Boot from a flash memory USB stick.

I'd like to be able to boot my MacBook (information in signature) from a USB flash memory stick. I have read instructions and suggestions, but I'd like to have feed back from users who have had a hands-on experience. I'm thinking about a 32GB USB stick, and I know I shall have to formate it before I actually select boot components from Leopard's installation DVD (or soon to come Snow Leopard), using "Pacifist", an e-mail client application, and GnuPG encryption software. I have already two USB cable connected "conventional" drives where I backup up regularly the whole contents of my HDD. The idea of an USB stick is to be able to boot the MacBook from it, in case of need. Thanks in advance for any feedback.

I have a 4GB with 10.4.11 installed with some utilities. It's not very fast, but better than keeping a hard drive around that does the same thing.
my install was limited due to available space. Had to install the OS on a 2nd partition on my macbook pro, ran some utilities that trim extra lang pkgs, etc. & also disabled / deleted apps such as dashboard, deep sleep mode, to name a couple.
Then I used Disk Utility to image that over to the thumb drive.
You won't have the space issue, so all you should have to do is format the flash drive to GUID HFS+, boot from the DVD & let the installer run. Not sure why you would need pacifist, the installer should work as long as the disc OS version supports your machine.
The encryption is up to you, never done it with the tool you mentioned, so you'll have to follow their instructions.
unless you are going to store data you don't want released / stolen / found by others, then personally I don't think it's necessary.

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Download jpeg photos to iPad from a flash memory card

I exported JPG photos using Iphoto to a usb flash memory card in a DCIM folder. I want a friend to download these photos on his Ipad.
I can use the Finder to display any of these photos from the flash memory card. So they exported right.
But his Ipad 2 with the latest IOS version does not see any photos when the flash memory card is connected to it using the usb connector.
The memory card has been formatted in MS-DOS
When I connect the flah memory card back to my Imac, I see all photo files with the Finder.
Iphoto sees the flash memory card but does not see any photos it exported.
How can I solve this?

Thank you for your suggestion.
Sorry, I used the terms usb flash memory card, I should have used USB flash drive in my question.
I tested your suggested solution. I changed the name of the photo to: I45.jpg and the result is the same. I always get the message "NO PHOTO CAN BE IMPORTED".
Any other suggestion?

How do I move/copy music from iTunes to my USB stick?

How do I move/copy music (a playlist) from iTunes to my USB stick, so that i can play it on my Media Center?

Are you using Finder to try and transfer, or are you using iTunes?
Using Finder should yield no "Decoder" error.

Booting from a flash drive

So I have a G4 that meets all the requirements for 10.5. I am currently running 10.4.11. I have a copy of 10.5 which is on a flash drive. I looked into it and followed the instructions on how to load from a flash drive. Reformatted to allow journaling and used disc utility to put the 10.5 installer on there bur when I hold option to try and boot from the drive the only possible drive to boot from is my internal hd. The flash drive doesn't come up as an option. Any ideas why?

Why rare when I can do it! All you have to do is type in open firmware the following:
boot ud:3,\\:tbxi or if you just have one USB device, type: boot ud:,\\:tbxi.
Works everytime, also works for flash drives and external optical drives hooked up to USB..
Only drawback: It won't appear as a start up disk under system preferences, I am trying to figure out how to hack it to make it recognize it. USB 2.0 booting on PowerPC was introduced silently with Tiger 10.4.3(from what I read).
for any powerpc mac, go into open firmware and type: devalias.. scroll until you see "ud"(your device needs to be hooked up for this to work). Then follow the instructions above.. You will be amazed to welcome USB as a new member of your powerpc bootable family.

Can't boot Arch for installation. USB stick issue.

I got stuck. I tried to install arch on my dekstop, but booting Arch from USB stick freezes in same point, after running hooks. I tried with two usb sticks, new iso etc. Ubuntu was installed before without any problem from the same stick.
It freezes after showing:
Waiting 30 seconds for device /dev/disk/by-label/ARCH_201108 ...
[4.053579] sd 12:0:0:0: [sdb] No Caching mode page present
[4.053634] sd 12:0:0:0: [sdb] Assuming drive cache: write through
[4.056259] sd 12:0:0:0: [sdb] No Caching mode page present
[4.059035] sd 12:0:0:0: [sdb] Assuming drive cache: write through
In some attempts I also got this:
ata_id[12376]: HDIO_GET_IDENTITY failed for '/dev/sdb': Invalid argument

Problem is sovled, but the solution is really courious.
In fact, there was no issue with usb stick. Display freezes on first showed lines and does not follow the rest. Arch booted successfully but I cannot notice that, because I still see first lines (messages from first post were just warnings). Switching FullHD, 16:9 monitor to old 3:4 display solved the problem.
It's really strange. Should I report it somewhere?
Last edited by 0xddr (2012-05-12 23:30:53)

Help to save a playlist in MP3 from ITunes to a USB stick...

