Advice needed: Cannot boot from new external SATA drive/enclosure.

I replaced my two internal drives with 1Tb Seagate ST31000340AS drives.
I also bought a Mercury Elite Pro external enclosure from Other World Computing (OWCMEFW924AL2K) and populated that with two more of the same drives.
I have RAID disabled and am using Super Duper! to backup/clone my two internal drives to the two external drives. The drives are all working fine, as are all the possible connections (USB2, FW400 and FW800).
After a backup/clone, the Disk Info in Disk Utility shows the external system drive clone to be bootable (which it should be, as my previous external drives were). However, any attempt to boot from the drive via the launch-option key method or by changing the startup disk in the preference panes fails. With the latter I get a brief blinking folder question mark, then it reverts to booting from the internal system drive. With the former, I am not even shown the external drive as a boot volume.
So, what could possible going on here? All the hardware and cables check out, and in all the time I've used Super Duper! it has always created bootable backup drives.
I have tried both FW400 and FW800 connections for the boot, and nada.
I'm really at a loss to explain what might be going on.

After a lengthy live support session last night, and a further phone call to their tech support today, we both realized we had run out of ALL options to fix the problem. (There is nothing you could imagine that we didn't try).
In the end, OWC were kind enough to offer an overnight crosship of a replacement enclosure. I guess their suspicion is that there is a defect on the board in the enclosure. We'll see once I get the replacement...

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Everytime I try to load a DVD-RW disk, it gets stuck in the drive. That's why I am trying to boot from the external DVD drive. When I try to boot from the external DVD drive, it doesn't even show up when I press the option key on startup.
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BOOT FROM AN EXTERNAL USB DRIVE???

I know apple has made it clear about booting from an external USB drive
http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=106474
but I know that there are people who are able to boot from an external drive, does anybody know how to do this?
It's just that id like to work on final cut studio on an external drive for various reasons:
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"Actually, USB II is faster than FW 400."
In theory, probably. In real life Firewire 400 is much faster than USB2, not to speak of Firewire 800:
"Wee Wiebetech" Portable FireWire/USB2 Drive Challenges The Fastest Competitors.

My Macbook air flash had gone for a month and I saw Apple's Macbook air flash storage drive replacement program. I'm not sure whether that program is still available for the broken device or not. Now, I'm booting from the external hard drive. Thank you.

My Macbook air flash had gone for a month and I saw Apple's Macbook air flash storage drive replacement program. I'm not sure whether that program is still available for the broken device or not. Now, I'm booting from the external hard drive. Warranty has gone in October 2013..
I want to send back my macbook air back to apple store. The problem is that I bought it from US and now, I'm using it in Myanmar. If the program is free of charge for my device, it's worth trying to send back to US. Since mine is broken, I'm afraid Apple will take charges for reparing.
So, if anyone having the same problem as me, I would like to get suggestion....
Thank you!!

I have no idea about how to handle the international aspect of your question.
But here is the Apple writeup about the problem and the remedy. Maybe that will help you.
http://www.apple.com/support/macbookair-flashdrive/

Booting from an external firewire drive

I bought an external hard drive (Western Digital, 320 gb, firewire). First, I erased the disk and formatted it as Mac Os Extended (Journaled).
I cloned my internal drive (using SuperDuper) on to the new external drive. My goal is to have an alternate bootable drive in case my internal drive fails. However, it will not boot on it even though it may be selected as the startup disk. And will not come up as an option when holding down the option key while booting. I've read about a similar problem that was posted but the solution confused me. Can you give me a solution to this problem?

First you should prep the drive correctly as follows:
Extended Hard 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. Set the number of partitions from the dropdown menu (use 1 partition unless you wish to make more.) Set the format type to Mac OS Extended (Journaled.) Click on the Partition button and wait until the volume(s) mount on the Desktop.
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 Options button, select the button for Zero Data (single pass) and click on OK to return to the Erase window.
6. Click on the Erase button. The format process may take up to several hours depending upon the drive size.
Steps 4-6 are optional but should be used on a drive that has never been formatted before, if the format type is not Mac OS Extended, if the partition scheme has been changed, or if a different operating system (not OS X) has been installed on the drive.
After formatting has completed select the volume you must created from the left side list, then click on the Restore tab in the DU main window. Drag the new volume to the Destination field. Drag your startup volume from the left side list to the Source field. Click on the Restore button.
After cloning has completed quit DU. Open Startup Disk preferences, select the new volume and click on the Restart button. Your computer should boot from the external drive.

