Cannot Boot from C Drive, Cannot Access Startup Manager

Working on a friends machine,
iMac Intel Core Duo , 17", 1.83Ghz, OS X 10.4.11.
There are 3 users, 2 have Administrator privileges.
It's been acting up lately so I want to run Tech Tools V3.0.4 which came with the machines Apple Care.
If I attempt to run it from the installed Tech Tools I see that the "Macintosh HD Volume is not the startup volume and is not available for repair".
If I try to boot from the Tech Tools CD (restart when holding down "C")I can hear the CD/DVD drive working but it goes right to the startup screen asking which user wants to sign in. When I sign in on an administrator account there is no Tech Tool window to work from, it hasn't booted from the CD.
I have tried restarting while holding down OPTION to get to Startup manager so I can manually pick the Tech Tool CD. I get about one minute of a gray globe and and then back to the user sign in page as above.
I have also tried booting (restart with "C" held down) from the original OS X 10.4.2 Disc that came with the machine, one minute of gray globe, ejects the disc and goes to sign in screen.
Is this a problem that will require repair or am I going about this the wrong way?
thanks, Rob

The slot loading optical drives are really the pits for longevity, almost all of mine have died without much usage.
One posible solution is if you have another Mac with Firewire, is to put the Install Disc for this one in the other one, boot the other one into Target mode...
http://support.apple.com/kb/HT1661
Boot this Mac with the Option key held down, see if the Install Disc in the other Mac shows up as a boot choice.
FWTDM turns the other Mac into a big expensive external Firewire Device.

Similar Messages

  • Cannot access Startup Manager from boot

    I'm trying to fix a friends computer, and I'm running into some issues. Here's the setup:
    She used her computer last night, and then shut it down. This morning, she tried to start it up, and after about 10 minutes of waiting, got the folder with a question mark. She tried resetting it a few time, but still kept getting the folder with question mark.
    So, I am now currently trying to trouble shoot the system to figure out exactly what the problem is. These are the solutions I've tried:
    Resetting the PRAM, several times
    Trying to startup from external USB drive, by using the "force bypass of internal drive" key command at startup
    Starting the problem machine in target disk mode, and connecting it to my laptop (the drive didn't show up on the desktop, disk utility or Techtools Pro)
    Startup in Safe mode (got folder with ?)
    Startup in Verbose mode (just got a grey screen)
    Now, I have my laptop, in target disk mode, connected to her laptop, and I am trying to access the Startup Manager (hold option key at startup). But, after about 20 minutes of waiting, I still have just a grey screen with the mouse cursor; no icon for my computer; no refresh; nothing. I tested this firewire cable with my laptop and another computer, and it works just fine.
    My next option is to try the force bypass again, then try an OSX CD. Everything after that involves removal, and possible replacement, of the drive.
    Does anyone have any idea why I cannot access the Startup Manager on this system?

    OMG this is what just happened to me exactly last night! I was in the middle of a freaking project that is due monday and i might lose everything! It is currently at the apple store right now and i wont get it back for 3 or 4 days. I am freaking out because they said there is a chance that i could lose everything. They said there is a problem with the hard drive....have you found anything out about this? BC i am freaking out! I pretty much cried for hours and if i lose all my data that is like 2000 dollars of music and movies down the drain. I hope you can fix it but id advise that your friend take it to the store just bc i would be afraid to make it worse.
    Message was edited by: star89

  • Help diagnos. flashing question mark on monitor, cannot boot from CD drive

    Any ideas? This is an older G3 tower which was "souped Up" wtih USB and Firewire cards, memory
    Mac froze in midst of work last week. Now only get flashing question mark supermimposed on image of a floppy drive.
    Tried to re install system (OS9) but cannot get ANY CD to boot from CD drive. I reboot, hold down "C" Key with CD in tray ( and i can hear the CD drive working). But the tray opens and ejects/rejects the CD).
    I now suspect the problem is NOT the OS but rather a hardware issue.
    Am I correct in this assumption? what else could this be?
    I am trying to help an older gentleman who has no backups and has some important documents on the HD.If I can boot up, might be able to retrieve those itesm. (and get a newer Mac!)

