Boot to external HD

i've been having my indigo imac g3 randomly shutting down on me, and i already found that someone having a similar problem discovered it was about overheating of the internal HD and just booted from an external one and has been working fine. i already own a 250gb external hd that i've been using mainly for backup and music storage, but, after 6 years, the internal hd of the good ol' indigo is more than full, so i wouldn't mind booting permanently from the external hd. a couple of years ago i already had overheating issues with this same computer, to a point that the whole motherboard had to be replaced [literally the computer just died on me on a summer] even if it has never been used 24/7, not even close.
anyways, some insight on booting from the external would be appreciated, the person that sugested this mentioned something about unplugging the internal hd or something.
thanks in advance
imac g3 Mac OS X (10.3.9) 400 MHz PowerPC G3, 576mb SDRAM

--- OFF TOPIC ---...As mrtotes illiterated, it's ...
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adjective
unable to read or write
I don't know whether to be offended or not?
If only I could read what you said! <cheeky grin>
mrtotes

Similar Messages

Should I be able to boot from external firewire disk?

Yesterday, to prepare for upgrading to Leopard, I copied across my hard drive contents onto an external Firewire drive, by using drag & drop, folder by folder.
I was hoping that this would let me (after a reboot) select the external drive as my Startup Disk in System Prefs, or allow me to choose it if I rebooted holding down the alt key. However the external drive doesn't show up in either case.
Is there something else I need to do to allow booting via external Firewire? Is that even possible on my PB 1.5GHz (OSX 10.3.9)? Thanks.

Close, but no cigar! Copying by drag n drop misses invisible files necessary for a boot volume. The way to do this is to use one of the cloning programs like SuperDuper! or Carbon Copy Cloner to copy everything needed to make the FW drive bootable. You can even specify to NOT copy all your files if you wish.
I go to Versiontracker.com to get these programs.

Yosemite won't Boot from External SSD with Firewire Connection

Seeking help, I boot from external SSD drives from my 2010 iMac. I recently installed Yosemite on an External SSD with a firewire connection and all went well with the installation and first boot. After completing set up and restarting my iMac Yosemite will no longer boot from the firewire connection it will boot to the loading bar and then get the dreaded Goest Buster Emblem, if I swap out the SSD to USB connection it boots normally. I have 6 SSD Drives with Mavericks and Lion installed on that will boot from the Firewire Connection. Any suggestions ?

Additionally when testing while the SSD is connected to a USB Connection and booted if I attach any firewire device they are not recognized or connected to the operating system.

Macbook pro cant boot from external dvd device please help !!!!

hello everyone please help me i have macbook pro 2011 core i5 version
i just installed 2.5 ssd as second hdd
i cant boot from external dvd device to install any os the external dvd keeps on spining and mac is just thinking it doesnt show press any key to install
it shows the device when a boot into mac parition
i am trying to install windows on origianl 500 gb hdd and linux on ssd
but not luck
the external dvd drive works i pluged into my pc and it works
please help thansk in advance
200 gb mac
300 gb windows
120 ssd linux

I do not know about Disk Warrior but if you have a compatible OSX on an external HDD you certainly can boot the MBP. Use startup manager:
https://support.apple.com/en-us/ht1310
Ciao.

How to boot from external Hardisk where sap is installed

Hi friends,
I have an External Hardisk where SAP is installed in it i.e., Win 2003 on C drive & SAP on D drive.
In my laptop Win XP is there, but I am trying to boot with External Hardisk where Win 2003 is installed.
I am selecting to boot from External Hardisk where Win 2003 is installed but it shows the Win 2003 booting screen and the next moment screen becomes black.
So can anyone help me How to boot from Hardisk.
Thanks
santhosh

Hi,
You can not boot OS from USB devices in Windows.
Create the separate drive on your existing disc and install windows on that drive and use ur USB disc for installing SAP.
Hope it'll help u....

