Leopard Won't Boot from External Drive

I'm using an iBook G4 running Mac OS X 10.4.10. I just purchased a Western Digital 320GB eSATA external hard drive to use as an external Leopard boot disk because my internal hard drive does not work (I've been using a 20GB Lacie external hard drive as my boot drive up to now).
I have installed Leopard onto the new external drive using the Leopard install DVD. The installation was successful, and the new external drive mounts on the desktop. In addition, I can see all of its contents, and it appears as a startup disk in the startup disk preference panel. However, when I select it as the startup disk and restart the computer, it will not boot from the new external drive.
Notes:
1. The drive is formatted in the Apple Partition Map scheme.
2. I have pressed "option" during restart, but the drive does not appear.
3. I have restarted with only the new hard drive connected to the cpu, to no avail.
Am I missing something? Please assist.
Thanks!

I've been trying all day to boot from my external HD after installing Leopard on both my HD and external HD. I was convinced that my external HD volume wasn't being read and recognized. What I discovered a while ago was that my internal HD volume always shows up at the top of the list on my desktop whether it's the volume running or not!!
When running 10.4.11 and booting from the external HD, the icon for the external HD volume always appeared at the top on the desktop, over the internal HD icon. That's how I could remember which one I was on. That's not happening now. I may have been working on the backup for half the day and not known it.
The only way I'm able to tell for sure which is the active drive is to check the User folder to see whether the House/Home icon appears (the system running) or the name is in text (the system not running).
Is there some way to change that or is it a glitch in Leopard? It's weird!

Similar Messages

  • SL won't boot from external drive

    i tried installing SL on an external FW800/400/USB drive. while the first part of the install went fine, upon the restart, it would only get as far as the gray apple screen. after many false starts, i tried finishing the install by booting my wife's (non-unibody) macbook with the drive attached and the SL disc in the optical drive. sure enough, the install finished and it booted to SL.
    now, when i try to boot from this same drive on my new MBP, it stays stuck at the gray apple screen. i'm able to see and choose the SL partition when i start up, but it just won't continue booting. i've tried booting via FW800, FW400 and via USB. none work.
    has anyone else experienced this?

    To wrap everyone's comments, since I just got back—we had a rare power failure due to someone knocking a local transformer down—yes, the new machine won't allow you to boot an earlier version's disc. The one that came with your new machine is now your GM for that machine. The other, the SL GM, is unusable for it, but good for all the machines that shipped before it arrived. The new disc can be used on any properly formatted volume, internal or external. If you followed the steps in Best Practices and Setup new Mac, then your new MBP should mimic your previous machine. You do the same. Install the OS onto the ext HD and, on first boot, use the Setup Assistant to migrate from the MRB to the ext HD. We used that procedure throughout the beta-test period. HTH

  • G3 won't boot from external drive

    Hello.
    I really have a big problem, namely:
    My son (3 years) turned the power adapter to 120 instead of 240, which explode.
    I changed it. But when I tried to start up again, the Power Mac couldn't find the HD. I tried everything but but nothing worked. So I installed Mac OSX 10.4 on a external firewire drive. But I don't know how to boot from this disk.
    Please help me.

    so the machine can still boot?
    try this: open the case, there should be a button in the far right corner, like around the video card. press & hold for 15 seconds.
    check all the cables. make sure everything is still plugged into the drive.
    power up & see what happens.
    are you using a pc computer in the mean time?
    I can convert the dmg to iso you can burn using a pc utility, but I'm at work & 7 hrs behind you.
    http://www.macosxhints.com/article.php?story=20040121135301830

  • LCD/Santa Rosa systems won't boot from external drives or DVDs

    A critical issue with supporting the LED MacBook Pro systems is that to boot from (or install OS to) any external FW Hard Drives MUST be partitioned with the GUID Partition Table option, not the older Apple Partition Map.
    This also seems to impact utilities like Disc Warrior and Tech Tool Pro -- the lastest versions of these will not boot either of the two LED MacBook Pro 15" models that I've tested. (This is confirmed on the utilities websites.)
    In short, to boot from an external drive it apparently must be formatted with the GUID option (I have no un-partitioned external drives to test). And to boot from a utility CD/DVD -- I haven't found any discs other than the included Apple Software Restore DVD's that will boot these systems.
    All models   Mac OS X (10.4.9)   Corporate support

