Can I plug in my hard drive while booted on install DVD snow leopard

I got the white screen of death then unplugged my harddrive and booted from cd, then I set it to boot always from cd and after many times of turning on and off  only once did I get it to boot from the DVD with the harddrive in. I wondered if I could boot it from the DVD and while its on with disk utility open then I could plug in my hard drive, or with diskwarrior open then plug in the hard drive. power cord is connected so no need for battery this could work!

its my internal hard drive I want to plug in while its on. on the macbook the hard drive just slides out the battery compartment super easy.

Similar Messages

  • I have a Seagate 2TB external hard drive partitioned with one partition of Snow Leopard (my computer is running Lion). Can't seem to reboot using the option key. Any ideas as to what's wrong?

    I have a Seagate 2TB external hard drive with 3 partitions, one for Snow Leopard - my computer has Lion. I cannot seem to boot from this hard drive but I could yesterday. Any ideas?

    Didnt help. The night I asked this question I was able to reboot from the external hard drive after running Disk repair (which said everything was fine). Tonight I have tried again and cannot boot from the external. So I tried the Safe Mode restart and then chose restart with the option key held down as well as shutting down and trying holding down the option key while turning on the power. I have never been able to reboot just choosing restart and holding down the option key. Whenever the reboot from the external has worked I've had to shut down and hold the option key while turning the power on. Now that is not working. My computer is brand new as is the hard drive. I don't know where to go from here.
    I can access the drive just fine while I'm in Lion. I just can't boot up using it. Help!

  • I have a new MacBook Pro, it has a small hard drive, can I plug an extra Hard Drive into my time capsule and access from my Macbook?

    I have saved my itunes Library to an exteranal drive, can I plug that drive into my Time Capsule and tell my itunes to access the music from there?
    TH

    Yes, but it's probably better to keep it connected directly to the computer.
    (104209)

  • Now that i have a mac pro.how can i use a portable hard drive while i have the time machine working on my mac?

    what do i do if i want to use a portable hard drive for backing up, if i also see
    the time machine also on there?

    flora1917 wrote:
    what do i do if i want to use a portable hard drive for backing up, if i also see
    the time machine also on there?
    Do you mean you're already backing-up to a Time Capsule, and want to switch to using an external HD?  If so, just format the drive and select it via Time Machine Preferences > Select Disk.  See #21 in  Time Machine - Frequently Asked Questions.
    If you mean something else, please clarify.

  • Can I make an external Hard Drive my boot drive

    My internal hard drive is about to die, it is making strange grunging noises and the computer is taking up to 30 minutes to boot up. The internal disk is the original 10GB disk with 9.7GB on it.
    I constantly get boot disk nearly full warnings. So I bought a Western Digital My Book 2, Home Edition 500GB Firewire Drive. I connected it up and it appeared on my desktop. Being a bit of a div, I tried to drag my old hard disk onto the new one but that failed (obviously). I now need to get everything off my old hard disk and onto my new firewire disk and then make sure that the computer boots up from that one. How can I achieve this, should I install the OS (OS X 10.4.11) on the new disk and then copy over the files, and applications? Or would it be better to "find a way of cloning my drive onto the new disk.
    More questions...do I need to make partitions on the new disk (I don't know what these are I'm afraid)
    When I have set up the new drive as a boot disk, can I just unplug the old internel disk?
    Grateful thanks to anyone who can assist thiscomputer illiterate technophobe.
    Allen

    Is it dangerous to use an external HD to boot from? The guy at Circuit City told me it was.
    One danger of using an external hard drive as a boot drive, is the connection is not as reliable as an internal hard drive. The other is the mistaken assumption that just because it is separate, or not part of the computer, that it is safe. The only true safety comes in numbers. You should always backup your data*:
    http://www.macmaps.com/backup.html
    2.5" hard drives are a little less reliable than 3.5" hard drives because of the smaller parts involved. Mac Minis have 2.5" hard drives, whereas other desktop Macs have 3.5" hard drives. Whether the reliability of Firewire or USB over SATA or Parallel ATA on 2.5" is enough to offset this difference is hard to say. Having enough backups ensures you don't have to be surprised when you find out in your situation.
    - * Links to my pages may give me compensation.

