Boot from an iMac?

This is complicated. Bear with me. I have this recurring problem with the MacBook. It is running OS 10.6.8. About once every 11 to 12 months it gets some software problem. I don't know how specifically how it starts, because the problem does not occur when I am using it. But another user reports that the computer suddenly gave him the spinning wheel of death, and the only way he could deal with it is to remove the battery. Now, though, when we start the MacBook, we get the hollow thermometer running across the bottom of the Happy Mac window. This is the third time this has happened in the last two years. On the first two occasions the MacBook went ahead and started up, even though it took a good ten minutes to do so. Now, though, the thermometer goes quickly one-third of the way across, and the display goes to a gray screen with the spinning cursor. Nothing further happens.
I run Applejack. It reports a catalog error. The catalog has a "1" where it should have a "0." But Applejack cannot repair the hard drive.
In the past I have then booted up from the Installation DVD, wiped the hard drive, and restored from the back up.
This time the DVD drive does not work. I stick the Installation DVD in, the drive makes a loud abnormal whirring sound, and maybe it ejects the DVD, maybe not. Right now the DVD is out of the drive.
The drive complained the last time I used it, which was the last time the computer gave me this catalog problem. That was some time in the last year. With broadband, we do not use the DVD drive for much of anything except this annual booting up from the Installation DVD. I have to think that the DVD drive maybe just went bad from inactivity.
I suppose that I could order a new DVD drive and put it in. I replaced most of the guts of the previous iBook often enough to think that I might give it a go on the MacBook.
But what I am wondering now is if I could connect the MacBook to an external DVD drive and boot up the MacBook from the Installation DVD in the external drive. The only external DVD drive I have is a 2001 iMac running 10.3.x. I have USB cables but no Firewire cable.
Could I connect the MacBook to the iMac and boot the former from a DVD in the latter's drive?

Update: I continued playing around with the optical drive---sticking a DVD in and watching it pop out as I started and restarted the computer. (The DVD was not the installation disc; it was something I did not mind playing with.) Eventually the drive did read the DVD. I whipped out the first DVD and inserted the Installation DVD. From there it was a simple--if time-consuming--task to wipe the hard drive and restore from the back up. So the answer here appears to be to use the optical drive from time to time just so that it does not gum up from disuse.

Similar Messages

Can MacBook Pro be booted from iMac

My 2008 15 inch MBP hard drive died
I verified it by putting it in one of external drive holders and that will not read it either. it has been making noise for a while. Back up every week so I am ok.
The replacement HD is already formatted for this computer as I use as an external already.
The screen flashes ? or if I press Option it just stays gray with curser working
Tried other HD's
Checked for cables I may have removed but it is an easy job.
I don't have Disks can I boot from my iMac?
Thanks

Hello jimicocobop,
To get your MacBook Pro to have an operating system installed you will want to create a Recovery Disk Assistant with a external drive or USB stick. Take a look at the article below to walk you through getting that set up through your iMac so you can then get you MacBook Pro up an running again.
OS X: About Recovery Disk Assistant
http://support.apple.com/en-us/HT202294
Regards,
-Norm G.

Booting from DW4.0 CD = Kernel Panic on my iMac G5, but not my Desktop DPG5

Hi,
I am having a problem. Very strange.
I tried to start up my iMac G5 using the internal SuperDrive booting from the Alsoft DiskWarrior CD that is the latest v4.0 and supposed to be compatible. Instead of booting, I get a panic screen. I photographed it if anyone could decipher it? Anyway, after 14 back and forth e-mails with Alsoft, the makers of Disk Warrior, and much extensive testing, we concluded...
1) their DW4.0 Boot CD should work but doesn't on the iMac G5
2) it's got to be the SuperDrive that is at fault.
I was able to use the same CD in my desktop G5 computer. I was able to burn a copy of it and boot from the copy also in my Desktop Mac.
When I try to boot from the iMac Superdrive - kernel panic and no go with all of these CDs.
What do I do now? I've got AppleCare on this computer?
Anyone have any ideas?
Thanks, and so long for now, TOM