    I'm looking at 4 external FW HD's sitting on my desk
    next to our second LCD MacBkPro. These drive can,
    and have, booted EVERY INTEL MAC IN THE COMPANY --
    with the single exception of the LCD Macs.
    I'm looking for hard facts here, not theory. Yes, a
    hard drive partitioned with GUID will boot earlier
    Intel macs -- but IT WASN'T REQUIRED.
    Those of you in theory-land can ask yourselves why
    Alsoft's Disk Warrior and Micromat's Tech Tool Pro
    CD/DVDs can boot every Intel mac made --- with the
    single exception of the LCD Macs. Go to their
    websites if you don't believe me...
    Back to the topic -- the LCD MacBookPro models
    require the GUID partitioning, and seem to require
    something else for booting that Alsoft and Micromat
    are working on right now. But for those of us who
    make our living supporting macs, working with these
    machines may require reformatting of external drives
    (you can't reformat just one partition) and not allow
    use of our standard CD/DVD bootable utility discs.
    You know, you might get a bit more help if your tone was a bit more pleasant. I hope it works out for you.
    One might argue that those who "make their living supporting macs" might have done better to keep themselves abreast of what was happening in "Theoryland" some time earlier - say 15 months ago when people first realised that intel macs used the GUID partition system. Then they wouldn't be too surprised. I'm not, neither are the others here who are wading in to HELP.
    As for hard facts - April 2006 re: firmware updates
    http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=303609
    Best of luck.

  • Trouble Booting from External Drives - MBA 2012

    Hello,
    I have a brand new 13" MBA which I'm working on building an image to use for deployment using Carbon Copy Cloner 3.4.5. For whatever reason, I can't boot the new 2012 MBA from an external LaCie FW800 or Thunderbolt 1TB Little Big Disk that is running either 10.7.2 or 10.7.4. As soon as I select the drive to boot from when holding the Options key or from selecting the partition from Startup Disk in System Preferences, I get the do not enter icon(circle with the diagonal slash). I tried both plugged in through a Cinema Display and plugging the Thunderbolt drive directly to the laptop. I confirmed both LaCie drives boot properly on an iMac and the last gen MBP/MBA.
    Laptop Specs:
    13"
    1.8GHz Dual-core i5
    8GB
    128 SSD
    10.7.4
    Curious if anyone has run into any problems booting from external drives on the new 2012 MBA.
    Thanks,
    Paolo

    Please be sure you have prepped these external drives correctly:
    Drive Preparation
    1. Open Disk Utility in your Utilities folder.
    2. After DU loads select your hard drive (this is the entry with the mfgr.'s ID and size) from the left side list. Click on the Partition tab in the DU main window.
    3. Under the Volume Scheme heading set the number of partitions from the drop down menu to one. Click on the Options button, set the partition scheme to GUID then click on the OK button. Set the format type to Mac OS Extended (Journaled.) Click on the Partition button and wait until the process has completed.
    4. Select the volume you just created (this is the sub-entry under the drive entry) from the left side list. Click on the Erase tab in the DU main window.
    5. Set the format type to Mac OS Extended (Journaled.) Click on the Security button, check the button for Zero Data and click on OK to return to the Erase window.
    6. Click on the Erase button. The format process can take up to several hours depending upon the drive size.
    My suggestion for cloning is to use Disk Utility. This will also automatically clone the Recovery HD, as well:
    Clone Lion using Restore Option of Disk Utility
    Boot to the Recovery HD:
    Restart the computer and after the chime press and hold down the COMMAND and R keys until the menu screen appears. Alternatively, restart the computer and after the chime press and hold down the OPTION key until the boot manager screen appears. Select the Recovery HD and click on the downward pointing arrow button.
    Select Disk Utility from the main menu then press the Continue button.
    Select the destination volume from the left side list.
    Click on the Restore tab in the DU main window.
    Check the box labeled Erase destination.
    Select the destination volume from the left side list and drag it to the Destination entry field.
    Select the source volume from the left side list and drag it to the Source entry field.
    Double-check you got it right, then click on the Restore button.
    Destination means the external backup drive. Source means the internal startup drive.

  • Trouble Booting from External Drives; Trying to Defragment from External

    I have a Verbatim External Firewire 400/USB 2.0 hard drive that has Leopard installed on it. I have installed Drive Genius and Disk Warrior on the external drive. I boot holding the Option key and see the list of drives, and the External does appear. When I select it, the computer just reboots and loads the loads the internal hard drive. I'm trying to defragment the MacBook Pro from an external drive, but I can't do much if it won't boot from an external. I know with Intel Macs, you can boot from USB 2.0 and FireWire. Why won't it work? To be more advanced, I made a disc image of the MacBook Pro Restore DVD and restored it to a new partition of the external, thinking the operating system might be different in the new MacBook Pro because of the new settings in the System Preferences that control the glass trackpad. I'm stuck. Please help.