  • New Hard Drive - Cannot Boot From Install Disc

    Hi guys,
    I just replaced the hard drive in my macbook and I want to re-install Tiger on the new drive. When i insert the install disc and hold option on startup, the cursor appears but no boot options. When i hold c, nothing happens at all.
    When i put the old hdd back in, both the hdd and the install disc appear as boot options, but nothing with the new drive.
    Any ideas??
    Thanks

    Use the original OS X Installer Disc One that came with the computer. Insert it into the optical drive and restart the computer. After the chime press and hold down the "C" key until the spinning gear appears below the dark gray Apple logo. The first thing you must do before installing OS X is to prep the new drive:
    Extended Hard Drive Preparation
    1. 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 or Leopard.)
    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. SMART info will not be reported on external drives. Otherwise, click on the Partition tab in the DU main window.
    3. Click on the Options button, set the partition scheme to GUID (only required for Intel Macs) then click on the OK button. 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.) 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.) 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 can take up to several hours depending upon the drive size.
    Steps 4-6 are optional but should be used on a drive that has never been formatted before, if the format type is not Mac OS Extended, if the partition scheme has been changed, or if a different operating system (not OS X) has been installed on the drive.
    Once formatting has completed quit DU and return to the installer. Complete the OS X installation.

  • How do i format my hard drive on my iMac then reinstall snow leopard

    I updated Snow Leopard with Maverick, since then my machine is taking forever to open apps and runs very slow.
    I would like to do a clean install but forgotten how, It's an age thing.

    I had a problem like this when I tried OS X 10.7 and then went back to 10.6.8
    It makes a partition on the hard drive that the computer goes to first then the bootup (os partition).
    you have to boot from the original disc open disk utility
    re-partition the harddrive as one drive, not multiple partitions
    and then restart of disc 1, select time machine and let it install os and data from external drive
    or just install from disc 1/2 like a brand new mac and then use time machine to get the data over
    (or a clone of the disc if you used some cloning program)
    you just have to make sure the harddrive has that 'emergency' partition that get's put on there deleted or you will be going in circles not knowing what keeps it from installing a good, working os, like 10.6.8
    Apple kinda went to far off in going to 10.7 then on up for some of us who like a stable platform that JUST WORKS.

  • Can I use second internal hard drive for boot camp? OptiBay question.

    I have a MBP. I have replaced the original HDD with a 160 Gb unit. I have replaced the optical drive with a 500 Gb unit via OptiBay. Right now, the 500 Gb drive is my startup volume, and has OS 10.5.6 living on it.
    What I want to do is use 32 Gb of the original drive for a Windows (either XP or 7) volume and the rest of it as HFS+ for storage of stuff (videos, photos, and stuff like that)
    I have rEFIt installed on the startup volume. I have played with triple boot setups, etc., in the past.
    So how do I install Windows? I will have to use an external DVD drive, of course, and I have a 32 Gb partition that is FAT32 now. Can I insert the Win DVD and let it try to find the right partition? How about drivers? This does get a little bit more interesting.
    I am not going to use Windows for production, etc., but would like to be able to play with it.
    Sorry if I am bring up a previously answered question, but the OptiBay deal didn't show up in my searches.
    Thanks
    Roger

    Yes, lots of Mac Pro users do that.
    It's still a good idea to make secondary backups, especially to a portable external HD, that you can take off-site, so you're protected against fire, flood, theft, direct lightning strike on your power lines, etc.
    [CarbonCopyCloner|http://www.bombich.com> is donationware; [SuperDuper|http://www.shirt-pocket.com/SuperDuper/SuperDuperDescription.html] has a free version, but you need the paid one (about $30) to do updates instead of full replacements, or scheduling.
    And/or, see Kappy's post on [Basic Backup|http://discussions.apple.com/thread.jspa?messageID=12366915#12366915].

  • My Macbook pro doesn't see my hard drive while booting

    Hello, Recently I have formated my  hardrive and had few problem with installing lion, so I removed it install it like external drive from another computer then put it back inside and now it's not working, doesn't even spin, but I can boot from usb on that drive and the computer work.

    Does the drive work on another computer?

