Can a MacBook boot from a Firewire hard drive?

I've been trying to install OSX from the restore disk onto a freshly formatted external firewire drive, and the installer says that the drive is not bootable. What am I doing wrong?

I figured it out. You need to partition the drive,
and in the partition options there is an option for a
GUID partition which enables booting from an Intel
Mac. After partitioning in this manner, the install
is moving forward. It coulda been easier, but at
least it works.
I think you can specify GUID from the erase section as well by clicking the Options button.

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Can OS X boot from an external hard drive's partition?

I purchased a 500GB external hard drive in hopes of: 1. creating a bootable backup copy of a freshly installed version of Snow Leopard, and 2. a backup of files which I don't want on my Macbook (ie. school files from 8 years ago).
If I divide the external hard drive into 2 partitions, can OS X still boot from a partition? I heard from somewhere that OS X can only boot a volume, but not a partition...
As usual, thank you for any help you can provide!

miceblue425 wrote:
I purchased a 500GB external hard drive in hopes of: 1. creating a bootable backup copy of a freshly installed version of Snow Leopard, and 2. a backup of files which I don't want on my Macbook (ie. school files from 8 years ago).
Yes.
If I divide the external hard drive into 2 partitions, can OS X still boot from a partition? I heard from somewhere that OS X can only boot a volume, but not a partition...
Two names for the same thing: partition = volume.
As usual, thank you for any help you can provide!
Most external HDs are bootable. But some Western Digitals won't boot a Mac. Their list of which ones should and +should not+ boot: http://wdc.custhelp.com/cgi-bin/wdc.cfg/php/enduser/stdadp.php?pfaqid=1787. But note the disclaimer that they don't support it +*at all.+*
For setup instructions, see #1 in Formatting, Partitioning, Verifying, and Repairing Disks.

Why can I not boot from my new hard drive?

After replacing my hard drive (40 Gb) with a larger (120 Gb) drive the computer will not boot. I can boot from the 10.4 system CD and have managed to install the system without problems, but after restarting the computer I only get to see a folder with a flashing question mark in it.
My computer is the first of the Titanium series (400 Mhz). The hard drive is a Seagate momentus 5400 rpm. Is there a compatibility issue here? Any input would be greatly appreciated!
PowerBook G4/400 Titanium Mac OS X (10.4)

Hi, StenErik. If I were you, I would forget about FireWire Target Disk Mode. I'd start the Powerbook from a retail OS X 10.4 installer DVD, open Disk Utility from the Utilities menu, select the hard drive, reformat it as "Mac OS Extended (Journaled)", check the box for installing OS 9 drivers, and then install Tiger. I can't explain why this should make the resulting installation any different from what you have installed now. But it seems to me there must be some detail you've failed to mention and we've failed to think of, and that detail, whatever it is, is much more significant than it seems: significant enough to prevent your Tibook from booting. Therefore, reverting to the most basic installation procedure possible, with as few external variables as possible, seems a useful thing to try. To minimize variables even further, disconnect all peripherals from the PB while reformatting and installing.
As Hardy has suggested, the size of your drive is not the issue. A 120GB drive should be fine.

Can an iMac Boot from a FireWire DVD Drive?

My superdrive just died and I'd like to know if its functionality can be completely restored with an external FireWire drive, in particular can it be used to boot the Mac?
Thanks!

Hello Tyler,
Yes you can boot from an External Firewire drive.
You may not be able to restore the broken drive though.
Disk Warrior may help some...
http://www.alsoft.com/DiskWarrior/
Hope that helps
Regards
Ian

G4 PowerMac no longer boots from External FireWire Hard Drive

What would cause a G4 PM to no longer boot from an Ext. FW HD that was working fine yesterday and in fact still mounts fine on the desktop..... but when I go into system pref's and attempt to select the ext. HD (and it does show up as an option to boot from since it has an OS in Mac OS Extended Format, Journaled) but after selecting said drive the system simply defaults to the main HD instead and not the external HD I selected within system pref's.???
(I've run apple's disc utilities / First Aid ..... it simply says no repairs were necessary).
The HD in question is a Maxtor 120GB 7200 ATA133 in the following ADS enclosure:
Click Here
Same enclosure works fine with a pionner 110D S-Drive.
Any Suggestions (short of installing the Maxtor hard drive internally which I may have to try anyway)?

