Booting from Optical Drive

Hey, I'm currently trying to upgrade my 13" Macbook Pro (Early 2011) with a new SSD. Right now it still has the stock HDD and optical drive. My question is if I replace the HDD with a SSD and then place the old HDD into the optical drive with the OWC data doubler, can I boot from the optical drive and have all my settings/apps as they were? If so, how then would I transfer everything over to the SSD once it was booted up?

If this is a problem with an OS X Installer Disc then you should take the computer to an Apple service center for repair or replacement.
If this is a problem with the Ubuntu disc, then we really cannot help. You would need to talk with their tech support. However, as far as I'm aware Ubuntu does not make a version that will work on an Intel Mac, as is, because it is not designed to boot or run on an EFI system such as is used by Intel Macs.

Similar Messages

  • New E540 won't boot from optical drive

    Hello!
    I just bought a Lenovo ThinkPad Edge E540 and I have no interest in Windows 8 nor the HDD the laptop came with. I replaced the original HDD with a Samsung 250 gb SSD and now I want to install it with a fresh Windows 7 which I already had laying around.
    My issue is that I can't get the DVD-reader to boot into the disc. I get to a Boot Menu where I can choose between a few alternatives, one being the CD0. When I select it and hit Enter the screen goes black for a few seconds and then returns me back to the Boot Menu. I have tried this with 2 different Windows 7 discs, which I have also tested in my desktop pc to ensure they work correctly. The same thing also happens when I choose "Windows Boot Manager" or the empty new SSD.
    I tried setting the optical drive to the first boot order in the BIOS but with no result.
    What am I doing wrong? halp.

    Is the Leopard disk you're trying to boot from a full retail install disk or a gray install disk? If it's a gray install disk from another Mac that would cause the problems that you're describing. It has to be for the exact same model as yours to have the correct drivers on it. A full retail install disk has the drivers for every Mac on it.

  • Booting from Optical Drive - Drive omitted from boot list

     Hey Guys - I've read similar posts yet none seems to offer a solution. My machine came preinstalled with windows 8 which I upgraded to 8.1 and last week upgraded  to Windows 10 with only one issue (display driver). The machine itself has a recovery partition. And the product key is obviously embedding within the motherboard. Obviously with the Windows 10 upgrade I am concerned about recovery issues as I believe the upgrade effectively makes the recovery partition useless (I can only go by what I've read) therfore I downloaded the winddows 10 64-bit iso from microsoft and I attempted to book the iso from my optical drive but the drive was not listed in the boot options. I'm not an amateur in this regard and when I was using 8.1 on this machine i booted from the optical drive a dvd to recover my password. I've included a screenshot to show the set up but I'm sure that'll need to be approved so in the meantime the BIOS boot set up was as follows:CD ROM BOOT - ENABLEDLEGACY SUPPORT - ENABLEDSECURE BOOT - DISABLED UEFI BOOT ORDER - SAME AS LEGACY LEGACY BOOT ORDERUSB CD/DVD ROM DRIVEINTERNAL CD/DVD ROM DRIVEUSB DISKETTE ON KEY/USB HARD DISKNOTEBOOK HARD DRIVE! NETWORK ADAPTER  - (network adaptor boot disabled by the way) Now I'm trying to boot from teh internal dvd/cd drive not usb and i have swapped them around it made no difference. If i can post two screen shots i'll also post the boot list. I should also add the the disc itself boots on another machine no problem and the internal optical drive on my HP machine passes all the HP diagnostics. So with all that said - what is the issue. I did contact HP support on twitter who ran out of ideas and suggested i wait on windows 10 updates from microsoft (why? lol) but for me this seems like the bios just inst reconising the optical drive - it's as if secure boot hasn't been turned off. So i start the machine - press Esc then F9 and select boot list and my optical drive isn't listed. FYI - I even tried refreshing the bios image but this has not effect either - so advice please?!  

    STILL NO ONE CAN OFFER A WORKAROUND FOR THIS? WHERE ARE ALL THESE EXPERTS???

