Booting OS from external USB drive?

I have a MBP (mid-2009). With my old computer, I could only boot the OS from an external drive (via firewire). I thought I heard that with my new Mac I can boot the OS from an external drive (via USB).
Is this true? I can buy a USB enclosure pretty cheap and need to know if I can boot the OS from it.
Thanks,
Bryan

The drive is formatted GUID and on install, you have to deselect everything not essential, like extra fonts, printer drivers (these take up a fair amount of space) Language Translations and X11, but the basic installation was still shown as 5.9G, leaving 254MB on the disk. With earlier versions of the OS (and 10.6 from what I saw briefly) you can also deselect unneeded applications, which also takes the size down. (For an iPod a couple of years ago, the installation was 1.1G.)
Next time a 16G would be better as I was unable to update to 10.5.8 but I still had enough space for Disk Warrior. Time for 10.6. . . .

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Booting from external USB drive

I was wondering if there is any way to boot from a USB drive that I have? I partitioned the drive, erased it, and its basically ready to go. But I can't install Mac OS X on it because it says that I cannot reboot from the drive.
I know that iBook G4s generally can't boot from a USB devise but is there any way to get around this?

If you're computer is having kernel panics there's a conflict; either software or hardware. 2GB of free space isn't enough but I haven't seen anything that suggests KPs are caused by too little free space. Your computer should start fine with 2GB free. It may have problems after a period of use but it would startup and run.
Try starting in Safe Mode. If successful move some of your files to the external drive and then restart normally. If it KPs again, restart in safe mode and disable all startup items in System Preferences>Accounts>youraccount and restart. If it KPs again go through the linked troubleshooting steps by Dr. Smoke step by step. That's the only way to resole your problem.

Boot iMac from external DVD drive

Hi guys!
I need to boot my iMac to my system disc using an external DVD drive (USB).
I put the DVD in the drive and it shows up in Prefs as a bootable disc but when I select it and tell it to restart it gives me the error beep. I've tried rebooting and holding down "option" but the system disc in the external doesn't show up.
I'm on 10.3.9 on a 17" G5 iMac 1.8GHz. All ancient history I know but I really only use it for surfing the web and iTunes. I'm trying to upgrade to 10.5 but I need to get it to boot to the DVD drive using the original system disc first.
I've checked into firmware updates and done tons of searches but I can't see why this Mac won't boot from a USB drive. Am I missing something?
Thank you!!

Intel Macs can boot from USB external drives (including optical drives) just fine. It's the older PowerPC Macs that usually need external drives to be FireWire, in order for it to be bootable.
You may want to look at Mac-oriented vendor OWC to see what they have
http://eshop.macsales.com/shop/firewire/optical-drives/

Ibook G4 Back-up from external USB drive

I had a problem with the internal drive on my iBook G4 that could not be repaired easily. I therefore backed up the drive using Superduper to an Iomega USB drive. I then reformatted the internal drive and fixed the faulty sector with Disc Utilities. I tried to restore the drive from the USB drive using Disk Utilities. The problem is that the OS (10.3.9) will not mount the disk saying that there is no disk image. I can open the USB drive on a Macbook Pro without any problem and Disc Utilities on that machine can also see the disk image.
Does anyone have any ideas as to how to fix this problem?
Sam

One of the problems that could come up, may be in the format selected for use in
the setup of the external USB hard disk drive. Another would be the speed of the
USB ports in the computer, since the fastest data transfer would still be a bit slow
when compared to using a more suitable FireWire400 external enclosure with a
known-bootable chipset designed for use in OS X and PowerPC G-series Macs.
If the format of the USB drive is incorrect, the data on it would be lost through an
effort of reformatting it; so the disk image would have to be saved to another disc
or media. The backup to/from a USB drive when dealing with PPC hardware is
usually more problematic and USB generally is not preferred or recommended.
A bootable FireWire external enclosure with port options, such as some have now,
is a better gamble; as some sport USB2.0, FireWire400 & FW800; and boot OS X.
So a backup Clone can boot the computer from a FW enclosure, but generally not
from a USB2.0 or 1.1 external enclosure. My FW400 LaCie 250 Porsche works well.
So, regarding the first issue you mention; the formatting scheme may be incorrect
on the external drive for the older PPC iBook G4 to see valid files on there. The
Intel-based Macs use a different GUID partition map and may have a different kind
of format than the preferred HFS+ (iBook needs APM and HFS+) for the hardware.
Hopefully this is of some help.
Good luck & happy computing!

HP dv6-6188ca windows 7 pro 64b amd chipset 8G locks up copying files to/from external usb drive

When ever I try to copy a large (>2G) file to or from a external usb drive the computer starts the copy but gets stuck. It has to be powered off and the battery removed to get it to work again.

Please repost your inquiry in the Microsoft Windows 7 Performance Forum.
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Carey Frisch
Microsoft MVP
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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.

Import/Sync Photo's from external USB drive

I would like to sync photos that are stored in a external USB drive. In iTunes the files are greyed out and I am unable to select them unless I first import them into iPhoto. That is a waste of space. Is there a workaround for this?

Check your permissions for the drive, folders and files you are trying to use. Are the photos in the correct format on the drive.

