Boot from VHD Upgrade

So why has Microsoft not learned that customers need the ability to upgrade Windows when using native VHD boot??? I have a lot of systems that we installed Windows 7 and Windows 8.1 on Native VHD Boot, but cannot upgrade the OS. My workaround
was to get a Windows Server 2012 Hyper-V host up, create a VM that uses the source VHD to upgrade the OS. But that's not practical for 100's of systems. Can someone please explain why this limitation exists? If the Windows Installer supports
Native VHD Boot and Install, why can't an upgrade?

Hi Arman mohseni,
From my observation, if I click download now, it would create a BITS task:
We can use following command to check:
Import-module bitstransfer
Get-bitstransfer –allusers
From the output, we can see the system account created a BITS job for transferring, under the C:\Windows\Software Distribution\download, we can get the temporary downloaded file, which is approximately about 2.5G.
After we restart, and go to C:\Windows\Software Distribution\download, the temporary file is gone.
If I click the download again, the BITS would create a new task, a new temporary file, if we compare the JobIds of the two times downloading, they are totally different.
On the other hand, if we download a windows update, the JobId would be kept, and the temporary files would be kept, too.
Alex Zhao
TechNet Community Support

Similar Messages

Win 7 boot from VHD "License Error: Booting from VHD is not supported on this system"

I am trying to set up my TP 500 model 2242-CTO to boot from a virtual hard drive, per the instructions at
http://blogs.technet.com/keithcombs/archive/2009/05/22/dual-boot-from-vhd-using-windows-7-and-window...
I get all the way thru the Win 7 setup, but just as the login screen is presented, I get the subject message. That's the end of story, can't go further.
I just updated the BIOS and hard drive firmware to the latest versions on the Lenovo site as of today (3.09), and the hard drive firmware said no update needed.
Anybody know what will work? Just academic now, as I will go ahead an reinstall win 7 normally....
Thanks !

Not true, mine is win7 pro and works, I think the problem is that lenovo makes a custimized boot for their utility

Boot from VHD generates Error 0xc03a0001

So I created a VHDX which contains an installed windows 7 environment.
Booted my windows 8.1 environment, attached the vhdx and added the VHDX environment to my boot.
BCDBOOT F:\WINDOWS
Reboot, choose windows 7 and get this error;
0xc03a0001 -> An unexpected error has occurred.
When I lookup this error, it means "The virtual hard disk is corrupted. The virtual hard disk drive
footer is missing."
So I re-created the vhdx and the system on it, but it spawns the same error.