    Not the answer,Dale (thanks anyway)
    I read that article.
    I cannot boot from any bootable CD.
    Inserted the OS install disk as well as third party bootable CD.
    with CD in the CD drive tray, I restarted and held down the C key.
    Mac restarted but the CD tray popped open. Would not boot from the CD.
    That is why I posted query
    not only do we have the flashing question mark but bootable CDs are not booting this Mac. So I can do no diagnostics, no repair, not salvage of files.
    I am trying to understand where the problem lies. am guessing Hard Drive failure but why should CD also not work?

  • Cannot boot from USB drive!!!!!!!!!!!!!

    Hi
    I have 3-4 120Gb 2.5inch drives which I clone my MacBook Pro to on rotation.
    I have always been able to boot from these drives UNTIL NOW!
    Suddenly I can no longer boot from them, the boot process starts and gets well through and then the drives all seem to just 'hang'.
    The only significant change is that a local Apple support company upgraded my stock 120gb drive to a 160Gb drive.
    Any ideas what the issue coiuld be?
    Cheers.
    Robin

    Hi robster,
    If the USB drive contains a valid OS you should be able to verify and repair the permissions on that drive, give that a try.
    Also i suggest running DiskWarrior 4 on it.
    The replaced internal drive should have no effect on this unless some settings got changed when the new OS got installed on it that now prevents the mac from being able to read your USB drive.
    Does the USB drive need a driver ? if so is the latest version of that driver properly installed ?
    If the USB drive checks out and all is OK maybe a re-install of the OS on your internal drive would help.
    For now try disk utility and diskwarrior if you can that could narrow things down

  • Cannot boot from ext drive after 10.5.2 update

    I followed the procedure in tech article 306502 for creating and updating a bootable drive. I am in a PPC Mini environment. External drive is LaCie 160 GB rugged firewire portable with auxiliary power, I created the drive with 10.5.1 and it booted nicely to my two Minis (running 10.3.9 and 10.5.1). I then updated the external system with 10.5.2 from the Apple site and now it does not boot. Sits and spins with a white screen, grey apple, and whirligig. Whirled for 1/2 hour and tried deveral times.
    I see this is not uncommon, but there have been no cures posted. One post suggested Disk Warrior. What would I do to with DW to move this problem forward. This is quite annoying, as I rely on being able to move around and boot from this drive when needed.
    Thanks for any help.
    Fred

    after 10.5.2 two days ago, mine booted up regularly. however after the additional leopard graphics update last night, it no longer boots up at all. i have to usethis ****** vista to report the problem. my macbook is right beside me, with nothing but a plain blue screen. occasionaly the mouse cursor appears for about 30 seconds, then dissapears and the screen remains blue. what can i do? if i cant log in apple cant update my mac!!! help!!!

  • Problems booting from external drives

    Ever since I got this 6-core 2013 MacPro (January 2015), I have had strange problems and glitches, but for this posting, I am talking about problems being able to boot up from external drives. I took the 4 external drives out of my old 2009 MacPro and put them into a 4-bay Thunderbolt enclosure. This enclosure can be configured as a RAID if all drives are the same (which they are not) or it can just be a place to be able to access all 4 drives. I used to be able to boot from each of those drives on the older MacPro but I am unable to do so now. They show up in the System Preferences/Startup Disk but if I choose one, it just reboots into the new MacPro drive. I even tried pulling out a couple of the drives and mounting each into a USB 3.0 (Sabrent) dock and still I could not boot from those drives which have the latest version of Yosemite. Yes, they are formatted correctly. I used to boot from them. I was able to clone one of the drives to a Seagate USB 3.0 hard drive and boot from that. Although, the clone was not perfect. It didn't transfer all my settings so I could recover some logins and serial numbers I wanted that I have never been able to retrieve since I got this new Mac.
    Yesterday, I formatted a 32GB flash drive and tried to install Yosemite on it. I planned to put DiskWarrior on it. When I started to install Yosemite (from a saved download) it let me choose that drive, but when it restarted before installing, I was right back where I started on my MacPro's hard drive.
    Is this normal behavior for the 2013 MacPro? Or is it just mine? I am beginning to think I may have a lemon since I have had other strange problems that don't go away.

