Can not boot to external drive

Hey there
I have a MacBook2,1 running 10.7.4
I am trying to create an external boot drive but I can not boot to an external drive.
If I mount an install disk to any drive I have it will not boot to it. If I select it in startup drive or option boot it will not work.
Please help. need this fixed ASAP

Drive Preparation for Lion
1. 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. Select Disk Utility from the main menu and click on the Continue button.
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. Under the Volume Scheme heading set the number of partitions from the drop down menu to one. Click on the Options button, set the partition scheme to GUID then click on the OK button. Set the format type to Mac OS Extended (Journaled.) Click on the Partition button and wait until the process has completed.
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 Security 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.
After formatting is complete quit DU and return to the main menu. Select Reinstall Lion and click on the Continue button. When the installer begins it will default to installing on the Macintosh HD volume. Click on the link below to Show All Disks. Locate your external drive and select it as the target.

Similar Messages

Can't Boot From External Drive

Situation:
Prior to upgrading to Lion I used SuperDuper to create a copy of the existing internal hard drive on an new external drive (iOmega eGo 500GB).
Tested booting from the external disk and it appeared to work correctly.
Upgraded to Lion.
Several days later attempted to boot from the external disk (by setting the start up disk in the system preferenes ) but it fails.
The system always boots into Lion.
What I've tried:
Setting the start up disk through system preferences
Holding down the option key to select a disk on startup - interestingly enough I only see the internal hard disk and a recover HD. No sign of my external disk.
Using a clean partition on the external hard drive I installed SL from the retail DVD. This produces the same effect of system booting to Lion on the internal drive, which suggests that the problem is not related to the copy I made using SuperDuper, but rather has to do with the external drive or something in Lion that prevents using an external drive (but I've never heard of such a thing).
Talked to technical support at Apple since I had newly purchased Lion. They couldn't offer a solution but did give a lot of thought and suggestions - but they don't support booting from an external disk.
Talked to iOmega technical support. Not helpful but did figure out at the end of an online chat that they don't support their disks being used for external booting.
Emailed SuperDuper. Very helpful. They offered some suggestions but in the end these didn't work.
Characteristics
Lion 10.7.4
iMac 2007
External Drive Interface FW800
I'd appreciate any suggestions as to the cause of the problem and possible fixes.
Thanks

@shootist007
Still no success but more information:
I found the USB cable for the drive, connected it to a powered USB hub (note that there are two cables going into the hub that must merge and go into a single connector for the USB interface on the drive). with both cables plugged in I still can't get the external drive to boot.
I need to do one more experiment on this. The hub is fully loaded so I'll try removing as much load as possible on the USB to see if I can get it to work.
Regarding your question, there is no way to get power to the drive. (Now I think about it, the design is for a portable drive that you can carry around with you so iOmega aimed the design at not needing a power supply to make it very portable). Hmmm, didn't think about that when I purchased it.
If reducing the load on the hub doesn't make it work then I'l have to get a replacement drive with its own power supply.
Thanks for your help. Even though no success yet I suspect you've identified the problem.

MacPro can't boot from external drive

Running 10.7.3 and a MacPro which gets backed up each night with SuperDuper. Can't boot from this drive (black screen). Yet I can take the same drive and start up my Macbook Pro! So it isn't the drive or the data on it. I'm stumped. Could this be related to an issue where I can't get this same MacPro or system to successfully backup to Time Machine without error? The boot drive seems OK (ran Disk Warrior and Disk Utility).

Please read this whole message before doing anything.
This procedure is a diagnostic test. It’s unlikely to solve your problem. Don’t be disappointed when you find that nothing has changed after you complete it.
The purpose of this exercise is to determine whether the problem is caused by third-party system modifications that load automatically at startup or login. Disconnect all wired peripherals except those needed for the test, and remove all aftermarket expansion cards. Boot in safe mode and log in to the account with the problem. The instructions provided by Apple are as follows:
Be sure your Mac is shut down.
Press the power button.
Immediately after you hear the startup tone, hold the Shift key. The Shift key should be held as soon as possible after the startup tone, but not before the tone.
Release the Shift key when you see the gray Apple icon and the progress indicator (looks like a spinning gear).
Safe mode is much slower to boot and run than normal, and some things won’t work at all, including wireless networking on certain Macs.
The login screen appears even if you usually log in automatically. You must know your login password in order to log in. If you’ve forgotten the password, you will need to reset it before you begin.
Test while in safe mode. Same problem(s)?
After testing, reboot as usual (i.e., not in safe mode.)

