Boot menu - holding down 'option' issues
Hi,
I thought I would share an issue which had me confused but I figured out how to fix. I bought an Apple keyboard with the extended number pad and when trying to get to the boot menu by holding down 'option' it won't work. I had to switch to the default mini keyboard (without number pad) and hold down 'option' to get access to it.
This was frustrating when trying to sort out some bootcamp issues.
I hope this issue is addressed in future updates.
Thanks,
Greg
I too have a really weird issue with the boot menu. It's only started happening recently (that and numerous other problems with this **** 17" MBP!).
I hold down the 'Option' key to enter the boot menu... which it does, and it shows me boot options of OSX and Windows 7. Now the really weird thing is, when I select one and hit the enter key nothing happens... nothing!! It just sits on the boot menu screen... still allowing me to switch between the two but no response when enter is pressed. I've tried unplugging all external devices but to no avail.
I've just reinstalled Snow Leopard (although without formatting the hard drive) and I totally scrubbed Windows 7 and reinstalled and it still has the same issue... sometimes... not always though.... aagghh!
I've had more problems with this Mac than I've had with my old PC I hate to say.
Similar Messages
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I have never set a firmware password on mymacbook pro, but when I hold down option to boot from a different drive, I geta lock, and have no idea what the password is, i am the first owner of my mac so its impossible that someone else has set the password, i have only noticed this becuae i made a bootcamp partition and installed windows onto the machine, after the installation... i shut down the comptuer and continued to use os x, days later i tried to boot into the boot camp partition again by holding down the option key on boot, but i got a window asking me for a firmware password that i have no idea of! please help me!
willHi macbookprowilliam, I have the SAME problem, that grey lock just appeared trolling me. I dunno the password and I wan't to sell this macbook! I need the password. Maybe it's a new malware! I don't even know how to set a firmware password and I am the only user on this computer too! I have a thread about that too: https://discussions.apple.com/thread/3926399?start=0&tstart=0
So, did you fix it or got around it? Please reply! I am desperate.
Thank you -
When I boot, holding down Option, my hard disk appears twice
When I boot, holding down Option, and the hard drive picker appears, my internal drive appears twice. Is that normal, and does it matter which one I click?
It's normal if you have a Fusion Drive, and it doesn't matter which one you click.
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There are two choices of selected start up disks:Main HD and Recovery HD, appearance without hold down option key. On the other hand, it start up normally show apple picture when I hold option key.
Hi artdiva28
Welcome to Apple Discussions
First go to *System Preferences > Startup Disk* > select the *Mac OS X 10.5. on Macintosh HD* > click the Lock > hit the Restart button.
Then if the iMac is still having trouble starting up, insert your Install Disk and restart holding the Option key. In Startup Manager select the Install Disk and boot into it, choose your language, skip the Installer and go up on the menu bar to Utilities and open Disk Utility. In Disk Utility select your Macintosh HD and hit the Repair button. Once finished note any errors and what was repaired for future reference. Quit Disk Utility and restart once again holding the Option key boot back into the Macintosh HD and eject the Install Disk.
Also see > http://support.apple.com/kb/HT2956
Dennis -
i have a late 2011 macbook pro i want to reinstall os lion 10.7 so when i reboot hold down options key click on recovery hd then in the os x utilities screen it says reinstall mac os x is there any way i can save this download so i can burn to dvd
steve359 wrote:
Sorry ... I read but was unfortunately distracted from your original post. You have a system that came with Lion. The Lion that is on your system is only for your computer and cannot be downloaded from the app store again because you never purchased it officially through the App Store.
Try this for making an external USB/DVD copy of Recovery on an external disk. internet is still required for reinstall, though, I believe: http://support.apple.com/kb/HT4848. But at least you have a separate Recovery Partition if you ever need a fully new and empty internal disk.
Your assumption is incorrect. Although he may not be able to download it from the App store he can download it directly for the Apple servers using the recovery partition on his original drive.
All you have to do is start the install routine and then point the install to an external hard drive. Once the download is finished the computer will reboot to start the install. At that reboot disconnect the external drive so the install can not start. Boot the computer back into the OS on the internal hard drive, which is what will happen automatically once the external drive is disconnected. Then connect the external and copy the files from it that were downloaded. Right click on that downloaded package file and select Show contents. In the contents of that package is a file called InstallESD.DMG. Copy that file out of the package and burn it down to a DVD or USB thumb drive and you now have the Full Lion Installer. I have several of them laying around on different hard drives and 2 USB thumb drives which I have used to reinstall Lion on my 15" MBP.
