# force ejecting CD on powered-down iMac



## bsvgs (May 23, 2009)

Hi --

Could sure use your help! I gave an iMac w/ OS9 on it to a friend who's never used a Mac before. It was having problems, so he wiped out the HD completely. Now, it will only boot from the CD-rom drive. The problem is, the restore disc in there seems to be corrupted, since it won't restore OS9. (Even w/ extensions off, it'll only boot from the CD drive since that's the only operating system it finds.)

So, with the machine off, how can he eject the CD in order to try a different restore one? (I had another one.) The iMac doesn't seem to have the little hole to use an opened paperclip in. 

I'm at a loss. It's been a while since I used this machine. Please help!

Thanks,
Nica


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## sinclair_tm (Mar 11, 2005)

Turn on the iMac and hold down the mouse button right away and keep holding it down, that should eject the disk. Once you have booted from the restore CD, you have to use it to install the OS on the hard drive, or it will not boot. And once you have it installed, and the CD out, it should boot from the hard drive, unless the hard drive is bad. You'll want to open the Startup Disk Control Panel and make sure that the hard drive is selected so that the iMac will boot from the hard drive and not the CD if the CD is in the drive.


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## bsvgs (May 23, 2009)

Thanks ... I'll pass along this today, & let you know whether it works. I'm still concerned, however, since he wiped the computer's internal HD. 

Nica


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## sinclair_tm (Mar 11, 2005)

If you wipe the hard drive and use the restore OS 9 CD to put the OS back on, then all should be fine. But that is if you did in fact reinstall the OS.


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## bsvgs (May 23, 2009)

It worked! My colleague is now happier with Macs, since this was a bad introduction to Apple computing. Thanks ever so much! - Nica


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