  • Problem with upgrading hard drive in 2009 Macbook Pro with Snow Leopard

    Current drive is 320gb with fresh install of OS SL updated with some other programs installed.  New drive is Seagate Momentus 750, same brand and model as the old, just bigger.
    I install the new drive, boot off the OS SL CD and go into disk utility.  Partition and format with GUID and Journaled. Install starts and ultimately fails every time.
    Tried to clone the 320 by putting it in the macbook, use the 750 via usb/sata.  Drive restores, but it is unreliable in loading and stability.  When it gets to the grey screen, it alternately flickers the Apple, Folder and NO sign.  Sometimes it loads, sometimes it just keeps spinning.  When it does load, it's slow and programs that take more power crash.
    Brought it to Apple.  They said it was a problem in the SMART section, so I got a new drive under warranty.  This is the THIRD drive i've gotten from Seagate.  Still doesn't work.
    I've countlessly repaired and verified the drive.  Helps to load sometimes, but not all the time. 
    If I put the 320 back in, everything works great.
    Thanks.
    -Ben

    Is there a quality external enclosure to put the large drive in, one that has its own power supply and not rely on the port power in the MacBook/Pro? If it is a viable drive and can actually run a bootable OS X version, I'd begin to wonder after all that.
    {I'd also looked up your computer in MacTracker to see what if any limits on hardware upgrade may exist. Nothing said of direct interest to the HDD. Also in everymac.com, so there should be no surprises. Yet to have those problems is troublesome and a surprise. New drives can fail. Maybe in batches?}
    And a clone of a working system for backup could be made with a utility such as CarbonCopy cloner or superduper, etc then tested as a bootable clone, with the hard disk drive tested thoroughly before use. It also is odd that a drive of that size would act up, I see drives of even larger size offered online by reputible resellers and Mac specialist companies who have been around awhile, such as OWC. I just looked to see if there was a ceiling on support of larger size HDD capacities, and 750GB is not the largest. Maybe the series you chose could be among a troublesome batch or brand.
    http://eshop.macsales.com/MyOWC/Upgrades.cfm?model=302 has a variety of stuff, including RAM, HDD, SSD, etc. And their staff has people who know what they sell. Well, some of them do. I had called them on a topic several years ago and they didn't really have an answer (I was given an OWC dual HDD external drive & it had issues, but had never been used. It still is sitting as-new, w/o support; now obsolete.)
    I'd try a different brand and put it into an enclosure that has its own power supply, ports for USB2.0/3.0 and FW400/800, and so on. Perhaps even an OWC line item, not that I've had any valid experience with them here in AK. And ask their people about their products, get names, finger prints, mug shots...! LOL
    Good luck & happy computing!

  • Can my ps3 find my hard drive plugged in the back of the airport extreme

    Can my ps3 find my hard drive plugged in the back of the airport extreme

    Did you have any luck with this? I have the same issue... my Samsung TV used to connect fine with USB drives connected to other routers, but since I upgraded to Airport Extreme, the TV no longer sees any external drives, although WiFi is working great via Airport Extreme.

  • Can you upgrade a MacBookPro hard drive from a "750GB Serial ATA Drive @ 7200 rpm" to a Solid State Drive easily?  The info seems to say that it's as easy as plugging the new drive into a drive slot?

    I am about to buy a new MacBook Pro, but want to try out the Serial Drive 7200rpm before taking the plunge to use the SSD....Can you upgrade a MacBookPro hard drive from a "750GB Serial ATA Drive @ 7200 rpm" to a Solid State Drive easily?  The info seems to say that it's as easy as plugging the new drive into a drive slot?

    shldr2thewheel wrote:
    Fmaharg wrote:
    I am about to buy a new MacBook Pro, but want to try out the Serial Drive 7200rpm before taking the plunge to use the SSD....Can you upgrade a MacBookPro hard drive from a "750GB Serial ATA Drive @ 7200 rpm" to a Solid State Drive easily?
           Yes
    Fmaharg wrote:
    The info seems to say that it's as easy as plugging the new drive into a drive slot?
           It's easy, but not that easy.  You need to copy all the info from the drive currently in the mac to the new  one before you install the new SSD.  You can do          this by downloading cloning software (I use CarbonCopyCloner because it's free)
    Not to be picky but CCC is donationware, if you use it because of its quality you should send a little bit of money in appreciation, and as a bonus you get to turn the banner off.