i found this article maybe very useful to investigate your issue
http://reboot.pro/topic/16141-troubleshooting-os-boot-from-vhd/
VHD BOOT TROUBLESHOOTING
VHD boot problems are rare, when following exactly the Tutorials linked in this Post Signature. Most are caused by a corrupted BCD (Boot Configuration Datastore) or missing boot-critical disk & controller drivers, enabling reading the VHD or hard disk
where its saved. If they occur, follow the troubleshooting steps for natively supported & unsupported OS boot from VHD:
1) install latest Windows Virtual PC (with 1024Mb+ RAM assigned), attach Win7 VHD to it as IDE disk and try to boot as hard drive. If it doesn't, it may be because of missing or errors in BCD, missing Bootmgr, mismatch of disk Sig, or incorrect partition
offset set in BCD, DetectHAL element is Off or missing, missing disk driver, or volume wasn't marked Active. This may occur, since Win7 & ThinPC may lack BCD sample store in their WindowsBoot folder, resulting in wrong BCD structure when using BCDBoot
command to add BCD to the new VHD. To fix, use suggested repair sequence. However, if you face 0x7B error during boot from VHD, you may need to add missing disk driver(s) entries to VHD's OS Registry, and add the driver installation packages, so that OS can
autoinstall the drivers after boot. Read this and that explanation threads, and use suitable tools, like included with IMG_XP driver utilities and its collection of Registry fixes. Or, once you found missing driver INF packages, attach the VHD, mount its OS
Volume to an empty folder and inject the drivers offline with DISM as per Install Unsupported OS to VHD Tutorial. If the VHD boots after that, proceed to step 2.
2) copy that Win7 VHD from HD to a bigger fixed contiguous VHD, add boot environment to the bigger VHD disk with EasyBCD or Visual BCD Editor installed on your system HD, add Win7 boot entry to it, attach the big VHD to Win VPC as IDE disk, try to boot Win7
from VHD natively inside VPC. If it doesn't, fix the big VHD's BCD using the below repair sequence. After it does, proceed to step 3, if you want test booting with Grub4DOS & WinVBlock.
3) add Grub4DOS to the big VHD, fully install WinVBlock to Win7 after booting it natively from VHD or as IDE disk inside VPC, make Win7 VHD contiguous, attach the big VHD to the Win VPC as IDE disk, try to boot Win7 VHD from it via G4D & WinVBlock menu.
If errors, try to find matching versions of Grub4DOS & WinVBlock (older G4D may work well with WinVBlock - Feb. 2011, can take from wimb's IMG_XP folder). If Grub4DOS shows "File not found" error on boot, and the file name is correct in its Menu,
the problem seems to be in mounting the large VHD disk. You must reboot G4D to continue tests or restore original disk mapping. Make sure to test sign WinVBlock 64-bit, and switch On Test Mode in Win7 64-bit, or use F8 at boot. Should boot... but at times
WinVBlock disk may cause OS instability & file access issues after boot.
Boot troubleshooting requires some practice, so easy way to start - native boot VHDs & EasyBCD.
REPAIR BCD STORE WITH VISUAL BCD EDITOR
- Boot Win7 from your host drive, attach the VHD with related to BCD boot problems, when attached to VPC as hard drive
- Make sure OS volume on VHD is marked as Primary & Active, and mount it as V: drive
- Start Visual BCD Editor, open BCD Store from V:BootBCD
1. If there is no BCD Store on the VHD:
- Select Repair Boot Record from Menu, select V: , tick Vista/7&Fix MBR --> OK,
- Select Repair BCD from Menu, BCD Drive V: , Win7 folder V:Windows --> OK
- Exit Visual BCD Editor, detach the VHD and reboot in VPC to check if the errors were fixed
2. If there is BCD Store on the VHD:
- Delete all entries under Loaders section on the Left Pan
- Click Edit Boot-Menu, delete all Boot Entries from the DisplayOrder list
- Proceed to Repair Boot Records, then Repair BCD from Menu
- Reload BCD from the VHD by selecting Open Store again from Menu
- Add any missing OS Loaders in Loaders section on the Left Pan, and rename their entries as you like
- Click on each entry on the Left Pan, and inspect its elements on the Right Pan. Make sure they make sense for the hard drive boot, are similar to a reference VHD's BCD that boots OK (GUIDs may differ), and linked to correct BCD Objects GUIDs
- Click Edit Boot-Menu, and add or edit boot entries list and display order to match Loaders list on the Left Pan
- Exit Visual BCD Editor, detach the VHD and reboot in VPC to check if the errors were fixed
REPAIR BCD STORE WITH EASYBCD
You can use EasyBCD instead of Visual BCD Editor to create or repair a BCD store:
- Install and start EasyBCD
- Select BCD Store on the VHD, using File Menu and open it
1. If there is no BCD Store:
- select BCD Deployment on the Left Pan, click Install MBR, then select partition V: --> Install BCD
- Click Add New Entry --> Windows Vista/7 --> Drive V: --> Add Entry
- Exit EasyBCD, detach the VHD and reboot in VPC to check if the errors were fixed
2. If there is BCD Store:
- select BCD Backup/Repair on the Left Pan, tick Recreate/Repair Boot Files --> Peform Action, then tick Reset BCD Configuration --> Perform Action
- Exit EasyBCD, detach the VHD and reboot in VPC to check if the errors were fixed
- If not, reattach the VHD as V: drive, open Console, run bcdboot v:windows /s v: to recreate BCD manually
- Detach the VHD and reboot in VPC to check if the errors were fixed
- If not, boot from the VHD natively from the host's Boot Menu (if its OS supports native boot from VHD), install EasyBCD and try fixing VHD BCD Store and boot sectors with it, then test boot again
- If it still doesn't boot, and you added all required boot time drivers to OS on the VHD, post the exact boot error and Windows Safe Mode driver load step, when the error occurred, in a new thread asking for help.
sorry for the long copy paste

