Booting Off Alternate Startup Disk for Disk Utility

I'm trying to use the Disk Utility to check my internal HD and so need to use another disk as a startup disk. I can't use Disk Utility on my internal HD if that's also at the same time my startup disk, according to Disk Utility directions.
The directions also say to use my Panther installation disks as startup disks. I tried that by clicking restart and holding down the c key. This is not working — there doesn't seem to be anything on the disks to use as a startup source.
There are four disks in my Panther kit. Which one is the one I'm supposed to use? If they can't be used, what can I use to get around this?

Found out that Disk 1 is the proper disk for start-up, and with a little more tweaking was able to use it.

Similar Messages

Won't boot from alternate startup disk

I have 10.1.3 on my 366 firewire clamshell and I am trying to install tiger. I connected my external firewire dvd burner which showed the contents no problem, but when I chose it as the startup disk and rebooted, it just displayed the alternating mac/disk question mark icon then booted from the HD anyway.
So I installed Tiger on an external firewire HD and tried to boot from that, but this time it shows the mac/? icon but doesn't boot even from the HD.
I then realised I had Panther on cds so I tried to boot from that (hold C when powering up), but again it refused and just had the mac/? icon.
How can I reset it or do something to get it booting again ?

Hi Neil -
If your 'target disc mode' install runs along fine and then quits ...that to me is a bad sign.
Have your tried resetting the PMU?
http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=14449#faq4
I did a Jag. install via target disc mode from an iMac G5 and that went fine. My drive is partitioned with X and 9.
Does your OS 9 disc give you the same problems as you're having with X? If not, maybe boot into 9 and use its 'disk first aid' and/or 'drive set-up' utility to check your drive?

IMac OSX 21.5 late 2010, had MTN Lion on it. Prob with thousands of my photos in IPhoto all mixed up and intermingled with thousands of odd images I had not seen before. After trying to erase them, too numerous, I used original disk for disk utility. Disk

Utility had issues with erasing disk. It took 36 hours and then said it was a failure. I tried repairing and verifying and partitioning. Finally, I used the original disk to install the system. It installed Snow Leopard. I was unable to install the 2nd disk ILife items, so I repurchased those. I thought I was all set but it would not upgrade past 10.6 or something. After it is all set up, I realize there is nothing on the computer. The updates were in download folders and in reading the install logs, it said the install disc was read only and the system was installed from somewhere else and then it was reaped and something about a sandbox and it seemed important that all the Asian languages were added in, even though I unchecked that option. All these odd programs and windows are on there, which I do not use and do not want on there and do not see it on there. So, I tried this several more times, it appears someone is using the Root user. I tried to disable the root user as I do not understand how to set it. Last night, I took the main partition that I put everything on and made me the owner and took over that whole disk. Then the other two were locked, do I ejected them. Then I wanted to erase 4 things - an iDisk an some other trash and the trash is suddenly emptying 989 items, I think were the logs. So, I turned it off. What is going on? I was unable to fix the install disk. The permissions were not repairable on the partition, it was verified as being ok though. Has someone taken over my computer? How can I get rid of them and get it fixed? It has affected my iPad and my iPhone 5. I really need these devices. I am an artist and need to take and post photos of my work. Is this Chinese people doing this and are they nearby? I did notice they wanted me to sign up for mo ole me. in the logs it even said, no [email protected]. And no password access at that address. So, I was also not able to update to Mountain Lion and Icloud again. at one point it looked like I had. i downloaded everything I purchased that was in Icloud to Itunes and it showed the lion in Mail but there was no cloud icon and Mountain Lion said to install, meaning it was not installed. System information confirmed this. oh, and my main disk in disk Utility is named with an unchangeable name that is the serial number of the mac and it says it is an in/out sata media drive. Please, please help me.

1. If you break your post into paragraphs it is much easier to read.
2. I have no idea what your post is referring to, and how - if at all - it relates to iPhoto.
3. It's a good idea to re-read what you've posted, and ask yourself how it might look to someone who doesn't know you and doesn't know what's going on with your machine.

Which Disk for Disk Utility after Leopard upgrade?

Greetings,
If I need to run Disk Utility from the DVD, which disk should I use? The original disk that came with my iMac when I purchased it, or the Leopard install disk that I upgraded to a little over a month ago?
Thanks in advance - Scrags

If the earlier Disk Utility didn't try to "repair" anything. then the Leopard Disk Utility should still work.
If the older Disk Utility tried to repair a Time Machine volume, it might remove folder hard links. The Leopard Disk Utility would have no way of fixing that.