    No, I would not recommend making a disc image. I would recommend cloning the drive to a freshly erased external drive. Cloning is not the same as making a disc image. Disc images cannot be used to boot the computer. They are large and unwieldy. They are intended to be burned to an optical disc and not used as a system backup.
    Clones are exact file copies of everything on the source drive such that the destination drive is a mirror of the source drive. You can boot clones, you can update them, and you can access them directly just like any other drive.
    How to Clone Using Restore Option of Disk Utility
    1. Open Disk Utility from the Utilities folder.
    2. Select the destination volume from the left side list.
    3. Click on the Erase tab in the DU main window. Set the format type to Mac OS Extended (journaled, if available) and click on the Erase button. This step can be skipped if the destination has already been freshly erased.
    4. Click on the Restore tab in the DU main window.
    5. Select the destination volume from the left side list and drag it to the Destination entry field.
    6. Select the source volume from the left side list and drag it to the Source entry field.
    7. Double-check you got it right, then click on the Restore button.
    Destination means the drive to which you will restore or backup.
    Source means the drive you are restoring from or backing up.
    There are many alternatives to using Disk Utilities Restore option. Any of the following can create clones as well as perform regular backups, and they can incrementally update a clone:
    1. Retrospect Desktop (Commercial - not yet universal binary)
    2. Synchronize! Pro X (Commercial)
    3. Synk (Backup, Standard, or Pro)
    4. Deja Vu (Shareware)
    5. Carbon Copy Cloner (Donationware)
    6. SuperDuper! (Commercial)
    7. Intego Personal Backup (Commercial)
    8. Data Backup (Commercial)
    10. MimMac (Shareware)
    11. SilverKeeper 2.0 (Freeware)

  • External Drive with Time Machine, booting from external drive with utilitie

    I'm using Time Machine now with
    a LaCie 1TB external hard drive.
    Everything works fine.
    But, I've been wondering:
    Can I place a program like TechTool
    on the external drive (that Time Machine uses)
    and boot from that external drive.
    I would like to be able to do that,
    because diagnostics and repair programs
    only works properly and fully when they run from
    external drives. Anything on the internal drive can be repaired
    and examine. Impossible to do if Techtool is on the same
    drive that's been examined.
    Any thoughts as to what I should do?
    Thanks
    iMac, Leopard, Time Machine, Lacie Quadra 1TB drive.
    P.S. Stupid question: If my computer crashes, and I reboot from Time Machine
    (from the external drive) how does the computer know which backup to take ?!?
    Isn't there many versions of the OS on the Time Machine backup taken at different times?

    pitou wrote:
    P.S. Stupid question: If my computer crashes, and I reboot from Time Machine
    (from the external drive) how does the computer know which backup to take ?!?
    Isn't there many versions of the OS on the Time Machine backup taken at different times?
    As V.K. says, you can't boot from TM backups.
    But you can restore your entire system from any one of them, per the procedure in #14 of the Frequently Asked Questions *User Tip,* also at the top of this forum.
    You can also selectively restore from them, while running normally. See #15 in the FAQ Tip.
    You might want to review these:
    Time Machine Tutorial
    Time Machine 101
    How to back up and restore your files
    Time Machine Features
    Apple - Support - Mac OSX v10.5 Leopard Time Machine
    and perhaps browse the rest of the FAQ Tip.

  • New MacBook won't boot from external disk

    I have a new MacBook that I am trying to boot from an external disk that had the system from my first gen MacBook Pro. When I restart holding the Option key, and select my external disk, the system restarts again and won't let me boot from that disk. Is there something different with the OS (10.5.6) that is installed on a newer MacBook that won't allow it to boot from the same OS from an older MacBook Pro?
    Thanks

    Ian Patterson wrote:
    golferx,
    Will any other Intel Mac boot from the drive? If not, it's possibly because the drive uses an Apple Partition Map (bootable for PowerPC Macs) instead of a GUID Partition Table (bootable for Intel Macs).
    To check: open to Disk Utility, select the hard drive on the left, select the Partition tab and look at the text at the bottom right corner of the window under Partition Map Scheme. If it says anything other than GUID Partition Table, you will need to erase and repartition it as such before it will be bootable.
    Just a thought. Hope this helps. Good luck!
    -i-
    I can boot an prev gen MacBook and also my iMac (current gen). I took it to the Genius Bar and he could not get it to boot a new MacBook either and didn't have a solution.