Boot from VHD with exisiting vhd

I'm trying to set up booting from VHD from an existing vhd and have 2 questions.
(1.)
What I did was running a disk2vhd on the exisiting Dell laptop install. What I want to do now is being able to boot from this VHD alongside my real physical install with a dual boot configuration. So one normal install on a physical disk and a second boot option
pointing to the vhd (created with the disk2vhd).
I found a bunch of articles describing how to set up boot from vhd starting from scratch. But how should I configure a second boot option pointing to the vhd that I want to boot? I tried modyfying the BCD file using BCDedit but the vhd won't boot. When I
boot the same vhd in a hyper-v VM it starts just fine. Should I do any additional steps for that to work? ANy article that you know of that describes this scenario?
(2.) A second question about hibernation. When I have booting from 2 different vhds set up is it possible to put vhd1 in hibernation, reboot and choose to boot from vhd2, put that one in hibernation and switch back to vhd1 after a reboot? Anyone ever tried
that?
Any help is appreciated.

no need to start several topic. I already replied here:
http://social.technet.microsoft.com/Forums/en-US/w7itproinstall/thread/0514aa0e-4513-4686-82d6-e186541b515a
"A programmer is just a tool which converts caffeine into code" CLIP- Stellvertreter http://www.winvistaside.de/

Windows 8.1, Boot from VHD, natively

Hi,
I used this procedure
http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/hh825691.aspx in order to be able to boot from VHDx.
I have a working VHD, booted into winpe, scratched my new Lenvos Yoga 11S (diskpart, clean), then attached the vhdx, was able to copy bootfiles via bcdboot w:\windows /s w: (w is virtual drive) but after reboot it says "default device missing or boot failed.
No os anymore at all :-(
This is my config
https://www.dropbox.com/s/4aqirkqn6qnrbgo/2014-11-17%2020.23.15.jpg?dl=0 please advise.
J.
Jan Hoedt

Hi,
"default device missing or boot failed"
It sounds like a issue with your BIOS configuration or boot drive.
1.Please see if you can enter the BIOS configuration and change the boot device order.
2.Some one fixes this issue for a Lenovo system by changing the boot mode to "Legacy", please see if it fits your situation
You can find similiar issue in the links below:
http://blog.vtechsquad.com/2014/01/02/how-to-fix-default-boot-device-missing-or-boot-failed-error-in-windows-8/
https://forums.lenovo.com/t5/Lenovo-3000-and-Essential/Default-Boot-Device-Missing-or-Boot-Failed/td-p/1378491
https://forums.lenovo.com/t5/Idea-Windows-based-Tablets-and/Yoga-2-Pro-Boot-errors/td-p/1665397
NOTE
This
response contains a reference to a third party World Wide Web site. Microsoft is providing this information as a convenience to you.
Microsoft
does not control these sites and has not tested any software or information found on these sites.
Yolanda Zhu
TechNet Community Support

Can't boot from an upgraded drive

Hi, I upgraded a 12" PowerBook G4 to a 160GB HD. The machine was running 10.4.11 on its original 60GB drive.
The new drive formatted correctly (extended), and I clean installed OS 10.4 without a hitch. But on reboot, after the apple logo, I ended up with a solid blue screen. Tried an update to 10.4.11, and got the same result. I zapped the PRAM and still can't boot -- though now I start up with vertical pinstripes behind the apple logo, then a black screen.
I've checked the new drive thoroughly with Disk Utility and Tech Tool, and no problems there. SMART status fine, same power requirements, etc. Boot ROM version is 4.9 0f0, which should support a 160 GB drive, if I'm not mistaken, but can't find any info on the Support site as to what the correct Boot ROM version should be to run with 10.4.11.
I can boot fine from the original drive via a firewire enclosure, so no hardware problems with the G4.
Any ideas? Thanks!

Okay, I don't know what happened, but it seems to be fixed now.
I migrated the old system files over from the original drive (hadn't wanted to, as I assumed a clean install would simplify things). After doing that, I got a kernel panic screen at startup, which after a blank screen, seemed like progress.
Then I zapped PRAM and reset the PMU again, and voila. Everything is fine. If anyone has any clue what could've been better about a crufty old System folder than a fresh clean install of the same version of the OS, I'd love to know.

How to Boot from Leopard Upgrade disk??