If you can boot your computer using the OS X disc, then then chances are your computer itself is fine (good news!).
I'd lean on Alsoft a little more to send you a replacement. You have a defective product, and you have demonstrated that your computer's DVD drive is, in all likelihood, functioning properly. Call Alsoft, and if the assistant won't help you, ask to speak to someone senior, who hopefully knows their job a little better.
If you are in the U.K., you can draw attention to The Sale of Goods Act 1979 section 48b subsection 2 "If the buyer requires the seller to repair or replace the goods, the seller must a) repair or, as the case may be, replace the goods within a reasonable time but without causing significant inconvenience to the buyer; b) bear any necessary costs in doing so..." (Source: Blackstone's statue book on Contract, Tort & Restitution).
If not from the U.K., I'm sure a little digging will find something of similar use.

Bondi iMac 233 won't boot from hard drive,

I have a Bondi iMac 233, 192MB running OSX 10.3 which was being throw out at work, the hard drive (40GB IBM Deathstar) was failing but it would still boot up. I installed an original 6GB iMac Hard Drive, low level formated the drive and installed OS9.2. Now the iMac refuses to boot from this hard drive or even another 4GB Hard Drive.
The iMac will boot from CD and I can see and install a new OS onto the Hard Drive, OS9 or OSX, I can choose the drive under the Startup Control Panel but the computer refuses to boot from the Hard Drive.
I have zapped the PRAM,
Reset the NVRAM
Reset the CUDA chip.
Reset the Logic Board
Reseated Cables
Reseated Processor and memory modules
All to no avail.
Does anyone have any other ideas?
thanks
Bondi iMac Mac OS 9.2.x

I've been doing this with about 14 iMacs slot/tray that I'm prepping for inner city kindergartens in Chicago. I have had that problem where in moving from 10.3.9 to 9.2.2 the iMacs wouldn't recognize the HDs. Booting from an original iMac OS 9 install disc and selecting the HD as start up has always solved the problem for me.
However, and maybe this is related,
I've had the problem with a couple of tray loaders where in moving from 10 to 9 it wouldn't recognize the CD-ROM drive. I went through a bunch of drives before I figured out that booting from an iMac OS 8.6 CD made the iMac rerecognize the drive. I was able to reset?? all the drives that wouldn't previously work using this method. Weird but maybe there's a chip in the drive board that needed to be reset. Dunnno about the HDs tho' but it could be related.
Richard

HT4848 My old Mac G5 displays "You need to restart your Mac" + gray screen. Won't boot from any disc, no safe start, did PRAM reset... nothing. HELP!

My old iMac G5 won't restart no matter what I try. I get "You must restart your mac" plus grey screen. I've reset PRAM, tried safe start, tried booting from original iMac discs.. all no good. This happened when I was deleting files in preparation for trading in at Best Buy. Anybody know what's going on?

If you are really running a an "old Mac G5", then you have posted in the wrong Forum.. You have posted in the "Intel iMac Forum" by mistake.

24" iMac - Wont boot from HD or disc... Help!

Hi guys,
Just been working on iMac, forget the exact spec but it's a 24" Intel 2.something Core 2 Duo or whatever it is, 4gb DDR2 RAM, gotta be about 2 years old to the day and after my last 2 Macs have lasted forever, never developing a fault, I didn't take out Applecare... Perhaps I had a bit too much faith...
As I say, just working away and all of a sudden, upon putting a video in Quicktime to full screen, the whole image has kinda of condensed itself into the top 20% of the screen and started slightly flickering the image. I've tried quitting some of the programmes, but neither the mouse nor leyboard have been responding so I've just had to turn the computer off.
I've gone to turn it back on, and after about 30 seconds, it's got as far as the grey screen but then the little spinning progress indicator pauses and it does nothing else.
I've reset the PRAM and that made it take longer before it froze but ultimately did nothing.
I've now tried getting it to boot from the Snow Leopard disc but this does the something, until after about 3 - 5 minutes, the screen goes all pshychedlic, like looking at an old school TV really close...
So looking for any suggestions on other things to try before I have to take to my local store... Any hazard a guess at what may be up with it?
I've got a back up the whole computer but I don't think this is a software problem, I'm assuming it's going to be a hardware one?
Any help at all would be much appreciated!