How do I boot from an external hard drive if my MacBook Pro only recognizes the internal drive?

Hi there, I recently got the white screen of death (w/ circle slash) on my 13" 2009 MacBook Pro. Most people are saying that it is hard drive failure, so I am trying to boot it from an external hard drive to save some of my data before having it repaired. Unfortunately, every time I press "option" while it boots, it only shows the internal drive on the grey screen. I have my external drive connected, but it won't recognize it. What should I do?
Thanks!

Welcome to the Apple Support Communities
You can only start from an external drive if OS X is installed there. If not, it won't appear as a bootable volume because there isn't any operating system inside it.
As you have a Mid 2009 MacBook Pro, it's better to start from the Mac OS X disc that came with your Mac. Insert it and hold the C key while your Mac is starting. After starting, go to Utilities menu > Disk Utility, select "Macintosh HD" in the sidebar and repair it. If you can't get it repaired, take the computer to an Apple Store.
If the hard drive can't be repaired, the only option to recover your files is to use an application as DiskWarrior, but it's expensive and it's not sure that it will work, because it may fail

Booting from an external optical drive (Liteon ETAU108-01 or other)

Dear Apple community,
I´m considering buying the external DVD writer "Liteon ETAU108-01" as a replacement for my broken MacBook Pro (2 Duo) super drive.
Does anybody know, if it is possible to boot from this specific USB drive (eg. using DVDs with MacOS or DiskWarrior)? Or can I generally boot from any external optical DVD drive?
I´m also happy for recommendation of alternative DVD drives which would allow booting my Mac in an emergency.
Thank you very much,
Felix

will it recognize the external drive as the primary boot drive?
do I press C or option?
Will any external optical drive work?
Thank you very much!

Help please: how to boot from clone/external hard drive because "disk cannot be partitioned because some files cannot be moved"?

MBP Retina 15" MID 2014 2.5Ghz
OS X Yosemite 10.10
I have a external HDD and want to erase and restore my laptop so I can install windows via Bootcamp Assistant but I don't know how to boot from a clone to fix the issue and am not sure if when I erase and restore I will still have Yosemite 10.10? I have no way to reinstall the OS if I lose it. An average user friendly guide would be greatly appreciated please

I do not think you have to erase your MacBook's disk in order to install Windows. First of all you can try a few things before formatting the disk.
The first thing you should do is to check that your MacBook Pro's drive is OK with Disk Utility (in /Applications/Utilities). After opening it, choose "Macintosh HD" in the sidebar and press "Verify Disk". If it gives you any error, you will have to boot your Mac in OS X Recovery (press Command and R keys while your Mac is starting up) to repair Macintosh HD (the steps are the same but pressing "Repair Disk" instead of "Verify Disk").
After you have repaired the drive, boot up in OS X and try partitioning the drive again with Boot Camp Assistant. If it does not work, you will have to format the drive and reinstall OS X, but I will give you these steps only if this does not work.

How do you boot from an external hard drive if...

Thanks in advance to anyone who can offer any advice. My 24" IMAC suddenly had hard drive ****. After much investigation it has been determined that my internal hard drive has bit the dust. Instead of taking the IMAC apart and replacing the internal drive(which I know a bit about and also could get help doing)can I just replace it with an external drive and load the OS on that and boot from there? If so what exactly, step by step, would I need to do? What are the disadvantages of doing this? If this is possible it seems like an easier solution than replacing the internal drive.
Again, thanks for the help.
Bill

