Can't boot from image, fallback, CD or Knoppix

Turned on my monitor today to a screen of information that doesn't mean anything to me; tried rebooting and got the same. Tried fallback and got essentially the same. Tried the installation CD and got essentially the same. I get lots of lines with essentially this format:
[ 4.735415] [<numbers&letters>] ? i386_start_kernel+0xa9/0xaf
This is the last one I get, others have different information after the ?, some don't have that. I assume I have a serious hardware problem, but don't know where to begin looking. The machine begins booting, gets to checking udev, then things scroll by so fast I can't tell where the error begins.
Got a knoppix CD and tried that; ended up with a similar result.
I'm down to the video card, memory and drives; all other pulled.
I tried a live bsd disk; mfsbsd, a freebsd variant. I can get that to boot to a command line.
[edit]
Caught something this morning that looked like device descriptor error; couldn't read it fast enough to get more.
Tried booting a Slackware 10.2 - 2.4 kernel, got to a command line with that. Restored default bios settings. Still can't get Arch to come up.
[edit]
Found another thread regarding a related issue; based on that I unplugged all of my usb devices except the keyboard. Arch now boots, although there are lots of error messages that I will have to check later.
[edit]
New symptoms at lunch; now the machine turns on, then turns off, then turns back on and runs, but I have no video and the DVD drive is not operational. Nothing changed between the time I turned it off this morning and turned it back on. All fans are running, but am beginning to wonder about my power supply.
Last edited by timm (2011-09-26 17:27:42)

Do you get the POST beep to tell you POST ran successfully?. If not, try pulling your RAM chips, cleaning their contacts with a ping eraser and rubbing alcohol and reseating them. Then use a Live CD and run memtest to check your RAM chips. The first few errors seem like RAM errors to me.

Similar Messages

Can't Boot From Install Disc 1 ?

Holding down "C" at Start Up isn't working.
Most of the time I can't get Preferences > Start-Up to even "see" my Disc 1.
When I can get it to show up in Start-Up, and Select it, and Lock it ... it Still Won't Start Up from the Install Disc 1 ... and in fact usually ejects the disc.
Sometimes when I re-push in the disc, I get the message that a Blank Disc has been detected, "what do you want to do with it."
But, it shows up in Disc Utility, and when I run Verify Disc, it all looks good?!
The Disc has Mac OS version 10.4.8 on it. I'm running 10.5.7. I'm all up to date with my software.
Yesterday I ran the latest version of Disc Warrior. When I run TechTools 4.0 it seems to get stuck running Files. When I run Repair Permissions from Disc Utilities, it shows a fairly massive amount of issues. Running it over and over again doesn't seem to make any difference.
I WANT to run my Install Disc so I can run Repair Disc from Disc Utility ... because I'm having a number of issues ... and I seem to get the spinning rainbow a lot.
SUGGESTIONS ?! ... thanks ...

Disk Utility that can repair a 10.5.7 permissions is only found on the Leopard installer disc. Tiger can't repair Leopard when it comes to permissions, and may also have difficulty with the directory.
Secondly, if your MacBook Pro was purchased after October 26, 2007, it can't boot from any Tiger disc.
If your MacBook Pro was purchased prior, you can use the disk, but you'll want to follow these directions for hardware diagnostics:
http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=303081
Only if your MacBook Pro has Tiger installed, should you use Tiger for the directory or permissions*:
http://www.macmaps.com/directoryfaq.html
Macs can only boot from the operating system that shipped with them, and newer retail operating systems. This means:
1. pre-October 1st, 2007 MacBook Pros can boot off:
- - the discs that shipped with them
- - retail 10.5 discs which look like * that do not say Upgrade, DropIn, or OEM.
2. October 1st through October 25, 2007 can do #1, and also use Upgrade and DropIn discs. Those disks were offered as a limited time mail order Up to date program, some were dropped in the box that came with them.
3. October 26th through November 14, 2007 can boot off the discs that came with them, and retail 10.5.1, 10.5.4, and 10.5.6 discs that do not say Upgrade, DropIn, or OEM, and have a label like the image above.
4. November 15, 2007 through June 29, 2008 can boot off the discs that came with them, and the retail 10.5.4, and 10.5.6 discs that do not say Upgrade, DropIn, or OEM, and have a label like the image above.
5. June 30, 2008 through December 14, 2008 can boot off the discs that came with them, and the retail 10.5.6 discs that do not say Upgrade, DropIn, or OEM, and have a label like the image above.
6. December 15, 2008 and later MacBook Pros can only boot off the discs that came with them.
Presumably when Snow Leopard comes out in September, all of the above will be able to use Snow Leopard because of the specs on http://www.apple.com/macosx/specs.html
- * Links to my pages may give me compensation.
Message was edited by: a brody