How to prevent boot from external devices?

Hello,
Does anyone know how I could disable my imac's boot from external devices (firewire/USB disks etc.) like it can be done on PC hardware by changing BIOS options? Also, how can you password protect your machine pre-boot? I believe both issues are important to protect from unauthorized access (know the "evil maid attack"?)
Many thanks,
Georgios

There is a firmware password feature
http://support.apple.com/kb/HT1352
but there is an ominous Warning below the Summary. It basically sets the hardware so that a password (not the same as you user account password) is needed when you start up the Mac and nothing much can be done without it.
At the most basic level, if you turn off +Automatic Login+ in System Preferences Accounts pane, a login window will appear when you start up. If a different account (or a different drive) is used to start up your iMac, your user account home folder will not be accessible directly. However, the data is not encrypted in any way, so a determined hacker would be able to access your data.
If you want to encrypt your user account home folder, you can use the File Vault feature which is set up in System Preferences Security pane FileVault tab.
http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?path=Mac/10.5/en/8727.html

Mini G4 Won't Boot off External after 10.4.9 Update

I've tried three times to install the update and boot off my external hard drive connected to my MacMini G4. Tried the usual stuff like using Combo update, reparing permissions, reset NVRAM, safe boot, single-user login, etc. After it updates successfully, the machine reboots and after a few seconds, the "broken folder" or prohibitory sign appears. The little progress indicator continues to spin, but I have to restart off the internal drive to boot up. Once booted, the external has to be turned off and on so that it will appear on the desktop.
Never a problem with earlier updates. Back to 10.4.8 I go....

Howard:
Welcome to Apple Discussions.
Try booting from the install disk and running Repair Disk in Disk Utility. Here's how:
Insert Installer disk and Restart, holding down the "C" key.
Go to Installer menu (Panther and earlier) or Utilities menu (Tiger) and launch Disk Utility.
Select your HDD (manufacturer ID) in the left panel.
Select First Aid in the Main panel.
(Check S.M.A.R.T Status of HDD at the bottom of right panel, and report)
Click Repair Disk on the bottom right.
If DU reports disk does not need repairs quit DU and restart.
If DU reports errors Repair again and again until DU reports disk is repaired.
If DU reports errors it cannot repair you will need to use a utility like Tech Tool Pro or Disk Warrior
Good luck.
cornelius

Tiger won't boot from external firewire

Installed 10.4.3 DVD on clean external firewire (Extended/Journaled). Before I installed Tiger, I ran updates, and repaired permissions. Everything looked good to me.
I'm keeping Panther on main system drive for now - so from System Preferences>Startup Disk>the external tiger drive appears and I select it. Then I select restart and the promt confirms that the computer will restart with 10.4.3. Looks good so far.
After restart, I'm looking at the desktop, guess what? It's 10.3.9, not 10.4.3. How could that be?
Also, when I restart and hold down the Option key for Startup Manager options - the firewire drive does not appear as an option.
So Tiger appears in System Preferences>Startup Disc as an option, but the option doesn't actually work, and that drive does not appear at all in (Option key) startup manager.
I'm Indexing the firewire drive now (OMG is that slow or what!), but I'm not expecting this to make any difference. I'm stumped. What am I overlooking? Please advise.
Muchas Gracias

R MacCool,
"What if I manually drag and drop the 4 folders (from the Tiger DVD) onto a second internal SATA drive without partitioning the drive first? Will I be able to boot off an internal SATA drive like that? When I installed Tiger on the external firewire I see that 4 folders are there - I could drag them from that drive onto the second internal drive. Does that work?"
No, this does not work. MacOS X consists of more then 20,000 invisible files, most of them somehow connected and referencing each other.
MacOS X DOES boot from external firewire drives, both hard disks and DVD drives.
Why don't you just upgrade your current 10.3.9 to Tiger using this procedure: 10.4 Tiger Upgrade: Decision tree+Checklist?
"Why does Tiger seem to install correctly, then System Pref>Startup Disc recognizes it, but then after selecting 10.4.3 it restarts into 10.3.9?"
I am not a technician, but it could be that the firmware is the primary source for connectivity. After MacOS X has booted the internal firewire drivers might take over and "overrule" the firmware (this is why you can see it in the startup disk preference pane) but at boot-time it exclusively depends on the firmware. This theory might be completely wrong though.

