Can I boot from an internal hard drive with a different verison of OSX?

My wife had a MBP5,5 running a version of OSX earlier than Mavericks (came with snow leopard, believed we upgraded to Lion or Mountain Lion at some point but can't recall right now, for the life of me) and my daughter spilled a drink on it the other day ending its run. As a result, I bought a used MBP MD101LL/A with Mavericks installed and planned on just swapping its hard drive with hers (which I know survived the spill...I've been able to access it via a tethered enclosure since) and choosing her old drive as the startup volume on boot. All went according to plan, but the boot gets no further than the Apple logo. Any suggestions? Because I was swapping out the hard drive, I didn't take the drive that was in the new MBP when I bought it but I'm sure I can get it if need be. Same applies to the installation discs. I have the 10.6 installation DVD and tried to boot from it and get to Disk Utility to no avail. Any information/guidance would be greatly appreciated.

If your New to You Used Mac is froom mid 2012 and originally came with Lion installed on it you will need to Reinstall that version using the Online Internet Recovery system and then at first boot of the new install use the Setup Assistant system to copy over all the data from your wifes old hard drive.
To access the Online system at startup hold down the Command + Option/alt + r keys and keep them held down until you see a globe on the screen. From the resulting screen that cames up, Mac OS X Utilities, select Disk Utility and then the top most entry for the hard drive, left hand panel, drive model number and size, and then the Partition tab. Repartition the drive as One Partition, You Must do that to get ride of the Mavericks Recovery HD partition which is hidden. Name the partition Macintosh HD with a format of Mac OS Extended (Journaled).
Once that is done exit disk utility and select Reinstall Mac OS X.

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How can I boot images on external hard drives with an older OS

Hi,
I recently bought a new MacBook Pro Retina (running OS 10.9.2 Mavericks), because I had to give back my „old“ one (bought in February 2013, running OS 10.8 Mountain Lion), which was only a loan from University.
So here comes my problem: I used Carbon Copy Cloner to create bootable images of my old MacBook on two independent hard drives. I tested these images and they both booted perfectly well on the old MacBook. As it turns out, I cannot boot from these images on my new MacBook Pro, I just get a crossed grey circle (both images work perfectly well when I boot from my internal hard drive and I just use them as external drive, by the way). Is it really correct, that it is not possible to boot a system with an older OS as the OS of the MacBook? Why? I really would like to have the option of booting these images, since I have some applications installed I might want to use from time to time in the future (and I don’t want to migrate all applications to my new MacBook, but prefer a clean install). As I understand, it would be necessary to update the images to Mavericks. But how do I do this when I have no computer which is able to boot them?
I still have a very old MacBook from 2007 running OS X 10.5 (Leopard) and I also tried booting the images with this computer - didn’t work either. Would it help to update this to Snow Leopard? What OS would I need to boot my Mountain Lion images?
Any help on this is highly appreciated!
Thanks!

Hi!
Thanks for your prompt response. The reason I don't want to migrate all apps is that I had installed a lot of scientific applications on the Mt-Lion MacBook that I will definitely not use in the future, some that I might use only very rarely, and I can migrate only the complete applications folder (and I have only a 256 GB hard drive). Of course I could deinstall the unused apps manually after the migration, but I am not 100% sure, if this procedure completely removes all the stuff from the libraries and preferences, etc. Moreover I also started playing with some time ago with server applications like apache server etc. and since I am a complete newbie in this field, I have to admit, I really don't know how to uninstall these things properly. So I figured a clean install for the new MacBook would be the best. Well, maybe I will migrate everything and remove the unnecessary stuff afterwards manually. I am just a bit disappointed, because I didn't anticipate these problems with the images...
Just one further question: Is it correct, that if I find a way to update my images from Mt-Lion to Mavericks (if that is possible at all?), this would make them bootable again?
Thanks!

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.

New HDD + can't boot from anywhere, just Hard Drive

HI I have a HP Pavilion dv6700 laptop with Windows Vista 32-Bit OS.
I installed a new harddrive and ordered the original recovery dvds from the hp website for that model, but I can't get it to boot from anything but hdd, even if i change the booting order in bios and I also tried F8 but it only gives me one option to boot from hdd. I even tried a usb external cd drive., nothing works. How do I get the recovery installed on my laptop? Please help.

Maybe reseat your ODD , also if you disconnect the HDD temporarily can u boot to ODD?
I am an HP employee.
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Can I boot to an external hard drive with Windows OS installed on it to play games?