I bought a Leopard upgrade disk last year for my iMac. Today I am having computer troubles. But there seems to be no diagnostic programs on the Leopard upgrade disk, nor does it seem to be a bootable disk. What should I do next?
The problem with the computer is, everywhere I click I get the rainbow colored spinny wheel. When I want to open an app, I get the spinny wheel. When I want to scroll in a window, I get the spinny wheel. It may take several minutes before the spinny wheel goes away, and the command carries out. Illustrator flat out refuses to launch, as well.

That's different. It's not an upgrade disk. It should be bootable. Insert the disk in your Mac and reboot while holding down the 'c' key. What OS are you running? What model iMac? Give some some info please. It will not have hardware diagnostics on it. It will have Disk Utility so you can run Repair Disk.

Not booting from 10.4.8 volumes after upgrade from 10.4.7

I'm sorry to report that my aged G4 450 MHz AGP with 4 internal Hard disk drives no longer boots from any of the 2 volumes upgraded to Mac OS X 10.4.8 as soon as it was started from another volume!
All was working fine as long as 10.4.7 was installed on the 2 232 GB disks connected to the SIIG ATA133 controller. I could boot from any OS on any of the 4 disks, 5 partitions:
internal ATA66 bus:
18 GB disk, 2 partitions: 'IBM_18GB' with OS 9.2.2 and TechTool Pro's 'eDrive' with 10.4.7
71 GB disk, 1 partition 'IBM_71GB' with OS 9.2.2
PCI SIIG ATA133 controller:
232 GB disk, one partition 'I1232GB' with 10.4.7, now upgraded to 10.4.8 and no longer bootable
232 GB disk, one partition 'I2232GB' with 10.4.7, now upgraded to 10.4.8 and no longer bootable
Now I can only boot from the Mac OS 9.2.2 or the eDrive 10.4.7 partitions.
What I did so far: 'I2232GB' was my main OS X startup volume, 'I1232GB' contains a clone of it, plus additional folders like software base and backups.
After upgrading 'I2232GB' to Mac OS X 10.4.8 through Software Update and repairing permissions all was OK as long as the Mac was just shut down or re-started: it always booted up in Mac OS X 10.4.8 from 'I2232GB' without any problems.
The next day I booted from 'I1232GB' to do the same there.
Afterwards I could no longer boot in Mac OS X 10.4.8 from 'I2232GB' nor in in Mac OS X 10.4.8 from 'I1232GB': it just gets to the grey screen with the Apple logo, but the round circle underneath indicating some progress never appears. I left it there for hours: it just hangs.
With the Option key held at startup I could boot from the other partitions with Mac OS 9.2.2 or the eDrive with 10.4.7. None of their Startup Control Panels was able to get me back to 10.2.8!
So I booted from the TechTool Pro 4.5.1 DVD to Optimize both volumes, 'I1232GB' & 'I2232GB', always Files only.
Then I booted from the DiskWorrior 3.0.3 CD to rebuild the directories of both volumes, 'I1232GB' & 'I2232GB'.
Still I can not boot from either 'I1232GB' or 'I2232GB' in Mac OS X 10.2.8!
Downloaded the Mac OS X 10.2.8 Compo Update (for PPC) and installed it onto both 'I1232GB' & 'I2232GB' while booted from the eDrive which I keep on Mac OS X 10.4.7 - no luck either, still I can not boot from either 'I1232GB' or 'I2232GB' in Mac OS X 10.2.8!
Then I backed up the users folder from 'I2232GB' onto 'I1232GB', booted from Mac OS 9.2.2 and used Intech's Hard Disk Speedtools 3.6 to format 'I2232GB', afterwards initialized it with Alsoft's Plus Maximizer Extension for a Block Size of 512 Bytes.
Installed Mac OS X 10.4 from DVD, as well as iLive '06 and upgraded everything to the latest releases with Software Update. All was working fine with all the required reboots until another startup volume was chosen: afterwards again I can no longer boot back into Mac OS X 10.2.8 on the fresch installed 'I2232GB'!
Any help would be appreciated.
Here is some information found by System Profiler from Mac OS X 10.4.7, eDrive, let me know if you need more:
Hardware Overview:
Machine Name: Power Mac G4 (AGP graphics)
Machine Model: PowerMac3,1
CPU Type: PowerPC G4 (2.8)
Number Of CPUs: 1
CPU Speed: 450 MHz
L2 Cache (per CPU): 1 MB
Memory: 2 GB
Bus Speed: 100 MHz
Boot ROM Version: 4.2.8f1
Serial Number: XA00715VHSF
Sales Order Number: M7628LL/A
ATA Bus:
IBM-DPTA-372050:
Capacity: 19.12 GB
Model: IBM-DPTA-372050
Volumes:
IBM_18GB:
Capacity: 13.12 GB
Available: 6.96 GB
eDrive:
Capacity: 6 GB
Available: 3.03 GB
IBM-DTLA-307075:
Capacity: 71.59 GB
Model: IBM-DTLA-307075
Volumes:
IBM_71GB:
Capacity: 71.59 GB
Available: 39.65 GB
ATA Bus:
PIONEER DVD-RW DVR-107D:
Model: PIONEER DVD-RW DVR-107D
Firmware Revision: 1.21
Interconnect: ATAPI
Burn Support: Yes (Apple Shipped/Supported)
Cache: 2000 KB
IOMEGA ZIP 100 ATAPI:
Model: IOMEGA ZIP 100 ATAPI
ACARD,6880M:
Name: ACARD,6880M
Type: scsi
Bus: PCI
Slot: SLOT-C
Vendor ID: 0x1191
Device ID: 0x0009
Subsystem Vendor ID: 0x1191
Subsystem ID: 0x0009
Revision ID: 0x0003
SCSI Parallel Domain 65536:
Initiator Identifier: 7
ATA HDT722525DLAT80:
Capacity: 232.89 GB
Manufacturer: ATA
Model: HDT722525DLAT80
Revision:
Removable Media: Yes
BSD Name: disk2
OS9 Drivers: Yes
SCSI Target Identifier: 0
SCSI Logical Unit Identifier: 0
S.M.A.R.T. status: Not Supported
Volumes:
I1232GB:
Capacity: 232.89 GB
Available: 14.1 GB
Writable: Yes
File System: HFS+
BSD Name: disk2s3
Mount Point: /Volumes/I1232GB
ATA HDT722525DLAT80:
Capacity: 232.89 GB
Manufacturer: ATA
Model: HDT722525DLAT80
Revision:
Removable Media: Yes
BSD Name: disk3
OS9 Drivers: Yes
SCSI Target Identifier: 2
SCSI Logical Unit Identifier: 0
S.M.A.R.T. status: Not Supported
Volumes:
I2232GB:
Capacity: 232.89 GB
Available: 180.11 GB
Writable: Yes
File System: Journaled HFS+
BSD Name: disk3s3
Mount Point: /Volumes/I2232GB
The RAM consists of 4 identical modules and is about 1 year old:
DIMM0/J21 to DIMM3/J24:
Size: 512 MB
Type: SDRAM
Speed: PC133-333
Status: OK
Many thanks for your help!
Josef
Apple G4 AGP Mac OS X (10.4.8) 4 internal hard disks, dual layer DVD-RW, 2GB RAM

