DiskWarrior won't boot

[xplan303ex]

In my attempt to figure out why I can't install Panther I got DiskWarrior, it is supposed to be simple, put CD in, restart, press C and see what happens... well, nothing happens, OSX loads as usual and that's it. When I open and close the CD drive once OSX has loaded it either doesn't mount or tells me the CD contains no volumes MAC OSX can read.

Something is waaaaaay wrong with my computer....

 

[DeltaMac]

the Diskwarrior CD, if new, probably has Panther as boot. So, won't boot for the same reason you can't get Panther to install.
Can you even get the Panther installer screens to come up?

My guess is:
1. memory is incompatible with Panther, or
2. CD does not read CD's well, or
3. Hard Drive may have problems with installing any new software, or
4. I thought you gave up on this.

 

[xplan303ex]

the Diskwarrior CD, if new, probably has Panther as boot. So, won't boot for the same reason you can't get Panther to install.
Can you even get the Panther installer screens to come up?

My guess is:
1. memory is incompatible with Panther, or
2. CD does not read CD's well, or
3. Hard Drive may have problems with installing any new software, or
4. I thought you gave up on this.

I don't think the memory is incompatible, the CD drive may be an issue but, I got the Panther installer screens up, TWICE! It crashed both times while installing (and because I told it to erase and install, I am on 8.6 now).

Since I put 8.6 when I try to boot from the Panther CD all I get is a UNIX command line thing...

Am I just screwed?

 

[DeltaMac]

I don't think the memory is incompatible, the CD drive may be an issue but, I got the Panther installer screens up, TWICE! It crashed both times while installing (and because I told it to erase and install, I am on 8.6 now).

Since I put 8.6 when I try to boot from the Panther CD all I get is a UNIX command line thing...

Am I just screwed?

If you have tested your memory in another iMac, also running Panther successfully, then, yes, good memory. Otherwise, you don't know if the memory is good, you can just guess like I do.
Panther (and OS X in general) requires at least OS 9.1 for Classic. Lack of that version, by itself, should not prevent loading OS X. Check that your hard drive is formatted as a Mac OS Extended volume.
If you can get to the first installer screen for Panther, 'choose a language', click on the Installer menu, choose Disk Utility from that menu, then select your volume, and click the 'Repair Disk' button. Come back with the results. Do you actually have enough free space for a good Panther install (2.5 GB should be OK, less is asking for challenges)?