  • IMac G5 won't boot from CD drive, Please Help

    My iMac G5 won't boot from the CD drive. There is no operating system on the hard drive so I want to install a fresh copy of Leopard. I have tried a couple different methods, but I keep getting the same end result. The first method I tried was booting from the CD drive by holding the C key during start up. The Leopard disc was automatically ejected after about 20-30 seconds. The second method I tried was booting the iMac to the "question mark file screen," which is when I inserted the Leopard disc. Usually on other Mac computers, this is when the computer will show the Apple logo and prompt you with the installation process. Not this iMac, it just ejects the disc shortly after I insert it. I'm not sure if it's the CD drive that is having the issue, the hard drive, or something else.
    If you have any ideas, they would be greatly appreciated!
    Thank you,
    Chris

    Where did you get the CD from?
    If it is from another Mac, it is probably specific to the hardware in that Mac and is not capable of boot your iMac.
    Allan

  • S10-2 Won't boot from hard drive

    I have an S10-2 2957 that won't boot from the internal hard drive. The one key function doesn’t work either. After the splash comes up and the BIOS runs all that is displayed is a flashing cursor. If I boot from an external source (USB CD) I can see the hard drive and all files are intact. I have tried removing the battery and power supply, holding the power key for 30 seconds before powering the unit back up to no avail. I’m thinking that either the boot sector is corrupt or the first partition is not active. Any ideas?
    Solved!
    Go to Solution.

    press f8 to load when you see lenovo logo at start-up, and select safe mode. post back the results.

  • Yosemite won't Boot from External SSD with Firewire Connection

    Seeking help, I boot from external SSD drives from my 2010 iMac. I recently installed Yosemite on an External SSD with a firewire connection and all went well with the installation and first boot. After completing set up and restarting my iMac Yosemite will no longer boot from the firewire connection it will boot to the loading bar and then get the dreaded Goest Buster Emblem, if I swap out the SSD to USB connection it boots normally. I have 6 SSD Drives with Mavericks and Lion installed on that will boot from the Firewire Connection.  Any suggestions ?

    Additionally when testing while the SSD is connected to a USB Connection and booted if I attach any firewire device they are not recognized or connected to the operating system.

  • Problems booting from external drives

    Ever since I got this 6-core 2013 MacPro (January 2015), I have had strange problems and glitches, but for this posting, I am talking about problems being able to boot up from external drives. I took the 4 external drives out of my old 2009 MacPro and put them into a 4-bay Thunderbolt enclosure. This enclosure can be configured as a RAID if all drives are the same (which they are not) or it can just be a place to be able to access all 4 drives. I used to be able to boot from each of those drives on the older MacPro but I am unable to do so now. They show up in the System Preferences/Startup Disk but if I choose one, it just reboots into the new MacPro drive. I even tried pulling out a couple of the drives and mounting each into a USB 3.0 (Sabrent) dock and still I could not boot from those drives which have the latest version of Yosemite. Yes, they are formatted correctly. I used to boot from them. I was able to clone one of the drives to a Seagate USB 3.0 hard drive and boot from that. Although, the clone was not perfect. It didn't transfer all my settings so I could recover some logins and serial numbers I wanted that I have never been able to retrieve since I got this new Mac.
    Yesterday, I formatted a 32GB flash drive and tried to install Yosemite on it. I planned to put DiskWarrior on it. When I started to install Yosemite (from a saved download) it let me choose that drive, but when it restarted before installing, I was right back where I started on my MacPro's hard drive.
    Is this normal behavior for the 2013 MacPro? Or is it just mine? I am beginning to think I may have a lemon since I have had other strange problems that don't go away.

    Not all external devices are bootable. First stop would be involve whoever handles the 4-bay Thunderbolt. Seeing how it has a bridge most likely in order to support RAID mode that may not have the correct frmware or other reasons.
    https://bombich.com/kb/ccc4
    https://bombich.com/kb/ccc4/search/bootable%20volume
    CCC is the only program I would be using.

  • XServe won't boot from any drive, but recognizes them in OS X Installer

    I know I have another post here but this is a different issue, and I've already fixed that one thanks to Camelot .
    I just received an 2 used xserves for work. One booted into OS X Server fine, so I scrubbed it and reinstalled without issue.
    The second however never booted into an install. That is, I never found it on my network when I started it up and when I pushed the power button it would turn off immediately, suggesting that there was no OS on the disk or that the xserve couldn't find it. I didn't have a spare monitor to plug into it (surprisingly) so I just chalked it up to the fact that it was a new disk and hadn't had OS X Server installed on it.
    Now I have a spare monitor, I've gone and installed OS X Server on the xserve. It boots from the DVD just fine, runs through the installer, then when it goes to restart, it won't boot from the hard drive that it just installed OS X Server on, it'll just boot back from the DVD unless I pop it out. If I let it boot up without the DVD in it, I'll get the standard Folder with a ?.
    At first I thought it was the drive, so I installed OS X Server on another drive. Still wouldn't boot to that drive, so I booted from the DVD and repaired the disks in Disk Utility. Still nothing. I booted to DVD again and when I went to Startup Disk, it actually did show my disks with their respective OS X Server installs.
    When I boot the machine holding alt/option, the system doesn't show my drives, only the DVD if it's in the slot.
    I figured ok, this has to be the drives, so I swapped them with those of the identical xserve in the rack below, but my top xserve wouldn't boot from those drives either. Somewhat expectedly however, the bottom xserve would boot the drives that I took out of the first one.
    Now I'm just stumped. Any ideas?
    PS, drives are unlocked.

