Can't boot from Windows partition or any external drives...?

My iMac just stopped booting from both my boot camp partition, and any external drives. I tried booting from a bootable flashdrive with drive genius installed, but it just booted OS X. Despite holding TAB, it just boots normally, as if I wasnt even holding it. I also tried installing rEFit, but OS X still ignores it and just boots normally. What's going on?!

...wow....nevermind, i just realized that i was hitting tab not option...good lord...ive been running boot camp for a long time too...alright well...thanks anyway lol

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Can i have my windows partition on an external drive?

hello all,
alright, so im looking at a laptop for college and after much research and a few trips to the apple store i want the new, 13-inch macbook pro, with retina display and a 256GB flash hard drive. i love this computer in every aspect except.... you guessed it, its small hard drive. i can always get external drives to make up the differance though, and their is always the cloud so i dont think ill have too much of a problem. but i do need to use some software for college that is only windows based. so rather then splitting up this already small hard drive can i just install windows onto my mac (because i already know i cant put windows on an external drive with boot camp) and make the entire windows partition on the external drive? this way im not losing any native space besides that used to hold windows and im not installing windows to an external drive so hopefully bootcamp wont have a hissey fit. can anyone tell me if this will work? or if this wont work can anyone give me any other solutions to having windows on my mac without splitting up my native hard drive? such as installing windows to my mac and making the partition in the cloud or something? just anything so i dont have to split my already small, yet extremally fast, 256GB hard drive.

You can install Windows on your internal drive and store your Windows data on any drive you want to use. Keep in mind that any Windows programs you install in Windows will be installed on your internal drive. So make the Boot Camp partition large enough for Windows and any programs you may install now or in the future. You will also need room for swap/page files and other activities such as installing Windows updates.
100GB will likely be a good size for the Boot Camp partition given that it is unknown what programs you will be installing.

Changed my iMac but Can't Boot from Windows

I'm using iMac 21.5 with Mac OS X 10.6.6
All programs are updated.
I used to have iMac 24, but i removed it's hard drive and installed it on a new iMac 21.5
i can't boot from windows 7.
what should i do ?

Can you boot into safe mode ..... because if you can you can also reach "repair computer"! so reboot your windows partition, as soon as the bios appears start pressing F8 until you see "Advanced Boot Options" when you get there choose, "Repair your Computer" (1st selection on the page) and go to "Startup Repair" .. selecting that will cause Windows to attempt to repair the boot sector of it's partition, if it succeeds you'll be able to boot, if not no data will have been lost.
However please understand that without a backup of your windows partition data loss is a possibility under these circumstances. Windows hard drives almost never boot when moved from one installation to another. Read that last bit twice.
Good luck
Message was edited by: Csound1

Can't boot from windows 7 usb installation media

When trying to boot from windows 7 usb installation media no efi boot option availiable. Using "boot from efi file" option whith each and every .efi file on installation media results in a message saying "The selected boot device failed. Press <Enter> to Continue".
USB installation media created using original windows 7 iso image and couple diskpart commands(resulting in clean flash storage with a single active primary partition) plus simple copying of the iso image's contents on usb flash.
Enabling/Disabling SecureBoot doesn't have any impact whatsoever.
Installation boots from aforementioned media successfully when CSM enabled, though i would really prefer installing Windows 7 in uefi mode. Which microsoft claims Windows 7 supports.
Any help or suggestions would be much appreciated. Thanks in advance.
PS: my disappointment in this particular HP notebook is unspeakable. Aside from issue of the current topic, It keeps defaulting to windows boot manager when dual-booting windows & linux no matter what i do, and windows 8.1 Pro is constantly BSODing whenever i try to run fullscreen games on high-performance GPU whith every graphics driver i could possibly install (including both hp's own and amd's). Found silly workarounds for both of these issues, however still hate HP treating it's customers that way.

Booting from USB 2.0 port or DVD with SecureBoot disabled gets me to a screen saying "starting windows", just before the actual setup begins and then system simply hangs. Still unable to install. Thanks for your suggestion though.