Boot from external Firewire Drive-cannot repair or optimize internal drive.

Hi all
Connected my new 300 GB Seagate External Firewire Hard Drive today.
Installed Tiger from DVD. Updated to 10.4.3.
Installed Tech Tool Pro 4. Updated to 4.1.1.
Booted from External Firewire Drive.
Disk Utility cannot Verify or Repair internal drive. Does not say or do anything.
Tech Tool Pro cannot repair volume or optimize. Says, "Cannot Unmount Volume."
Is there a fix for this?
Thank you for the help!
Jeff
eMac 800 nVidia. Mac OS X (10.4.3) 160 GB Internal HD. Pioneer Superdrive. 1 GB RAM.

Hi
I did name the new external completely different from the internal.
After booting from the external Firewire Hard Drive, I tried running Disk Utility and Tech Tool Pro from both drives. No matter which drive I run the Utilities from the same things happen every time...
Nothing happens when trying to use Disk Utility to Verify Volume on internal eMac Drive.
Tech Tool Pro says, "Cannot unmount volume" when trying to check Volume or Optimize internal drive.

Cannot boot from external HD

I have an external HD which my iMac backups my system daily. I use CCC for that and it has run fine so far. I never had any problem booting from that HD either by using Option/Alt during booting or thru using System Preferences.
Not now anymore. The iMac (late 2013, 27", FusionDrive) refuses to boot from it.
In System Preferences I can see the external HD as a bootable device. However the iMac still uses the internal drive.
When using Option/Alt I only see the internal drive and the restore partition.
I have made a (new) full backup to the external HD and CCC says it "blessed" the HD. But not possible to boot from. Further I did things like resetting Pram, resetting SMC. But does not help.
So next I installed the iMac from scratch (meaning starting the Internet restore and then do a full erase). But still the iMac will not boot from external.
I have connected the external HD to another Mac (Mini) and there it boots flawlessly. So to me there must be a problem with the iMac. But what can I do, this is a serious problem since I now have a backup but this can not fully be used?

- The issue is only if you want to boot from a USB3 external device.
- There are other ports on your machine that you can boot from, refer: Startup Manager: How to select a startup volume
- The ASC is not where Apple make announcements, Refer to their main website.
- Your question / query / feedback should be referred to : https://ssl.apple.com/support/feedback/
- If you find from Apple a resolution, post back. We would like to hear !
Cheers

Ibook g3 M2453 boot from external DVD drive

Hi, I'm Simon from Germany.
I have an iBook M2453 Mac OS X and a lot of dvds.
But the iBook has no DVD drive. So I bought an external DVD drive. But no matter what I do during boot (press the C key or alt)
I can not boot from external DVD drive.
Please help me
Thank you.
Simon.
PS: I have translated the text using Google translate

Hi Simon,
the iBook is able to boot from USB, but this is not expected behaviour and not supported by Apple.
http://support.apple.com/kb/TA20554
There are some external enclosures that do the trick.
But only when you press ALT after Power on. (Select a startup volume via the Startup Manager)
External enclosures with Prolific PL-3507 chipset (Firewire/USB Combo)
You will find them on Ebay Germany
I have a Delock IDE>USB 2.0 enclosure for 2,5" HDs
http://www.delock.com/produkte/gruppen/Geh%C3%A4use/Delock_25_external_enclosure _USB20_42365.html?setLanguage=EN
that works also.
Hallo Simon,
das läuft nur mit einigen wenigen externen Gehäusen. Such auf Ebay nach "PL-3507"
und nimm eins mit Firewire und USB Anschlüssen.
Ein Festplattengehäuse von Delock für 2,5" Festplatten ging auch ( Link oben)
Ein Boot ist nur möglich wenn du die ALT Taste nach dem Einschalten drückst und dann über den Startup manager dein Boot volume auswählst.