easybpw wrote:
can I just replace it with an external drive and load the OS on that and boot from there?
Yes, but it's not recommended for long-term use.
If so what exactly, step by step, would I need to do?
First, make sure the drive will boot a Mac. Most will, but some won't. If it's a Western Digital, check here: http://wdc.custhelp.com/cgi-bin/wdc.cfg/php/enduser/stdadp.php?pfaqid=1787. But note the disclaimer that they don't support it +*at all.+*
If you're reasonably sure the drive is capable of booting your Mac, you need to format it. Start up your Mac from the Install disc (insert it, and hold the "C" key while starting up). After selecting your language, select Utilities, then +Disk Utility+ from the menubar.
Select the drive, select the top line (with the make and size), click the Partition tab and select 1 Partition from the the pop-up menu under +Volume Scheme,+ unless you need more than one.
Give it a name under +Volume Information,+ and select +Mac OS Extended (Journaled)+ for the Format unless you're certain you need Mac OS Extended (Case-sensitive, journaled). Click the Options button below the box, and select GUID (that should be the default, but make sure), and click the OK button, then Apply. That should only take a few moments. Quit Disk Utility and you’ll see the Utilities menu again.
Quit that and proceed with the installation to the new drive. When done, I think it will reboot automatically from the external; if not, start up while holding down the Option key, which will give you the +Startup Manager,+ where you can select the desired drive.

How do I boot from an external CD drive?

On a different thread, I've been reporting problems with my internal HD.
When I went to Disk Utility and ran Verify Disk on the HD, I got the error back telling me that the Mac HD needs repairing. Now, to run the repair facility, I seem to have to reboot from the OS X CD rather than the Mac HD.
Trouble is, my internal optical drive failed some time ago (seems to be a known fault with iMacs that have the MATSHITADVD-R UJ-846 optical drive) and I've been using an external optical drive connected via firewire with no problems...until now. When I went to reboot from the CD (holding the C button down whilst selecting Reboot), my Mac just booted again from the internal HD.
How do I reboot from an external CD?
If I can do this, I can run the disk repair utility and hopefully all will then be well...
(Please spell out any suggestions for me as I am really quite new to all this stuff - Thanks!)

Hi Chris.
What is the version of the OS on the computer and what is the version of the OS Disc that you have inserted?
Make sure you have inserted the same version of the OS disc that is currently running on the computer.
For Example. If there is 10.5.x running on your computer, you have to insert 10.5 Disc and boot to it.
Cheers,
Gop's.

Can I boot from an external Firewire drive?

I have restored my internal system drive (27GB) to a 100GB partition on a 300GB external FW drive (as a backup).
Using System preferences I changed the startup disk to be the clone & rebooted to test.
No start and the only way to get going again was to turn the FW drive off & reboot.
Is it possible to boot from a FW drive?
Should a drive as described be bootable?
Any thoughts will be appreciated.
John

Thank you all for your input.
After some trial & error (& little sleep last night) I have made some progress:
Further research suggested that:
1. there may be a hardware issue with my Ex FW case (it has a Prolific PL-3507 chip)
2. Tiger (10.4.x) behaves differently from Panther (10.3.x) and possibly different versions of Tiger may behave differently
Also I have previously successfully used DU to move my OS from a 30GB to 120GB disk (both internal drives) under 10.3.9. This disk will boot when placed in a ext FW case.
I concluded that under 10.3.9 at least my case was OK & Apple DU was OK when run from the boot volume.
I also checked the clone made using DU under 10.4.3 by taking the HDD out of the FW case & installing it internally in my Mac - it wouldn't boot so DU hadn't made a bootable clone - it was never going to boot internally or externally. Ever.
Next step - SuperDuper! - worked perfectly - backed up & booted no fuss, no worries.
This confirms that the Prolific PL-3507 chip will boot an external FW disk under OS X 10.4.3.
I then referred to Lee Cullens' posts as quoted by Matthew Whiting (with a link above in this topic).
Lee has the answer (at least for my hardware/software configuration). For Apple's DU to produce a bootable clone it cannot be run from the disk which is being cloned (ie 3 volumes are needed
1st to boot from & run DU from
2nd to be cloned (the vloume to be backed up)
3rd to be colned onto - the backup
I tried DU from the boot disk again to "prove" it wouldn't work. While it appeared to clone correctly Permissions were all messed up & after over an hour of "Repairing Permissions" I gave up. The volume wouldn't boot even though system preferences saw it as a bootable volume.
I then ran DU from another volume (the one made using SuperDuper!). After verification (but not repairing permissions as I didn't want to potentially waste another hour!) it booted fine from the ext FW drive. I did however uncheck "Ignore Ownership" after Cmd-I on the volume from the desktop.
I conclude:
My hardware is OK (& probably others who may have similar issues)
Apple DU can make a bootable clone which will work on an ext FW drive PROVIDING 3 volumes are used - boot with DU on, from & to. Suitable for a bootable backup but a bit fiddly ( also free & regularly updated by Apple)
SuperDuper does the same job with less fuss (don't need a CD or 3rd volume + other features). As noted by Matthew basic cloning is free but I think the shareware cost will be worthwhile ($US27.95)
SuperDuper! here: http://www.shirt-pocket.com/SuperDuper/SuperDuperDescription.html
Thanks to all for their input.
I now have an answer that I'm more than happy with.
John

Why can't I boot from an external scsi drive?

