Table of Contents
Well, Boot Mac From CD Or DVD is a very common thing to do, and most people know how to do it. Users are having a hard time getting their Macs to start up because all of the new devices don’t work with DVD-ROMs. But if your Mac came with one already installed, it will be easy to boot from it. It’s easy to take care of just put the bootable disk in the Mac and restart it.
If you do this, Mac will start up from the CD, but if that doesn’t work, you can also do it from the computer itself. In this article, we’ll talk about how to start your Mac from external storage, such as a CD or DVD, an external USB hard drive, or a flash drive. Booting from an external storage device lets you start up your Mac in a different version or copy of macOS. It’s easy to get a Mac to start up from a CD or DVD. The process is very easy, but you will need to know your way around a Mac. There are two main ways to get a MacBook to boot from a CD, and they are as follows:
How to Boot Mac From CD Or DVD
Using Windows PC
- Insert the CD or DVD into your computer. To do so, place the disc logo side-up in your computer’s CD or DVD-ROM tray.
- Boot your computer into the BIOS or UEFI. Before you can boot from a CD or DVD, make sure the computer’s boot sequence is set to boot from a removable disc before the hard drive. To get started, you’ll have to boot into your PC’s BIOS. There are two ways to do this:
- The first option is to reboot your computer and immediately press the setup key repeatedly until you’ve reached the BIOS. This key is usually F2, Del, F10, or F1. If you’re not sure, Google your PC model and “BIOS setup key.”
- Windows 10: Press Windows key + i, go to Update & Security > Recovery, and click Restart Now under “Advanced Startup.”
- Windows 11: Press Windows key + i, go to System > Recovery, and click Restart Now under “Advanced Startup.
- Once you’re at the blue Advanced Options screen, click UEFI Firmware Settings and then click Restart.
- Navigate to the Boot tab. You’ll use the arrow keys to select it.
- Select the CD-ROM Drive option. To do so, press the ↓ arrow until this option has a box around it.
- Press the + key until CD-ROM Drive is first. This will place it at the top of the boot options list.
- Save your settings. You should see a key prompt (e.g., F10) at the bottom of the screen that correlates to “Save and Exit”; pressing it will restart your computer, using the CD drive as a reboot point.
Using Mac
- Insert the CD or DVD into your computer. To do so, slide the disc logo side-up into the CD-ROM or DVD-ROM slot on your Mac. The CD must have a version of Mac OS on it to qualify as a boot option.
- Click It’s in the upper-left corner of the screen.
- Click Restart. This option is at the bottom of the Apple menu.
- Click Restart when prompted. Doing so will cause your Mac to begin restarting.
- Hold down the Command key. You’ll need to hold down Command as soon as your Mac begins restarting, and keep holding it until the Startup Manager window appears.
- Click the CD icon. It will typically say something like “Mac OS X Install DVD” below it. Clicking this icon selects it.
- Press ⏎ Return. Doing so will prompt your Mac to boot from the CD drive.
FAQs
The most common cause of this error is that the BIOS is not configured correctly. You need to set the CD/DVD drive as the first priority. Press the required key during startup to enter BIOS. The key could be F2, F10, F12, etc.
(Most computers with an optical drive already have it as the first boot item, but you should check first.) Insert the bootable DVD or CD containing the bootable image file into the optical drive. Restart your computer. You can do that from within Windows or a hard reset using the power button.
Turn on the Mac and continue to hold the power button until you see the startup options window, which shows your bootable volumes. Select the volume containing the bootable installer, then click Continue. When the macOS installer opens, follow the onscreen installation instructions.