    Not all external devices are bootable. First stop would be involve whoever handles the 4-bay Thunderbolt. Seeing how it has a bridge most likely in order to support RAID mode that may not have the correct frmware or other reasons.
    https://bombich.com/kb/ccc4
    https://bombich.com/kb/ccc4/search/bootable%20volume
    CCC is the only program I would be using.

  • Is it possible boot from U drive?

    Is it possible boot from U drive on a leopard system? How to do it? My CD disc was broke, and i try to install a windows Xp by bootcamp,but i cannot boot from CD anymore.

    *"No flashdrive boot option."*
    Then the Mac doesn't see the flash drive as a bootable volume.
    If there is another way to install Windows without an optical drive you'd be better off posting your question in the Boot Camp forums, as if anyone has done it, you'd find them there:
    http://discussions.apple.com/category.jspa?categoryID=237

  • Booting from FireWire Drive

    I have a LaCie 160MB (F A Porsche style) external firewire drive.
    I have been able to create a bootable clone of my iBook HD using Disk Utility and the Restore function.
    I have been able to create a bootable partition by installing the System Software onto it.
    But I have not had success using SilverKeeper or SuperDuper! Does anybody know why? I would really like to use the features of one (or another if available) of these applications.
    Thanks.
    -Ted

    Below is LaCie's Tech Support Reply. What is interesting is that they suggest Carbon Copy Cloner (instead of Silverkeeper). Also interesting is that it worked. I hope this helps some of you.
    Ted
    Hi Ted--
    Thanks for contacting LaCie Technical Support. All of our firewire
    drives can be used as boot volumes. Due to differences in operating
    systems and Macs, we are unable to provide support for booting from
    firewire drives other than the following information:
    1. Make sure the Mac is bootable via firewire. All Macs with built-in
    firewire can be booted from an external drive except:
    -Blue and White G3s
    -PCI-Graphics G4s. This can be determined by looking in the Apple
    System Profiler. The PCI Graphics G4s use the same motherboard as the
    B&W, except with a G4 processor shoehorned in.
    2. The drive must be connected to a native port. It will not work if
    the drive is connected to an add-on card.
    3. The Mac must have the latest firmware installed. The proper updater
    can be found and downloaded from here:
    http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=86117
    Download and read the instructions carefully. It is possible to kill a
    Mac if the update is interrupted. Then, perform the update. If the
    firmware is already current, the updater will report this.
    4. Format the drive fresh using either Apple's Disk Utility in OS X or
    Silverlining in OS 9. Use the Mac OS Extended (HFS+) format only.
    (Journaling may be enabled on OS 10.3.)
    5. If making an OS 9 boot drive, you can just copy the System Folder
    over to the root of the boot volume. To be bootable, the System Folder
    must be blessed, i.e. has a happy Mac face on it. If it does not, you
    can try to force it to bless by removing the Finder from the folder and
    moving it to the root. Then, move the Finder back. The folder should
    now be blessed. If not, then there is probably an issue with the System
    Folder.
    6. In making an OS X boot drive, the ONLY two recommended solutions
    are:
    --install from the OS X install disk, preferably the one which came with
    the Mac. You will not be able to make a successful boot drive using an
    older disk set. A newer disk set should also be fine.
    --use a utility, such as Carbon Copy Cloner, to perform a copy of an
    existing OS X install. It is not possible to do this manually. There
    are issues with permissions, hidden files, and files in use that cannot
    be manually overridden. If you are using a disk image, you will still
    need to use a utility, such as Carbon Copy Cloner, to copy the files out
    from the image to the root of the new boot volume. A simple drag and
    drop will not include the necessary hidden files, such as the boot
    loader and the kernel.
    If the volume does not appear as a Start Up Disk, try booting with the
    Option key held down and see if the drive shows in the boot drive
    selection screen.
    If the volume does not show, or the kernel panics on boot, chances are
    the OS install was not performed properly.
    In general, CD/DVD drives are not bootable via firewire, but will work
    under certain circumstances, usually booting from OS X to OS X. They
    should not be relied upon as such. To boot from one, hold down the
    Option key while booting. If the boot CD shows on the screen, you may
    select it and continue the boot.

