Boot up from external HD

Current iMac boots up using an external HD. Connected via FW800. Just bought new macbook air and a new external HD with thunderbolt. I want to use the same HD content to boot up my new macbook air. Can I simply copy (click and drag) the old HD to my new Thunderbolt HD and use it for boot up, or do I need to do something specific to enable my macbook air to bootup using the new HD (with the old content)?

You need to use a program such as the Disk Utility, Carbon Copy Cloner, or SuperDuper to clone the OS, and you need to ensure that the OS is at least as new as the version which shipped with the MacBook Air.
(117233)

Similar Messages

Can't boot Arch from external HDD

Hi, well first off this is not my first Arch Linux installation, I'm using Arch for a little over a year now (coming from slack). But this is my first attempt to have Arch on an external HDD.
Alrighty, the situation is as follows: A rather new computer (supports booting from USB devices and the bios is set to boot from removable devices first) with a built in HDD and an external HDD that's connected to that computer via USB.
What I did: I connected the external HDD to the computer and booted off a 2008.6 Overlord core-CD.
Arch-Live recognized the internal HDD as sda and the external HDD as sdb.
I partitioned the external HDD using cfdisk and ran mkfs.ext3 on it (I didn't use any switches with that).
I started the installer, set my mount points (I should mention I'm not gonna use a swap partition here), installed the packages, well just went through the installation routine and installed grub in the MBR of sdb (the external HDD).
Then I rebooted. And this is what doesn't work: When I boot that computer with the external HDD connected the computer completely hangs right before grub would come up. It freezes completely, ctrl+alt+del doesn't work, I need to use the powerswitch to reboot the computer.
So I put the Arch-CD back in the CD drive trying to boot into my Arch System on the external HDD. So I started typing:
root (hd1,0)
kernel /boot/vmlinuz26 root=/dev/sdb1 ro vga=773
initrd /boot/kernel26.img
When I try to boot off that grub tells me that there is no such device as hd1,0. The funny thing is, that the auto copmletion in grub works for the kernel /boot/vmlinuz26 but it doesn't for the device /dev/sdb1, in fact even root=/de<tab> returns a "unrecognized string" message.
So this is what I did and I can't boot off my external HDD, neither can I boot into my system on the external hdd from the cdrom.
What am I missing here?

The harddrive you boot from is in my experience always hd0. Could this mean your external disc is hd2?
Have you tried chainloading from the installer cd to your external disc?

Help, need help booting XP from external hard drive

Hi all, i can't seem to get XP to boot from my external hard drive.
OK, heres the story. i have an imac. i use bootcamp to run OSX and XP. things are good. but i run out of space, so i buy myself a 2tb bare drive and swap it out. so i put the original internal with OSX and XP into an external firewire/usb enclosure. I install refit. I hold option on startup and it shows that i have a windows and a mac OS i can boot from the External firewire disk. looks great, but when i choose the windows from the Ext disk, it doesn't boot, instead it loads windows7 on my new 2tb internal disk.
i hear its hard to boot windows XP from an external disk. my professor told me it has something to do with the boot.ini file on the XP disk... something about changing the value of the "rdisk" to 1, which i have done.
i am not trying to reinstall xp, rather just boot from it because i have so many applications/plugins that i do not wish to reinstall.
Does anyone know if this is possible?>> Logon to windows7, and create a system image/backup of the system FROM the XP external disk? and then reinstall XP on that disk, then restore back onto itself? that way i won't have to reinstall.
anyone have any ideas?

Hi boi,
you can't start ANY windows OS from external HD...

How do I boot Leopard from external hard drive?

I'm currently staring off into space... my 3 month old MBP seems to have finished its painfully long boot and all that appears the Leopard background. The local Mac guru isn't available until Monday but did tell me I need to boot from my external hard drive. Um, how do I boot from external hard drive?
The cause of the problem: inserting flash drive powering up.
Tried safe boot. Only difference was iCal reminder popped up in space.
Mac guru told me do NOT use install disks!
Help!
AR

Apple support has told me that you cannot boot a MBP from an external drive when Leopard is installed on a MBP.
That is just plain wrong.
1) Hook up your external drive. Use FireWire for better performance.
2) Launch Disk Utility and highlight the actual drive icon at the left. Click on the Partition tab.
3) In the Partition section, click on the Options button. Click on the radio button for "GUID Partition Map". This is the option you must use in order for a drive to be bootable on an Intel based Mac. Click OK.
4) Set up your partitions however you want and click the Partition button at the lower right.
From here, you can either clone your internal drive to the external, or install Leopard on it from scratch.

Can't connect to LAN when booting MBP from external drive?