What I did so far: 'I2232GB' was my main OS X
startup volume, 'I1232GB' contains a clone of it,
plus additional folders like software base and
backups.
After upgrading 'I2232GB' to Mac OS X 10.4.8
through Software Update and repairing permissions all
was OK as long as the Mac was just shut down or
re-started: it always booted up in Mac OS X 10.4.8
from 'I2232GB' without any problems.
The next day I booted from 'I1232GB' to do the same
there.
Afterwards I could no longer boot in Mac OS X 10.4.8
from 'I2232GB' nor in in Mac OS X 10.4.8 from
'I1232GB': it just gets to the grey screen with the
Apple logo, but the round circle underneath
indicating some progress never appears. I left it
there for hours: it just hangs.
With the Option key held at startup I could boot from
the other partitions with Mac OS 9.2.2 or the eDrive
with 10.4.7. None of their Startup Control Panels was
able to get me back to 10.4.8!
So I booted from the TechTool Pro 4.5.1 DVD to
Optimize both volumes, 'I1232GB' & 'I2232GB',
always Files only.
Then I booted from the DiskWorrior 3.0.3 CD to
rebuild the directories of both volumes, 'I1232GB'
& 'I2232GB'.
Still I can not boot from either 'I1232GB' or
'I2232GB' in Mac OS X 10.4.8!
Downloaded the Mac OS X 10.4.8 Compo Update (for PPC)
and installed it onto both 'I1232GB' & 'I2232GB'
while booted from the eDrive which I keep on Mac OS X
10.4.7 - no luck either, still I can not boot from
either 'I1232GB' or 'I2232GB' in Mac OS X
10.4.8!
Then I backed up the users folder from 'I2232GB'
onto 'I1232GB', booted from Mac OS 9.2.2 and used
Intech's Hard Disk Speedtools 3.6 to format
'I2232GB', afterwards initialized it with Alsoft's
Plus Maximizer Extension for a Block Size of 512
Bytes.
Installed Mac OS X 10.4 from DVD, as well as iLive
'06 and upgraded everything to the latest releases
with Software Update. All was working fine with all
the required reboots until another startup volume was
chosen: afterwards again I can no longer boot back
into Mac OS X 10.4.8 on the fresch installed
'I2232GB'!
I found several typos in above post, wherever it was 10.2.8 it should have read 10.4.8 - I'm very sorry for confusing you, this would not have made sense, but I found no way to edit the existing text therefore I modified the quote of it here.
I do not need Mac OS X 10.2.8 back, but it would be nice to boot back in Mac OS X 10.4.8 from another volume as the current one - which was working fine before with Mac OS X 10.4.7.
Many thanks,
Josef