  • Can I run Mavericks from an external hard drive while keeping Snow Leopard?

    Hi there,
    I have a Macbook 5.2 which runs ok with Snow Leopard but I was wondering if I should upgrade to Mavericks now. Because I'm not sure how the new operating system will run on my machine I thought I could install Mavericks on an external USB hard drive and boot from there to evaluate if it runs fine for me.
    Not sure if this is possible as I understand that 10.6 and Lion/ML/Mavericks have different filesystems etc... Don't want to upgrade, realise that 10.9 is not running smoothly for me and having to downgrade to Snow Leopard again - which if I remember well what I read a while ago it is not a straightforward operation....
    Any ideas?
    Many thanks
    Mike

    Yes it's possible and quite easy.  However, do not install on a thumb drive - I've tried this with a 16gb and it's slower than a bread wagon with biscuit wheels.
    Now I'm running a lacie external 500gb drive (partitioned) and a firewire 800 cable on macbook pro with Mavericks.  Now it's smokin fast, faster that running my base hard-drive on snow leopard, however the external drive with mavericks osx is still dependent on the guts and performance of the macbook itself.

  • Time machine can not select my internal hard drive any more.

    Hi all
    Time machine can not select my internal hard drive any more. I only can back up external disks. Does anyone know how to fix this?
    All answers are much appreciated

    I don't know the answer but I have the same thing happen. I have two external drives I use for backup. Sometimes it can see one and sometimes another. Then sometimes it can't see either one.  I will take one out for a while then plug it back in and then it may see it.  Maybe it's a cable issue or something but I will be curious to hear what someone more knowledgeable says. 

  • Touch pad stops working when I plug my external hard drive in????

    Exactly that.
    I an have HP Envy 14 Spectre, it's about 6 months old and hasn't given me any trouble until now. Whenever I plug my external hard drive in the touch pad starts behaving eratically and won't respong properly, it's really bizzare and very annoying. I've looked around but I can't find anyone with a similar probem to me on the web so I'm really stumped about what to do.
    Any suggestions will be apprectiated.
    Thanks.

    If the system is updated, try the Forced Reset:
    Reset your notebook:
    Notebooks- Forced Reset to Resolve Hardware and Software Issues- Sealed Non-Removable Battery
     OR
    Notebooks - Use Hard Reset to Resolve Hardware and Software Issues - Removable Battery
    I am assuming you have the system UPDATED.  If not, then you should make sure it IS updated with the latest TouchPad driver.  Start at
    Support and Drivers
    Enter your information, put in the OS and Click Next -- Scroll down.
    Check under Mouse and Keyboard stuff.
    Is the BIOS on the latest?  Probably.  Do not mess with the BIOS unless there is a good reason to do so.  Read the update information in your computer's driver update page -- see if the update applies to your system.
    Updating the BIOS
    If you decide to update your BIOS,
    Disconnect all USB drives
    Always run in AC power
    Do not touch the system while the update is in progress
    Optional: leave wireless button ON, but turn off the router (to make sure there are no interruptions)
    Next, Call HP.  Frankly, it could be hardware.  Sounds just odd.  You may has well take advantage of that warranty.  See what HP says.  They may have seen this before and if so, it will be in the HP database.
    Contact HP
    USA/Canada – Contact HP // Self-Help – Email - Chat
    HP may want to have you do a Recovery on the system - that is back up all your personal data and then reinstall the Operating System.  If you have Windows 8, you might get away with backing up your personal data and doing a Refresh... Regardless, you may as well plan on making a full set of backups because at some point soon you are going to need them.
    HP PCs - Backing Up Your Files (Windows 7)
    HP PCs - Backing Up Your Files (Windows 8)
    Will the Recovery / Refresh / Reset fix it?  It may well fix it if the software is at fault.  Nothing will get better if there is a hardware problem as the root cause - throwing software around doesn't fix hardware issues.  You have to throw software at a problem sometimes to convince folks that the hardware is broken.  Smiling.
    Good Luck!
    Kind Regards,
    Dragon-Fur

Maybe you are looking for