How to create disks for disk group ?

Hello Experts
I am RHEL 5 with Oracle 10g, I am configuring ASM. What will be steps to create disks that can be used in disk group and I am using normal redundancy so how many disk groups are needed(min.)

Sunil,
Well to be honest, so far I have not tested ASM over RHEL/OEL 5. I demonstrate ASM over 10g using DD command , creating virtual devices than binding them as a raw decices. So far, this technique is very successful, though I have not tested the same over RHEL5.
The article quoted uses asmlib driver. Its good but not mandatory to work with asm, at least for the learning purpose. So I wont' recommend to do the labor. What you can do is the following,
# mkdir /asmdisks
# chown oracle:dba /asmdisks
# su - oracle
$ dd if=/dev/zero of=/asmdisks/disk1 bs=1k count= 4000
$ dd if=/dev/zero of=/asmdisks/disk2 bs=1k count=4000
$ dd if=/dev/zero of=/asmdisks/disk3 bs=1k count=4000
$ dd if=/dev/zero of=/asmdisks/disk4 bs=1k count=4000
# losetup /dev/loop1 /asmdisks/disk1
# losetup /dev/loop2 /asmdisks/disk2
# losetup /dev/loop3 /asmdisks/disk3
# losetup /dev/loop4 /asmdisks/disk4
# raw /dev/raw/raw1 /dev/loop1
# raw /dev/raw/raw2 /dev/loop2
# raw /dev/raw/raw3 /dev/loop3
# raw /dev/raw/raw4 /dev/loop4
# chown oracle:dba /dev/raw/raw1
# chown oracle:dba /dev/raw/raw2
# chown oracle:dba /dev/raw/raw3
# chown oracle:dba /dev/raw/raw4
# chmod 660 /dev/raw/raw1
# chmod 660 /dev/raw/raw2
# chmod 660 /dev/raw/raw3
# chmod 660 /dev/raw/raw4You should be able to see these logical devices with the DBCA. I have not tested the same over RHEL5 so far so no guarantee that it would work over there or not and I don't have a RHL5 box with me at the moment to test the same too. But over OEL4, RHEL4 this works dandy. Do give it a try and post the feedback.
HTH
Aman....

Can't boot off Apple Hardware Test disk

Can anyone suggest why my laptop won't boot off of its Apple Hardware Test disk anymore? I have not tried it in years, but want to try now. I have the original, and a copy I made years ago, and neither will boot. I can select them at startup disks in that preference pane in OSX, but then it fails to find it, and boots into OSX. I can boot into OS9 on the hard drive. I was able to partially boot off of a different AHT disk from my 12" Albook G4, but it gave the message that I can't use that disk since it is not meant for the Tibook. One idea is that TechTool tells me that "macintosh startup file was absent", and the Help file states:
"The Startup file is intended for use by systems that do not have built-in ROM support for booting from HFS Extended volumes. The first eight extents of the Startup File are stored in the Volume Header. This makes them easy to locate and read into memory. This file contains information used by the computer’s ROM to determine what program will boot the computer. In almost every case, this will be configured to point to the preferred System."
But it does not tell me how to restore this Startup file.
-how can i get my startup file back?
-my computer boots fine off the hard drive, so is this file used only to boot off a CD?
-any ideas why i can't boot off my AHT CD?

Hi, t. (That alias of yours sure is a mouthful.) I think in your shoes I would pose the question to the tech support people at Micromat (TechTool's developer). It's their error message, after all, and they should be able to explain it to you in as much detail as you need. Perhaps they'll shed some light on the original problem in the process.

Task License Validation Error Message/ Automatic Scheduling for Disk Defrag is not working.

I saw where I could possibly ask you for answers to the problems that I am having with Windows 8.1 pro. First of all I noticed that my disk defragmentation task which was set on daily wasn't operating. It indicated that the last time it ran all disks
for disk defrag was back on 4/20 and on the this morning of 4/26 there was the date 4/20 for all the disks. I went into the Administrator Tools section of Control Panel and found Schedule Tasks. When I opened Schedule Tasks I got the
error message that indicated a Task License Validation Error. It went on to read:The task XML contains a value which is incorrectly formatted or out of range. This is my question...are the two related...the inoperative automatic maintenance of disk defrag
and this error message from task scheduler? And how do I address each issue to solution. Thank you very much.
[email protected]

The MSDN Windows and Windows Phone app development forums are for developers to discuss writing their own Windows and Windows Phone apps.
For help using Windows please post on the Windows forums on
http://answers.microsoft.com .