Ok, tried Safe Mode and that wont boot either. Saw a little progress bar on the grey screen though which made a change, but ultimately, it crashed once that had disappeared.
I've just noticed that at the point when the progress wheel stops spinning, a pattern of dead pixels appears across the screen that aren't there when the progress wheel is spinning.
The more I talk to people about this, the more graphics card seems to come back as the likely culprit, based on the fact that:
- it started by me putting a video to full screen
- the fact the display went weird when it first happened and also it plays up after it crashes with the psychedelic colours
- it wont boot from HD, disc or now in safe mode either, however it does run AHT fine.
- I've hoovered out the vents on the iMac and somehow it seems slower than it was before (bit odd)
- the dead pixel thing mentioned above
So now thinking it may be time to get a new graphics card?
Reckon this is likely, even though the AHT hasn't picked up any problems? As mentioned earlier, I'm not too concerned about it would seem it doesn't particularly test the graphics card too much, so all just seems to point towards it.
Anything else that I could do to single this out as the likely culprit?
Guess this is a chance to upgrade!

Trying to install SL on a new hard-drive for my iMac, when asked which disk to install on it gave me no options, i followed advice from another forum and created a partition, now can't boot from the new drive at all. Help?

I've had **** with my iMac, the hard-drive failed so i replaced it with a new 1TB Samsung drive. Then when i tried to install SL from the install disk, all went to plan until it asked me which drive i wanted to install it on, where it came up with a box where my options should have been, but instead it didn't give me any options to install it on any drive i.e. it asked which drive i wanted to install it on but no drives came up to select.
So i followed the advice from another forum, look at the 'Extended Hard-drive preparation' response
( https://discussions.apple.com/message/10576009#10576009 )
After following these instructions i have now got a new partition, but when i restarted my computer to install SL on the drive, the option to boot from the drive is now not available, now i must boot from the install disk, whereas before i was able to boot from either the install disk or the hard drive. The hard drive is still visible in disk utility as it always has been, but i am now unable to boot from it, let alone install SL.
Please help my iMac has been broken for months and i've been trying to fix it for so long and am getting problem after problem. Thank you!
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Hi db2
That off the shelf MS-DOS / FAT-32 drive needs to re-partitioned GUID Partition Table / Mac OS Extended (Journaled) before you can install OS X and Startup your Intel iMac from it.
1. Boot from your original install or retail SL DVD and open Disk Utility.
2. Highlight the new HD in the list of drives and select the Partition tab.
3. Under Volume Scheme select 1 Partition and click on the Options... button.
4. Select GUID Partition Table in the drop down window and click OK.
5. Set the Format to Mac OS Extended (Journaled) and click the Apply button.
6. Once thats done, then you can do a clean SL Install, Restore from TM , your old HD or Bootable Clone.
Dennis

Why won't my iMac 27" boot from external hard drive?

I have a new 27in Intel i5 dual core 3.6GHz iMac. It works wonderfully.
My question is this. I have a Pleides Ice Cube external hard drive with a USB 2.0/Firewire enclosure with a 500GB hard drive. I used diskutility to format the hard drive as a GUID Partition Table. I then used SuperDuper to clone the iMac OS 10.6.7 and Apps over to it.
I can select the external drive in System Preferences/Startup Disk to boot from, but when booting the iMac gets as far as the white screen then just stops loading.
I have tried both the USB connection and the Firewire connection (with a Firewire 800 to 400 cable).
I have run Disk Utility and repaired the disk and the preferences.
I have used Disk Warrior to rebuild the directory as well, but the iMac will not boot from the drive.
It does boot from the original DVD's and its own hard drive.
My old 24" iMac had no trouble booting from this hard drive or any of the others I have collected over the years, so I am reluctant to think it is the external drive. It is something to do with this particular processor Snow Leopard and external drives.

It sounds like something in the SuperDuper clone might not have copied well. To get the full answer on that I would check with Apple or SuperDuper to see if they support each other.
As a quick test, if you restart and immediately press and hold "option" on your keyboard do you see your external HD as an option to boot from? If so, click it and see if the boot runs any differently, but if you don't see it at all that could show that the problem is more deep rooted.
Personally, if looking in to either of those didn't give me any other info to go on, I would reformat and start the clone again. BTW, do you know for sure GUID Partition is the format you'd want to do this on? Generally macs use "Mac OS Extended" and some external HDs can use "FAT32" (if you want them to work well with Windows)
Hope that gives a little direction
Alex

I need to have both Snow leopard and Lion...Mountain lion running on my iMac. How do I install Lion or Mountain lion on an Ext H D and boot from it?