Slow boot from external usb drive

I just upgraded my daughter's macbook to the latest fixes on her internal drive. I reformatted her external LaCie drive to Mac OS Extended(Journaled) and did a restore. I did notice that there are less files on the internal than the external drive when comparing immediately after the restore. When I try to boot from that drive, it takes 10 minutes to boot the system. It takes about 7 minutes before I even hear any drive activity. In the past this system used to take about 2 minutes to boot at most vs 30 seconds from the internal drive. I have repaired permissions without seeing any effect. I did attach another USB drive that had a copy of her old OSC 10.5.8 image and that booted in less than 2 minutes. Any thoughts on what could be causing the long boot time on the external drive? I have seen comments on GUID formatting. Doesn't that come automatically with Mac OS Extended(Journaled) on an Intel machine? Should I have selected an option when doing the format to specify GUID? I did run a verify Disk as well and the extrnal checked out without any problems.

+" ... and did a restore ..."+
How, of what, from where, to where?
+" ... I have seen comments on GUID formatting. Doesn't that come automatically with Mac OS Extended(Journaled) on an Intel machine? ..."+
No, it does not happen automatically when you format the drive. GUID is a partition type, not a format. You specify GUID partition scheme at the time you partition the drive. Formatting is a separate operation, occurring after partitioning. Drives that will be used to boot an Intel Mac must be GUID partition scheme and formatted as Mac OS Extended Journaled.

Booting permanently from external (USB 3 or Thunderbolt) drive?

I'm interested in upgrading my 2010 iMac to one of the new 2012 models, specifically for their USB 3 and Thunderbolt port offerings.
My question is; if I have an external USB 3 or Thunderbolt drive enclosure with an SSD, can I *safely and reliably* boot from this external drive for as long as I own the iMac (ie, never use the 1 TB internal HDD that comes with the iMac)? I'm not interested in Fusion Drive, as I'd rather pay that $250 toward a speedier SSD and external drive that I can own and freely move among different machines.
But I've read different accounts in other forums about the reliability of using USB as your primary external boot source, namely since it relies on the CPU and you'll get slightly diminsihed performance and/or errors over time. Maybe Thunderbolt is the way to go? Any advice on this?
I see posts like this one (http://fortysomethinggeek.blogspot.ca/2012/10/blacx-5g-usb-30-update-fastest-usb -30.html) and it gives me hope, but I don't want to have to deal with random crashes attributable solely to my use of an external drive as my primary boot source. Is anyone else using this kind of external-only setup, and can you please let me know your thoughts and experiences thus far?
Thanks!

First and foremost: Are you using OPTION to try to select the USB-DVD to boot from?
The MacBook Air has to, and has to place a set of Apple supplied drivers on USB I think or has USB DVD support.
http://www.apple.com/support/bootcamp
one feature Boot Camp Assistant has been broken never worked part of 10.6.6, to download drivers to put on CD/USB. So that is 5 months status: broken and unacknowledged officially.
http://support.apple.com/kb/HT4407
A nice normal walk-thru install, what I think most expect -
http://www.simplehelp.net/2009/01/15/using-boot-camp-to-install-windows-7-on-you r-mac-the-complete-walkthrough/

Macbook 2012 not booting from internal drive but booting from external usb drive

hi everyone!!
here is what happened:
i have worked all day on my macbook pro, normally. when i got home and turned it on (i always power it off for rolling with it) it just didn't load the OS.
i run mavericks on a i7 mid 2012 macbook pro 13". it had an accident on last december and fell on the ground, but i've changed the hdd and it worked normally until last week when this happened.
i have a copy of my system on a usb drive and tried to start up from it and it worked.
i took my hdd from inside the lap top and started from it (yes, the same hard disk that was inside the machine) and it worked.
i took the macbook to an apple store and the "apple genius" that was there started up my machine from inside with another hdd running yosemite that they have in the store for testing.
today i bought a new hdd and put it in. but i can't format it or install the system. i had these 2 errors on disk utility
"partition failed with the error: wiping volume data to prevent future accidental probing failed"
and
"restore failure an error (32) occurred while copying. (broken pipe)
so:
it loads from my internal drive, but only when its connected via usb
it loaded the apple store drive internally
it does not format my new drive nor install the system on it
ANY suggestions, please??? it's really difficult to me to solve this problem...
thanks a lot!!!

Must be a bad SATA cable undetected by Apple Techs. A result of the drop but they are also quite fragile.
Disturbing the cable can cause it to work for a while. Cheap repair at iFixIt.

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...

Install OSX 6 from External USB Drive

I have a Macbook running OSX 5.8 with a broken superdrive. I want to upgrade to Snow Leapord. I want to copy the installer to an external USB HD and install from it. Another alternative would be to install from another external Macbook or Macbook Air. Would that be possible? I also have an IBook with a CD Drive. Which way is best? How do I go about doing it?
TIA

I don't see that model listed so I have no idea what it does and does not support or what hardware it has. If it has a floppy drive you could try making the boot floppies to boot from (it will start the process then access the install files from the CD). http://support.microsoft.com/kb/310994
If you don't post your COMPLETE model number it's very difficult to assist you. Please try to post in complete sentences with punctuation, capitals, and correct spelling. Toshiba does NOT provide any direct support in these forums. All support is User to User in their spare time.

Booting XP from External Hard Drive

I have this external hard drive:
http://www.dabs.com/productview.aspx?Quicklinx=49HT&CategorySelectedId=11157&NavigationKey=11157,50473,47210000,48940000
Is it possible to run Windows XP from that USB2.0 Hard Drive without having an internal hard drive connected to the computer?
How would I enable booting from USB devices in the BIOS?
Thanks.
Fizz.

Q-1: I don't know.
Q-2: In BIOS setup, in "Advanced BIOS Features" select "Boot Sequence" then select "Boot Other Device". Page 3-8 of the manual.

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.
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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 OS from external USB drive?

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