Can I boot from an external drive with a "Virtual CD"

I just purchased a Hitachi LifeStudio external hard drive for use as my Time Machine backup. When I plugged it in to my MacBook running 10.6.4, I realized that it had one of those "Virtual CDs" that contained the manufacturers crapware, similar to Western Digital's MyWare or whatever its called. It shows up in disk utility as an actual separate disk and not just another partition that can be wiped.
I reformatted the drive using GUID and and created 3 HFS+ Journaled partitions. One was going to be for the 10.6 installer, one for the 10.6 boot, and one for my time machine backup. I restored a 10.6 install dvd disk image I created using disk utility to the 10.6 installer partition (with erase destination checked) then option booted my mac and the partitions did not show up. The only thing I could see was my internal hard drive.
I have done this many times before and it has always worked so Im trying to figure out what Im doing wrong. The only thing I can think of is that the "Virtual CD" that Hitachi put on this external drive is stopping the Mac from seeing the bootable partitions I created. I even went into system preferences>startup disk and blessed the 10.6 install partition. That didn't work either, the computer just booted to my internal drive.
So my questions are. Is it because of this "Virtual CD" that I can't boot from my external drive? If so, is there a way around it? I already searched their web site and emailed their tech support asking for a firmware update to remove the virtual cd.
Thanks in advance.

Yes, it's a known issue. You've already referred to the issue with WD systems. WD has a long list of products that are either not compatible with Macs or won't boot a Mac.
There are practically no problems with bare drives, but once installed in an enclosure there is no guarantee that the package will function as a bootable device. This is especially the case if the manufacturer uses some sort of "virtual" scheme intended for using the device as a sort of one button backup device.
External drives don't have to specifically say anything about being Mac bootable or compatible. It's up to the consumer to verify compatibility and usability.

After 10.4.11 upgrade Macbook won't start can't boot from external HD

Hi guys,
I just suffer as all other that after try ti install the 10.4.11 update my macbook won't start, I have a external HD with a image of my macbook but went I press and hold the option key I only see the bootcamp parttion and my internal HD, I don't see the external HD.
How can I boot from my external HD if I have a bootcamp partition?
Thanks

I follow the robotobi post and solve this issue.
Thanks robotobi

HP Pavilion 500-210 QE Can't boot from any hard drive.

Good Evening. As you can see from the subject, my computer just can't boot from any hard drive that I put on it. I tried swapping the power supply, the SATA cable, resetting the BIOS, enabling legacy boot, changing from AHCI to IDE and RAID...
When I get to the BIOS setup, I can see the hard drive and its specifications, but it just won't boot or show up when I'm trying to install a new OS. I'm not an expert, but I think the problem might be in the motherboard SATA ports, but I'm not sure. Just to make sure, I did try another hard drive and it didn't work aswell.
I was also thinking about buying an external hard drive and instaling my OS on that, but I don't even know if that's possible and I would really like to have my computer working again.
Thank you for your attention!
This question was solved.
View Solution.

What is the installed operating system?
Did you make a recovery disk set?
Did you happen to make a Windows 8.1 startup disk or USB recovery thumbdrive?
Have you tested the hard disk?
Press the power button and then immediately tap the Esc key. In the Startup menu, choose F2 for Diagnostics. In the HP Basic System Diagnostics menu choose hard disk. Run the test and post the results here.
The issue you are facing has nothing to do with the SATA ports. It is a configuration issue. Your PC is a modern one and its BIOS (UEFI) is far more advanced than what you may have seen before.
If you want to install a different operating system then you will have to make a few changes in the BIOS configuration. Secure Boot is turned on by default for Windows 8 and Windows 8.1. If you try installing a different OS without turning this off then your system won't boot up. You may be running into this if you are trying to install another operating system.
The image below is what will be seen in the BIOS of your PC in the security tab --> . In the secure boot configuration options do not clear the secure boot keys! Those keys are your operating system license activation keys.
****Please click on Accept As Solution if a suggestion solves your problem. It helps others facing the same problem to find a solution easily****
2015 Microsoft MVP - Windows Experience Consumer

Can't Boot from bootable CD/DVD or USB.

I'm trying to install a new OS from a bootable DVD that I created. However, my T530 will not boot up from the DVD. I checked the boot order in the BIOS settings, and even explicitly tried to force to boot from my DVDROM usint the F12 boot menu. I've been able to boot from this DVD on my other computer.
Any way to diagnose whether my DVDROM is faulty, or is there perhaps some BIOS setting to fix this? I am able to read the disc from Windows, just can't boot from it. The laptop is brand new, just opened it up today, so I don't know why something as simple as this wouldn't just work.
Solved!
Go to Solution.