In an effort to always work in my computer environment, I backup my Mac Pro main drive to an external firewire drive, plug in to my new Macbook Pro 2.9 and option start off this drive. Result is I'm working off the last backup of my main Mac Pro drive so all my apps, stored mail, etc, is alive and well. I merely track any changes and new files and copy them over or use DropBox to get them on to my Main Mac Pro, my main computer.
Problem is, when booting off my external drive running Lion 10.7.5, my MBP's network won't turn on or recognize my home LAN. Then if I restart off just the MBP drive, it does connet to my LAN automatically.
Could the problem be that since my MBP was set up for Mount Lion, that it won't fully work with a drive with a Lion OS on it? I thought perhaps I had to turn on Airport when on my external Lion drive, since I don't have that turned on on my Mac Pro which uses ethernet. Can't figure this one out. The MBP must have airport as I'm on it now but booted off the internal ML OSX drive.
Thx,
Steven

No not at all. You should have access to your LAN from any version of OS X that is set up correctly. It's still using the same hardware and should be loading the same drivers for that hardware and YES you may have to actually turn on the Airport card.

Can't Boot Tiger from External HD

I just got a new MBP, and I'm having trouble booting Tiger from my external HD. I installed Tiger on my Lacie Rugged HD, so that I can use Avid. I had no problem booting from the drive using my 1.67 PB. But trying the same technique with my new MPB - holding down the Option key as the computer starts - only gives me the MPB HD as a bootable option. The Lacie mounts fine on the MPB, but it just won't appear as an option for a boot disk. I also checked System Preferences > Startup Disk, and I only can choose between the MPB HD and a Network Drive; the Lacie doesn't get recognized as a bootable disk (even though, again, it is properly mounted).
Any suggestions?

Thanks for the points. (I'm only snarky before my morning coffee.)
Yes, you can create three partitions. However, they will all have the same partition scheme, make sense? Since PPC-based Macs can't boot from GUID-partioned drives, you need to use APM.
So, the solution is to use format the drive with Apple Partition Map (not GUID) and create the 3 partitions of the desired size. Then, use something like SuperDuper or Carbon Copy Cloner to clone the PB HDD to one partition and the MBP HDD to another partition. Note that you can install Tiger for the PB from the PB install discs directly to the external HDD, but you can't do that for the MB partition, that you need to clone.
In fact, I have my LaCie d2 external HDD set up just like that. Apple Partition Scheme, 3 partitions, one for my wife's PB, one for my MBP, and the remaining one for general storage. I can boot both of our laptops from the external drive, and all three partitions mount fine as disks on both machines.

Can't boot OS9 from external HD

I have an external HD with OS X4 and OS9 installed on it. Classic will open, but I can't instal an OS 9 app because the app says I need virtual memory. I tried to boot OS9 from the external drive to install the app from OS9, but it is not a start up option in system preferences. I also can't start it from the c key. I have a full retail version of OS9.
Does any one have any suggestions? Do I need to install an earlier version of OS X?

Allan,
Thanks for the response.
When I upgraded my iMac G5 to OS X5 I thought it was time to finally get rid of all of my OS9 apps. I originally had them on an external bootable HD. It's now Thanksgiving and I had a few holiday graphics in Corel Print House 2000 I would like to use (OS9). I thought I would reinstall OS X4 and OS9 on the external HD which I did. OSX4 boots fine and classic opens but I can't get it to boot from OS9. I can't reinstall Print House because it says it needs virtual memory to instal.
Any ideas how I could load Print House onto my external HD or how to open a .cxx file? I wonder how I got this app on the external originally.

How Do I Boot Up From External HD?

I want to boot up from the external HD, which I use to backup Time Machine. I turned Time Machine off but the backup HD still does not appear in Startup Disk.
Do I need to install Leopard on the external HD in order to boot up from it?

I completely misunderstood your question. I thought you had made a copy of your Time Machine backup and wanted to boot from that. You should be able to boot from a separate partition with a clone. If your MacBook is a PPC Mac you need to use the firewire option for your G-Tech to boot. If that isn't the issue there is a slight chance that a restart might work.
I've had good luck with using CCC to clone twice but I saw someone else post that they had one success and one failure so you might want to give cloning again another shot. Posting your question at Bombich.com might be a good idea if someone doesn't come up with a satisfactory solution for your problem here.

Booting Linux from External Harddrive

I recently installed Kubuntu 8.04 on an external USB hard drive... all self contained. I can go to any PC, hit F-whatever for the boot menu, and boot right to my external hard drive.
However, the hard drive doesn't show up when I plug it into a Mac and hit "Option" for the boot options. I have a MacBook Intel Core 2 Duo with Mac OS X 10.4.11.
Any ideas? I'd like to make minimal changes to the Mac (otherwise it would defeat the point of my self-contained Linux install)
Thanks!
Erik

I have booted Debian from a 2GB USB stick on my intel Macbook Pro. When I hold down the option key at startup I see Mac, Windows (bootcamp), and Windows (the usb stick). No problems.