Boot from second partition on usb hard drive

I have a time machine external usb drive. I have created a second partition of 8GB on this drive and restored OS X Install ESD 10.7.5 to this second partition so that I can easily rebuild if necessary. I would like to be able to boot from this second partition. When I hold down Option key at startup, I see the external drive as an option, but the iMac wants to boot from the Time Machine Backup partition, rather than the Lion Partition. It doesn't give me the choice of the second, bootable partition on this drive. Is it possible to do this?
[Mac 24" early 2009, running 10.7.5 Lion]

rchealey wrote:
Curiously when you boot from this partition, you get virtually the exact same experience as you do when booting from the recovery partition except that the recovery partition tends to suggest that it will download and install Lion, whereas booting from the partition containing the install doesn't mention download.
That's normal behavior. The Recovery HD only has enough code to go to Apple's servers and DL the installer; whereas, the InstallESD contains everything. Do note, however, that running either will check Apple's servers for additional components, whatever those might be. Thus, Internet access is required to do either.

Can VirtualBox+BootCamp install Windows 7 on an external drive?

There are a lot of good comments on these ideas, but I can't quite figure out if I can do this or not. I have an 18GB partition on an external drive. I have OS X 10.6.8 (with BootCamp) and a Windows 7 Home Premium disc. If I install VirtualBox (on my mac with Leopard? on the extenal drive?), can I ask BootCamp to install Windows on the extenal drive? I'll gladly tromp through the manuals if I know this will work.
The reason I want to do this is to keep all that Windows goop out of my mac. If this is possible, does the external habitat provide any additional protection against Bad Internet? I'll be working in Windows offline anyway. If Windows is installed on my mac and I'm online–but booted in Leopard–would I face any greater risks than if Windows was absent? Thanks.

You have downloaded, read and checked out VirtualBox? doesn't sound like it.
Running Windows natively and dual booting plus using in a VM only works with the commercial VMs.
Comparison of VMware Fusion Parallels VirtualBox
Comparison Fusion and Parallels
Yes, a VM only being only a file, can reside anywhere you want, though the speed and performance of the drive does matter.
Users doing things like opening email and clicking on links is goop. Even off line, use Microsoft Security Essentials - and stay patched current and such.
Only in rare setup will Windows work on external drive if the PC not Mac has the motherboard support.

K410: Can't boot from Windows 8 DVD

I managed to screw up the partitions on my new K410 and when I tried to use the inbuilt recovery software I got the message "Lenovo service partition has been destroyed". Not to worry I thought. I'd only just setup the computer and had pretty much reached the conclusion that I'd like to do a clean build using an OEM Windows 8 DVD.
I obtained an OEM DVD but I cannot boot from it or any other bootable media despite trying pretty much every BIOS setting. The computer continues to load the Lenovo recovery environment and display the "Lenovo service partition..." message. I also can't bring up the one-time boot menu (F12) which is odd as I made a Windows recovery DVD when I first got the PC and was able to boot from it at that time.
I've performed a clean install of Windows on every computer I've ever owned and the fact that I'm having trouble with this computer is driving me nuts. Can anyone help?
Solved!
Go to Solution.

Hi Solid_Cruver,
Thanks, for your reply.
I tried following the steps laid out in the linked post but they did not resolve my problem. I was beginning to get a little frustrated with the computer booting from the recovery partition so I decided to see if the computer would boot from a DVD if there was no hard disk plugged in!
I opened the case up and unplugged the SATA lead from the HD. The computer booted from the DVD first time. I changed all the BIOS settings back to out of the box settings (i.e. UEFI, Secure boot, etc. enabled) and tried again. Same result!
I then connected the hard drive to my laptop using a USB to SATA cable and deleted all the partitions on the drive using DISKPART and the "CLEAN" command (FOR ANYONE READING THIS THREAD, PLEASE TAKE CARE WHEN USING DISKPART!). I then reconnected the SATA and HD power lead back into the drive and put the side back on the case.
At this point I started the computer up with a Windows 8 DVD in the DVD drive. The computer booted from the DVD and I installed Windows 8 without any issues. It even picked up the OEM key from the BIOS so that I didn't need to use the license that came with the DVD.
I hope this thread may help others in the future.

Can't boot from Windows 8 DVD to repair

I used this disc to install Windows 8 fine (download from Microsoft and burned on DVD). My install is corrupted (something about a corrupted file) and I can't boot. When I attempt to use the DVD (booting via pressing "C" or booting via the GUI) it asks me to press a key to boot from the disc, but it seems as if the computer is booting from the HD, ignoring the DVD. Help?