ThorsHammer wrote:
dreachem wrote:
I took a DVD drive from another Thinkpad and swapped that in. I still could not boot from the disc.
Next, I copied the ISO image to a USB stick and tried to boot from that instead. But it hung. I was able to boot from the same USB stick on another laptop.
All the signs seems to suggest the laptop is simply defective, which is extremely disappointing considering it is brand new and I waited for about a month to receive it. Is there anything else I can/should try (some diagnostic utility, perhaps?), or do I just send it in for a replacement?
Is you used the tool at http://www.microsoftstore.com/store/msstore/html/pbPage.Help_Win7_usbdvd_dwnTool to take the .ISO file and create the USB stick, I'd say you are right and have an issue with the system.
Did the system ship with Windows 8 and is safe boot turned on?
Yes, it is Windows 8 with Secure Boot on by default. I tried it both with it enabled and disabled, and it didn't work either way.

I can't boot from instalation disk need help

can anyone tell me why i can't boot from instalation disk
i burn a DVD with verified iso with MD5 with Nero Express

i use burn image , of course and
i have a Sempron +2400 with asus a7s8x mainboard
and i download all 5 file for DVD x86 and then i copy /b all this files.
when computer boot from cd the screen is bleu with Solaris ................ v.20 message and after 1 second message became
Aolaris ..................v.20 and computer remain in this position

Can't boot from external HD with Leopard on MacBook Pro or PowerBook

I can't boot from an external HD with 10.5.5 Leopard on either my MacBook Pro or my PowerBook G4. I had a PowerBook G4 from which I could boot from either an external FW400 drive or an external FW800 drive. At some point, I stopped being able to boot from any HD, but I'm not sure if it was after upgrading to Leopard or not? Recently I just bought a MacBook Pro 15" and transferred all my files over from the PowerBook to the MacBook Pro during the install. However, even with the new computer, still cannot boot from an external drive. I have Leopard 10.5.5 running on both the external HD and the internal HD.
Is this a common problem? Anybody know how to fix it?
Thanks!

That probably wasn't very clear was it? I have several ext. HD's, some with bootable systems and some just backups. One bootable disk was made with CopyCloner and the other was a clean format and only had an original install of the OS just to use for an emergency boot. They both booted just fine. Then at some point, they stopped being bootable. I have used the Control Panel "Startup" and also used the Option key boot and picked the bootable disk. Neither one boots anymore. It started doing this on the old PowerBook and then also refused to boot on the MacBook Pro. This is not the problem with the HD since it happens with any bootable HD. Something is going on at the system level and it was transfered from the PowerBook to the MacBook.
Thanks,
Bill

Can't log in with valid password, can't boot from disk, can't access disk utility, in single user mode can't reset password as appears locked in caps mode with '?' for forward slash, can anyone help?

Can't log in with valid password, can't boot from disk, can't access disk utility, in single user mode can't reset password as appears locked in caps mode with '?' for forward slash, can anyone help?

Which keyboard layout you were using? German, French ... I suppose your layout is reset to the default: US and you are unable to find the "?" or "/" ...
Please have a look into the keyboard viewer, to see how the layout of your keyboard is actually.
marek

Can't boot from IDE hard drives

Just purchased a barebones system with a KEN NEO Platinum board running an AMD 64 3400+. Tried to install old Maxtor hard drive (40 gb) into new system and a blue screen pops up for less than one second and reboots PC. I can’t read the blue screen but I believe it is saying there is a hardware conflict.
What is causing this. The CMOS recognizes the HD but it can't boot from it. I’ve got two of these units and both have the same problems. I put the drive back into the original PC and it works fine.
Need help desperately.

When I connect the cables, they show which is the slave and which is the master. In the CMOS, everything looks fine. I've noticed alot of people are having difficulty installing used and new hard drives. I've been working with PC's for quite a while and I've never had this much trouble. I was hoping there was something I missed in the CMOS settings.