Hello, I am trying to copy a playlist for my Dad to a USB stick, formatted Fat32. The files save as M3U, which my father cant play on his portable player. Can I save the libraary as MP3? I am fairly tech savvy, but this has got me stumped. Deb

Drag the files from the iTunes window to the flash drive on the desktop.

Hard disk doesn't appear in disk utility when booting from dvd only via usb

i put a new hard disk (wd3200bevt) in my macbook white and my macbook pro 2.4 (not alu). when i boot from the dvd (10.5) disk utility doesnt find any disk. when i boot from an usb stick with leopard on it then it found the disk and i can install the system. when the system is installed and the books can boot the installed system anything looks fine, but when i boot from the original dvds disk utility doesn't find any hard disk once more.... when i boot from my usb stick it shows the new disk in disk utility. what is the problem when i boot from dvd?

don't know but try two boots in a row. worked for me.

Booting from clone on a USB drive?

Hi.
I was thinking of installing SL to a Corsair Flash Voyager 16GB USB drive, and to carry that around in case my MBP ever died when I'm out 'n' about.
I'll be using external drives to handle data, so the USB would be just to boot from.
Good plan..?

Wow - this thread has grown!
I don't think I explained myself enough. I work with video cameras that require frequent downloading and archiving of data. This means being as lightweight as poss. Unfortunately I already have to lug around two G-Tech hard drives which the client takes away, so carrying a third (which may never even be used) isn't too attractive and the idea of a bootable USB which just carries the OS and the really important progs seemed nice.
On the other hand, you say it's slow? I hadn't expected that. And this job involves moving around multiple tens of GB of data quickly, so anything that introduces a bottleneck...
Maybe I'm better off with a 5 1/2" in a decent enclosure, like this http://www.amazon.co.uk/G-Technology-GDM4-500-EMEA-G-Drive/dp/B002RAXML0/ref=sr14?ie=UTF8&qid=1288727611&sr=8-4 . Bit of a price difference though...
Thanks for then input.

How to boot from Windows 7 installer USB-thumbdrive?

I have created a Windows 7 installer USB-thumbdrive from .ISO image using Boot Camp Assistant.
What I can't figure out how to make my Mac Mini boot from USB to start the Windows 7 installer. The USB-thumbdrive does not show up in the boot menu when pressing ALT during startup (I'm using generic PC keyboard) nor is it available for selection in System Settings --> System --> Startup Disk.
My computer is early 2009 Mac Mini, Intel Core 2 Duo, 4Gb RAM, OS X Mountain Lion 10.8.4.

Anyone?
Additional question: is a 2009 Mac Mini able to boot from USB to begin with?
The situation has become particular annoying, because my Mac Mini's optical drive appears to be damaged and therefor I'm not able to boot from any kind of Windows install DVD.

How do I enable booting from CD/DVD and USB drives?

Ok, I have been struggling with this all night, and I am stumped. I have a brand new z510 notebook, and I need to do a clean install of windows 8.1. Problem is that I can't seem to boot from CD or USB. I have entered the bios, and although the DVD rom drive works, and it shown correctly in BIOS, it does NOT allow me to add it to the boot list. Also, there is an option called 'Boot From USB' I enable that, and still the USB boot does not show up in the boot list. The only thing I have in the boot list is the 'Windows Boot Manager' and it lists the name of my drive.
I thought that maybe secure boot was the issue, but I tried disabling this, and is still doesn't let me do what I want.
I am kind of at my wit's end here. I just paid $800 for a top of the line laptop, and I can't even boot from a cdrom. Every computer I have had since the 1980s have allowed me to do just that without trouble.
What am I missing??
Solved!
Go to Solution.