Can't boot to external drive from g5

Hi, I have a new 1TB firewire 800 external drive. I have 1 G5 with leopard 10.5.8 on it, but it had tiger on it at one point.
I installed tiger onto this external drive (10.4.4) However, after installing, I can't boot to the external drive.
I have tried going to the startup disk- it shows up in the options, but then just reboots back to my internal HD. I have also tried holding the option key down on restart, but the external disk doesn't show up.
Please help- I have put a lot of time and effort into this.

[Western Digital My Book Studio Edition 500GB|http://discussions.apple.com/thread.jspa?threadID=1899888&tstart=0] - is recognized but won't boot.
[List of Western Digital bootable and non bootable models|http://discussions.apple.com/message.jspa?messageID=9022456#9022456]
"DO NOT USE a ** WESTERN DIGITAL ** drive..."
Could well be a problem model, according to the above. I'd see about returning it.

Can't boot an external drive on a PowerMac G4?

Hi,
I've got a PowerMac G4 (w/ Firewire, SuperDrive, and a ZIP drive) that I'm trying to install OS 10.5 on. The internal hard drive is blank.
I tried booting from the OS 10.5 DVD (hold c at boot) and that worked, but during disc install or verification, it says the disc cannot be read. This is strange since this disc works in other machines just fine.
Thinking it was the drive going bad, I hooked up an external firewire DVD drive. I booted up with drive select (hold opt at boot) and it searches for drives but never finds any. Eventually it seems to freeze.
I tried to boot from an external firewire HDD with a bootable 10.4 image on it as well. It also cannot be found in drive select.
I tired booting directly to an external drive (hold e at boot, also hold command-opt-shift-delete at boot), but this seems to do nothing and leaves me with a folder/question mark screen.
I zapped the PRAM (hold command-opt-p-r at boot) just to see if that would fix anything, but it did not.
Why can't this machine boot from an external drive? Is there anything I can do to fix this, or force it to go directly to a drive?
Thanks.

What processor speed does the G4 have? Has this G4's firmware been updated to the latest version? Is your OS 10.5 Leopard DVD a retail/universal version of the installer or is it the restore DVD that shipped with your Intel processor-based iMac? If it's the latter, it won't boot the PowerPC-based G4 Mac. Did the FireWire bus on the G4 function without problems in the past? Do you have an earlier version of a Mac OS universal installer disk (OS 9.x, 10.2, 10.3, etc.), to try booting the G4?

MBP slow to boot and WILL NOT boot from external drive

I have two problems. First my friends MacBook Pro which is less than a month old is taking long to load. So I did a clean install without installing anything other than what came. Still slow to boot. Sometimes I see a light blue screen for a while before getting into the desktop. She complains of the beachball far too often. She says my MacBook is faster than her Pro, which is not right.
So I came down with my external LaCie drive, which I cloned from my iMac 24". I wasn't able to boot from the external (firewire) drive using her MacBook Pro. I thought my LaCie drive was bad or soemthing, but when I got home, I hooked it up to my MacBook and booted from the external drive just fine. I use SuperDuper to make a bootable clone.
So as it stands now, her computer is slow to boot into the OS, and it won't let me boot from my external drive. Does anyone have any idea what this could be? I did a clean install, used cocktail, etc. If it persists, I'll tell her to take it in.
Thanks,
Bryan

Robert,
I have no idea what you mean by Apple is not responsive to the issue. If you want help, please start a new topic thread so someone can help you identify the problem without the distraction of other people's problems around yours. Blaming people does not solve problems.
This is the link to post a new topic on this board:
http://discussions.apple.com/forum.jspa?forumID=1149&start=0
This is a user to user board. If you need help from Apple, call AppleCare directly here:
http://www.apple.com/contact/phone_contacts.html

Can't boot from external drive, no options...

