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I am not that savvy with Macintosh computers so I can't figure out why the install disk keeps ejecting when I attempt to boot from disk by holding down the "C" button or the option button.

It is not the optical drive as I was able to boot into Linux using a live CD.

While in Linux I formatted the hard drive I want to install the OS onto as HFS+ and had no problems.

I think I may be using the wrong installation disk since I can't confirm this disk belongs to this machine.

The disc reads:

MAC PRO

MAC OS X INSTALL DVD

VERSION 10.6.2

DISC VERSION 1.0

2009 APPLE INC.

Computer identifies as:

A1186 MAC PRO 2.66QX/2X512/7300GT

How can I determine if this is the right disc and/or which is the latest retail disk I can use on this machine?

I would guess 10.6.2 would be just fine to boot most MacPro with that model, so you might have a hardware issue or bad DVD.

More specifically, there are 8 models with A1186 - so you might need to try OS between 10.4 but most of them would work with 10.6.8 - so I’d start with any 10.6 media you can get your hands on if you can’t get a serial number or more precise handle on which hardware you have.

• https://everymac.com/ultimate-mac-lookup/?search_keywords=a1186

Even easier would be to get an external drive with 10.6.8 installed on it from hardware where the drive isn’t possibly broken and then hold the option key to get this mac to boot to an external drive rather than fussing with the optical drive and uncertainty on which media would boot this without an OS.

From there, you could get at the serial number or details on the exact model you have.

Apple will ship you the exact media you need (at a cost) so worst case, you can go that route with Apple Support if you’re unable to resolve this here or on the internet in general.

According to everyman.com your Mac is a 2006 model which was discontinued January 8, 2008. (I made the assumption 2.66QX means 2.66 GHz Quad Core Xeon) This model originally was designed to run OS X 10.4.7. Since the
Mac OS X v10.6.2 Update is dated Nov 9, 2009, I doubt the disc you have is the correct one for this model Mac.

The OS X 10.7.5 (Lion) was the last version designed for your Mac model.

Note: Since this model has a 32 bit EFI, you can only run 32 bit EFI booting operation systems. However, you may be able to run 64 bit BIOS booting operating systems such as Windows and some versions of Linux.

If you were to purchase Lion from Apple, then a requirement to install would be to have Snow Leopard already installed. In other words, the DMG file only offers an upgrade to Lion. You probably can not use the DMG file to create a bootable installer. You can read the requirements from the Apple Lion website given in the above link.

You would not need a Apple ID to install Snow Leopard, but the installer will still ask. You can decline to give an Apple ID if you wish. Snow Leopard was released on a DL DVD. Apple still sells Snow Leopard DVDs, but you can also download an ISO from the internet. There are plenty of websites that explain how to make a bootable USB Snow Leopard installer. I have not tried any of these methods. If you succeed, then maybe you could post a method that works.

I would recommend burning the Snow Leopard ISO file to a DL DVD.

Once you have Snow Leopard installed, you should install all the available Snow Leopard updates. This would update Snow Leopard to OS X 10.6.8. From here, you could upgrade to Lion by using a purchased DMG file.