Do you see any BIOS settings like "Boot mode" with a "CSM" or "Legacy" type of item as a choice? You might try toggling that to see if you can successfully boot from external media that way.
Disclaimer: I don't have a Z510 to confirm the BIOS screens. I'm going by inference from what I see on my Y2P and X1C.
Please let me know if this works.
Regards.
Edit: LenBlazer was quicker on the draw.
Please do post back with how things work out.
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Boot from Arch ISO on USB with UEFI BIOS [SOLVED]

After following the instructions here, I a FAT32 formated USB "ARCH_201209" with the extracted ISO on it but have no idea how to actually boot from this USB. When entering the BIOS on my MB, I see nothing that would allow me to select the USB as a boot device. Do I need to drop into the UEFI shell to accomplish this?
EDIT: It seems this is a limitation of my MB which is actually perfect in every other regard including overclocking. The board for reference is an Asus P8Z77-V Pro running BIOS v1504. I really hope they fix this BS in a subsequent BIOS update.
Last edited by graysky (2012-09-09 13:31:59)

Wow, this MB pisses me off. Turns out that I had to completely powerdown, plugin the USB, enter the BIOS and ONLY then was the USB available as a boot option. I wanted to test that I could actually boot to the thing and do so. Arch booted flawlessly.
What I found after rebooting out of the live USB was that I couldn't boot my system at all. The BIOS just kept coming up in an endless loop as I would select the 'arch_grub' option that previously worked. The solution to this bullshit was to drop to the EFI shell and add an entry that points to 'fs0:\EFI\arch\grubx64.efi "Arch Linux MANUALLY ADDED"'
:angry:
...can someone tell me why in the world we are going to UEFI boards? I actually opened a thread that has yet to receive a reply on this very topic. I am making this as solved. Thank you all for the quick replies.
Summary of links that really helped me:
UEFI Related:
https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/EF … l_Commands
https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/Gr … fi_package
Arch USB Related:
https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/UEFI#Archiso
Last edited by graysky (2012-09-09 13:33:22)

Why is it IMPOSSIBLE to send photos from iPhoto to a USB stick??

This is really starting to annoy me. I want to move photos from one computer to another using a USB stick. Is that really so difficult? Yet there is absolutely NO WAY to do this either from iPhoto or Finder. Or if there is, then it is so totally counter-intuitive that only Apple could have come up with it. I just wasted an hour of my life on this -- and I am NOT a happy customer.
The problem is that there are several hundred photos. Do I have to mark and transfer every single photo separately from Finder?

You can find the photos in the finder and copy them over to the USB

How do I copy music from itunes to a USB stick? I can't click and drag - it bounces back

How do I copy music from my computer to a USB stick? It won't let me click and drag - it bounces back.

If you drill down within the iTunes folder to the "iTunes Music" or "iTunes Media" folder you'll see that iTunes has the songs organised by artists. If you want a particular album, you'll have to know who the artist is. There's also a folder named "Various Artists" for complication albums. And as for me, I don't use a USB drive to back things up, I use an external hard drive, which can hold more data. If you don't have one, I recommend getting one.

Booting from external hard drive USB 2.0

I have an iBook G4 collecting dust in my garage because the internal hard drive is dead. I want to give it to my cousin just to surf the web so I took it to the genius bar and they were able to boot it from an external hd. Yesterday I purchased a 250 GB WD Passport external hd for $29 at Target. I was able to partition and format the hd from my MacBook Pro and have it PowerPC ready. Finally I was successful in installing Mac OS X Tiger onto it. Now that I am trying to boot from it on the iBook G4, I get nothing but the blinking folder with the question mark.
I have searched the forums and most people are quick to respond with the answer that a firewire hd is the only way to boot but I am hoping there is SOME other way around it, even if it means a lot of extra steps. Any help will be greatly appreciated. Thanks!

As Kappy says, while a few PowerPC Macs can boot from USB, I don't think that capability exists for an iBook.
http://support.apple.com/kb/TA25908
Note on the Apple Knowledge Base article:
Products Affected
Power Mac, iMac

Boot from second partition on usb hard drive

I have a time machine external usb drive. I have created a second partition of 8GB on this drive and restored OS X Install ESD 10.7.5 to this second partition so that I can easily rebuild if necessary. I would like to be able to boot from this second partition. When I hold down Option key at startup, I see the external drive as an option, but the iMac wants to boot from the Time Machine Backup partition, rather than the Lion Partition. It doesn't give me the choice of the second, bootable partition on this drive. Is it possible to do this?
[Mac 24" early 2009, running 10.7.5 Lion]

rchealey wrote:
Curiously when you boot from this partition, you get virtually the exact same experience as you do when booting from the recovery partition except that the recovery partition tends to suggest that it will download and install Lion, whereas booting from the partition containing the install doesn't mention download.
That's normal behavior. The Recovery HD only has enough code to go to Apple's servers and DL the installer; whereas, the InstallESD contains everything. Do note, however, that running either will check Apple's servers for additional components, whatever those might be. Thus, Internet access is required to do either.

Boot from a flash memory USB stick.

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