G4 1.42GHz Mac Mini wont boot off DVD or USB

[SpaceFlightOrange]

Hi. Just picked up a Nice Mac Mini, 1.42Ghz, 1gb, 80gb. all seems to work ok, but i cant get it to boot off DVD or USB.
I have burned a Tiger ISO to a DVD-RW (the only disk i had!) and when the machine has booted off the HDD it will read the disk ok, and if I select Startup Disk from prefs, i can see the DVD. but when i either select the DVD there, or hold down "C" on startup, it just boots off the hdd. If i hold down ALT on startup the DVD doesnt present itself. If i double click the "Install Mac OSX" it runs and then restarts but just boots off the HDD.

I also have a bootable USB stick with the Tiger install DVD contents on, that i made and have sucessfully booted from on my G4 DA PowerMac, but the mini will detect it's presence (as can be seen in Disk Utility) but it wont mount it. I havent been able to test boot the DVD on the G4 because i only have a CD drive in it. an standard fat32 formatted stick mounts just fine.

Im a bit confused by this. any advice would be great. thanks

 

[SpaceFlightOrange]

Just to follow up to this, I have managed to get it to boot from a MorphOS CD, so it is capable of booting off a disk. Is there anything specific i should do when burning an iso for boot?

 

[Byrd]

Try burning another image of 10.4 (10.3 is also supported) - sounds like it just isn't quite right

 

[SpaceFlightOrange]

Try burning another image of 10.4 (10.3 is also supported) - sounds like it just isn't quite right

yeah. I did wonder. I burned the iSO using imgburn on PC as my M1pro refused to burn it to my external burner for some reason, but it was on a DVD-RW, literally the only blank DVD I had. I've ordered some DVD-R. hopefully they may work a bit better.

I'm quite puzzled about the USB stick though. this stick took some effort to set up and get working with the PowerMac DA and I successfully booted that and installed Tiger with the stick. yet the Mini won't even mount it.

 

[Phipli]

yeah. I did wonder. I burned the iSO using imgburn on PC as my M1pro refused to burn it to my external burner for some reason, but it was on a DVD-RW, literally the only blank DVD I had. I've ordered some DVD-R. hopefully they may work a bit better

Try a few images, there are some bad ones out there, although sometimes it is a burning software issue. I'm not familiar with imgburn to say if it is an appropriate program to use or not.

 

[LaPorta]

As far as the USB drive, sometimes there are versions of Tiger that came out prior to a particular machine being released that will not work with a latter one. What version of 10.4 is installed on there?

 

[LaPorta]

I'm quite puzzled about the USB stick though. this stick took some effort to set up and get working with the PowerMac DA and I successfully booted that and installed Tiger with the stick. yet the Mini won't even mount it.

Does it show up in Disk Utility? Have you tried another USB port in case one is broken?

EDIT: I just saw that part buried in a latter response. Have you tried to manually mount it with Disk Utility, and what did it say? Also, what format is the USB drive in?

 

[MBongo]

Here’s a TransMac / Windows approach:

Using TransMac to Burn A Bootable OS9 CD in Windows

Using TransMac to Burn A Bootable OS9 CD in Windows

macos9lives.com

But instead of using the OS 9.2.2 image, you’d use a Tiger ISO.
https://macintoshgarden.org/apps/mac-osx-mac-os-10-ppc (#32)

I begin OS X installs on G4 Minis here with 10.4.6.
[The original 1.42 GHz G4 Mac mini installer disc installs 10.4.]

 

[SpaceFlightOrange]

Hi. An update.

It was the disk. seems my mini doesn't like booting of a -rw. it was the only disk I had so was stuck for a few days until my new DVD-R's arrived but then I was stuck for 18hrs because they were delivered to my neighbour and they didn't answer the door when I tried to retrieve the parcel numerous times!

Prior, I tried erasing and re-burning the -rw, this time using my intel Mac mini running Snow Leopard, but no joy. It's a PPC only version of Tiger I have so couldn't test on any of my intel Macs. I also checked the USB stick I originally used to install Tiger onto my PowerMac DA, and it turned out that was corrupt. so I had another go with an SD card this time and while it works fine with the PowerMac, the Mini refused to boot from it.

But, using a DVD-R slow-burnt on the Intel Mini, the g4 Mini booted right away, I now have a fresh install on the machine.

Thanks for all your advice