Hi Solid_Cruver,
Thanks, for your reply.
I tried following the steps laid out in the linked post but they did not resolve my problem. I was beginning to get a little frustrated with the computer booting from the recovery partition so I decided to see if the computer would boot from a DVD if there was no hard disk plugged in!
I opened the case up and unplugged the SATA lead from the HD. The computer booted from the DVD first time. I changed all the BIOS settings back to out of the box settings (i.e. UEFI, Secure boot, etc. enabled) and tried again. Same result!
I then connected the hard drive to my laptop using a USB to SATA cable and deleted all the partitions on the drive using DISKPART and the "CLEAN" command (FOR ANYONE READING THIS THREAD, PLEASE TAKE CARE WHEN USING DISKPART!). I then reconnected the SATA and HD power lead back into the drive and put the side back on the case.
At this point I started the computer up with a Windows 8 DVD in the DVD drive. The computer booted from the DVD and I installed Windows 8 without any issues. It even picked up the OEM key from the BIOS so that I didn't need to use the license that came with the DVD.
I hope this thread may help others in the future.

Can't boot from Windows XP Install DVD

A couple months ago I wanted to use Boot Camp for the first time to install Windows XP Professional (SP3) on my iMac8,1, but I ran into a lot of trouble. I got a lot of support from you guys but I ended up scratching the mission because of a problem that nobody could help me with at the time (I sought support on IRC, too). I will adduce the links to the threads regarding the issues that were more or less solved at the end of this post.
Today I decided to make a thread here and hope that this time somebody knows what to do, how to solve the weird problem that I'm having when I try to boot from the Windows XP Install DVD right after I partition the hard drive with Boot Camp Assistant.
So when the iMac restarts, after I have inserted the disc, and tries to boot from it, I randomly get one of the following three possibilities on the screen (and nothing happens after it):
http://img689.imageshack.us/img689/6725/p3201160.jpg
http://img180.imageshack.us/img180/105/p3201161.jpg
http://img684.imageshack.us/img684/2076/img0472zt.jpg
I burned the disc myself, so it's not the original disc from Microsoft. I did try re-burning the .iso file multiple times (both with Disk Utility and with the application called Burn), to no avail. The disc works fine with VirtualBox!
Please let me know if you have a possible solution and I will thank you for it greatly!
Related threads:
Weird Behavior After Multiple Failed Partitioning Attempts
I Can't Partition My Hard Drive (Files Can't Be Moved)
How should I go about this? (resetting my system with minimal losses?)

Only thing that comes to mind is did you try multiple types of burn media? Also, did you try burning at the slowest burn speed?
~Lyssa

Can't boot from Ubuntu partition after upgrading to Yosemite

When i go to Disk Utility the Ubuntu partition appears as it always have, i had installed since Mavericks refind to boot from any partition. Now refind doesn't work and the alt/option key doesn't work either. Does anyone know a way to fix this?