Can all macbooks boot from usb(stick,hdd) and firewire(hdd) an os: linux, win, mac os x, opensolaris, etc

Subject: BOOT FROM EXTERNAL STORAGE DEVICE - After this setup properly
Can all macbooks boot from usb(stick,hdd) and firewire(hdd) an os: linux, win, mac os x, opensolaris, etc?
what about:
Apple MacBook Pro MB133LL/A 15.4-inch Laptop(OLD VERSION) (4GB RAM 120G HD 2.33 GHz Core 2 Duo processor, 15.4" Matte Screen, 4GB memory, 120 GB 7200 rpm hard drive) White

Yes,
Disconnect everything hooked up to the PC except the keyboard, mouse and monitor.
Then use this method to flash the BIOS. It is the safest way to go.
USB Device BIOS Flashing in DOS
DOS Flash (DOSFlash.exe, FlshUefi.cpu) is the DOS-compatible System BIOS flash utility that can be used from a DOS bootable storage device (where "DOS" refers to any of a number of compatible operating systems such as FreeDOS, MS-DOS or DR-DOS). FlshUefi.cpu is the required driver for DOSFlash.exe. To flash the System BIOS from a bootable USB storage device, you will need to copy the contents of the DOS Flash folder to the USB device, boot the PC from the USB device, and execute the DOSFlash application. To see a more complete description of the DOS flash utilities, view DOSFlash.txt located in the DOS Flash folder. This folder also contains the required binary image of the BIOS. The binary image file is named xxx_MMmm.bin where "xxx" is the BIOS family, "MM" is the major version number, and "mm" is the minor version number. This file can be copied to the root directory of any USB removable medium for use with the F10 setup "Flash System ROM" option
View Contents of DOS Flash Folder
The links on this post don't work. I copied the section from the BIOS flashing instructions for the specific section you need.
Paul

My Macbook air flash had gone for a month and I saw Apple's Macbook air flash storage drive replacement program. I'm not sure whether that program is still available for the broken device or not. Now, I'm booting from the external hard drive. Thank you.

My Macbook air flash had gone for a month and I saw Apple's Macbook air flash storage drive replacement program. I'm not sure whether that program is still available for the broken device or not. Now, I'm booting from the external hard drive. Warranty has gone in October 2013..
I want to send back my macbook air back to apple store. The problem is that I bought it from US and now, I'm using it in Myanmar. If the program is free of charge for my device, it's worth trying to send back to US. Since mine is broken, I'm afraid Apple will take charges for reparing.
So, if anyone having the same problem as me, I would like to get suggestion....
Thank you!!

I have no idea about how to handle the international aspect of your question.
But here is the Apple writeup about the problem and the remedy. Maybe that will help you.
http://www.apple.com/support/macbookair-flashdrive/

I cannot find videos (not movies) that i have transferred to my macbook pro from an external hard drive, these files used to be on my windows PC!

I cannot find videos (not movies) that i have transferred to my macbook pro from an external hard drive, these files used to be on my windows PC. Photos and a few of the videos came over but i am missing the majority of the videos. Help please!!! I have tried omnidisksweeper with no success in finding them.
in my Usage it says i have over 40 gb of movies when i only have about 9gb which i can see using spotlight search. i really hope the other amount is my missing videos! these are videos of my kids as babies.

Read this post and do the migration again, putting the library in a portable shape first if necessary.
tt2

I want to Boot from My old hard drive.

I an trying to do this work around so I can continue using protools 7 with my MBP running Snow leopard. I pulled out my old hard drive running Tiger and put it into a USB case. I installed a new 650GB hard drive in to my laptop, installed Snow Leopard and reinstalled all my old software. So far so good. Now I want to boot from the old hard drive running Tiger so that I can launch Protools 7. I choose the external HD as the startup disc and end up getting a circle with a line through it on startup.
Is there something else I need to use my old hard drive running Tiger as a startup disk?
Thanks!