Can't boot from cd

Just replaced a hard drive in my old G4 titanium laptop and it worked fine until I did the OS update. The first time i did the update and clicked restart, it would only go to a black screen. I reformatted and thought I would just say to he'll with the update and leave well enough alone. My wife used it for a few days and said it was really slow, so I did the update again. I selected one update at a time and when I did the Security Update 2009-005, it gave an error and said try the install again. I rebooted and now my dock has dissapeared and when I try and reboot, it does nothing. I tried to run disk utilities and the program will not open. I tried to reformat the hard drive, but when I hold the C key down to select the DVD to boot and install from, it goes back to my hard drive and just boots to the installed OS. I then tried to select the DVD from my preference start up disk option and there is no CD/DVD option to select as boot drive. I see the mounted DVD disk on my desk top and can access the files on it, but can't boot from it to reinstall. My install was Tiger full retail. The laptop came with an install disk that had Panther. Any ideas would be appreciated.
Mark

Thanks for your reply and yes I did try option as well, with no luck. I finally reformatted through FireWire and another laptop. I am now installing from the disk that came with the G4. So I will try Panther to Tiger even though my Tiger is a full retail disk. I am not sure why Apples up dates to 10.4.11 crash this g4, but I'll try for the third time and see what happens.

Disk repair failed how can I back up my files when I can't boot from the start up disk

When disk repair fails, and I can't boot from the hard drive how can I get to my files to back them up. I have a seagate 1 TB connected to the USB port.

Perubbit,
which model MacBook Pro do you have, and which version of OS X is installed on it?

Can not boot from OSX disc

I recently partitioned my internal drive with an 80 gig partition to run Ubuntu , removed Ubuntu and now can not resize hd to recover the 80 gig that I used , there was a program with this Ubuntu install called rEFIt that was installed for the dual boot , My problem is that Itunes keeps crashing and I have spent somewhere around 8 hours trying to fix this issue and in the process I discovered that I now can not boot from the osx disc but I can boot from the Ubuntu disc , what can I do to correct this issue or is there anything that I can do to correct this and recover the 80 gig that I used ?

The only solution was to erase hd and restore from time machine backup......
According to everything that I have seen , read and tried when you partition the mac hd the way that mac is designed it will lock the hd thus preventing any access even using the startup disc to repair. As far as restoring everything after the erase and reinstall of the OSX that was easy and painless. FOR ANYONE WHO DOES NOT BACKUP THEIR DATA THIS IS WHY YOU SHOULD!!!!
Once OSX is reinstalled the migration assistant will ask if you want to restore from a backup , if you have time machine or any other sort of backup simply choose the one you wish to restore from and continue , must admit I was a bit hesitant at first , I must say that everything restored with the exception of some settings that I have had to restore but they were not major settings , after the backup is restored simply run update check and reinstall all updates , may need to do this a couple of times.
Depending on the amount of data you have will determine the length of time for restore (500 gigs about 6 hrs.) but it will restore user account settings , connection settings and network settings.
Hope this will help if anyone has experienced the same problem.

Can I boot from a SATA drive? What if it's RAID?

I'm planning on getting the MSI 875P Neo FIS2R 800FSB motherboard. I'm also planning on getting ONE SATA hard drive. Can I boot from the SATA drive? Do I HAVE to set up it as a RAID drive? Can you boot from RAID drives? RAID and SATA confuse me a little. Anyone care to help?

I'm using the MSI 865PE Neo2 board and I'm having this problem. It probably has an easy solution, but this is my first build, so I'm not sure exactly what to do.
MSI 865PE Neo 2 Mobo
2.4b P4
Seagate SATA 80GB HDD
Panasonic FDD
Lite-On DVDROM
It took me a little bit of experimenting, but I got the BIOS to recogonize the DVD & HDD. It seems every time I got it to recognize one, the other disappeared. Anyway, like I said, BIOS recognizes all 3 now.
I go to install XP and it says I need to install the drivers from a floppy (after I had previously hit F6). Well, where do I get the drivers? I have a CDROM that came with the mobo but I don't know where to find the drivers for the SATA controller on it. ???
Can someone help me by directing me to a download and/or the file names that I need to transfer to floppy for Win XP installation? I would appreciate it. Thanks.

How can I boot from USB 3.0 disc on a Mac Pro 2013

I am just setting up a 2013 Mac Pro with a 4TB USB 3.0 external drive. I have cloned my boot disc over to it but have problems being able to boot from the USB drive.
It shows up in the startup disc in system preferences, but when selected as the boot disc and restarted it just boots from the internal SSD. Also have checked booting and holding the ALT key to see what happens but I am just shown the SSD and Recovery disc as options to boot from.
So it appears I can not boot from a USB disc on my new Mac Pro, is there a solution to this problem?

The warranty entitles you to complimentary phone support for the first 90 days of ownership.
If you bought the product in the U.S. directly from Apple (not from a reseller), you have 14 days from the date of delivery in which to exchange or return it for a refund. In other countries, the return policy may be different. If you bought from a reseller, its return policy applies.

Can't boot from image, fallback, CD or Knoppix

Similar Messages

Maybe you are looking for