All users GONE except for "Other"...and CANNOT boot from External DVD drive

I booted the iMac (Intel...the last one with the White Bezel) tonight, and all of my users were GONE except for "Other." The internal Superdrive has had a disc jammed in it for months, so instead I have an OWC external USB/FW400/FW800 DVD drive. Snow Leaopard.
I need to boot from the SL install disc, but that must go into the external drive...which, as it's been since I upgraded to SL, the Mac sometimes sees and sometimes doesn't. Right now it can't see it. Which leaves me a big pile of crap, doesn't it?
So, what to do? I can't boot the internal drive because it's jammed with a DVD (or I spend $300 to replace what should be a $20 optical drive in it), I can't boot the external DVD drive because the iMac w/Snow Lepeord can't see it, and, meanwhile, all of my photos, etc., are on my Time Machine backup drive...which, as long as I can't do any of the above, just sits there...useless.
Can you tell I'm a bit frustrated with this?
I've reset the PRAM. I've rebooted. I've held down all sorts of combinations of keys. I've tried every single interface type on the external drive and the same thing - the drive can't be seen by the computer.
Has the internal hard drive failed? Nope. I'm tying this using the Firefox browser that's running on my Windows XP installation via Boot Camp on the internal hard drive.

Thanks, but no luck so far.
I have an old iMac G3 downstairs, and I connected it to the machine via Firewire. I could see the disk on the 24" iMac, its folders, etc. I wanted to see if I could install OS X via Target Disk Mode from the old machine to the new one, but it's a PowerPC machine and you can't do that. Maybe you can't do that from ANY iMac...I'm not that experienced.
Now the iMac isn't booting at all to Windows via Boot Camp - it's been booting for 45 minutes now with the "WinXP" logo, but nothing. I'm about to throw it in the car and haul it over to my parents, who have both a Powerbook and a 27" iMac. Maybe it'll work there. Who knows.
Other ideas...replace the internal hard drive (cheap)...if that doesn't work, I'll just sell the thing. I'm not going to sink $300 into the thing when I can get a new machine for around $600-$700. I may go to a Windows7 machine on the desktop and a Powerbook...maybe even an iPad.
I really want to love this iMac. It's my first (well, I did have the G3, but that was just to play with) Mac. It's given me a ton of problems since I bought it new. It's always been a "stock" machine - nothing weird done to it. I was hit with an iMovie update once, and that broke iMovie. Even the new iLife 2009 didn't fix it. Then, the internal optical disk drive failed. I couldn't believe that Apple used a proprietary optical drive rather than a stock Pioneer model. Price for the drive alone? $200.
I installed Snow Leopard 2 months ago, and that completely broke my ability to use external optical drives. Sometimes they work...most times they don't. This is an ongoing problem that many people are having (check the forums)...but no fix. Where does that leave me? With a useless computer.
So, I've boiled it down to this: I love the Mac software. I hate the hardware. Sure, it's pretty, but if something goes wrong, get ready to pay. I hate that Apple knows about problems, yet does nothing to address them, like the problem with external optical drives and Snow Leopard.
I bought the Mac because I was sick of Microsoft not being able to simply produce an OS full of security holes. Often times I read people bashing supposed "driver ****" with Windows, but look at what users of Windows machine are demanding of Microsoft - "please make my software compatible with the trillions of combinations of hardware that can run the os...all the way back to stuff that was created in the mid 1990s." Meanwhile, from my experience, Apple can't get their software to work with their own proprietary, supposedly vertically-controlled hardware.
Windows7 is a not bad OS. It's got it's faults, of course. But, if my optical drive failed in a Windows box, I'd have it replaced in 10 minutes...with a bluray drive...that can write...for under $100.
I use my computer for pictures, etc. In fact, we were ready to send off to iPhoto for our yearly photo books. That's not going to happen, as the photos are forever trapped on my Time Machine backup drive (lesson learned: dump photos to a generic format...fat32 works...just in case you decide to switch from Mac to Win7). iLife is great. MS Office is great, too, on the Mac. I love the little things the Mac does right.
After years of screwing around with my Windows box, I wanted a computer that acted like a consumer electronic device. That's not what I've gotten.
Ugh, so now do I buy a Mac Mini for $700, a new iMac for $1,400, or a Macbook Pro and a mac mini?
...or...do I continue to work within this silly Ubuntu Linux world?
Whatever the answer, I wish I didn't have to ask the question now.