Booting off external firewire drive

Hi Ive cloned my internal imac drive using superduper.
Inside the startup application i can now see my external drive as bootable.
I am trying to boot off the external drive TARGET disk mode. Is this correct to get the os to boot off the external FW drive?

Hello Joe.
You don't use Target disk mode to do so. When connected, you can select the external firewire drive to boot from via System Preferences > Startup Disk or use the Startup Manager during startup or restart.
http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=106178

MacBook Pro does t start I turned it off during start up I've tried a lot of stuff. When I hold startup my hard disk says efi boot instead of Macintosh hd

MacBook Pro does t start I turned it off during start up I've tried a lot of stuff. When I hold startup my hard disk says efi boot instead of Macintosh hd

Reinstalling Lion/Mountain Lion Without Erasing the Drive
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.
Repair the Hard Drive and Permissions: Upon startup select Disk Utility from the main menu. Repair the Hard Drive and Permissions as follows.
When the recovery menu appears select Disk Utility. 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 main menu.
Reinstall Lion/Mountain Lion: Select Reinstall Lion/Mountain Lion and click on the Continue button.
Note: You will need an active Internet connection. I suggest using Ethernet if possible because it is three times faster than wireless.
If this does not work, then you will have to erase and reinstall Mountain Lion:
Install or Reinstall Lion/Mountain Lion from Scratch
Be sure you backup your files to an external drive or second internal drive because the following procedure will remove everything from the hard drive.
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.
Erase the hard drive:
1. Select Disk Utility from the main menu and click on the Continue button.
2. After DU loads select your startup volume (usually Macintosh HD) from the
      left side list. Click on the Erase tab in the DU main window.
3. Set the format type to Mac OS Extended (Journaled.) Optionally, click on
        the Security button and set the Zero Data option to one-pass. Click on
      the Erase button and wait until the process has completed.
4. Quit DU and return to the main menu.
Reinstall Lion: Select Reinstall Lion/Mountain Lion and click on the Install button.
Note: You will need an active Internet connection. I suggest using Ethernet if possible
            because it is three times faster than wireless.

IMac G4 won't boot off startup disk

Looking at a G4 20" flat panel for a friend. He blew away some unknown file and hosed the computer. It will not start in safe mode. Get a Darwin kernel panic screen on normal start-up. Will not boot in safe mode. Will not boot off start-up disk (C) - get an interminal grey apple screen that does not proceed. It will boot off of the disk for hardware test (Option), but cannot launch off startup disk icon - get one of those Verboten circles with a line thru it. Hardware test returns two errors loading default text (1) and control (2) fonts and returns an invalid memory access at %SRRO 00000000.00000000 %SRR1 10000000.00083030.
G$ Mac OS X (10.4) unknown version of Tiger

Oops - G5, not G4. And what this young man did was delete his system library. Any suggestions about how to get him up again would be greatly appreciated.

When I check my boot SSD drive using Disk Utility under Mavericks, I often get "Incorrect number of extended attributes" errors. But if I boot off an external drive and check the same SSD, no errors are reported. Is this a bug in Mavericks?

When I check my boot SSD drive using Disk Utility under Mavericks, I often get "Incorrect number of extended attributes" errors. But if I boot off an external drive and check the same SSD, no errors are reported.
This happens not just with the SSD in my Mac Mini, but with another SSD in my MacBook (both now running Mavericks). So far as I know, all of the kit I am using is in good order (despite the file corruption reports). So I am beginning to wonder if it could be due to a bug in Mavericks? Both SSD drives have been formatted to MacOS Extended (journaled) format. Should I have used a different format, I wonder?
Has anyone else encountered this issue?
Does anyone have a solution?
Or an explanation that might help my investigation of the issue?
Thanks guys,

I understand that the Corsair Force 3 is not one of the SSD drives that are supported on Apple Macs.
I did try downloading and using Trim Enabler, but the error message came up both when it was off and when it was on.
I understand that not everyone thinks Trim Enabler is a good program, though there is a new version out now, so I may give it another try.