Booting mini from external drive ?

I net to boot a 1.83 core duo from external with no on board drive or bay installed. Is that possiable?

I'm not sure if that will work or not?
I do know that the Mac Mini's will startup from either FireWire or USB External HD's, because I have and run from either.
Where is the HD or do you have a new one to put back into it?
If you have a new Hard Drive that you can install into it, then do so and startup from either your Install DVD or your bootable clone and follow the instructions below.
1. Startup from your install DVD or Bootable Clone 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 Install, restore from TM or clone OS X back from your Bootable Clone.

New hard drive not booting osx from external

Hi guys, I currently installed a new hard drive into my macbook, and I tried holding down the alt//option key to try and boot osx from my external hard drive ((Connected through USB)) but nothing happens. My mouse cursor appears, but nothing shows up. I tried 5 minutes ago to make sure that I was actually able to boot to my external drive from my old hard drive, and it worked perfectly. But nothing shows up on this end. Any help or suggestions?
thanks!

any one have any insight?

Booting Solaris From External Hard Drive

Hi,
I have a Dell Laptop 600m, currently running on Windows xp. I have an external Hard Drive. I was wondering, if i can connect my external HDD to laptop and boot it from it and instlall Solaris x86 on the external hard disk and work on it. Is it possible to do so. Will I get into any issues by doing so.
Solaris Experts and Administrators ur attention please...
Thanks
Mahesh

If it's an external USB or Firewire HDD: no, that won't work. Solaris'
bootstrap loader is unable to load the OS from an USB or Firewire
mass storage device. There are rumors that this will be supported
in the future, but with the current Solaris 10 Express release (and
probaly the final Solaris 10 FCS release), this isn't supported and
does not work.

Booting macbook from external hard drive- Is it doable?

I've had my white macbook since 2006. (I LOVE IT) However, I'd like to use it as a "desktop" until I can get a mac mini. Is it possible to move EVERYTHING thats on it to an external hard drive (terabyte) and boot it up from there? Also, once I get the mac mini, will I be able to restore the macbook to its "original" state? I ask this because I only have a little over 6gigs left on my hard drive. (Lots of music, graphics, videos and apps) I bought a terabyte to free up some space, but still haven't been able to free up enough to make a difference. I am assuming (and i could be wrong) that I could just take everything on the mac and move it to the hard drive, boot it from there, and all will be well in the world.
So is it doable? (If it is… I might not even need to get the mac mini.)
Thanks a bunch in advance for any help...
"O"

Yes.
First, Repair the Hard Drive and Permissions
Boot from your Snow Leopard Installer disc. After the installer loads select your language and click on the Continue button. When the menu bar appears select Disk Utility from the Utilities menu. After DU loads select your hard drive entry (mfgr.'s ID and drive size) from the the left side list. In the DU status area you will see an entry for the S.M.A.R.T. status of the hard drive. If it does not say "Verified" then the hard drive is failing or failed. (SMART status is not reported on external Firewire or USB drives.) If the drive is "Verified" then select your OS X volume from the list on the left (sub-entry below the drive entry,) click on the First Aid tab, then click on the Repair Disk button. If DU reports any errors that have been fixed, then re-run Repair Disk until no errors are reported. If no errors are reported click on the Repair Permissions button. Wait until the operation completes, then quit DU and return to the installer.
If DU reports errors it cannot fix, then you will need Disk Warrior and/or Tech Tool Pro to repair the drive. If you don't have either of them or if neither of them can fix the drive, then you will need to reformat the drive and reinstall OS X.
Second, Clone using Restore Option of Disk Utility
Open Disk Utility from the Utilities folder.
Select the destination volume from the left side list.
Click on the Restore tab in the DU main window.
Check the box labeled Erase destination.
Select the destination volume from the left side list and drag it to the Destination entry field.
Select the source volume from the left side list and drag it to the Source entry field.
Double-check you got it right, then click on the Restore button.
Destination means the external drive. Source means the internal startup drive.
Third, Open Startup Disk preferences, change the startup disk to the external drive, then click on the Restart button. The computer will now permanently boot from the external drive.

Booting up from external hard drive

I'm about to take the plunge and install Leopard. But first, I am backing up all data on an external harddrive. My question is, should the worst happen, how do I use the external as a bootable harddrive? (Am I saying this right?) How do I boot up from the external?
Also, can I keep that and run Tiger after I successfully install Leopard? In case I need to run a classic program, which Tiger does and from what I read Leopard doesn't handle?
thanks for any advice for a mac user and not a programmer!