A extensive report already written is in the Ubuntu stacks as
Dual boot Linux and Yosemite
Basically you need to follow http://www.rodsbooks.com/refind/yosemite.html
wherein it explains that Yosemite is using a new LVM bootup from within the Recovery Partitions 10.10.
This messes up REFIT/REFIND tools which have previously installed Partition 1.S
See my current Table below , wherein << are my comments
Current GPT partition table:
#      Start LBA      End LBA Type
1             40       409639 EFI System (FAT)    << old preferred site for REFIT/REFIND tools
2         409640    154061023 Mac OS X HFS+ << main Mac partition
3      154061024    155330559 Mac OS X Boot << Recovery 10.10 , installed by Yosemite update, used to start MAC boot. BUT is not shown by Disk Utility, to prevent its naive deletion which would kill the MAC boot.
4      155330560    156598271 Mac OS X HFS+ << old Recovery 10.9, simply retained
5      157869786    228772129 Unknown << My Ubuntu partition
6      228772130    236765969 Linux Swap << which was shortened by 200 MB to make room for 7)
7      236765970    236974814 Mac OS X HFS+ << installation site of REFIND. Though 4) could have been used, there is a possibility that Apple might have future plans for this small 4) partition.
With 7) created (see detail below), my REFIND install command under MAC, within Downloads/refind-bin-0.8.3/ was:
sudo ./install.sh --alldrivers --ownhfs /dev/disk0s7
There was still required the edit if refind.conf.sample specified in Yosemite.html, which I named refind.conf.edit1
This was copied with:
sudo cp refind.conf.edit1 /Volumes/macefi/System/Library/CoreServices/refind.conf
macefi is my name for the MAC /dev/disk0s7 mount point, equivalent to /dev/sda7 under Linux
CAREFULLY do read Yosemite.html, as the instructions here are too terse by themselves!!!!
There are 2 routes to boot Ubuntu, and then creat 7) with GPARTED
a) If you can access the GRUB shell under an old REFIT/REFIND installation, partitions will be shown by:
grub> ls
Presence of a Linux file system can be confirmed by a command like:
grub> ls (hd0,gpt5)/
Output of
grub > ls (hd0,gpt5)/boot/grub/
should include a grub.cfg file. Then you can boot as usual with
grub > configfile (hd0,gpt5)/boot/grub/grub.cfg
After boot up, start GPARTED
b) Alternatively boot with the Ubuntu install disk, and choose the Demo option
Open a text console, and get admin proviledge with:
$ sudo su
# gparted
Using GPARTED, unmount if necessary any terminal SWAP partition, such as my 6) above
Then shrink the SWAP partition end by a trivial 200 MB,
Create a HFS+ partition in like my 7) for a coming REFIND installation
Note, that a file /etc/fstab contains a SWAP partition specification, which should be edited for automated SWAP start.
# sudo blkid /dev/sda7
will report the SWAP space specs LONG uuid code. This can be copied into memory by dragging the mouse over the uuid
Then SHIFT-CONTROL-C will copy it into memory.   Start an edit with:
$ sudo nano /etc/fstab
delete the old swap uuid, and paste in the replacement with
SHIFT-CONTROl-V
and swap should mount upon reboot, or with:
$ sudo swapon -a
Check with:
$ free
which should report none-zero swap space.

Can't boot from recovery partition in Mountain Lion

I've installed Mountain Lion on two different boxes so far: a 20" iMac at home and a Mac Mini at work. Both had up to date Lion installations prior to the upgrade. After installing Mountain Lion I am not able to boot in to the recovery partition on either one. Whether I hold down Command-R to go directly to the recovery parittion, or simply hold down Option to get a choice of boot devices, I am taken directly to the login screen.
The recovery partition is there on both boxes, and I can mount it and examine it using 'diskutil' from the command line. I created a USB image of the recovery partition on the iMac, and the Startup Disk control panel allowed be to select it as a boot device, but the box (both boxes, actually; I also tried it on the Mini) booted directly to the login screen.
I honestly don't know whether I could boot to the recovery partition prior to upgrading to Mountatin Lion or not. When I first installed Lion on the iMac I did not get a recovery paritition, but Apple sent me a USB drive and after cleaning up the disk (getting rid of an unused Boot Camp partition) I was able to get a clean install with a functioning recovery paritition. However I never booted from it after confirming that it worked.
Anyone else see anything like this? Or have an idea how to fix it?
- Larry

Ok but you can get the Option key to work.
There is a utility to Rebuild the recovery HD partition.
Look here first.
Removing and rebuilding a malfunctioning Recovery HD partition « Der Flounder
Then in that article a link to download or find the Recovery HD utility on the Apple website.
But that was originally for Lion. So you may have to rebuild the Lion R-HD then Reinstall Mt Lion over the top of your current install of Mt Lion for it to make the Mt Lion R-HD.
Depending on the age of your Mac's you may also be able to use the Online (Internet) Recovery HD system. To get to that with a R-HD partition on the system, even if that R-HD partition sin't working, you hold down Command+Option+r keys when starting the system (And yes with the USB keyboard attached).

First PC Build: MSI P67A-G43 - Can't Boot From Windows 7 DVD

MB: MSI P67A-G43
HD: Seagate 1TB
DVD: HP 1260
CPU: Intel i5 2500K
I just built my first PC. In the BIOS I had it set to boot first from my DVD drive that has a 64-bit version of Windows 7 loaded. No matter what I tried, I received the message: "Reboot and Select Proper Boot Device"
So I have been on the phone with technical support, and they suggested I download a driver update, which I found HERE.
I have tried installing both the driver and the BIOS updates, but every time it says that the boot from the pen drive failed and to check the USB drive and ROM.
I've looked for answers all over the web, but the only ones I find assume that you've previously had Windows installed. This is a first boot though, and I really don't know what to do next. Can anyone help with this?
thanks!