My software is obsolete (and now dead) in 10.7 so I need to keep Snow leopard alive to run that- but now things like TurboTax are dropping support for 10.6 or lower and I have to have lion or Mountain Lion available. I actually downloaded Lion onto a thumb drive but never installed it when I found out that it would immedaitely render all my FreeHand files inaccessible (years of work!), Now that I am forced to have an OS above 10.6 I was hoping I could install whichever--Lion or Mountain Lion onto an external hard drive and figure out how to boot from that (found something in archives I think, but I need words of one syllable or less). This way I could, ideally, boot from either the External hard drive in the higher OS when needed, or from the internal hard drive when I need to use Snow leopard. There is a long story here, but I think this is the gist. I wasn not sure if this should be asked here or in either Lion or Mountain Lion (both of which I have, essentially, ignored since I would not be moving up until I could figure out how to access those old files of forms and drawings00but now I have no choice. I am panicking now that I HAVE to make the move anbd cannot afford to buy another Mac just to keep two separately running. Any help would be greatly appreciated. i asked Apple when Lion came out and they said there was no way to partition (even if I KNEW how to do that) the haaard drive and install both on my iMac-- but I "think" this is a bit different and possible??? Thanks (once/if I figure this out, I need to figure out how to back-up but that is another matter)

You need to move to Windows 7, because Apple is now releasing a new OS X version annually and it's playing havoc with people's hardware and software.
Windows 7 will get support until 2020, that's 8 years of software stability, however you do need to make System Restore disks, boot disk and another on a hard drive to self restore (like TimeMachine is for OS X)
Apple has no plans to change their currrent behavior as all they care about is selling new hardware with a shiny new OS X verison on it.
If you wait to move, what will happen is you'll lose that full 8 years and will have to swtich to a newer Windows sooner
Windows 7 machines are still widely avaialble, despite Windows 8 (a failure) being pushed currently.
Running three OS X operating systems on one machine is quite a chore reserved for only seasoned computer geeks, then it's only going to last X months as the next OS X version will be released, then the next a year after that.
Another method would be to get a virtual machine software (virtualbox is free) and install Windows 7 into that to ease your transitition if you cant' spring for a Windows 7 machine, preferablly a tower that will last a long time.
Here is a method to run Snow Leopard in Parallels, however it's a unapproced hack and not for the comptuer newbie.
http://forums.macrumors.com/showthread.php?t=1365439
We have no control over Apple's OS X release cycle, nor the third party developers who make their own decisions what to support.
Our only choice as users to stop using both products and seek software/hardware stability.

IMac 24" Aluminium - No way to boot from DVD

Dear all:
Thank you for having this forum fully working.
My iMac 24" Aluminium (november 2008) can't boot, completely frozen, although all HW are perfectly working.
I'll try to explain the issue best I can.
SYMPTOMS
- Grey screen of death without Apple's logo.
- No bootable devices detected (either HDD or DVD) by EFI, when you hold ALT (Option) while booting.
- No way to force boot from DVD.
CAUSE OF PROBLEMS
a) HDD has 3 partitions created by DiskUtils:
/dev/disk0s2= Mac OS(HFS+)
/dev/disk0s3= Linux DVD Installer (FAT32)
/dev/disk0s4= User Data(HFS+).
b) rEFIt installed and fully working on the system ( http://refit.sourceforge.net/ )
c) Linux DVD installer partition was filled this way:
dd if=/path/to/linux.iso of=/dev/disk0s3
As you can see, there are no HW errors at all, everything was perfectly working before dumping the Linux iso into FAT partition.
TRIALS FOLLOWED (and all its combinations).
TRIAL 1 - Erasing EFI values on memory.
Leave the iMac disconnected from power cord a whole night for memories to loose their values.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JId524890zc.
TRIAL 2 - Force empty memories during boot.
CMD+ALT+P+R -> Result OK (reboot)
CMD+ALT+N+V -> No effect
CMD+ALT+O+F -> No effect
http://support.apple.com/kb/ht1533
TRIAL 3 - Force boot from DVD.
C while boot -> Read DVD first, but can't boot.
http://support.apple.com/kb/ht1533
TRIAL 4 - From Startup Manager, try to boot from DVD.
ALT (Option) while boot -> See cursor arrow on screen, can't see DVD as boot option.
a) Try with DVD already inside the unit.
b) Try to insert DVD once I see the cursor arrow on screen.
https://discussions.apple.com/thread/1383424?start=0&tstart=0
TRIAL 5 - Remove RAM memories to reset EFI to factory defaults.
- Remove all RAM from unit.
- Boot from DVD (C key hold) -> Unit beeps.
- Shutdown and fill one bank with memory.
- Wait 15 minutes for EFI memories values to be deleted.
- Boot from DVD (C key hold) -> Access DVD first, but no boot.
TRIAL 6 - Boot from external Mac (Firewire + PC fully working).
This is the only trial missing before replacing the HDD of the unit... finger crossed.
http://forums.macrumors.com/showthread.php?t=271975
IDEAS AND CONCLUSIONS
- Any more ideas?
- How is it possible that a SW problem affects the HW in a way that can't be booted from DVD? Somethings is terribly wrong on iMac EFI design... terribly poor stability.

