Revive Mac Mini 1

[bluewhaleCA]

Hi. My sister has a PPC Mini which needs an OS replacement.

1: she no longer has the OS disk
2: Her optical drive is shot physically

It's not really worth fixing, so I am attempting to load a Linux distro for PPC from an external USB attached DVD drive. I've tried booting while holding the C key down however it keeps going to the hosed OS.

Is what I'm attempting possible?

Many Thanks.

 

[jmgalvin]

Hold down the Option key when booting and see if you get the window to select your startup disk. If yes and you see the usb drive, select it and see if the mac boots from it.

Holding down the c key tells the mac to boot from the dvd/cd drive.

Also make sure the mini is PPC and not intel.

If she like the thing and wants to replace it, Apple has, or had as of Friday, a clearance sale on last version of the mini - which was replaced by the new version last week. You can find it on online Apple store scroll down to Special Deals, or whatever they call it.

Using OSX 10.3.9 & 10.4.11 on a G4, G5 & Intel Macbook

 

[bluewhaleCA]

If using a new Dell USB keyboard do you know if the 'Windows' key equals the Apple Option key?


System definately PPC: it was my first Mac. :]

I'll check the sale you mentioned. Thanks!

 

[twiSSt]

Yes the 'Windows' key equals the option key.

Twist

===========================================
Everything will be OK in the end.
If it's not OK, then it's not the end

 

[jmgalvin]

I don't know Windows keyboards so I'll give you the key layout on the bottom row of a mac keyboard - from left to right.

Control - Option - Command ( the Apple key) - space bar.

So you could try the second from left key if the Windows key is not in that position and does not work.


Using OSX 10.3.9 & 10.4.11 on a G4, G5 & Intel Macbook

 

[Foamcow]

The Windows key will, I think, be equivelent to the Apple (Command) key.

Option = alt

The order of the keys isn't necessarily the same between Mac and Windows keyboards.

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[bluewhaleCA]

Thanks to all of you for the info, however after bringing in my little silver mac BT keyboard and mighty(?) mouse and getting the OS to connect, then restarting twice it only sees the hard drive the Mac OS is on. :[

Time to pull the data and move on.

Thanks all the same.


Paul