  • K9A2 Platinum-Won't boot from optical drives

    My problem is that I can't get my computer to boot from either optical drive.Both drives work; I can read and write from either drive in windows xp. In the boot order menu neither drive is shown as a boot from device.The boot sequence menu shows all hdd and usb devices but no optical drives.Both drives are recognized in the bios.I wanted to dual boot vista x64 but can't because it won't boot from drive.Any ideas?
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  • Cannot Boot From Optical Drive By Pressing Keyboard Keys

    I finally went from Leopard to Snow Leopard (SL) by doing a clean install.  But I found I was not able to boot from the install disk by the normal procedure -- restarting and pressing the Option or C keys.  Before the SL install, I had a volume structure problem on my HD and tried to use the Leopard install DVD to repair the drive.  I was unable to do that by using the normal boot up procedure.
    Any ideas on why I can't boot from the optiical drive by pressing the designated keyboard key(s)?

    You can load your EFI firmware from here (get the correct version!)
    https://support.apple.com/kb/HT1237
    And use this method to install it
    https://support.apple.com/kb/HT2213
    I'll admit  frankly I don't know exactly what goes on in the deeper levels of Mac.
    I do know this when a Mac first boots it:
    1: Does a POST test, memory etc.
    2: Runs hardware firmware
    3: Runs EFI firmware loaded into special memory from the EFI partition (now erased in your case)
    4: Boots OS X
    I also know it takes two reboots to get the changes in EFI to "stick" as I've installed programs into EFI for special booting attributes.
    SO what I'm thinking here is you cleared your EFI special memory by not haviing a EFI partition anymore and rebooting twice???
    Perhaps your firmware wasn't installed correctly before?
    I've never encountered a problem like yours, it's exceedingly rare, however Apple does offer the links above for some reason one needs to reinstall their EFI firmware, I only assume it goes into the special memory or on a new EFI partiton on the boot drive it might create.
    Sorry but that's the extent of my knowledge, Lion killed my test machine so I can't replicate your issue to fix it.
    I hope that assists, please get back if it worked.

  • I purchased an unclaimed luggage at the airport that had a mid 2010 13" MB-Pro -- It comes up to a boot screen with snow leopard or Windows -- I tried to boot from Optical with Lion install -- it woon't won't boot from the optical drive, help

    It won't go to taget disk mode -- I took the drive out and used disk utility to re-partition and format - now I get the folder with a question mark and it still won't boot from optical or usb or go to target disk mode -- I haven't tried installing lion on the disk while it is out and then putting it back in the machine --
    according to the serial number, it is still under apple care but since I don't know the person that used to own it I can't get it transferred to me -- or will apple do that since I bought it in an auction?

    Ok so I've done what you said and this is what it's come back ....
    I don't know that these are the errors , but they're the things which don't look right ...
    Throughout the shut down there is a recurring line ;
    It says ;
    Com.apple.launchd 1 0x100600e70.anonymous.unmount 301 PID still valid
    Then there are 2 more which I think are related ;
    Com.apple.securityd 29 PID job has I overstayed its welcome , forcing removal.
    Then the same with fseventd 48 and diskarbitrationd 13
    Oh and on Launchd1 : System : stray anonymous job at shut down : PID 301 PPID13 PGID 13 unmount...
    Then the last process says "about to call: reboot (RB_AUTOBOOT).
    Continuing...
    And stops ...
    Hope this means something to you ... Thanks again for your help so far :-)

  • Is it possible boot from U drive?

    Is it possible boot from U drive on a leopard system? How to do it? My CD disc was broke, and i try to install a windows Xp by bootcamp,but i cannot boot from CD anymore.

    *"No flashdrive boot option."*
    Then the Mac doesn't see the flash drive as a bootable volume.
    If there is another way to install Windows without an optical drive you'd be better off posting your question in the Boot Camp forums, as if anyone has done it, you'd find them there:
    http://discussions.apple.com/category.jspa?categoryID=237

  • My iMac (late 2006) no longer boots from FireWire drives, although they contain all the system files.

    My iMac (late 2006) no longer starts (boots) from Firewire drives, although they all contain a current system (Mac OS X 10.6.7). If the drives are connected with USB 2, they boot normally. The FireWire drives appear in the Start Volume program, but they do not boot. If I press and hold the Alt key while booting, only the internal drives and the USB drives appear as options. What can I do in order to boot from FireWire drives as I always could in the past?