Dear all:
Thank you for having this forum fully working.
My iMac 24" Aluminium (november 2008) can't boot, completely frozen, although all HW are perfectly working.
I'll try to explain the issue best I can.
SYMPTOMS
- After a chime... grey screen of death without Apple's logo.
- No bootable devices detected (either HDD or DVD), when you hold ALT (Option) while booting.
- No way to force boot from DVD.
CAUSE OF PROBLEMS
a) HDD has 3 partitions created by DiskUtils:
/dev/disk0s2= Mac OS(HFS+)
/dev/disk0s3= Linux DVD Installer (FAT32)
/dev/disk0s4= User Data(HFS+).
b) rEFIt installed and fully working on the system ( http://refit.sourceforge.net/ )
c) Linux DVD installer partition was filled this way:
dd if=/path/to/linux.iso of=/dev/disk0s3
As you can see, there are no HW errors at all, everything was perfectly working before dumping the Linux iso into FAT partition.
TEST BED
In the process of dealing with iMac booting problems I organized a test bed which allow to detect where the booting is failing:
STAGE 0 - Setting initial boot memory conditions.
STAGE 1 - Reset NVRAM memory to factory defaults.
STAGE 2 - Booting from external device.
STAGE 3 - Reinstall iMac firmware.
STAGE 4 - Hardware intervention.
Before running the test bed:
a) Unplug all devices except USB keyboard (no wireless keyboard, no mouse... you can plug an USB mouse once you see the graphical user interface up and running).
b) Combination of keys available on booting:
http://support.apple.com/kb/ht1533
STAGE 0 - Setting initial boot memory conditions
This bundle of tests must be executed before any test of next stages.
TEST 0.1 - Erasing booting memory values.
Leave the iMac disconnected from all wires (especially power cord) for 15 minutes for memories to loose their values.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JId524890....
TEST 0.2- Resetting PRAM memory.
a) Press Power button
b) Press CMD+ALT+P+R keys while black screen, before you hear the chime.
c) Hold these keys until you hear 3 chimes (3 reboots).
http://support.apple.com/kb/ht1379.
STAGE 1 - Reset NVRAM memories to factory defaults.
TEST 1.1 - Validate machine with Apple's Hardware Test.
=> Detect Hardware errors with Apple's Hardware Test
a) Original Apple's Installation DVD on the machine
Installation DVD should show something like this
DISC 1
Mac OS version 10.5.4
AHT version 3A152
Disc version 1.1
2Z691-6304-A
To use Apple Hardware Test, hold down the D key as the computer starts up.
b) Holding Down D key as the computer starts up
http://support.apple.com/kb/HT1509.
=> Hardware OK: continue with Stages 1, 2 and 3
=> Hardware Failure: jump to Stage 4 (skip Stages 1, 2 and 3)
=> Unable to run Apple's Hardware Test: jump to Stage 3, firmware restoration
TEST 1.2 - Change RAM Configuration: amount or disposition.
a) Open RAM Slot
b) Extract RAM stick from Slot.
c) If you only have one RAM stick, reintroduce it in the unused empty slot of memory.
TEST 1.3 - Resetting PRAM memory.
Please check TEST 0.2
STAGE 2 - Booting from external device
TEST 2.1 - Boot from DVD.
a) Introduce Apple's Mac OS original DVD on the unit.
b) Run Test 0.1 and Test 0.2
=> Force DVD as Booting Device.
c) Press power button.
d) Press C key while black screen, before you hear the chime.
e) Keep hold the C key until you see the MacOS installer window.
http://support.apple.com/kb/ht1533
=> If still no boot from DVD: StartUp Manager with DVD inside the machine.
c) Keep hold Power Button 10 seconds to reboot the machine.
d) Press ALT key while black screen, before you hear the chime.
e) Keep hold the ALT key until you see the StartUp Manager.
f) From StartUp Manager, choose DVD as booting option.
https://discussions.apple.com/thread/138...
=> If still no boot from DVD: StartUp Manager without DVD inside the machine.
c) Keep hold Power Button 10 seconds to reboot the machine.
