these actual discs while on MacOS, but it boots them very rarely.

Have you burned discs at 4x speed?

 

[Sunoo]

I've set the burner to 1x speed, but the lowest it supports is 8x, so it burns at that.

 

[MrGasS27]

I think 1x is too slow, are you burning these discs with IMGBurn?

Do you have another Macintosh for testing these CDs? Maybe you can test these with SheepShaver to see if they are really bootable.