Screen flash & restart from boot off another disk

I tried to boot off another disk by pressing option/alt at startup but when I select the disk I want, my screen flashes and my mac restarts. I tried using both rEFIt and rEFInd, but none of them appear on startup. Does any of this have anything to do with the fact that I changed some startup flags so that it always boots into verbose mode? (the flag is -v)

Using Snow Leopard forum is probably your best bet.
I don't care if someone has 20+ yrs, I still like having a good troubleshooting book/manual handy.
Mac: can't get by without bootable backups, even if you use TimeMachine, clone your system. Save you all this fuss and work.
Then invest in high quality disk repair and maintenance program.
Disk Warrior / TechTool Pro 5 / Drive Genius 3 - top 3 probably
There are always going to be normal items you just ignore with Repair Permissions. Useful to do once in a while but not magic. Same with SMC and the rest. Running disk repair is one of those things that it seems should be done before there is trouble, not after, and a weakness in HFS file system and disk directory.
Apple Support is a good place to start looking and then hardware category.
http://www.apple.com/support
http://www.apple.com/support/imac /macbookpro etc
Make sure all your software is current, don't install anything you are unsure of or can do without.
Run Apple Hardware Test off your OEM DVD specific to the Mac.
Now, have you Googled for this?
have you looked at reports about 500GB drives used in some Macs that had issues and were offered firmware update for the drive?
Considered just using another drive connected to iMac?
You can overheat a hard drive with needlessly running 7 and 35-write pass, besides which the best way to map out bad blocks is not Disk Utility.
http://www.bing.com/search?q=imacblackscreen
http://www.bing.com/search?q=AppleiMac+firmwareupdate
I'd direct your replies to iMac and MacBook Pro as well as to Using OS X Snow Leopard areas.

Help creating a boot disk for ailing powerbook (and journalist!)

Hello, I'm a journalist with a desperate need to recover my Mac.
My Powerbook G4 (operating 10.4.8 I believe) was working fine until I did the latest suggested Mac software upgrade of Safari. Immediately Safari stopped responding hanging up or quitting. So I tried the next recommended update, thinking perhaps the two went together: Security 2008-009 I believe. It required a restart, which I did. (Note: I didn't do the recommended Java or Quicktime update at the same time because I'm currently working in Sierra Leone with terribly slow internet and figured I'd get to it later).
Now, however, the computer won't boot up. I hear the tone, I get the gray screen with the apple, I get the blue screen, I get the opening OS X screen and the blue progress bar, which then quits early on. Then I get a blue screen of alternating hues, which continues infinitely.
I tried all the Apple and web-suggested fixes. I cannot enter safe mode and can only perform functions with the single user mode. I've tried fsck and it said my HD is fine. The problem, I suspect, would be easy enough to fix if I could just reinstall OS X with my CD. However I am currently 7000 miles from home and CD, and in desperate need of my laptop in order to continue my volunteer work.
I do have access to a friend's MacBook Pro 10.4.9 and the internet. I have downloaded Carbon Copy Cloner... however I don't know which files I need to copy in order to create a boot disk. Nor do I know how to create a boot disk to actually put into my computer. I have also been scared by the CCC literature that says I need to erase the target volume... which in this case is my external hard drive containing all of our video footage from the last 8 months!
I use my computer every day, however I am a newbie at using things like Terminal and higher order functions that these occasions seem to require. CCC's Help manual, for me, might as well have been written in hieroglyphs (which, come to think of it, would have been easier as I seem to understand pictures well enough).
I would be eternally grateful for any simple or step-by-step advice which might help me get back to work. I'm training African journalists, and without my computer to edit, we cannot do a thing!
Thanks,
Kim

Here's some trouble shooting methods that I've copied from Apple KB articles:
Resetting PRAM and NVRAM
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.
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.
If zapping the PRAM doesn't work, try resetting the PMU.
Warning: Resetting the power manager also resets date and time settings. Performing a PMU reset returns the iBook and PowerBook hardware, including NVRAM, to default settings and forces the computer to shut down.
PowerBook G4 (DVI) and PowerBook G4 (1 GHz/867 MHz)
If the computer is on, turn it off.
Disengage the two keyboard latches located between the Esc and F1 keys, and the F11 and
F12 keys. (You may also need to disengage the keyboard locking screw located between the
F5 and F6 keys.)
Lift the keyboard. To ensure no harmful static electricity is transferred to the computer,
properly ground yourself before performing this procedure.
Press and release the reset button located on the upper right side of the logic board near the power button, shown here. Wait 5 seconds.
Press the power button to restart the computer.
PowerBook G4 and PowerBook G4 (Gigabit Ethernet)
If the computer is on, turn it off.
Press and release the reset button located on the rear panel of the computer between the
external video and modem ports. Wait 5 seconds.
Press the Power button to restart the computer.
HTH!