Sorry OP I should of just typed this out in my first post. -
I've got remote disk sharing set up so I can upgrade my operating system from my desktop using snow leopard CD. My Macbook is able to read disk remotely and all goes well following directions for installation until I am supposed to hold down option key while restarting computer. When I do this, only my hard drive is an option for start up, not the hard drive and the disk as it shows in the instructions and pop up menu for start up. Why? What am I doing wrong with the start up? Also, it says I should be able to choose the Airport network, but my computer automatically connects and anyways, that is also not an option from the pop up menu (to choose a network and enter password), that pop up menu section doesn't show up at all, it goes right to choosing disc icon where only mac hard drive, not mac os x install, is an option. Does this make sense? I'm giving up for now.
Thanks.The only known way to make it work on an external drive is by first installing Windows onto an internal drive, then cloning the install to an external Thunderbolt drive. Thunderbolt is seen as an extension of the internal bus, so Windows doesn't see it as an external device.
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Hello out there,
My Macbook Pro (coming on 2 years old now) recently had issues with starting up. I found on Apple's website the support forum which stated holding down alt while booting will allow you to choose either your HDD or a Recovery Disk. For the past few reboots I was able to do this, maybe over a 36 hour period (I always chose HDD.) Now, though, when I hold down alt and power on the notebook, only the cursor appears over a gray screen. No icons show up at all. When I press "N" the usual globe across a disk drive blinks. I've also tried to boot up holding down shift but to no avail.
I have a ton of documents that weren't backed up. If I throw in the OS X Leopard disc and reinstall from there, I know I'll lose all my data. Is there anyway Apple could find those files after the reset, or does the Drive just get wiped completely? What do you recommend I should do? Take it into Apple? I don't want to lose these files but I also don't want to pay Apple to do something I can do — put in the original disk and reinstall OS X.
Thanks so much! I owe you a beer! ^_^Could be more than the power. HDD could be old, or just the file system on the disk.
Try ...
Get the external disk, self-powered, at least 2x the current disk
Boot the system from install disks (original) and prepare that disk as two partitions (GUID, with Journaled partitions)
Load the OS onto one of those partitions
Download CarbonCopyClone, and clone the current install disk to the second partition of that external
If the filesystem on the disk or the disk itself is too damaged, copy what you can
You would have a bootable system if nto Lion, with a copy of the data that is on the disk (hopefully).
This is my best advice to at least try to save your data without relying on the internal disk for file operations. You may yet be SOL, but this is a darned good effort to avoid data loss.
And hope the repair bill does not cover so much that a new system is required. -
I have multiple iPhoto libraries on my Macbook Air 10.7.5 and when I am selecting which library to view (hold down 'option' key and launch iPhoto from the dock) it automatically closes another open application window eg. Chome, Word. 1 app closes every time I launch iPhoto this way.
If you're pushing Option at the exact moment you're clicking the Dock icon, it's supposed to do that. Wait until just after clicking it.
(112342) -
Library missing, holding down option/go/library opens my user folder. Any ideas?
It should open the Library within the User's folder. What does it say at the top of the resulting pane?
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When I go in photos or events under library in iphoto I can not see pictures, all it shows is the empty squares. The fotos r there cause when I scroll down with the mouse I can see the pictures for a few seconds. I rebuild iphoto by holding down option-command keys and then iphoto ican. need help please
Hi,
You have managed to post in Applications then iChat within that.
iPhoto is listed under iLife
I have not used iPhoto enough to be able to offer solution for you.
You would be better off posting in the iPhoto Forum (in that link above)
7:40 PM Monday; May 2, 2011
Please, if posting Logs, do not post any Log info after the line "Binary Images for iChat"
G4/1GhzDual MDD (Leopard 10.5.8)
MacBookPro 2Gb( 10.6.7)
, Mac OS X (10.6.7),
"Limit the Logs to the Bits above Binary Images." No, Seriously -
I'm having trouble with importing them into iTunes and converting them at the same time. when i hold down option over the files i can't find where its supposed to say create new version. is this if you're in iTunes?
You can't do it in one step. Add to iTunes first, Once the tracks are in iTunes you may convert to a different format.
tt2 -
I'm having trouble adding media without automatically copying the file to the iTunes media libary after dragging and dropping while holding down "option."
In Preferences > Advanced, "Copy files to iTunes media folder when adding to library" is checked. When I drag a file into iTunes while holding "option", the green "plus" icon disappears. However, iTunes still copies the file to media folder.
Any suggestions?you can also try:
I found that if I SCROLL down to the word 'playlist' and hover around the name, a 'show' comes up. Click on the 'show' and everything magically appears. -
PXE boot menu time out option??
We are currently imaging our schools and would like to implement the "always show pxe menu" rather than holding down ctrl & alt. My problem is that when the computer reboots it stops at the menu and requires manual intervention and that means extra trips to the computers.