    MrHoffman wrote:
    The EFI firmware, the SMC and possibly the disk I/O path seem good potential candidates for culprit.
    Load and run the hardware diagnostics.
    Reset the SMC, and reset the LOM.
    I'm running the EFI diagnostic tool now. Firmware and disk I/O path came to mind, let's just hope it's not a major hardware issue
    beatle20359 wrote:
    Hi Jeff,
    Do you have the specs of the xserve and the version of OSX server you are trying to install? Does the Xserve have the RAID card installed in it and what size are the drive modules.
    All the best
    Beatle
    2x 3GHz Dual-Core Xeon
    8GB RAM
    OS X Server v 10.6.3 (the version I'm trying to install, that is)
    No RAID card. The system drive is 80GB and a second storage drive is 1TB.

  • Why won't photos from external drive stay on my computer (iPhoto) once I disconnect the external drive?

    I'm trying to move photos from my external drive to my new computer.  When I connect the external drive, I'm able to view all the photos in iPhoto, and I'm able to drag photos to a desktop folder and/or directly into iPhoto.  But, when I disconnect the external drive, I no longer have access to the photos on my computer.  I'm sure there's a step I may be overlooking but I'm using the same process I've used in the past and cannot determine next steps.

    Thanks so far.
    I'm currently working on a 2012 MacBook Air 13", running OSX 10.8.
    Upon opening my external drive, I've dragged the iPhoto Library to my computer's desktop.  When I've opened iPhoto and tried to import the library (from external drive and/or from the desktop), I'm unable to do so, i.e., the library is not highlighted (it won't allow me to click on it).
    I can open and view the library from my external drive in iPhoto when the external drive is connected to the computer.  But, once the external drive is disconnected from the computer, I'm unable to view the library
    I've tried all of the aforementioned when the "Copy Imported Item(s) to the iPhoto Library" is checked.

  • Tiger won't boot from external firewire

    Installed 10.4.3 DVD on clean external firewire (Extended/Journaled). Before I installed Tiger, I ran updates, and repaired permissions. Everything looked good to me.
    I'm keeping Panther on main system drive for now - so from System Preferences>Startup Disk>the external tiger drive appears and I select it. Then I select restart and the promt confirms that the computer will restart with 10.4.3. Looks good so far.
    After restart, I'm looking at the desktop, guess what? It's 10.3.9, not 10.4.3. How could that be?
    Also, when I restart and hold down the Option key for Startup Manager options - the firewire drive does not appear as an option.
    So Tiger appears in System Preferences>Startup Disc as an option, but the option doesn't actually work, and that drive does not appear at all in (Option key) startup manager.
    I'm Indexing the firewire drive now (OMG is that slow or what!), but I'm not expecting this to make any difference. I'm stumped. What am I overlooking? Please advise.
    Muchas Gracias

    R MacCool,
    "What if I manually drag and drop the 4 folders (from the Tiger DVD) onto a second internal SATA drive without partitioning the drive first? Will I be able to boot off an internal SATA drive like that? When I installed Tiger on the external firewire I see that 4 folders are there - I could drag them from that drive onto the second internal drive. Does that work?"
    No, this does not work. MacOS X consists of more then 20,000 invisible files, most of them somehow connected and referencing each other.
    MacOS X DOES boot from external firewire drives, both hard disks and DVD drives.
    Why don't you just upgrade your current 10.3.9 to Tiger using this procedure: 10.4 Tiger Upgrade: Decision tree+Checklist?
    "Why does Tiger seem to install correctly, then System Pref>Startup Disc recognizes it, but then after selecting 10.4.3 it restarts into 10.3.9?"
    I am not a technician, but it could be that the firmware is the primary source for connectivity. After MacOS X has booted the internal firewire drivers might take over and "overrule" the firmware (this is why you can see it in the startup disk preference pane) but at boot-time it exclusively depends on the firmware. This theory might be completely wrong though.

Maybe you are looking for