Restored 10.6 OS from CD and fails to Boot after Combo upgrade

I have a clean install of Lion on my internal drive and an external clone of the HD from the previous Snow Leopard install. The Clone worked until I updated via the latest auto update. I have App's and other settings to transfer to Lion from this clone so want to get it working so I can ensure all the App's are upgraded to work on Lion or are deleted.
After the external drive failed to boot I reinstalled the system from my Snow Leopard Install CD, not the 24-inch iMac (Mid 2007) restore CD.
I then used Auto updater to install the combo and other updates to 10.6.8 this booted fine until I upgraded Safari 5.1 and Java - the last items that came up on the software updater. Upon restart, the boot failed in the last portion of the boot and at this point the Apple emblem went away and the round circle with diaginoal line apeared.
On starting with the option key down, the clone disk 10.6.8 shows as being available, along with the internal Drive, for booting.
Starting with "command + S" gets through to the last line of the process then states "waiting on Root"
When compaired to a Snow OS that boots OK it is the last line of code before the curser is ready for entering a command.
Can anyone tell me what to look for or how to repair this error so that I can get my data across to Lion. Thanks

Well, in case anyone else has a similar problem I managed to fix the system by the following process:
I reinstalled 10.6.0 from the retail Snow Leopard CD. The drive Booted OK but I needed to be upgraded to 10.6.8 to use the migration tool so I then upgraded using the Software Update utility. Boot failed again at this point and could not be fixed by anything I did.
I then reinstalled 10.6.0 from the CD to try again, but the HD would not boot this time around.
I downloaded CleanApp by Synium Software (http://www.syniumsoftware.com/cleanapp/) on a commendation from the famous eBook, "Take Control of installing Lion" by Joe Kissell of TidBits. I used this from my Lion HD to remove all orphan files, PPC files and Apps, and other junk. Snow Leapard still not Booting after repairs by various disk repair utilities including Apples.
I Booted from my internal HD using Lion and ran SuperDuper to make a new Clone of the failed HD on a second external HD. Took a day and a night to run while I was at work, but the new clone would not boot at this stage so I ran SuperDuper again using the "Smart Update Backup" option. This just adds changed files or missing files to the clone. At the end of this process I had a running Clone that would boot on 10.6.0.
I Booted from the second Clone and used the Software Update utility then to up grade in the two stages the Auto system used to bring my OS up to 10.6.8. This was successful and I had a Bootable Snow Leopard with no old Apps from which to Migrate my data.