In a previous post, I mentioned that my hard drive died. While trying to find ways to work around it, I dug out an old 4 GB SCSI drive I used to use with my old Mac, and hooked it up. When I booted from the OS 10.3 install disk, I was aboe to install the OS on the external drive, and choose it as the startup drive before rebooting. When I rebooted, however, the Mac could not see the SCSI drive as a startup drive. I tried it several times, changed the SCSI ID, erased the drive and reloaded the OS, repaired the directory with Disk Warrior, all with the same results.
What am I doing wrong?
Dave

What model SCSI card do you have installed? Some cards are driver-based, like the Adaptec 2906. Its driver is loaded from the boot drive, as the extensions are displayed across the screen during the startup process. As such, drives connected to that type of card can't be designated as the boot device. A newer SCSI card that's firmware-based, like the Adaptec 2930, can be used for booting the computer. If you have a card that's firmware-based, then you may need to update the firmware with a newer (Mac OS X) compatible version.

Trying to boot from an external hard drive - drive not recognized at boot

I am trying to upgrade my Operating system. I am going from Mac OS 10.4.11 to Mac OS 10.6.
Hardware:
Model Name:
MacBook Pro 15"
Model Identifier:
MacBookPro1,1
Processor Name:
Intel Core Duo
Processor Speed:
2.16 GHz
Number Of Processors:
1
Total Number Of Cores:
2
L2 Cache (per processor):
2 MB
Memory:
2 GB
Bus Speed:
667 MHz
To backup my existing environment I bought Seagate Free Agent GoFlex 500GB for PC and Mac. USB 3.0 but backward comaptible to USB 2.0 which is what my laptop is. The system requirements included support for 10.4.11. I attached the drive to my lap top and used disk utility to format to Mac Extended OS (journaled). It recognized the drive immediately.
I used SuperDuper 2.6.4 to copy all files to the external drive. It seemed to copy just fine. It said it made the drive bootable. TO test it, I shutdown the system and started it back up with the option key pressed, but it only gave me my original HD as a choice to boot from. When the system came up, it didn't recognize the external drive. I unplugged the drive and re attached it and it seemed to recognize it, I trued to reboot again and it doesn't recognize the hard drive on reboot. Only when I un attach and reattach it.
Any ideas?
Thanks in advance.

