How to determine if an optical disc is bootable?

L

LazLong

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Is there a reliable tool, besides the Mac's firmware at boot time, that one can use to determine if an optical disc (CD/DVD) is bootable? Hard Disk Utility is unreliable, as I've had it tell me a disc was bootable when it patently was not.
 
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Power on holding the option key with the disk inserted to go to boot picker. If the disk is seen as a volume you can choose to boot from, you should be all set.
 
djackmac said:
Power on holding the option key with the disk inserted to go to boot picker. If the disk is seen as a volume you can choose to boot from, you should be all set.
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What tool can one use to determine if a disc is bootable, besides the Mac's firmware.
 
Your System Preferences/Startup Disk pane will tell you if your Mac can see any bootable partitions on a DVD. You would be unlikely to find a CD with a bootable system for any recent Mac.
I don't think you can say that Disk Utility is unreliable, as it doesn't have a function that will show you if any disk is bootable.
You may find some disks that show up as bootable, but won't actually boot that particular Mac. The only thing that you would know is that you potentially have a bootable partition.

What is your situation that you need that info about bootable disks?
 
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