Booting from external HD problems?

Hi There,
My wife's iBook (OS 10.4, G3 800 which got a new mother board 6 months ago) died again last week. She was out of town so in desperation she got the HD removed by a technician and put it in a USB-2 external box so she can access her data from her colleague's G4 iBook, but she was unable to start up on it.
Since then I've tried booting from it on my 1.6 PowerBook (OS 10.4) and my old iMac (OS 10.3) and neither of them worked. The iMac will recognise the HD in System Preferences/Startup Disk but does nothing when "restart" is selected. The PowerBook mounts the HD on the desktop but won't see it in Preferences. I tried to verify/repair the disk with Disk Utility while it was on the PowerBook but it said nothing was wrong (Verify/Repair Disk Permissions were not available).
Eventually I connected the HD through a bus powered Firewire device and it boots ok on the iMac but when plugged into the PowerBook I get a message saying the disk is unreadable and prompts me to reformat it.
Does anyone have any idea what's going on?? Please explain.
Thanks, P.

The Powerbook should not have a problem
powering the drive, but we need details.
Details do matter. The FW ports can supply no more than 7 watts of power, which may or may not be enough to run the drive, depending on the characteristics of the drive, the enclosure's power converter & circuitry, & the power source for the Powerbook. It is possible that the PowerBook cannot supply enough juice to spin up the drive quickly at startup time, making it difficult to boot from.
The reasons for this are technical, having mostly to do with the unregulated voltage FW ports supply & the power surge drives generate during spin up.
At the least, the O.P. should try disconnecting anything else from the FW ports & using the PB's AC adaptor while trying to boot from the FW drive.

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Booting from external dsrive problems

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Is the drive you are booting from Firewire? PowerPC Macs can only boot Mac OS X off Firewire, and not USB. Also did you make sure the enclosure has the latest firmware and is known to be Mac OS X bootable?

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

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...

Satellite L20-100 can be booted from external USB hard drive?

I recently bought Toshiba Satellite L20-100 and I wonder if:
1. is there any possibility to boot this machine from external usb hard drive?
2. it is possible to attach another internal hard drive?
Supposing that the both answers above are 'no', how can I solve the following problem: I need hdd space, I need to boot 3 separate Wxp Operating Systems onto the same machine (Toshiba Satellite L20-100).

Booting from external USB HD - "No" would be the official, mcrsoft sponsored, answer. However, it is possible. Not easy but it can be done. I've seen it done with my own eyes and there are guides how to do this. Just look for it with search engine. But if you have enough disk space you better do what was suggested here - create 3 partitions and use boot manager.

Cannot boot from external SSD ...

Hello,
I have just made a fresh install of Mavericks on a brand new Samsung 840 EVO SSD (I initially erased the drive and formatted it to Mac OS Extended Journaled, then created a USB installation drive and performed the installation on the SSD …). It all went well, the computer restarted during this 30 min or so process … However, the problem is when I try to boot in the Samsung SSD at startup having the ALT key pressed, I can only see the 10.8.5 and its recovery partition … Any ideas as to why it doesn't show up the SSD which is connected via USB 3.0 to my laptop ?
Also, even if I go in Mountaion Lion at the Start-up disk option and select the Samsung SSD with 10.9 it still boots into ML … Has anyone encountered this before ?
Thank you.
*non-Retina Macbook Pro 15 inch, mid-2012

Hi Ralph,
thanks a lot for the helpful information! But the problem still persists, and I don't know what's wrong about the installation. I again checked the case and device are fully compatible with Windows 8 on USB 3 and the current boot camp drivers are installed - so everything should work perfectly fine as Windows 8 does natively support booting from external USB-3-devices.
I personally still assume it's rather a driver related problem as the external SSD doesn't even show up whilst booting into the boot menu with "Alt" pressed - I can only choose to boot from the external SSD within the "start volume" menu in OSX (which then doesn't work out when rebooting, unfortunately). I mean, if there was a chance to boot from the external SSD with the configuration I got right now, but OSX/the iMac just "doesn't know" it shall boot from the external partition and therefore rather chooses the internal boot camp partition, the SSD would at least show up in the boot menu when pressing "Alt" on start-up, or do I go completely wrong? I even tried to rename the internal bootcamp partition (which did not work out) or disable it in order to prevent OSX/the iMac to boot from the internal bootcamp partition, but it didn't help: After rebooting it again chose the internal boot camp partition to start from.
Might the deletion of the internal partition be worth a try? Meaning is there a realistic chance that the issue might be caused by that? I would give it a try although I really don't wanna loose the internal boot camp partition for no good reason (btw: would it be possible to clone an image back from the external SSD to the internal HDD then?). Or do you maybe have any other idea what driver could miss resp. could be wrong about the installation so the boot process from the external SSD fails...?
Again MANY MANY THANKS in advance for your further assistance, everybody!!