Presuming that the external has a valid copy of Mac OS X, either through installing from the system disks or Mac OS X install disk or by making a clone of your current boot drive (via a utility like Carbon Copy Cloner or SuperDuper), then you just hold down the Option key while starting, or restarting, the Mac. You'll be presented with a list of bootable drives and you can just choose the external.
can I keep that and run Tiger after I successfully install Leopard?
Presuming you're referring to Tiger on the external drive, yes, you certainly can.
In case I need to run a classic program, which Tiger does and from what I read Leopard doesn't handle?
You are correct; Leopard no longer supports the Classic environment.
Regards.

How can I boot/run from external HD when internal HD is fried?

Background: I have an original vintage 2002 emac G4 1.25 that I've been messing with for the past couple of months due to slow running and hanging/crashing apps. I upgraded the RAM with an additional 256 MB several years ago and I was running OSX 10.2 without many problems until recently. I was getting messages about the hard drive being full, so I cleaned up and backed up my files to an external HD (USB, of course, since I hadn't found this forum at that time). Freeing up memory didn't help and neither did creating an administrator account, so I ran Apple Hardware Test, which turned up an error code: mem_/2/4 DIMM1/J1601
When I tried to do an erase and reinstall, the erase part went fine but the reinstall wouldn't work because (on the last of 4 discs) the machine returned a "can't write" error and suggested that the hard drive is unusable.
My questions: How can I use an external HD (Firewire, of course) to boot and run my emac when the internal HD is fried and there's no operating system on board? How do I install OSX on the external HD to boot the emac in the first place? Also, will the 384 MB of RAM be enough, or must I upgrade that, too? For that matter, what version of OSX would be best?
Thanks for any help you can offer. I am a long-time mac user (still have my Classic, which still works), and I'd really rather not replace the emac.

HFS stands for Hierarchical File System. The plus sign stands for extended or extended format.
This is the data system format that Apple uses for their operating systems.
When you buy an external hard drive device, typically they do not come pre-formatted.
You'll need to use the Disk Utility app in OS X in your username/Applications/Utilities folder on your eMac if it's still operational or when you start up your eMac from the OS X 10.5 DVD located in the Applications/Utilities folder.
You use this app to initialize and format the drive once it is connected to your eMac. If you wish, you can also, at that stage, partition the drive into separate variable size sections to make a large capacity HD more manageable.
You need to have a functioning stick of RAM in your eMac in order for it to boot up correctly.
The OS X startup routine looks for all components in your eMac that are necessary for a successful start up.
Your eMac will not boot up, even from CD/DVD, without any RAM installed.
If you have only one stick of RAM in your eMac and it's bad or corrupted, you'll need to purchase and Install a new stick of RAM to start.
You might as well purchase 2 brand new 1 GB RAM sticks for your eMac. 2 GBs
OS X 10.5 Leopard's minimum RAM requirements are 512 MBs of RAM.
Your eMac can max out at 2 GBs of RAM.
The specs for the RAM are PC2700 SDRAM, DDR333, 184 pins.
Here are links to websites I use to buy Mac accessories and Hard drives compatible with Macs.
http://eshop.macsales.com/shop/firewire/
http://www.lacie.com/us/products/range.htm?id=10033

Troubles booting eMac from external HDD over firewire

I have an MBP that had to be taken into the shop recently and will unfortunately be there for a week or more. Before I took it, however, I used SuperDuper to do a full backup to a partition on an external HDD (a WD "My Book Pro" 500GB drive with two partitions -- one for full backups and one for extra storage). For the time being, I have an eMac (PPC G4 700Mhz w/OS X 10.4.11) that I was hoping to use to boot from the FW drive.
Unfortunately, I can't seem to get it fly. I have the drive connected via FW and when I hold down option at boot it only shows the internal drive (I've also waited a few minutes and tried numerous refreshes -- no dice). When I look at Startup Disk in Systems Preferences it does show the FW drive as an available boot device. When I select it and reboot, however, I get a the system folder question mark icon for about two seconds and then the eMac boots from the internal.
I know the backup is fine because I was able to boot over FW from the MBP. The backed up data is system 10.4.11 as well.
Any thoughts?

Hey Dema,
Well the builds for Intel vs PPC Macs are very different. However this can be done as here:
http://www.macosxhints.com/article.php?story=2006061610374449
and they talk about the earlier method using two partitions. They figured a way to do it without the partitioning.
Richard
Message was edited by: spudnuty

Boot up from external HD

Similar Messages

Maybe you are looking for