Okay so I just upgraded my 24" iMac to Snow Leopard, from an external drive, and things seemed fine. I was migrating my old settings and then after I noticed I couldn't access system folders. It wanted old settings' permissions, not the new one, so I right-clicked on the folder and set permissions so that anybody could write to it.
Still didn't work. I thought I should then reboot.
So I did. But now when I try to log on, to my old profile or my new one, neither password works. Even though they're the same. If I get it wrong enough times, it will let me put in the master password for the computer, in a separate pop-up, which is the same, and that works.
Then it wants me to give a new password, back in the old password box, and then it just shakes angrily afterward, not accepting anything I type. Why is this?
The next step seemed to be re-install Snow Leopard. But pressing the option key at startup doesn't let me boot up from the external drive. I looked online with my macbook and found all these other boot options, but none of them work. Not a single one has any effect.
One thing I should mention is that I'm not using the standard iMac keyboard, not sure if that makes a difference. It's a PC keyboard and the keys are just slightly rearranged but it has Alt, Ctrl, and the option key is a circle with the windows logo in it. Any chance that the new OS isn't recognizing the new keyboard properly?
I just don't know what else it could be. Any help is appreciated.

coconutmelodies wrote:
I only have one master computer password, and it's not the same as any of my other passes. That's the pass that's needed to log on, and access system info. However it's also the same password as my old profile, that I was migrating over (which is still confusing as to how to do a clean install and then bring old admin info over so they work together seemlessly) so now when trying to log on, after the first reboot, I saw that I could log on to the old or the new profile. As well as a guest account, which isn't accessible though.
It sounds like here you are talking about an admin user account & its login password rather than a "master" password. Only admin users can access & change system info (more or less). However, you cannot merge two user accounts, if that is what you mean by 'bringing old admin info over so they work together seemlessly.' Also, keep in mind that each user is a separate entity as far as the computer is concerned, whether or not they have the same login password, & that you can log into & use only one account at a time. So for instance, if you have a user account "A" created on the Mac & an imported/migrated account "B" from another Mac, if you are logged in as "A" you will not be able to access info in the folders belonging to "B" unless while logged in as "B" you previously explicitly set permissions on those folders for "A" to access them.
So whichever profile I attempt to log onto, when I type in the password, (there's even an obvious clue after a few tries, so no chance I'm getting it wrong) the box shakes like I got it wrong.
The box shakes only if you did get it wrong, so I don't understand what you mean about there being no chance that you got it wrong.
After like six tries, it asks me for a "Master Password" "Type the master password to reset this uer's password" into which I put my regular login pass that I've been trying over and over, and here it does work.
"If you change the password for this user account, you will create a new keychain to store the user's passwords"
So then it asks me to put in a new password, and verify it, but after each try it just shakes. It won't accept anything.
Again, I don't understand what you mean in the first paragraph above when you say "here it does work." The Master Password the dialog box asks for is one you would have had to previously explicitly set up for the computer in the File Vault tab of the Security System Preference. It is not associated with any user account (& again, it makes no difference if you set it to the same one as for one or more user accounts). It's purpose is as a "safety net" to unlock File Vault protected user accounts. As explained in Mac OS X 10.6 Help: If you forget your password for your FileVault-protected account, you must first fail to enter the account's password correctly three (not six) times, then click the “Forgot Password” button to get to the Master Password dialog box. Entering the previously set up Master Password allows you to set & verify a new password for that account.
If you can get this far, it means you are successfully entering the Master Password & have successfully reset the account's password to something new. If the box shakes after you then try to log into that account, it means you have not entered the same characters at the login screen as you did when resetting the account password.
If you mean something else is happening please explain it more clearly, in step-by-step fashion including the results of each step. Don't say things like "try it." Instead, say that you clicked on the "OK" (or whatever named) button & say what the result was.

Time Machine can not be mounted - external drive

I have an external Maxtor USB drive that's been my time machine since forever. Yesterday I noticed that it's not mounting. I KNOW it was mounting the day before because I had to use it. But now the drive is not mounting, and I don't know why.
The drive is on, the light is on, but it's not mounting. Out of curiosity, my husband hooked it up to his Vista PC and he was able to browse to it all dandy. But then back on my computer, it's not being recognized.
It's not showing up in disk utility, though my other external drive, my iphoto drive, is having no problems. It's not the USB port, as my ipod works on either port, as does my iphoto drive.
Can anyone help?
I've unplugged it, plugged it back in. Rebooted the computer without it attached.