Trouble Booting from External Drives - MBA 2012

Hello,
I have a brand new 13" MBA which I'm working on building an image to use for deployment using Carbon Copy Cloner 3.4.5. For whatever reason, I can't boot the new 2012 MBA from an external LaCie FW800 or Thunderbolt 1TB Little Big Disk that is running either 10.7.2 or 10.7.4. As soon as I select the drive to boot from when holding the Options key or from selecting the partition from Startup Disk in System Preferences, I get the do not enter icon(circle with the diagonal slash). I tried both plugged in through a Cinema Display and plugging the Thunderbolt drive directly to the laptop. I confirmed both LaCie drives boot properly on an iMac and the last gen MBP/MBA.
Laptop Specs:
13"
1.8GHz Dual-core i5
8GB
128 SSD
10.7.4
Curious if anyone has run into any problems booting from external drives on the new 2012 MBA.
Thanks,
Paolo

Please be sure you have prepped these external drives correctly:
Drive Preparation
1. Open Disk Utility in your Utilities folder.
2. After DU loads select your hard drive (this is the entry with the mfgr.'s ID and size) from the left side list. Click on the Partition tab in the DU main window.
3. Under the Volume Scheme heading set the number of partitions from the drop down menu to one. Click on the Options button, set the partition scheme to GUID then click on the OK button. Set the format type to Mac OS Extended (Journaled.) Click on the Partition button and wait until the process has completed.
4. Select the volume you just created (this is the sub-entry under the drive entry) from the left side list. Click on the Erase tab in the DU main window.
5. Set the format type to Mac OS Extended (Journaled.) Click on the Security button, check the button for Zero Data and click on OK to return to the Erase window.
6. Click on the Erase button. The format process can take up to several hours depending upon the drive size.
My suggestion for cloning is to use Disk Utility. This will also automatically clone the Recovery HD, as well:
Clone Lion using Restore Option of Disk Utility
Boot to the Recovery HD:
Restart the computer and after the chime press and hold down the COMMAND and R keys until the menu screen appears. Alternatively, restart the computer and after the chime press and hold down the OPTION key until the boot manager screen appears. Select the Recovery HD and click on the downward pointing arrow button.
Select Disk Utility from the main menu then press the Continue button.
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 backup drive. Source means the internal startup drive.

Booting from external device causes kernal panic

I am suddenly unable to boot my first generation MacPro 1,1 from any external device. I have tried my Leopard install DVD, a USB thumb drive, and an external hard drive. All of these result in a Kernal Panic. I was able to boot into the hardware test from my original cd that came with the computer. The hardware test reported no problems.
Here is the kernal panic I get every time:
Wed Jul 9 16:42:50 2008
panic(cpu 2 caller 0x001A49CB): Unresolved kernel trap (CPU 2, Type 14=page fault), registers:
CR0: 0x8001003b, CR2: 0x00000098, CR3: 0x00b74000, CR4: 0x000006e0
EAX: 0x00000000, EBX: 0x00000000, ECX: 0x09357804, EDX: 0x0935aa24
CR2: 0x00000098, EBP: 0x4a27b8f8, ESI: 0xffffffff, EDI: 0x4a27b954
EFL: 0x00210202, EIP: 0x68791ff2, CS: 0x00000008, DS: 0x014f0010
Backtrace, Format - Frame : Return Address (4 potential args on stack)
0x4a27b6a8 : 0x128d0d (0x3cc65c 0x4a27b6cc 0x131f95 0x0)
0x4a27b6e8 : 0x1a49cb (0x3d2a94 0x2 0xe 0x3d22b8)
0x4a27b7f8 : 0x19b3a4 (0x4a27b810 0x935a804 0x4a27b828 0x68791bbf)
0x4a27b8f8 : 0x6877efbf (0x9357804 0x68931700 0x0 0x4a27b98c)
0x4a27b938 : 0x6874e794 (0x0 0x4a27b954 0x0 0x1)
0x4a27b998 : 0x68750982 (0x68931700 0x0 0x68943000 0x61c9e000)
0x4a27bb38 : 0x68748bbb (0x0 0x4b09d0 0xf3000001 0x79943000)
0x4a27bb88 : 0x68749d6e (0x8a6e400 0x8b7b100 0x0 0x0)
0x4a27bbd8 : 0x68749e80 (0x8a6e400 0x89ed580 0x8a6e400 0x1)
0x4a27bc18 : 0x5a2da875 (0x8a6e400 0x1 0x0 0x0)
0x4a27bc78 : 0x5a2d406b (0x8a6e400 0x5 0x5 0x8a6e400)
0x4a27bc98 : 0x38c991 (0x8a6e400 0x8934370 0x8934370 0x0)
0x4a27bce8 : 0x3b2df6 (0x8a6e400 0x8934370 0x8934370 0x0)
0x4a27bd48 : 0x18d6fd (0x8a6e400 0x8934370 0x0 0x0)
0x4a27bdb8 : 0x12b4ee (0x92ebe80 0x92ea998 0x4a27bdf8 0x11e042)
0x4a27bdf8 : 0x124b17 (0x92ebe00 0x89005a8 0x9314618 0x0) Backtrace continues...
Kernel loadable modules in backtrace (with dependencies):
com.apple.NVDAResman(4.5.6)@0x68747000
dependency: com.apple.iokit.IOPCIFamily(2.2)@0x5a3ca000
dependency: com.apple.iokit.IOGraphicsFamily(1.4.8)@0x5a2cc000
dependency: com.apple.iokit.IONDRVSupport(1.4.8)@0x5a2e7000
com.apple.iokit.IOGraphicsFamily(1.4.8)@0x5a2cc000
dependency: com.apple.iokit.IOPCIFamily(2.2)@0x5a3ca000
Kernel version:
Darwin Kernel Version 8.11.1: Wed Oct 10 18:23:28 PDT 2007; root:xnu-792.25.20~1/RELEASE_I386
Any help would be appreciated

I removed my Nvidia 8800gt video card and replaced it with the Nvidia 7300 that came with the computer. I can now boot from external drives. I guess there is some conflict with the 8800gt.

Yosemite won't Boot from External SSD with Firewire Connection

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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.
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Hi,
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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.
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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?
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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?
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Hi all
Connected my new 300 GB Seagate External Firewire Hard Drive today.
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Installed Tech Tool Pro 4. Updated to 4.1.1.
Booted from External Firewire Drive.
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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...
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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)
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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.

Booting from external HD problems?

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