10-20-2011
Bad disc or drive
All current iMac models respond to the "c" key to request booting from the optical drive (make sure it is ONLY the "c" key, no shift, option, or command, or anything else). Automatically ejecting the disc usually means that it cannot read the disc at all. Check for scratches, and try a disc polishing/scratch removal system if you see anything heinous. It might also mean that your drive is having problems. There are a few other options, though, to get your system back up. You can hook up an external drive with an up to date version of the system software and boot from that by using the option key method mentioned earlier. This gives you the boot selector screen. The fact that your optical disc did not show up there either also indicates that either it cannot be read, or that it is not a valid boot device for your hardware. Are you sure it is the disc that came with the computer? Yet another method, if you have another Mac available, is to boot the iMac in "target disk mode" by holding down the "t" key at startup. This basically turns the iMac into a very expensive external hard drive. Then, you can hook it up to another Mac via firewire and install the system on to it from that Mac. There are some drawbacks to this method, but it will work well enough. After doing this, re-run the latest combo updater from support.apple.com.
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