I have an Apple Mac Mini G4, and I accidentally erased its hard drive. I had a Mac OS X Tiger Upgrade DVD in it, and it wouldn’t let me install because it couldn’t find OS X 10.3 on the computer. I had 10.4 installed already, but then I wiped the drive. Unfortunately, the problem was now that I could not get the computer to eject the disc. I tried F12, Disk Utility, commands in the Terminal. None worked. The only solution I couldn’t try was Open Firmware, because I have a Logitech PC keyboard.
Well, a little Googling showed me that Alt = Option and Windows = Apple or Command, so Windows (Start) - Alt - O - F was the keystroke required to start Open Firmware. From there, I thought that I read that the eject command was eject-cd. That didn’t work. Turns out the actual command is eject cd (with a space). What troubled me most during this whole process was the secret key c that must be pressed during bootup for a Mac to boot from CD. Now that’s all taken care of, I’m going to reinstall OS X 10.3 and then upgrade to 10.4.
Anyone want a Mac Mini? It has 1 GB RAM, and it’s the faster model with a 1.42 GHz processor. It also has a 56K modem built-in, along with Ethernet of course.
Erratum. “T” key (not option T) at boot chime.
Or, boot the mini in target mode - Option T at boot chime, (works with a wireless logitech Di Nuovo), then eject from the master machine.
Thanks for the great tip! I didn’t know what to do bout getting my disc back too.
Tig, that mouse button trick saved me a lot of time, I was about to take my mini apart to get my disc back - much thanks!!!
Or you could have held down the mouse button on a re-start to edject the cd / dvd.
More than happy to take the mini off your hands too :]