I haven't forgotten, it just takes forever to get to a result when backing up an entire system.
So here's what I did. I agree with this idea:
Limnos wrote:
mac-sales.com I mentioned above is the OWC Ogelthorpe uses.
I suspect StartupDisk is seeing a nicely mounted drive connected in a bootable interface (USB) with all the needed files (palced there by SuperDuper). However, what it doesn't know if that drive isn't really accessible until the computer has properly booted because the chipset doesn't work without full system support. This is not at all unusual in external drives. Many years ago you really has to insist upon having an Oxford chipset in an enclosure to guarantee booting, but for general backup use any chipset was fine.
I had an old Lacie drive I have used for file backups over the years:
Disk:
Name :
LaCie Group SA
Type :
Disk
Disk Identifier :
disk1
Media Name :
WDC WD80 0BB-00JHC0 Media
Media Type :
Generic
Connection Bus :
FireWire
Connection Type :
External
Connection ID :
58629628097197639
Partition Type :
GUID_partition_scheme
Device Tree :
/PCI0@0/PCIB@1E/FRWR@3/node@d04b560c0bf647/sbp-2@c000/@0:0
Writable :
Yes
Ejectable :
Yes
Mac OS 9 Drivers Installed :
No
Location :
External
Total Capacity :
74.5 GB (80,026,361,856 Bytes)
S.M.A.R.T. Status :
Not Supported
Disk Number :
1
Partition Number :
0
Name :
Macintosh HD
Type :
Volume
Disk Identifier :
disk1s2
Mount Point :
/Volumes/Macintosh HD 1
File System :
Mac OS Extended (Journaled)
Connection Bus :
FireWire
Partition Type :
Apple_HFS
Device Tree :
/PCI0@0/PCIB@1E/FRWR@3/node@d04b560c0bf647/sbp-2@c000/@0:2
Writable :
Yes
Universal Unique Identifier :
438A4768-6F2C-3A0A-96A3-AEF60B7B8815
Capacity :
44.5 GB (47,768,887,296 Bytes)
Free Space :
4.2 GB (4,464,005,120 Bytes)
Used :
40.3 GB (43,304,882,176 Bytes)
Number of Files :
432,903
Number of Folders :
97,585
Owners Enabled :
No
Can Turn Owners Off :
Yes
Can Be Formatted :
Yes
Bootable :
Yes
Supports Journaling :
Yes
Journaled :
Yes
S.M.A.R.T. Status :
Not Supported
Disk Number :
1
Partition Number :
2
I moved everything from the Lacie to the SEaget - at least is it will be useful for something!
Erased the Lacie, partitioned it to 2 partitions.
Formnatted the partition GUID as suggested. I had named the partition for the backup something cutre like 10.4.11 OS clone.
Used Disk Utility>Restore to backup/clone the environment.
During the backup, it renamed the partition Macintosh HD, which was encouraging. After waiting a very long time for the backup, I was able to try to test booting from it and received many diagnostic errors including permission type errors, some of the files in /etc did not beloing to root. I have a couple of things I am going to try but thought I'd throw it out here since you guys have kept me pointed in the right direction.
Any more ideas as to why the drive won' t boot? Did I not give the partition enough space? Is it the chipset thing?

No application runs after booting from an external (USB) drive

Hi all,
my best hope is that I just embarrass myself with a blatantly obvious question instead of finding a real issue that will be resolved only in later updates. Here it is:
As I want to upgrade my hard drive in my good ol' MacBook, I wanted to backup my present boot HDD to an external USB drive (freshly formatted, HFS+ journaled, GUID partition table). I tried both SuperDuper! and Carbon Copy Cloner. In both cases, the backup/cloning process goes fine, and I can reboot into the external drive, and the OS starts (yes, with wifi working, even iStat menus, textExpander etc. initiating fine). But all applications (not those on the menu bar, though) crash and notify me of some thread having tried some invalid operation, or sometimes I even got some vague reference to kernel protection.
Do you have any ideas what this is? Something new and (supposedly) secure in 10.5.6? I tried a fairly standard procedure, I think. (Also, it is a fairly pressing issue as I would not really want to waste much more time on this drive swap. And I would rather use disk-cloning than the install disk and sucking back data from an apparently unreliable backup.)
Many thanks for any thoughts!
(Just to inform the interested, I ran a fairly extensive cleaning-maintenance-rebuild cycle by the latest Onyx before starting all this, this should clean up the state of the OS pretty much. But I could not run DiskWarrior. Convince me if you think that this would solve the problem.)

Thanks Devin, I think my issue is a bit different.
I am 'long' past the 10.5.6 update (as long as possible), it did not crash, and Software Update checked what it wanted several times since then (as it is set to do so daily).
Thanks for the safe boot tip, I have not tried it yet, though I am skeptical why would this help applications starting up without breaking some kernel protection -- but only if I booted up from an external drive.
I repaired all I could before the cloning of the drive, only the deep maintenance of DiskWarrior was skipped. With the disk or the OS itself, I basically did what you can, even the stuff that you are rarely supposed to do. (Onyx is a great tool to do all these and more, freely.)
I am not sure either that a FireWire drive would have helped, but who knows. (But really, the OS would boot, just the applications would feel that their are on an 'inferior' drive?) In any case, FireWire drives are not that easy to come by, and a risky investment -- e.g. I could not use them with the new MacBooks. Oh, and all my work was done on a firm table, but again, the behavior would be hard to explain as the HDD misbehaving, as the OS had no glitch, just I could not start applications without their crashing immediately.
Thanks again, I hope I run into something useful or if it is a bug then Apple magically pushes out some update before their winter break, or I will sadly watch my precious new drive sitting on a table idly.

Advice needed: Cannot boot from new external SATA drive/enclosure.

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