    I'd first recommend doing a SMC reset and if that doesn't work refer to:
    http://reviews.cnet.com/8301-13727_7-10333969-263.html
    and
    http://www.thexlab.com/faqs/firewiretroubleshooting.html
    SMC RESET
    Shut down the computer.
    Unplug the computer's power cord and all peripherals.
    Press and hold the power button for 5 seconds.
    Release the power button.
    Attach the computers power cable.
    Press the power button to turn on the computer.
    PRAM RESET
    Shut down the computer.
    Locate the following keys on the keyboard: Command, Option, P, and R. You will need to hold these keys down simultaneously in step 4.
    Turn on the computer.
    Press and hold the Command-Option-P-R keys. You must press this key combination before the gray screen appears.
    Hold the keys down until the computer restarts and you hear the startup sound for the second time.
    Release the keys.
    Roger

  • Problems booting from external drives

    Ever since I got this 6-core 2013 MacPro (January 2015), I have had strange problems and glitches, but for this posting, I am talking about problems being able to boot up from external drives. I took the 4 external drives out of my old 2009 MacPro and put them into a 4-bay Thunderbolt enclosure. This enclosure can be configured as a RAID if all drives are the same (which they are not) or it can just be a place to be able to access all 4 drives. I used to be able to boot from each of those drives on the older MacPro but I am unable to do so now. They show up in the System Preferences/Startup Disk but if I choose one, it just reboots into the new MacPro drive. I even tried pulling out a couple of the drives and mounting each into a USB 3.0 (Sabrent) dock and still I could not boot from those drives which have the latest version of Yosemite. Yes, they are formatted correctly. I used to boot from them. I was able to clone one of the drives to a Seagate USB 3.0 hard drive and boot from that. Although, the clone was not perfect. It didn't transfer all my settings so I could recover some logins and serial numbers I wanted that I have never been able to retrieve since I got this new Mac.
    Yesterday, I formatted a 32GB flash drive and tried to install Yosemite on it. I planned to put DiskWarrior on it. When I started to install Yosemite (from a saved download) it let me choose that drive, but when it restarted before installing, I was right back where I started on my MacPro's hard drive.
    Is this normal behavior for the 2013 MacPro? Or is it just mine? I am beginning to think I may have a lemon since I have had other strange problems that don't go away.

    Not all external devices are bootable. First stop would be involve whoever handles the 4-bay Thunderbolt. Seeing how it has a bridge most likely in order to support RAID mode that may not have the correct frmware or other reasons.
    https://bombich.com/kb/ccc4
    https://bombich.com/kb/ccc4/search/bootable%20volume
    CCC is the only program I would be using.

  • XServe won't boot from any drive, but recognizes them in OS X Installer

    I know I have another post here but this is a different issue, and I've already fixed that one thanks to Camelot .
    I just received an 2 used xserves for work. One booted into OS X Server fine, so I scrubbed it and reinstalled without issue.
    The second however never booted into an install. That is, I never found it on my network when I started it up and when I pushed the power button it would turn off immediately, suggesting that there was no OS on the disk or that the xserve couldn't find it. I didn't have a spare monitor to plug into it (surprisingly) so I just chalked it up to the fact that it was a new disk and hadn't had OS X Server installed on it.
    Now I have a spare monitor, I've gone and installed OS X Server on the xserve. It boots from the DVD just fine, runs through the installer, then when it goes to restart, it won't boot from the hard drive that it just installed OS X Server on, it'll just boot back from the DVD unless I pop it out. If I let it boot up without the DVD in it, I'll get the standard Folder with a ?.
    At first I thought it was the drive, so I installed OS X Server on another drive. Still wouldn't boot to that drive, so I booted from the DVD and repaired the disks in Disk Utility. Still nothing. I booted to DVD again and when I went to Startup Disk, it actually did show my disks with their respective OS X Server installs.
    When I boot the machine holding alt/option, the system doesn't show my drives, only the DVD if it's in the slot.
    I figured ok, this has to be the drives, so I swapped them with those of the identical xserve in the rack below, but my top xserve wouldn't boot from those drives either. Somewhat expectedly however, the bottom xserve would boot the drives that I took out of the first one.
    Now I'm just stumped. Any ideas?
    PS, drives are unlocked.