Backup startup external drives, disk utility, dmgs

Dear All,
I am trying to backup my Mac Mini to a Firewire drive with an image file (dmg) using Disk Utility. But I get this error: "Unable to create dmg. Resource busy." That is due to my startup disk being my Mini which I'd like to backup. So I've tried to make a backup drive with a working system 10.4.10 folder, but found that my Mini did not come with install disks. Dragging and dropping the files from the Mini to an external disk does not result in a hard disk that can be used as a startup disk. Is this normal? When I opened the Mac Mini package it did not indicate that I was due to find install disks.
So how can I make an external backup FWire drive that I can start from, and then do a backup using Disk Utility of my Mini's internal hard drive?
Thanks for any advice.

Extended Hard Drive Preparation
1. Boot from your OS X Installer Disk. After the installer loads select your language and click on the Continue button. When the menu bar appears select Disk Utility from the Installer menu (Utilities menu for Tiger.)
2. After DU loads select your hard drive (this is the entry with the mfgr.'s ID and size) from the left side list. Note the SMART status of the drive in DU's status area. If it does not say "Verified" then the drive is failing or has failed and will need replacing. Otherwise, click on the Partition tab in the DU main window.
3. Set the number of partitions from the dropdown menu (use 1 partition unless you wish to make more.) Set the format type to Mac OS Extended (Journaled, if supported.) Click on the Partition button and wait until the volume(s) mount on the Desktop.
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, if supported.) Click on the Options 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 will take 30 minutes to an hour or more depending upon the drive size.
How to Clone Using Restore Option of Disk Utility
1. Open Disk Utility from the Utilities folder.
2. Select the backup or destination volume from the left side list.
3. Click on the Erase tab in the DU main window. Set the format type to Mac OS Extended (journaled, if available) and click on the Erase button. This step can be skipped if the destination has already been freshly erased.
4. Click on the Restore tab in the DU main window.
5. Select the backup or destination volume from the left side list and drag it to the Destination entry field.
6. Select the startup or source volume from the left side list and drag it to the Source entry field.
7. Double-check you got it right, then click on the Restore button.
8. Select the destination drive on the Desktop and press COMMAND-I to open the Get Info window. At the bottom in the Ownership and Permissions section be sure the box labeled "Ignore Permissions on this Volume" is unchecked. Verify the settings for Ownership and Permissions as follows: Owner=system with read/write; Group=admin with read/write; Other with read-only. If they are not correct then reset them.

MacBook won't boot after trying to repair with Disk Utility. Cannot boot in Safe Mode. Just powers down after about 5 minutes. Apple Hardware Test says error 4SNS/1/40000001:IG0C-0.265 But I cannot find anything on the net about it. MacBook 4,1 Intel.

Hello Everyone,
I am in dire need of assistance I am hoping someone could provide. I have a MacBook 4,1 with Intel Core 2 Duo processor 4GB Ram. It is taking over 10 minutes to boot up past the gray apple screen when I turn it on. First I cleared the PRam (?) then I checked the disk using Disk Utility Verify, and it said the disk needed repairs. So I ran the disk repair and it said it was unable to fix the errors on the HD.
I did a little research and tried booting into the Single User mode, then running /sbin/fsck -fy. It said that it found errors but could not fix them. I ran it two more times as suggested and got the same result each time. I then tried rebooting and now instead of taking 10 minutes to boot up, it takes about 5 minutes on the gray apple screen and then just turns off. I started in Verbose mode to try to troubleshoot the error and it appears the last thing to come across the screen before power down is a message "Apple Yukon 2: RxRingSize <= 1024....etc".
I decided next I would run the Apple Hardware Tester. The test came back with an error code "4SNS/1/40000001:IG0C-0.265". I am very good at searching the web but I could not find any errors that had the IG0C or IGOC or any combination at the end, but plenty of 4SNS/1/40000000(1) errors with different endings. From what I can tell people are saying anything with 4SNS/1/4000000 is a logic board failure, but this computer was literally just booting this morning until I did the /sbin/fsck -fy.
Any suggestions are welcome and appreciated.
Thank you for your time.

You've a couple of issues .... when Disk Utility tells you it can't repair a drive, if the error is a soft error, like an invalid tree or node, Disk Warrior (or TechTool Pro) can handle it. However, if Disk Warrior (or TechTool Pro) can't handle it, you can erase and write zero's to the hard drive and restore to it, or you can buy a new hard drive. Sometimes running SMART Utility can provide additional insight into the health of the hard drive.
THe 4SNS error is a sensor error. You could install iStat Pro to see if something is indeed getting too hot or remaining room temp or less. You may need to take it into an Apple shop so they can use their thermal diagnostics to test and isolate it further.

Booting Off Alternate Startup Disk for Disk Utility

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