Hello,
I am getting a Mac in the near future for work, and was wondering if it was possible to take my current PC's hard drive and connect it to the Mac with the high speed thunderbolt cable, then book to the external hard drive to play games in windows. In my research I have not seen much about this. I understand that BootCamp works, and am willing to do this, but with the new Macbook Pros that were released, there is very little storage space for two partitions.
Any help would be great,
Also, I know that the performance would not be stunning, but my performance is already lacking because I only have AMD integrated graphics on my machine.
Thanks

A virtual machine is a software system such as VMware Fusion or Parallels which provides a software environment within which a different operating system, such as Windows can run. The files which make up the virtual machine itself (e.g., where Windows and any Windows based software, such as Microsoft Office, reside) can be located on an internal or an external drive. Only the virtualizing program itself needs to be on the boot drive. The connection between an external drive on which the virtual machine files reside will be faster than the external drive itself if the connection is USB 3.0 or Thunderbolt because the speed of an external HD will be the limiting factor. If the external is an SSD, the connection used might make a difference. But a virtual machine will still be slower than a physical machine (i.e., computer) because hardware is faster than the software emulation of it whether the hardware is Windows in BootCamp or a real PC, as BobTheFisherman says.
If you mean the new Retina MacBook Pro (Late 2013), the internal storage isn't a hard drive, it's an SSD on a PCIe bus. OWC, among other vendors, may one day develop an upgrade method as they have for the SSD's in earlier rMBP's but for now, what you order is what you get.

Booting from an External Hard Drive using a different OS

I have a copy of a limited use OS for use bythe DoD. I'm supposed to burn it to CD then boot from it, but I don't have any blank CDs. I do have an external hard drive that I can partition. The limited use OS is in .ISO format. Can anyone give me a hand.
Here is a link to the OS:
http://spi.dod.mil/lipose.htm

Then, ask the developer. I haven't tried it, so have no idea what error you're getting or why you can't restore it to a partition.
Note that the user manual states:
*In order to run LPS, you must be able to boot from a CD.*
So, even if you could restore it to a partition, it won't do you any good.

Can't boot from DVD or external drive

Because of recent slow performance on my iMac G5 I ran disk utility and repaired permissions, then clicked Verify Disk. It reported minor errors in directory files and said I should repair them. I tried starting up from the MacOS X installation DVD, but I get a spinning beach ball and a symbol with a circle with a diagonal line through it (like a Do Not Enter sign). I had to unplug the computer to reboot.
Using another computer, I made a startup disk on an external hard drive and tried booting the iMac from that, but I get the same beach ball and symbol. Tried another OS X DVD with the same result.
I am able to boot from the internal hard drive only, but then I can't do a disk repair. I have already reset the PRAM, but that didn't help.
Any suggestions ??? Thanks.

Because of recent slow performance on my iMac G5 I ran disk utility and repaired permissions, then clicked Verify Disk. It reported minor errors in directory files and said I should repair them. I tried starting up from the MacOS X installation DVD, but my G5 still starts from the hard disk and I am therefore unable to repair rthe hard disk.
Can I create a new startup disk by copying my installation disk, leaving off the installation software, and then start my Mac using Option "C".
On my previous Macs I always used Norton Utilities to repair my disk and recover files - are ther any similar packages available for OS X (10.4.7)?

I move folders from my internal hard drive twice to an external hard drive. Now I believe Lr does not know how to find my photos. What can I do to get this cleared up.

I move folders from my internal hard drive twice to an external hard drive. Now I believe Lr does not know how to find my photos. What can I do to get this cleared up.

Jim has a very good suggestion. There are many factors at work here:
1) How are you connecting the external drive to the computer?
2) How big are files (329 x 1MB is not the same as 329 x 25MB)?
3) What is your computer specification?
4) Do you have any power saving settings on (in particular something that would send the computer/hard drives to sleep)?

Can I boot an internal hard drive with snow leopard?

Hi, I Have an Mid 07 macbook which i'm in the process of upgrading. I have a hard drive that i am up grading from 160gb to 500gb. my problem is i dont have a boot disc, because it's ethier been lost or didn't come with one. my question is can i just format the new hard drive with a copy of snow leopard?

Clean Install of Snow Leopard
     1. Boot the computer using the Snow Leopard Installer Disc. Insert the disc into the
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         After DU loads select the hard drive entry from the left side list (mfgr.'s ID and drive
         size.) Click on the Partition tab in the DU main window. Set the number of
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     3. When the formatting has completed quit DU and return to the installer. Proceed
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     4. When the installation has completed your computer will Restart into the Setup
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Why won't my Intel iMac boot up, either from the internal hard drive or the DVD drive? It just displays a light grey screen, without any other icons, etc. The fact that it won't boot from the original system DVD is what baffles me the most. Any ideas?

Why won't my Intel iMac boot up, either from the internal hard drive or the DVD drive? It just displays a light grey screen, without any other icons, etc. The fact that it won't boot from the original system DVD is what baffles me the most. Any ideas? It uses the latest version of Mavericks. Thanks!

If the C key for Install Disc or R Command for OS X Recovery startup commands are not working, try holding the Option key for the Startup Manager.
see > Startup Manager: How to select a startup volume
If that does not work and you using a wireless keyboard, it may have become unpaired and you need to dig up a USB keyboard to invoke the startup commands.
For more on gray screen, see > Mac OS X: Gray screen appears during startup

No boot sector on internal hard drive and No bootable devices.