d) Press F12 key while black screen, before you hear the chime.
e) Keep hold the F12 key until DVD is spelled from the iMac.
f) Run StartUp Manager again (see steps above) .
g) Insert Apple's Mac OS DVD on machine while StarUp Manager is running.
h) From StartUp Manager, choose DVD as booting option.
https://discussions.apple.com/thread/138...
TEST 2.2 - Firewire cable and Target Mode: run installer from external Mac.
http://forums.macrumors.com/showthread.p...
TEST 2.3 - Remote Installation.
You can run this test twice: remote installation from PC and MAC.
=> Remote Installation Server on PC/MAC:
a) Mac OS DVD on PC/MAC optical drive
b) Install Network Client (just run setup.exe from DVD and follow the steps until everything is installed).
c) Keep open a window saying... machine is ready for Remote Install.
=> Physical Direct Network Connection between Remote Installation Server and iMac
a) Unplug power cord from iMac for 15 minutes.
b) Connect to the Server Machine this way:
Option 1.- Crossover Ethernet wire direct connection,
Option 2.- Using an Ethernet switch with no additional devices plugged to the switch.
=> StartUp Manager on Client
a) Run Test 0.1 and Test 0.2
b) Press power button.
c) Press ALT key while black screen, before you hear the chime.
d) Keep hold the ALT key until you see the StartUp Manager.
e) From StartUp Manager, choose NetInstall as booting option.
http://support.apple.com/kb/PH6450
TEST 2.4 - NetInstall.
=> Prepare NetInstall Mac OS NetBoot Server
Option 1 - Using Mac OS X Server
http://support.apple.com/kb/HT4178
Option 2 - Using Linux Server
https://docs.math.osu.edu/linux/how-tos/...
=> Force Boot from the Network
a) Run Test 0.1 and Test 0.2
b) Press Power Button.
c) Press N key while black screen, before you hear the chime.
d) Keep hold the N key until you see the Mac OS X Installation screen.
=> If no NetBoot after 15 minutes: NetBoot from StartUp Manager
a) Keep hold Power Button 10 seconds to reboot the machine.
b) Press ALT key while black screen, before you hear the chime.
c) Keep hold the ALT key until you see the StartUp Manager.
d) From StartUp Manager, choose NetInstall as booting option.
TEST 2.5 - Apple's Mac OS Installer/Reparation from External USB HardDrive.
Very unlikely to work.
=> Create Bootable OS X USB device
a) Format HDD with GUID partition.
http://support.apple.com/kb/PH7247
b) Fill the partition with the Mac OS X installer (only the version your iMac came with, no newer, no older).
=> Boot iMac from USB device
http://support.apple.com/kb/HT1948
STAGE 3 - Reinstall/Repair iMac Firmware
TEST 3.1 - Using Firmware Reinstallation CD.
a) Download and burn Firmware Restoration CD for your iMac
iMac 8,1: http://support.apple.com/kb/TA24012
b) From power off state, press the power button and continue to hold it down until the "Sleep" LED blinks rapidly three times, then slowly three times, then rapidly three more times... this could be chimes, instead of LED blinks! Keep the power button pressed down.
c) Insert the Firmware Restoration CD you have burned into the iMac's CD drive, then release the power button.
d) Monitor the "Progress Bar" beneath the Apple logo as the restoration process updates your iMac's firmware, taking care not to disconnect the power, shut down your computer or restart your computer (otherwise, you will have to start over). The iMac will restart automatically once the firmware restoration is complete.
TEST 3.2 - Using Apple's Propietary Software.
Contact Apple's Technical Support to know the price.
STAGE 4 - Hardware Intervention
TEST 4.1 - Replace the faulty Hardware on your own.
a) To detect faulty Hardware, please run Test 1.1
b) Replace the Hardware following those instructions:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3w6E2_Xqa...
TEST 4.2 - Contact Apple's Technical Support.