I solved my problem. I tried plugging it into another computer and it popped up on the screen. AHA! Before I tried that, I had ONLY unplugged the drive but had NOT crawled under the desk to unplug it from the main power source. It just needed to be TOTALLY unplugged and left alone for a few minutes. Those little green men obviously can bunch up anywhere and need a total disconnect, for several minutes at least, to unbind. Ahh, sort of like un-constipating the system?
KC
Message was edited by: KCChoirgirl

Mac Mini Will not boot from external drive or install disk

Hi,
I just bought a new 2.0 ghz mac mini 1 gb ram. 120gb hdd.
I have a separate external HDD attached and wanted to boot from this. It works with my MBP and IMAC.
When i plug it into the Mac Mini and start up with Option key. It recognizes it.
I then click on it. It automatically reboots.... then grey screen comes on. It goes black after about 10 seconds. then boots into original operating system.
I also tried to use the MAC install Disk, thinking it might be a corruption in the shipped software. It does the same thing.
I have MAC Install DVD on an external drive too. Same issue.
I partitioned the HDD and installed a copy of the Mac install disk onto that with disk utility... Same thing grey screen, then black then back to original operating system.
Not sure what is going on?
thanks
Chris

Hi,
Thanks.
It is running 10.5.8.
I am trying to boot up an external drive with 10.5.8 on it. It works on my Macbook Pro which is running 10.5.8, runs on my IMAC running SL. But doesnt work on the mac mini?
It had been running SL, however there are a number of programs I have like Windows Live Sync which are not yet compatable with SL so i downgraded to 10.5.6 which came with the Mac Mini then loaded all updates.
It seems to just go into an auto reboot as soon as i click on it.
i thought it might be the firmware? Is it possible to downgrade them and then re-install?
I have reset the PRAM.
Any help would be appreciated.
Thanks

Can not Access Backup external drive

Have a Lacie Mini HUB HD which I have been using for 3 years with little problem, suddenly the drive is not accesible, does not appear anywhere to be found and Time Machine can not be reset.
Symptoms: Blue power ON light is flashing, Power supply is hot. Is my External drive fried?
Help!

imacmanzano wrote:
Have a Lacie Mini HUB HD which I have been using for 3 years with little problem, suddenly the drive is not accesible, does not appear anywhere to be found and Time Machine can not be reset.
Symptoms: Blue power ON light is flashing, Power supply is hot. Is my External drive fried?
Hi, and welcome to the forums.
Sounds like it may be.
Disconnect and power it off and for several minutes, then Restart your Mac, reconnect and power it up.
See if you can repair it per #A5 in Time Machine - Troubleshooting (or use the link in *User Tips* at the top of this forum).
If it doesn't show up in the Disk Utility sidebar, it's likely failed. LaCie might be able to tell you whether it's the drive itself or the power supply, but after 3 years, you're likely to need a new one.

Can not eject an external drive?

I connected a small usb external drive to my Mac Pro running 10.7.3 to transfer files, now I can not eject it because the Mac thinks it is still being used. I closed all open folders, applications and did a force quit to see if any other programs are still open and they are not. I tried shutting down the Mac, though it won't let me since it thinks something is still being done. What do I do to eject this drive?
Thanks.

If you need to you can emergency shut-down the mac by holding shift, option, and command and hitting the power button. Or, if you know for a fact nothing is being actively written or read from the flash drive, you can either force eject it or just unplug it anyway.

Not booting with external drive attached after itunes 10 installed.

Since installing itunes 10, my computer will NOT boot into Mac OS X with the external drive attached. It consistently freezes at a grey screen with the apple logo.
If the external drive is powered off, it will boot normally - but slowly. Anyone else with this glitch?

AndyPeardrop wrote:
if I forget to UNPLUG the Lacie (by pulling out the Firewire cable), when I boot the Macbook it will give me the Question Mark.
Try opening the Startup Disk panel of System Preferences and redeclaring the startup disk. You could see this behavior if your Mac isn't sure what device to use for booting.

