Mac Mini help

[hennessy1]

I took my mac mini to the apple store because I had called their tech help and well they didnt help and said to go there. I want to boot from the new leopard install disc I bought. I give it to one of their tech ppl at the store he says he got it to work by pressing down the option key right after the chim. well I tried that it no go. I though it was my apple keyboard so I just went out and bought another and well guess what still no go. I tried the holding c down and I tried rapidly pressing c and option neither worked. Can someone help please. Its a 2007 mac mini late summer.

 

[secretanchitman]

as soon as you hear the apple startup noise (right before the screen shows the apple logo), press and HOLD the alt/option key...and then the icons for your osx drive, windows partition (if you have windows installed via boot camp), and the cd-rom will show up. just click one or use the keyboard to select what you want.

edit: for clarity.

 

[Parasitic]

I couldn't get it to work either with my Mac mini. It just doesn't seem to recognize an USB keyboard at startup. It's a Core Duo model.

However I did manage to install Leopard but booting into OSX and popping the DVD in the drive and running the installer there. It'll tell you that you need to restart, and upon restart (from the installer program) you'll be booted from the Leopard installer DVD and from there you can proceed your installation.

 

[Tyranicus]

Are you using the new aluminum keyboard? There are a lot of reports of those not working correctly on startup. If you have the older one lying around, try with that one.

 

[hmsrolst]

I have a Gyration USB KB and mouse, and have the same problem with a Vista and Leopard install. Sometimes I can get the boot menu, but the vast majority of the time, I can't and have to go into whatever is the default and change the settings to make the other OS the default.

 

[chcarnage]

/Misread the OP, sorry.

 

[hennessy1]

Yes it is the new silver keyboard and the one that came with it originally is the white keyboard. I dont have that one nemore so I thought it was the keyboard so I bought another well that doesnt matter. The hdd inside does not have anything at all on it totally blank. I press the option key as soon as i heard the chim and still nothing. The keyboard does not work at bootup because I had a disc in there and pressed F12 and it didnt come out but with the usb mouse I held down the mouse button and it came out. If anyone can help me I would appreciate it very much thank you.