    MrHoffman wrote:
    The EFI firmware, the SMC and possibly the disk I/O path seem good potential candidates for culprit.
    Load and run the hardware diagnostics.
    Reset the SMC, and reset the LOM.
    I'm running the EFI diagnostic tool now. Firmware and disk I/O path came to mind, let's just hope it's not a major hardware issue
    beatle20359 wrote:
    Hi Jeff,
    Do you have the specs of the xserve and the version of OSX server you are trying to install? Does the Xserve have the RAID card installed in it and what size are the drive modules.
    All the best
    Beatle
    2x 3GHz Dual-Core Xeon
    8GB RAM
    OS X Server v 10.6.3 (the version I'm trying to install, that is)
    No RAID card. The system drive is 80GB and a second storage drive is 1TB.

  • Satellite P300-1A8 will not boot from disc drive

    Hi,
    I had a little play with start up programs, partitioning the hard drive and marking as active and deleting programs i thought i did not need.
    I obviously had no idea what i was doing!
    Laptop will go to toshiba screen then goes blank, i can not boot from the disc drive.
    I put the hard drive into another laptop and it works fine.
    I put the hard drive of that laptop in the buggered one and that works fine.
    How the hell do i put the original one back with it working??
    Really really stuck with this!!!!!
    Any help would be appreciated.
    Only thing i havent tried is the recovery disc but im not paying for one if it wont boot as itl be a waste of money.
    Seems like its a compatability problem with cpu and hard drive as they dont want to be friends anymore!!
    Thank you in advance

    Hi!
    Can you boot in the safe mode?
    If you dont have a recovery disk, use the Microsoft installation disk and try to boot from it.
    And you said that you cant boot from disc drive, did you tried different disks?
    Maybe some are not readable or not bootable.
    The best way would be a recovery disk. The installation takes a few minutes and you have a clean installation with all drivers and tools from Toshiba.
    Bye

  • MacPro can't boot from external drive

    Running 10.7.3 and a MacPro which gets backed up each night with SuperDuper. Can't boot from this drive (black screen). Yet I can take the same drive and start up my Macbook Pro! So it isn't the drive or the data on it. I'm stumped. Could this be related to an issue where I can't get this same MacPro or system to successfully backup to Time Machine without error? The boot drive seems OK (ran Disk Warrior and Disk Utility).

    Please read this whole message before doing anything.
    This procedure is a diagnostic test. It’s unlikely to solve your problem. Don’t be disappointed when you find that nothing has changed after you complete it.
    The purpose of this exercise is to determine whether the problem is caused by third-party system modifications that load automatically at startup or login. Disconnect all wired peripherals except those needed for the test, and remove all aftermarket expansion cards. Boot in safe mode and log in to the account with the problem. The instructions provided by Apple are as follows:
    Be sure your Mac is shut down.
    Press the power button.
    Immediately after you hear the startup tone, hold the Shift key. The Shift key should be held as soon as possible after the startup tone, but not before the tone.
    Release the Shift key when you see the gray Apple icon and the progress indicator (looks like a spinning gear).
    Safe mode is much slower to boot and run than normal, and some things won’t work at all, including wireless networking on certain Macs.
    The login screen appears even if you usually log in automatically. You must know your login password in order to log in. If you’ve forgotten the password, you will need to reset it before you begin.
    Test while in safe mode. Same problem(s)?
    After testing, reboot as usual (i.e., not in safe mode.)

  • Can't boot from internal drive - Please help!

    The internal drive on my PBG4 was making some funny noises this morning and sure enough, when I tried to reboot from it I was unable to. Instead I was brought to a screen with a DOS prompt with some cryptic error message. Since then I've called Apple support and their "solution" was to re-format the drive and reinstall the OS. I can do that if I absolutely have to, but if there's any way around it, I'd much rather avoid the reformatting/reinstalling everything nightmare scenario. Initially Disk Repair said the drive couldn't be repaired. I booted from my Disk Warrior CD (3.0.3), which prompted me to backup data (luckily I have an external 250GB drive) and I backed up my home directory. I did that and rebuilt the directory, then restarted from my Tiger CD and ran Disk utility again and it said the disk was fine. I tried to boot from the drive and I get taken to a DOS prompt again with the following error message:
    launchd can't exec /bin/sh for single user: No such file or directory
    Any suggestions on what I can try at this point short of reformatting the drive and starting over from scratch?
    Powerbook G4   Mac OS X (10.4.7)   1.25 GHZ, 1GB Ram
    Powerbook G4   Mac OS X (10.4.5)   1.25 GHZ, 1GB Ram