If anyone would like to take a look at these OC settings that are default with my board as to a reason why it wouldn't be booting from the DVD drive or accepting the RAM, I would appreciate it.
urrent CPU Frequency: 100.00 x 33 MHz
Current DRAM Frequency: 1600 MHz
CPU Base Frequency [10kHz]: 10000
Adjust CPU Ratio: [33]
Adjusted CPU Frequency: 3300 MHz
Adjust CPU Ratio in OS: Disabled
Internal PLL Overvoltage: Auto
EIST: Enabled
Intel Turbo Boost: Enabled
OC Genie Button Operation: Disabled
DRAM Frequency: Auto
X.M.P. Disabled
Adjusted DRAM Frequency: 1600 MHz
DRAM Timing Mode: Auto
Spread Spectrum: Enabled
VDroop Control: Auto
CPU Core Voltage: Auto
DRAM Voltage: Auto
PCH 1.05 Auto
Then under CPU Features:
Active Processor Cores: All
Limit CPUID Maximum: Disabled
Execute Disable Bit: Enabled
Intel Virtualization Tech: Disabled
Intel VT-D Tech: Disabled
Power Technology: Custom
C1E Support: Disabled
Overspeed Protection: Enabled
Intel C-State: Enabled
Package C State Limit: Auto
Long duration power limit (w): 95
Long duration maintained (ms): 1000
Short duration power limit (w): 0
1-core ratio limit: 37
2-core ratio limit: 36
3-core ratio limit: 35
4-core ratio limit: 34

Can't boot from windows 7 install usb drive created in bootcamp

So, my real problem is that my Windows 7 install won't boot after I installed some windows updates. I'm using OSX Lion and the latest version of Bootcamp. I've had Windows installed on my mid 2011 mac mini for only about a day. It had been working flawlessly so far.
Windows automatically downloaded and installed some updates and now it is broken.
When I attempt to boot windows I get a black screen that just hangs forever. No windows logo, no blinking cursor, no nothing.
I thought I could use my Windows 7 Install usb drive to maybe try and do a recovery or repair install but now my USB drive wont boot either. I get the same black screen.
Any ideas on why I can't boot even the install usb drive?
Note: this is the same USB drive I used to install windows the first time so it's definately capable. I've even used my install iso to re-create the usb drive installer and still nothing.

Install ISO means you burned DVD installer and did you reduce burn speed? otherwise it is a bad install.
3rd party updates? for security suite? stick to MS Security Essentials instead.

Bootcamp Win7 - won't boot from Windows partition or even from the Win7 install DVD

Late 2011 Mac Mini / Lion / Win 7 64-bit Home Premium.
Incumbent Windows partition has happily run for heavy gaming (World of Warcraft) for some eight months. Now it stops on boot-up before the Windows logo is displayed, with a very dark blue blank screen. Attempts to boot from the Windows Install DVD yield the same result, portending that there is more than a corrupt MBR at work here. I have reset PRAM and SMC, just for good measure. There have been no recent changes to hardware / peripherals.
Rebuilding the Windows partition with Bootcamp stops at same Dark Blue Screen of Death. Will start Windows sometimes from first switch-on / dead cold Mini, but then not again in the same day. OS X Lion mode runs perfectly, booting up as usual with no quirks or delays.
Hardware? Seems unlikely, except for that suspicion of starting from the dead-cold start.

Do not use a USB3 flash drive. Only USB2 flash drives are supported by Windows installers. Depending on whether your Mac came with a built-in Optical drive or not, you may also need a physical DVD.
Please see How to install Windows using Boot Camp - Apple Support and Boot Camp 5.1: Frequently asked questions - Apple Support.

Can't Boot from windows to mac? Can't option boot?

I was having this problem. It turns out that my windows backup external drive, formatted in NTFS, was ALWAYS ON (no power switch). Apple rep pointed out that this will prevent Mac from booting, or an option boot even. So if you're having this kind of problem, be aware that an NTFS external drive may be the problem. but only if it is turned on at startup. but you need to turn it off if you're booting back to the mac OS from windows.

This is also true if you use a flash drive that's formatted in NFTS!! so if one of those is plugged in, that could be a problem as well.

Can't boot from Windows partition or any external drives...?

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