Booting from external hard drive on intel-based MacBook Pro

Good day everyone. I know similar questions were raised in this community, but I still have some questions.
I have MacBook Pro(late 2011) with OS X 10.7.5 and external hard drive with Ubuntu 13.04, from wich i can boot succefully on my PC. But MacBook Pro will not boot from my external drive, no matter which key/combination i use during restart.
After googling I found some answers to my initial question, how to boot from external hard drive
https://discussions.apple.com/thread/1852633?start=0&tstart=0
http://www.everymac.com/systems/apple/macbook_pro/faq/macbook-pro-boot-from-exte rnal-firewire-or-usb-drive.html
http://support.apple.com/kb/ht1948
As I understand I need to format my external hard drive into GUID partition type and this will be enough to be able to boot from it on my mac?
With this new partition type, will I be able to install ubuntu again on my external drive?
Does GUID partition type supports NTFS, ext4 and FAT32, linux swap?(I use ntfs for big files, ext4 as partition for ubuntu and fat32, because i use windows, linux and osx)
Will I be able to boot from my pc from my external drive with this new partition type?
What are downsides, if any, to GPT?
here is info on my e-drive

LowLuster wrote:
The only OS that will boot from an external drive is Mac OS X or maybe Linux. For OS X to be installed on any drive it need to be formatted Mac OS Extended and have GUID partition table.
As for Linux I'm not that familiar with it but again for a Mac to boot it need an EFI partition on the drive and I don't think that is possible with NTFS or FAT32 let alone the native Linux format.
Went to wiki to learn more on efi but found artice on uefi.
Operating system loaders are a class of the UEFI applications. As such, they are stored as files on a file system that can be accessed by the firmware, called EFI System partition (ESP). Supported file systems include FAT32, FAT16 and FAT12, and supported partition table scheme is GPT only. UEFI does not rely on a boot sector, although ESP provides space for it as part of the backwards compatibility.[26]
Here is FAQ on official uefi website.
Can UEFI Secure Boot be adopted and implemented by a variety of operating systems?
UEFI specifications are platform-independent, supporting multiple platforms and architectures. In addition, UEFI specifications are designed to promote cross-functionality, as well as to support broad adoption across multiple operating systems, including Windows as well as Linux-based operating systems. The specifications are robust and can potentially complement—or even advance—other distributions, such as Linux-based distributions.
And here is wiki article on GPT expaining OS support.
It is obvious both uefi and GPT are ok with Linux and file systems such as FAT32, ext4 and NTFS.
I guess there is no much difference(or is that the same thing?) between uefi and efi used in Macs.
In your answer to Stark Industries you said that mac can boot linux from external hard drive, well this is not the info i got of official website and it is still my question, because your answer is very inconclusive and your info is partially incorrect