    I assume you have OS X on a 2nd drive that you can run DW, Disk Utility etc.
    As you backup files and know they are okay, delete them. Undo the layers of onion and try to go from latest to oldest.
    If you don't have an emergency fw drive...
    The trouble with long backups on a problem drive is they can fail during the backup if the drive gets too hot, which happens.
    Back in Panther, you could use BootCD to create an emergency CD or DVD with your system, full finder, loads of utilities, and could even run FireFox. With that, you could run TTPro 4, Disk Warrior, DU, Rember etc. AND play around in the Finder and Terminal.
    I still keep a CD and DVD with 10.3.9 just in case. The perfect FW drive would have a couple OS versions, a backup partition (that you can erase if needed).
    Apple Disk Utility from CD/DVD can also be used to copy/clone a volume or foleer, using Restore and output to a volume or disk image.

  • Cannot boot from USB drive!!!!!!!!!!!!!

    Hi
    I have 3-4 120Gb 2.5inch drives which I clone my MacBook Pro to on rotation.
    I have always been able to boot from these drives UNTIL NOW!
    Suddenly I can no longer boot from them, the boot process starts and gets well through and then the drives all seem to just 'hang'.
    The only significant change is that a local Apple support company upgraded my stock 120gb drive to a 160Gb drive.
    Any ideas what the issue coiuld be?
    Cheers.
    Robin

    Hi robster,
    If the USB drive contains a valid OS you should be able to verify and repair the permissions on that drive, give that a try.
    Also i suggest running DiskWarrior 4 on it.
    The replaced internal drive should have no effect on this unless some settings got changed when the new OS got installed on it that now prevents the mac from being able to read your USB drive.
    Does the USB drive need a driver ? if so is the latest version of that driver properly installed ?
    If the USB drive checks out and all is OK maybe a re-install of the OS on your internal drive would help.
    For now try disk utility and diskwarrior if you can that could narrow things down

  • DV7-6185us wont boot from hard drive.

    I recently installed a new hard drive after the one it came with completely crashed. After installation of new hard drives, I inserted and installed all of the recovery disks needed for the new hard drive. Upon completetion it said it needed a restart and after restart I get a message saying I need a OS for the hard drive for boot up.
    I went into my bios to make sure the hard drive was first in boot order which it is but when trying to pick where to put from on the bios screen it only give me the cd option. I ran a full diagnostic of the hard drive and everything checks out. I made sure to unplus the hard drive and tried a different slot and still get the same thing. Installation when fine but still won't boot from hard drive.
    Is there something that i'm missing? The hard drive is fine. So what could it be?

    Hi,
    Assuming this is just a problem with the recovery media, here's an alternative option you could try.
    Before trying the following, make sure you can still read the 25 Character Product Activation key on your Windows COA label ( 5 blocks of 5 alpha/numeric sets ).
    An example of a COA Label can be seen Here.
    You can create a Windows 7 installation disc yourself using another PC - just download the correct Disc Image ( this must be the same version that originally came with your notebook - this is listed as Windows 7 Home Premium ) from the link below and use an application such as ImgBurn to burn the ISO correctly to a blank DVD - a guide on using ImgBurn to write an ISO to a disc is Here.  These Images are clean and from a well-respected source - Digital River.
    Windows 7 Images.
    Use the disc to perform the installation, enter the Windows activation key found on the COA Label when requested and when the installation has completed, use the 'Phone Method' detailed in the link below to activate the OS - this method supported by Microsoft and is popular with people who just want a clean installation of Windows 7 without the additional software load normally bundled with OEM installations.
    http://www.kodyaz.com/articles/how-to-activate-windows-7-by-phone.aspx
    Any additional drivers and software you may need can be found Here.
    Regards,
    DP-K
    ****Click the White thumb to say thanks****
    ****Please mark Accept As Solution if it solves your problem****
    ****I don't work for HP****
    Microsoft MVP - Windows Experience

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