Can't boot from snow leopard bootable hard drive on my new 27 imac

Hey guys
I have just bought a new 27in Imac with all possible upgrades.
I have an old 2.2 MBP running snow leopard. I used carbon copy clone to make a bootable clone.
It will boot from the hard drive on my MBP ( the one I cloned it from) but it will not boot on my Imac.
I can select it from the boot screen ( holding down alt) but after I select it I just get the apple logo and nothing happens.
Can anyone shed some light on this for me? I have looked through tones of forums but can't seem to fine the answer.
Will the new mountain lion not boot snow leopard? If it can boot windows I don't see why it wouldn't boot my clone.
Thanks in advance peeps

I don't think it is fixable. Your new Mac has come installed with Mountain Lion. My understanding, from what I've learned on these boards, is that a Mac cannot boot from an OS earlier than the one that was installed at point of manufacture. I believe it is to do with the firmware that is on later models.
It also means that you cannot install an OS earlier than the one the machine came with (apparently this can be worked around by installing an earlier OS in a Virtual Machine, like some people install Windows on their Macs. This is not something I've done, but a regualr poster on here MichaelLAX, I think, has described how it's possible).
If you're wanting to just erase and start afresh with the MBP surely you can do that with the clone? You don't need the iMac to do that.

My iMac (late 2006) no longer boots from FireWire drives, although they contain all the system files.

My iMac (late 2006) no longer starts (boots) from Firewire drives, although they all contain a current system (Mac OS X 10.6.7). If the drives are connected with USB 2, they boot normally. The FireWire drives appear in the Start Volume program, but they do not boot. If I press and hold the Alt key while booting, only the internal drives and the USB drives appear as options. What can I do in order to boot from FireWire drives as I always could in the past?

I'd first recommend doing a SMC reset and if that doesn't work refer to:
http://reviews.cnet.com/8301-13727_7-10333969-263.html
and
http://www.thexlab.com/faqs/firewiretroubleshooting.html
SMC RESET
Shut down the computer.
Unplug the computer's power cord and all peripherals.
Press and hold the power button for 5 seconds.
Release the power button.
Attach the computers power cable.
Press the power button to turn on the computer.
PRAM RESET
Shut down the computer.
Locate the following keys on the keyboard: Command, Option, P, and R. You will need to hold these keys down simultaneously in step 4.
Turn on the computer.
Press and hold the Command-Option-P-R keys. You must press this key combination before the gray screen appears.
Hold the keys down until the computer restarts and you hear the startup sound for the second time.
Release the keys.
Roger

Imac G3 ppc hard disk failure can't boot from cd

Hi All,
My hard is disk making repetitive clicking noises and the machine won't boot up, I just get a grey screen and eventually a flashing folder/question mark. I did manage just once to start from the install CD,but Disk Utility couldn't see the internal HD so that was a dead end, can't repair what it can't see! and I haven't been able to start it since. Tried various key combos on start (safe mode,clearing PRAM) still nothing. Bit the bullet and took out the internal drive and put it back (nothing to lose, you never know? ). As it seems the HD is beyond help and the fact that changing over the HD is reasonably straightforward physically, I am considering buying a replacement and doing it myself. Now I haven't done a repair like this before and wonder if when I power up with the new HD in place will I be able to boot from the original install disk ie. holding down "c" (which is not the case at the moment) and format and install the OS onto the new Hard Disk ?
I would rather spend a couple of quid and save the machine than have to spend hundreds on a new one.