I would like to put a timeout on the pxe options menu for 30 seconds then have the computer continue the boot to the HD but I did not see a way to do that in settings.txt in /srv/tftp .
Does anyone have any suggestions?
Thank yourobs609,
It appears that in the past few days you have not received a response to your
posting. That concerns us, and has triggered this automated reply.
Has your problem been resolved? If not, you might try one of the following options:
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If this is a reply to a duplicate posting, please ignore and accept our apologies
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Good luck!
Your Novell Forums Team
http://forums.novell.com -
Boot while holding the OPTION key doesn't work.
This is really dumb. I was thinking today my passwords were too weak, so I set out to put Keychains to use. First thing I did was reset my login password - but then changed my mind and reset it again. Didn't write any of this down and now I can't correctly type in an admin password.
SO I searched and found how to boot into the "Recovery Partition" by restarting while holding the OPTION key. This worked! I used the resetpassword in Terminal - and successfully reset the ROOT administrator password. I figured that was me. And my advisor (article I found on-line) didn't mention NOT to.
I still need to reset my admin user password, but now when I try to do the Recovery Partition trick my display remains blank. I can tell it's powered up, but no progress bar or apple logo... One further clue is that if I give up and let go of the OPTION key (because nothing at all is happening) five minutes pass (not 20 seconds or so like the time it worked) and the computer starts up as usual. No "OS X Utilities" window, just the everyday wallpaper and file folders.
So that's my situation. Many thanks in advance.
I should mention, I'm using a mac Pro and the latest version of Yosemite. And a hardwired keyboard and mouse...Is the key(s) stuck, or sticky or not very responsive?
try another keyboard, any usb keyboard for windows or another mac should work.
try flipping your keyboard over and letting it bang on the desktop, your r key could be gunked up and the contact might have failed. Depending on the model keyboard liquid or food or something else could be trapped, the older bondi-plastic ones do this more than the aluminum-plastic ones but the key could need a good smacking,. -
Netinstall images not showing up when holding down option key at startup
Hi,
I have setup two Netinstall images on my 10.5.5 server. On the clients I can see the two images via the 'Startup Disk' tab in System Preferences. But the images are not showing up when holding down the option key at startup. As I am getting ready to deploy to two labs of new iMacs, I would like to be able to get the Option key at Startup method to work as per the documentation.
Any ideas why these images are not showing up as they should?I am having this problem on a 10.5.5 NetBoot server too. I can NetBoot clients by selecting a network volume in System Preferences > Startup Disk, but I can not see the network volumes when option-booting. I am having problems NetBooting while holding down the N-key too. The funny thing is that it works on new Intel iMacs, but not on Mac Pro1.1 (even with the latest firmware updates). NetBooting the Mac Pro works fine when selecting a NetBoot volume in System Preferences > Startup Disk.
Does anybody have a solution? Is this a problem with Leopard Server 10.5.5?
I am running DeployStudio Server v1.0rc9, and the NetInstall set is made with DeployStudio Assistant.
Everything looks right with my bootpd.plist and log file.
Dec 14 22:08:37 xserve bootpd(6722): server starting
Dec 14 22:08:37 xserve bootpd(6722): re-reading /etc/bootptab
Dec 14 22:08:37 xserve bootpd(6722): Loaded 0 entries from bootptab (0 bad)
Dec 14 22:08:37 xserve bootpd(6722): server name server.example.com
Dec 14 22:08:37 xserve bootpd(6722): interface en0: ip 158.36.32.190 mask 255.255.255.192
Dec 14 22:08:37 xserve bootpd(6722): bsdpd: re-reading configuration
Dec 14 22:08:37 xserve bootpd(6722): bsdpd: shadow file size will be set to 48 megabytes
Dec 14 22:08:37 xserve bootpd(6722): bsdpd: age time 00:15:00
Dec 14 22:08:39 xserve bootpd(6722): BSDP INFORM (en0) 1,0:17:f2:2:d5:9e NetBoot001 arch=i386 sysid=MacPro1,1
Dec 14 22:08:39 xserve bootpd(6722): NetBoot: (1,0:17:f2:2:d5:9e) BSDP ACK(LIST) sent 158.36.32.161 pktsize 310
Dec 14 22:08:39 xserve bootpd(6722): service time 0.000667 seconds
Dec 14 22:08:52 xserve bootpd(6722): BSDP INFORM (en0) 1,0:17:f2:2:d5:9e NetBoot001 arch=i386 sysid=MacPro1,1
Dec 14 22:08:52 xserve bootpd(6722): NetBoot: (1,0:17:f2:2:d5:9e) BSDP ACK(LIST) sent 158.36.32.161 pktsize 310
Dec 14 22:08:52 xserve bootpd(6722): service time 0.000622 seconds
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