If the original HD still has the version of Tiger installed on it that came with the MBP (probably Mac OS X 10.4.8, build 8N1037, 8N1051, or 8N1430) or a later version of Tiger like 10.4.11, then the MBP should be able to boot from it.
To determine what OS & build number is on that drive, open the Startup Disk system preference. Hover the pointer over the drive's image in the window & the OS version & build number will pop up in a ToolTip window after a brief delay. What does it show?
Also, which MBP do you have? Open System Profiler to the Hardware Overview page. What is the Model Identifier shown in it? Is it "MacBookPro2,2" or something else?
Assuming the OS version & build number are sufficient to boot the MBP, it may be that the USB enclosure does not support booting. Most do, a few do not. What is brand/model of the enclosure? Do its specs specifically say it can boot a Mac?
If all of this seems OK, you can try running Disk Utility's two repairs (permissions & disk) on the external drive. If no errors are found, you may be able to get it to boot the Mac by reinstalling Tiger on it from the original system disc set. This will require updating the OS to the latest version you had installed on it for best results.

Can I recover data from a reformatted hard drive? I did not do a back up prior to talking to Apple Support and the guy having me delete the hard drive and start anew. My bad but is all lost??

Can I recover data from a reformatted hard drive? I did not complete a back up prior to talking to Apple Support and the guy having me delete the hard drive (10.5.8) and start anew (10.6.3). My bad but is all lost?? Years of very important information....

You will need to purchase reovery sofware such as such as FileSalvage
http://subrosasoft.com/software/filesalvage
You can download a demo copy that will tell you what it can recover
If you want to recover that you must pay for the software then
When you do the recovery, you will need another disk drive to receive the recovered files
Having install a new operating system on the disk after the retformat is going to gradually reduce the amount of data that this software will be able to recover for you
Allan

How do I boot from an alternate hard drive?

How do I boot from an alternate hard drive?

Boot Using OPTION key:
1. Restart the computer.
2. Immediately after the chime press and hold down the "OPTION" key.
3. Release the key when the boot manager appears.
4. Select the desired disk icon from which you want to boot.
5. Click on the arrow button below the icon.

Can iphoto be run from an external hard drive?

Can iphoto be run from an external hard drive?

As BD says: keep the application on your startup drive.
This is our resident iPhoto guru, Terence Devlin's, advice:
You can move your iPhoto Library to an external disk:
1. Quit iPhoto
2. Copy the iPhoto Library Folder as an entity from your Pictures Folder to the External Disk.
3. Hold down the option (or alt) key while launching iPhoto. From the resulting menu select 'Choose Library' and navigate to the new location. From that point on this will be the default location of your library.
4. Test the library and when you're sure all is well, trash the one on your internal HD to free up space.

Can i use applications from an external hard drive?

Can i use applications from an external hard drive?

Photoshop itself needs to reside inside of it's Applications folder so that it has access to it's Libraries and plugins. So if you are going to attempt to store and run it from an external drive you need to copy the whole Application folder or install it directly to the external drive. Even still I am not 100% positive it will work as I know it still needs to access your Library/Application Support for additional files and licensing.
Why do you want to run Photoshop from an external drive?
George

My computer shows the grey screen that says i need to restart when i tray and boot from an external hard drive

It shows the grey screen that i need to restart when i try to boot from an external hard drive. both drives have snow leopard

Kernel Panics? Don't panic too!
"You need to restart your computer" (kernel panic) message appears (Mac OS X v10.5, 10.6)

How do I boot from an external hard drive if my MacBook Pro only recognizes the internal drive?

Hi there, I recently got the white screen of death (w/ circle slash) on my 13" 2009 MacBook Pro. Most people are saying that it is hard drive failure, so I am trying to boot it from an external hard drive to save some of my data before having it repaired. Unfortunately, every time I press "option" while it boots, it only shows the internal drive on the grey screen. I have my external drive connected, but it won't recognize it. What should I do?
Thanks!

Welcome to the Apple Support Communities
You can only start from an external drive if OS X is installed there. If not, it won't appear as a bootable volume because there isn't any operating system inside it.
As you have a Mid 2009 MacBook Pro, it's better to start from the Mac OS X disc that came with your Mac. Insert it and hold the C key while your Mac is starting. After starting, go to Utilities menu > Disk Utility, select "Macintosh HD" in the sidebar and repair it. If you can't get it repaired, take the computer to an Apple Store.
If the hard drive can't be repaired, the only option to recover your files is to use an application as DiskWarrior, but it's expensive and it's not sure that it will work, because it may fail

Can a MacBook boot from a Firewire hard drive?

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