I did try using my external USB connected CD reader/writer using the option key on start but couldn't get past the blue screen with the arrow and refresh icons.
The iMac G3 will not boot from a USB device.
Be careful when booting software that hasn't run on the machine before. You need to have the lastest firmware on the machine when booting 10.2, 10.3, or 10.4 on the machine. I
You could disassemble the external firewire drive & swap in a dvd drive. I did this. The dvd drive will not fit in the case, but who needs a case anyway. Just use the electronic parts.
You need to figure out the level of your firmware before installing10.2 or greater. ( The PC name for firmware is BIOS. ) Installing 10.2with a down level firmware will most likely make your iMac unusable anddifficult to fix.
What is firmware?
The firmware software receives control when you poweron your machine. It does some hardware testing and some hardware configuration then passes control to your version of MacOS. It reside on a PROM ( program read only memory ) chipon the logic board.
Figuring out what level of firmware you have?
1) Mac OS 9.x or 8.x, you need to use the Apple System Profiler.
Apple -> Apple System Profiler
2) Mac OS X, use the System Profiler.
Apple -> About This Mac
click on the More Info... tab
click on Hardware
read the Boot ROM Version
3) Open Firmware, boot into Open Firmware.
Power on your iMac while holding down command+option+o+f
The first output line contains the firmware level. Mine reads:
Apple PowerMac4,1 4.1.9f1 BootRom built on 09/14/01 at 13.18.04
Copyright 1994-2001 Apple Computer Inc.
On my machine, I have 4.1.9f1.
What firmware do you need?
http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=86117
For a slot loading iMac, this article indicates that you need to berunning 9.1 or later version of Mac OS Classic.
http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=75130
"The iMac Firmware Update 4.1.9 will only run on iMac computers withlot-loading CD or DVD drives running Mac OS 9.1 or later from a localdrive. If you are using Mac OS X you must boot from a local Mac OS 9.1or later writeable partition (not a CD, or network disk) prior tofollowing the update instructions."
You can download the Mac OS 9 updates from the Apple site.
http://support.apple.com/kb/HT1387?viewlocale=en_US

Is there a way to boot up an iMac G5 from an external drive (PowerBook G4) running 10.2.8?

I have an iMac G5 running 10.5.8 and a couple of MacBooks running 10.6.
I also have a cherished old PowerBook G4, which will only rarely and briefly start up these days. It runs 10.2.8.
I would like to try to recover the original working environment (files and OS but also user interface, desktop settings, preferences, etc) of the PowerBook G4. I presume that one way of doing this would be to remove the hard drive of the PowerBook, place it in an enclosure, and try to boot up from it as from an external hard drive.
Would this be possible? Would I be able to boot my iMac G5 from the old drive or would this be impossible because of the drive's 10.2.8 OS? What are the alternatives?
What are some tips for doing this sort of thing safely, to begin with?
Any thoughts much appreciated!

Instead of booting from the external, which as Niel pointed out, is not possible, how about simply dragging the data you need from the external after you mount it?

Why won't my iMac boot from an external drive?

I have an external drive that has a clone of my other iMac running Mountain Lion made with Super Duper which boots up fine with the machine it's a clone of but will not boot on my new iMac running Yosemite or my MacBook running Snow Leopard. I want to upgrade the OS on this drive to Yosemite so that I can transfer files and applications to my new machine without overwriting the newer versions of Apps I already have on it. I can select it as the Startup Disk but when it tries to boot I get the No Entry sign and it halts. Any ideas? I could do the upgrade on my old iMac but I have a very slow broadband connection and it will take hours to download, blocking use of the machine which my wife needs to have access to, hence the convoluted process.

It won't boot from the new iMac because it's older than the OS that came with the new one. I'm not sure that a laptop will boot from the clone of a desktop.
Use setup assistant to migrate just your files from the old computer. If you already passed up using setup assistant, then you can use migration assistant to transfer your files.
If you don't want to use the above, put the computers on the network and enable file sharing. Log onto the old computer and copy whatever you want to transfer to the user desktop of the new computer. This will change the permissions of those files to the new system. Then you can log onto the new iMac and move those files where you want them.

Boot from an iMac?

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