After OS Upgrade, Computer will No Longer Boot from Disc, Enter T-Disc Mode

I purchased the Leopard update about a week ago and proceeded to install it (upgrade option) on my MacBook Pro previously running Tiger. After this update, I no longer seem to be able to boot from a disc(c on startup), enter target disc mode(t on startup), enter single user mode(command s on startup), basically anything that requires hitting a key on boot. In short, the operating system seems to override any of those commands and just loads regardless of what I press.
How can I fix this?? I fear that if my mac suddenly dies, I won't be able to fix it with archive and install via the CD, since I can't boot from it. I also won't be able to recover my files with target disc mode or anything.
For more in-depth details:
-My hard drive does have an open firmware password- it was recommended as part of the undercover anti-theft program that I use. Although I can tell putting the password on was a mistake, since I've read that single user mode is no longer accessible with this password active. I don't think this is affecting my inability to boot from disc or target disc mode though, as I was always able to do this with Tiger, even with the firmware password active.
-I have tried booting from other discs, like my old tiger OS disc that came with the laptop- that fails too.
-My Leopard installation was not clean. Like many others, I used the upgrade option and it appeared to work ok- until restart, where I was faced with the blue screen. Since I was unable to boot to single user mode and try removing potential APE files, I let the computer sit for an hour on the blue screen until it finally loaded. Upon getting in, I found that I did not even have APE's installed. I proceeded to reinstall the operating system via an Archive & Install. Upon boot after this reinstall, I still received a blue screen that lasted a long time, and the OS loaded very slow. It did this for a few additional boots afterwards, and has appeared to smooth itself out now, a week later. The OS now loads fine and works alright (from what I can see), but I still can not boot from disc or anything else.
If anyone at all knows a solution for this, it would be much appreciated. I wanted to suspect something like the disc drive going bad, but being that things like the target-disc mode aren't working either- I'm hesitant to believe its just the disc drive. Being that it also happened just as I upgraded to Leopard and faced issues, I have more of a hunch that its something to do with Leopard.
I apologize if this has been answered before, but I've looked all over the site, google, everywhere I could think of and came up with no answer.
Thanks ~Brian

Hi, I have been having the exact same problem with a late 2011 MBP 15 inch. I replaced the hard drive with a samsung SSD 1.5 years ago, along with a samsung SSD in the optical drive. It worked great until the Yosemite upgrade. The MBP seemed to work reasonably well for a few days after the upgrade, but then it started stalling on various programs (spinning beach ball on Mail, Safari, etc). Start-ups were also longer and had a loading bar each time, which was new since the upgrade. I left the MBP to sleep last night and when opening it, it crashed and tried to restart. On restart it loads to the login screen, then after I enter the password it partially loads (based on the loading bar), then shuts off. I removed the SSD and plugged it in with a USG, but that didn't change anything. Here is a picture after using CMD-V before it shuts off.

Macbook Pro will not boot from any source after upgrade

Hi,
I have a late 2011 Macbook Pro - standard issue other than more memory as I recall. It has a 750MB hard drive with more than half still free. All the checks given below are done with the computer stand-alone with no hardware attached - other than the power cord and of course WiFi.
2 weeks ago I upgraded to Yosemite having taken all the right precautions before upgrade - thanks to Take Control. It worked fine and I was getting a good experience until last Wednesday when I put it to sleep by closing the lid. Later in the day I opened it up again but only got a grey screen. After leaving it several minutes to see if it cleared I shut down by holding the on button for several seconds then tried to re-boot. The computer starts and gets as far as the grey screen then shuts down again after several minutes. Sometimes it will continue to restart after shut down and keeps doing this until I again hold the on button in until it finally shuts down for good.
I have two bootable drives - one is a cloned backup of the previous version and all the data, the other is an 8GB thumb drive with a bootable version of the Yosemite installer. For the record I also have a Time Machine backup and a second full clone backup and recovery drive on a Synology NAS device - I just haven't figured out how to boot from this device as yet.
I can get to the boot up selection screen (hold option key) and select an external drive to boot from but it makes no difference - I still get the same grey screen. Same thing if I use Command +R to boot from the Mac HD recovery partition.
I have also tried to boot into safe boot mode (hold the shift key down). This seems to slow everything down but ultimately has the same result - a grey screen.The only difference I can see is that this grey screen does not shut down after a time. Seems to just continue until I shut it down manually.
I can hold Command +V to remove the grey screen and see the action being written to the screen while logging on (white text on a blue screen) - up to a point. After some time I just get the same grey screen and it shuts down after more time. I can also use Option +D (I'm told it should be just hold the 'D' key to do this but that has never worked for me and Option +D does) to get to the hardware check and I have run this both before upgrading and after having the problem. Before upgrading I got one error - 4ETC/1/40000002. I looked this up on the Internet and could find nothing specific to identify the problem and the general consensus seemed to be it was nothing major. After upgrading and running the hardware check again (after this problem occurred) it returned no errors.
I have reset the PRAM with the same result as before - all I get is the is the Apple logo and a progress bar that increases to around 50%, then both disappear and I get just a grey screen. After a time the computer shuts down and then restarts again and goes through the same process.
I've done pretty much everything I can think of and find in books and on the Internet. Hoping that someone out there will find this problem interesting and help me to resolve it.
Tony

