Can't boot a Mac Mini from CD

Question

The Mini was installed with Windows 2003 now and its the only OS installed. It's a Mac Mini A1176 and now I want to install reformat the box and install Mac OSX.

But the problem is unlike any other Mac products I have, by holding 'c', 'shift', 'option', or 'd' on the keyboard immediately after power on the box cannot successfully change the booting sequence, it only boots from hard disk which is installed with Windows now.

I think the problem is that I'm not using a Mac keyboard, but a normal PC keyboard, is that because it doesn't recongnize the keyboard at the booting stage?

Please tell me what to do to force the box to boot from CD, because I don't have a Mac keyboard with me right now.

Thank you very much.

Answer 1

If you have Apple's Boot Camp utility installed in the Windows installation, you should be able to choose the startup volume from its Control Panel. Insert your OS X install disc, choose that as your startup volume, and reboot.

Answer 2

The best thing to do is boot with the option key. This will start the EFI boot manager. From there you can choose any valid boot media. Including a Dvd.

A Windows type keyboard will work just fine. The equivalent key to option on that keyboard would be the left alt(if I'm remembering correctly. It's been a long time sense I had that kind of keyboard. if it doesn't work it might be worth trying the Windows key).

It's possible you have firmware lock turned on. This prevents the booting of any other media then the default. If you have this turned on. When you boot with option you will see a password screen instead of boot options.

Putting in the password will allow you into the boot menu.