2010 13" MBP Wont boot from internal. Will boot from external

This is fairly long winded, I will try to be as clear as i can.
Last week my 13" MBP refused to boot after running out of battery during sleep.
I have done the following to the original drive:
Booted from Lion Recovery, repaired, verified, and repaired/verified permissions.
Booted from Snow Leopard DVD, done the above.
Used Disk Utility on another Mac, done the above.
The drive still will not boot from the internal cable.
I can see the drive when attached internally, but cannot do any of the above actions as it is "unable to unmount"
I can boot from the drive if I use a USB external adaptor.
I bought a new hard drive....
I have done all the same on the new HDD with additionaly installing fresh Lion / Snow Leopard to the new drive whilst its in the internal position (Leopard from the DVD originating with my laptop, Lion from Lion Recovery whilst the other drive was on USB) but still having the same problem when it comes to booting - i.e. wont boot from internal. will boot from external USB.
Ideally I would like to end up with a lean install of lion, on the new hdd, booting from inside the laptop.
Please help, this is driving me mad.

I think you have solved your own problem. If you have two different HD's and they both do not work once connected, but do when placed in an external enclosure, then I would think it has something to do with the connection.
Slap the old drive back in the machine, and take it to the genius bar, and have them diagnose it. Hopefully they will have an answer for you. If not, bring the other drive too inside he external enclosure, and show them that it boots via the external.
Then, lay the whammy on them, and tell them that the original drive works inside the enclosure too.
Would be interesting to know what the actual issue is, and the resolution as well...

How to boot an External SSD from a cd/usb?

Does anyone know how I can boot an external SSD from a cd/usb? i need to update the firmware on the SSD via a cd/usb before i put it in my mac as the update is listed as a destructive update (meaning it will require re installing a back up). But i am unsure how to do this or if it is even possible on a mac? It would save me the hassle of putting the SSD in my mac updating and removing again if it is critical.
Any help would be greatly appreciated, many thanks.

You cannot boot from the CD unless it has the OS on it. For reasons unrelated to this post I just created a bootable external HDD and installed some software on it from a CD. I think you have to do the same procedure with your firmware.
Attach the external SSD to your MBP.
Power the MBP holding the OPTION key.
Select the external SSD.
When the system is ready, insert the CD.
Do your firmware update.
Shut down the MBP and swap the drives.
This is based on the premise that the external HDD has an OS on it.
As far as the 'destructive update' aspect is concerned, I leave that to Clinton to pursue. I'm still 'old fashioned' and use only HDDs. Clinton has the SSD knowledge base.
Trust me, both Clinton and I are here to help you as much as we possibly can. When I said,
"Am I missing something here?", it was not a challenge but a need for more information and/or clarification. This medium has its limits in communications.
Ciao.

27-in iMac Late 2009 boots from external HD only

We have a late 2009 27-in iMac running Mavericks (10.9.5) with 8Gb ram and a 1-yr old Seagate 1TB hard drive. We recently erased the drive and performed a Time Machine backup of the entire system from a MacBook Air. The iMac was working fine until yesterday.
On startup, we get the chime, then a gray screen, and eventually the missing startup disk icon (blinking folder with question mark). The iMac will startup and run from an external drive using a clean install of Mavericks but will not startup any other way.
It will not respond to holding the option key, or D, or R. I have pulled and reseated the RAM, and zapped the PRAM (command-P + option-R). I have attempted to startup in Safe mode, and Single User mode, which also do not work.
I'd like to run diagnostics / apple hardware test, but holding the D (or option-D) won't work.
Any ideas what else I can try? or Is it simply the HD has failed?
I'd really like to know if there's anything else wrong (hardware test) before opening it up and replacing the HD again. The nearest Apple Store is 90 miles away.
Thanks!

OOn iMac press and hold "Option" immediatly after Poweron. This should prompt to you disk selection for boot.
othereways you can boot from external device (always in the samewa) and start boot camp to select boot. keep in mind that command+operation+p+r reset the nvram and this also delete boot option to start from other devices.
Let me know If this is your problem

Boot to external HD

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