Problem resolved. I took the machine into an authorized repair facility where, for around $30, I had it checked and the logic board replaced. Picked it up yesterday and seems to be working OK. No cost to replace the logic board even though the machine is over 3 years old. There seems to be some sort of dispute with Apple over a class action that has worked in my favour. Great. I'm happy.
Tony

Upgrading iMac: Won't boot from 9.1 or 9.2 CD

I am upgrading a 350Mhz slot loading iMac. I put in a newer 500mhz mother board, a 60 gig drive, and 512 mb dimm. I have done this type of upgrade with other identical iMacs, except that the mother board was a 400mhz. In any event, there is no software on the internal hard drive, so I tried to boot from the 9.1 CD I have. The computer will chime and bring up the flashing question mark folder. I then tried just going ahead and loading OS 10.2. The iMac will boot from the CD with the C key held down with this disk, and it will get all the way to the startup of the installer. I have been able to use disk utility from here to format the hard drive. It shows up and formats O.K. Then, when I start the install sequence, I get all the way to the actual install, but while the software is checking the package contents, the computer either just stalls (mouse stops moving), or I get a kernel panic. I am presuming the problem is it doesn't have the 4.19 firmware installed. But if I can't get it to boot from the 9.1 disk, how can I install anything, much less the firmware.
By the way, I have replaced the PRAM battery, and I have reset the PRAM and NVRAM. Any ideas?

Don't those old imacs have a problem reading drives larger than 8GBs?
I believe that you are referring to the fact that some early Macs had to have large hard drives partitioned such that the first partition was less than 8 GB.
This is not applicable to the iMac 350 MHz or faster iMac (the slot loaders).
It is applicable to the tray loading iMacs (333 MHz and slower).

Portege R30 won't boot from SSD after upgrade to SSD and HDD under CSM mode

Hi
I upgraded my Portege R30-ASMBN22 to SSD (Crucial M550) and replace the optical drive by the original HDD with caddy.
In order to install Windows 7, I change the BIOS to CSM mode. But now the system won't boot automatically from the SSD. It only boot from HDD which is in the ODD spot.
I could press F12 while turning on my laptop, and bring up the boot manual. Here I can see my SSD and I can boot from it correctly. However, if I don't press F12 when it starts. It will always try to boot from HDD.
In the boot order in the BIOS, I only see HDD/SSD, USB Memory, ODD .... It doesn't give me the option to choose between SSD and HDD. Is there any other way to change the boot order among HDD and SSD?
Thanks,
Louis

Hi,
I did the same operation to my Portege R30-A-17C, and have the same problem, is there any way to boot without pushing F12 every time.
Thanks,
Pablo

HP ENVY dv6-7246us SSD Upgrade, Problem Installing Windows 7 with boot from usb/dvd disc.

Hello everyone,
I have recently purchased the dv6-7246us and have upgraded the HDD to a SSD. The problem I am having now is that I can't boot from the usb or a dvd disc that contains the Windows 7installation. Originally this laptop had an HDD with Windows 8. I have changed the boot order multiple time to boot from the USB Harddrive and the DVD/CD-ROM disc and still have no luck booting up from the installation. Is there a solution to this problem?
Thanks,
Robert
This question was solved.
View Solution.

Hi, Robert:
Did you go into the BIOS and change it to Legacy Mode?
I believe you need to do that in order to boot from another device other than the hard drive.

After 10.5 upgrade Mac will not boot from hard drive

I just upgraded to 10.5 Leopard but my mac will not boot from the hard drive even after selecting my hard drive as the startup disk. The mac will start to boot but will cut itself off before the boot is complete. I have to leave the Leopard disk in the mac and hold down C to get the mac to turn on but it only allows me to install the software again.

instead of archive and install you might first want to try restoring your system using TM to some time point before your failed 10.5.1 upgrade. Then try upgrading to 10.5.1 again. I would suggest downloading the full 110 MB upgrade and installing it manually rather than doing it through the software upgrade menu.
You can download the upgrade here:
http://www.apple.com/downloads/macosx/apple/macosx_updates/macosx1051update.html

Boot from VHD Upgrade

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