Can not use my external driver to setup Time Machine

I just bought a new mobile external driver and I planned to use this for Time Machine back of my Macbook Pro. However I got the following error message when I set up the Time Machine:
There was an error erasing the Time Machine backup disk
Is there anybody can help me about this problem?
Thanks

Thanks very much for everybody's help in this matter. I have done all the process again exactly the same as the steps above. However after the wait for some time, I got the following errors:
2010-07-04 21:32:42 +0800: Preparing to partition disk: “Initio MK4006GAL Media”
2010-07-04 21:32:42 +0800: Partition Scheme: GUID Partition Table
2010-07-04 21:32:42 +0800: 1 partition will be created
2010-07-04 21:32:42 +0800:
2010-07-04 21:32:42 +0800: Partition 1
2010-07-04 21:32:42 +0800: Name : “Untitled 1”
2010-07-04 21:32:42 +0800: Size : 40.01 GB
2010-07-04 21:32:42 +0800: Filesystem : Mac OS Extended (Journaled)
2010-07-04 21:32:42 +0800:
2010-07-04 21:32:43 +0800: Unmounting disk
2010-07-04 21:32:43 +0800: Creating partition map
2010-07-04 21:32:43 +0800: Waiting for disks to reappear
2010-07-04 21:32:43 +0800: Formatting disk1s2 as Mac OS Extended (Journaled) with name Untitled 1
2010-07-04 21:36:30 +0800: Partition failed for disk (null) File system formatter failed
2010-07-04 21:36:30 +0800: Partition complete.

Can not sleep machine, external drive carryover problem from 10.5

just calling everyone's renewed attention to this silly problem with the OS.
After installing 10.6 last night i set my machine to sleep after an hour. This morning, i find the machine frozen solid. Manually pulling the firewire plug from my media-dedicated Mybook drive springs the whole machine back to life. Finder, Itunes, and Quicksilver were frozen, suddenly working fine again.
This was an issue with leopard from day one. It still exists on 10.6. Discussions on this issue focused on the failure of a drive to be woken-up after being put to sleep. I can't keep up with the kernal level discussions being had, but the conversation is well-documented in many threads under 10.5.
Despite the under the hood improvements, this issue has yet to-and must be- resolved. The alternative for this media center is not never let the computer sleep. Shutting it down as an alternative to sleep is a de-evolution compared even to windows (under vista, awindows 7, and tiger i do not have this issue with my drives.) Please take another look at it. Thanks! otherwise enjoying 10.6's speed.

William, you reminded me that it had been a while since i looked for drivers (well, i'm on a mac afterall). Western Digital offers "MacTurboDrivers" dec 2008. I'm going to give this a shot.
"This installer - WDMacTurboDrivers.dmg, contained within the WDMacTurboDrivers.zip file installs custom Western Digital performance based Turbo drivers and drive icons for WD USB and FireWire enabled external hard drives under Macintosh computers."
I popped in to report that, my situation has degraded somewhat since the Leopard issue.. i'm having the drive freeze the computer even while the machine and hard drives are not set to sleep! Heres hoping these drivers are more than candy..
has anyone else with a Mybook solved this problem? I have three mybooks - a 750MB usb, a 2TB firewire (time machine) and a 1TB firewire for itunes. The itunes drive is the only drive which fails to wake up. Before i had the 2TB, the 750MB was my itunes drive, and the 1TB was TM, during that time it the 750MB failed to wake up from sleep. Is iTunes the culprit? If so it is still a media-center disadvantage.

MBP will not boot if external drive is plugged in

This has been a long-standing problem with any Mac I've used, but now that I use one on a daily basis it is more of a problem.
I have an external enclosure with a 500GB SATAII hard drive. I connect it to my MBP via the FW800 port. For some reason if I have the drive plugged in before I am in the OS, the computer will sit on the gray startup screen indefinitely (with no logos at all, simply a gray backdrop). As soon as I do a hard shutdown, unplug the drive, and restart the OS will boot fine. I use Boot Camp with Windows Vista, and since I store many large files the drive is formatted using NTFS. Could this be causing my problem? Any ideas on how to correct this?
15.4" MacBook Pro 2.4 GHz Windows Vista

Hi Ryan,
it might be a wild guess, but is it possible, that the external harddisc is a 'Dynamic Drive' and not a 'Basic Drive'?
While in Vista have a look with the 'Disk Management'
To access the Disk Management console, right click Computer and select Manage. Under Storage, click Disk Management. The drive configuration of your computer will be displayed in the details pane.
It seems that OSX has problems even recognizing Dynamic Drives.
Also is there the possibility, that you use 'Drive Encryption' on the external HD ?
Regards
Stefan

Can not boot to external drive

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