Hello, I hope someone can help me.
I have a dell inspiron 1525. I recently replaced on of my memory 512mb modules with a 2gb memory module. At the same time I change the 120gb harddrive and upgraded it to a 320gb harddrive. After doing this when I start the computer I receive the message:
"No boot sector on internal harddrive".
"No bootable devices - - strike F1 to retry boot, F2 for setup utility, Press F5 to run onboard diagnostic".
I have tried to change boot sequence and tried to boot from the Windows Vista Home Basic 32BIT. Regretablly with no results. If there is anyone who can guide me and help me to solve this problem I would greatly appreciate it.
Thanking you in advance.

Whenever we get this error "No boot sector on internal hard drive", it means that our hard drive has no partition/ boot sector to boot/ start operating system (Windows).
The ultimate solution is to install Windows from beginning either by using CD/DVD or USB bootable flash drive. You need to have windows installation disc or bootable flash drive for that.
Visit link for more info. : http://deepes007.blogspot.com/2015/04/solution-tono-boot-sector-found-on.html

Can I use my old internal hard drive and copy everything into the new one?

My internal hard drive is running out of space, and I want to buy a new one. But to do that, I'll have to buy a external hard drive to back up everything and then copy it back onto the new internal hard drive , right? I don't have that much budget. So can I use the old internal hard drive that I took out of my Macbook and copy everthing back into the new internal hard drive after the repalecment? so I don't need to buy a external hard drive to back up everything
Tks!

You will have to buy a new HDD and an enclosure to make the transfer. You can use Disk Utility to make the transfer.
INSTALLING A NEW HDD IN A MBP
1. Make certain that you have backed up all of your important data.
2. You will need a HDD enclosure. One with a USB connection will do. A 9 pin Firewire is better.
3. Install your new drive in the enclosure and connect it to your MBP.
4. Open DISK UTILITY>ERASE. From the left hand column drag the new drive into the 'Name' field. Make sure that the format is 'Mac OS Extended (Journaled)'. Click on the 'Erase' button.
5. Click on the 'Restore' button (on top). Drag the old drive into the 'Source' field and the new drive into the 'Destination' field. Click on the 'Restore' button on the bottom right hand corner.
Depending upon the amount of data you are transferring, this may take a couple hours or more. A Firewire will speed up the transfer. This will result in both drives having identical information on them. INSTALLING
6. After the data transfer has completed, you may swap the drives. Start the MBP and you have finished the installation. The initial boot may take a bit longer than you are accustomed to, but that is normal.
7. When you are satisfied that the new hard drive if functioning properly, you can erase the old drive and use it for any needs that you may have.

Safe to delete Lightroom from my internal hard drive?

Hi
I shoot in raw and have been using Lightroom for approx 4 years, most recently Lightroom 4 and before that Lightroom 2. Lightroom is taking up a lot of disk space on my internal hard drive and my computer is not happy.
I have deleted all but a couple of backups and then copied all my Lightroom lrcat files to an external hard drive. Now, Lightroom will only open if I have that external hard drive plugged in. Great! That is what I wanted. Is now safe to delete my Lightroom files from my internal hard drive? I am not that computer savvy and I am also terrified of losing all my work.
Thanks

Well, if you have them on a single external drive and you delete them from your internal drive, then you have only one copy left, correct? In that case you are at extreme risk of losing your one and only copy.
I worked in the disk drive industry for 30 years and have my lrcat files backed up on three hard drives and two USB sticks. Maybe I'm just paranoid but it's likely a hard drive will eventually fail. And based on experience, for some Murphy's law reason they fail most often for people who have not backed up their data.
I'll bet there is all kinds of other stuff that can be removed from your hard drive, various temporary files, log files, etc. Try a free app like CCleaner (on Windows) to see what it does.
But I would not have just one copy of my latest lrcat files in existence.

How do I move my operating system from one internal hard drive to another on the same Mac?

My question is pretty straightforward: How do I—or can I—move my operating system from one internal hard drive to another on the same Mac Pro desktop?

I'll let baltwo come in with a definitive answer, but the last time I just made a clone, CCC used Disk Utility to create a recovery partition on an external drive's partition. You get these windows successively (and it did create it with a message that it was successful):

Time Machine: Can I use a smaller external hard drive with larger internal?

Can I use a 250G external hard drive with and 500G unfilled internal drive with time machine? Or will time machine require I a 500G? I don't plan on filling the internal drive for a long time and don't want to buy a new external drive right now.

Yes, but you are very likely to get in trouble very quickly.
The problem is that TimeMachine saves multiple versions of any file modified, and if that file happens to be large, you can quickly fill up your TimeMachine drive such that it is throwing away older versions faster than you would desire.
Also if your boot drive's storage usage gets even close to the 250GB external drive's capacity, TimeMachine is likely to stop working.
If possible, I would suggest an external drive that is twice as large as your boot drive, or at least 1.5 times larger.
I guess you could repartition your boot drive so it is smaller than your external disk so you would be less likely to use more space than could fit on the external.
Personally, my opinion about backups is that much of my data is impossible to replace (family pictures, etc...), and spending money on backup hardware is a small price to pay for securing those memories. I also try to have it backup in more than one location in more than one way.

Can I boot from an internal hard drive with a different verison of OSX?

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