  • My iMac (late 2006) no longer boots from FireWire drives, although they contain all the system files.

    My iMac (late 2006) no longer starts (boots) from Firewire drives, although they all contain a current system (Mac OS X 10.6.7). If the drives are connected with USB 2, they boot normally. The FireWire drives appear in the Start Volume program, but they do not boot. If I press and hold the Alt key while booting, only the internal drives and the USB drives appear as options. What can I do in order to boot from FireWire drives as I always could in the past?

    I'd first recommend doing a SMC reset and if that doesn't work refer to:
    http://reviews.cnet.com/8301-13727_7-10333969-263.html
    and
    http://www.thexlab.com/faqs/firewiretroubleshooting.html
    SMC RESET
    Shut down the computer.
    Unplug the computer's power cord and all peripherals.
    Press and hold the power button for 5 seconds.
    Release the power button.
    Attach the computers power cable.
    Press the power button to turn on the computer.
    PRAM RESET
    Shut down the computer.
    Locate the following keys on the keyboard: Command, Option, P, and R. You will need to hold these keys down simultaneously in step 4.
    Turn on the computer.
    Press and hold the Command-Option-P-R keys. You must press this key combination before the gray screen appears.
    Hold the keys down until the computer restarts and you hear the startup sound for the second time.
    Release the keys.
    Roger

  • XServe won't boot from any drive, but recognizes them in OS X Installer

    I know I have another post here but this is a different issue, and I've already fixed that one thanks to Camelot .
    I just received an 2 used xserves for work. One booted into OS X Server fine, so I scrubbed it and reinstalled without issue.
    The second however never booted into an install. That is, I never found it on my network when I started it up and when I pushed the power button it would turn off immediately, suggesting that there was no OS on the disk or that the xserve couldn't find it. I didn't have a spare monitor to plug into it (surprisingly) so I just chalked it up to the fact that it was a new disk and hadn't had OS X Server installed on it.
    Now I have a spare monitor, I've gone and installed OS X Server on the xserve. It boots from the DVD just fine, runs through the installer, then when it goes to restart, it won't boot from the hard drive that it just installed OS X Server on, it'll just boot back from the DVD unless I pop it out. If I let it boot up without the DVD in it, I'll get the standard Folder with a ?.
    At first I thought it was the drive, so I installed OS X Server on another drive. Still wouldn't boot to that drive, so I booted from the DVD and repaired the disks in Disk Utility. Still nothing. I booted to DVD again and when I went to Startup Disk, it actually did show my disks with their respective OS X Server installs.
    When I boot the machine holding alt/option, the system doesn't show my drives, only the DVD if it's in the slot.
    I figured ok, this has to be the drives, so I swapped them with those of the identical xserve in the rack below, but my top xserve wouldn't boot from those drives either. Somewhat expectedly however, the bottom xserve would boot the drives that I took out of the first one.
    Now I'm just stumped. Any ideas?
    PS, drives are unlocked.

    MrHoffman wrote:
    The EFI firmware, the SMC and possibly the disk I/O path seem good potential candidates for culprit.
    Load and run the hardware diagnostics.
    Reset the SMC, and reset the LOM.
    I'm running the EFI diagnostic tool now. Firmware and disk I/O path came to mind, let's just hope it's not a major hardware issue
    beatle20359 wrote:
    Hi Jeff,
    Do you have the specs of the xserve and the version of OSX server you are trying to install? Does the Xserve have the RAID card installed in it and what size are the drive modules.
    All the best
    Beatle
    2x 3GHz Dual-Core Xeon
    8GB RAM
    OS X Server v 10.6.3 (the version I'm trying to install, that is)
    No RAID card. The system drive is 80GB and a second storage drive is 1TB.

  • 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.)

  • Trouble Booting from External Drives - MBA 2012

    Hello,
    I have a brand new 13" MBA which I'm working on building an image to use for deployment using Carbon Copy Cloner 3.4.5. For whatever reason, I can't boot the new 2012 MBA from an external LaCie FW800 or Thunderbolt 1TB Little Big Disk that is running either 10.7.2 or 10.7.4. As soon as I select the drive to boot from when holding the Options key or from selecting the partition from Startup Disk in System Preferences, I get the do not enter icon(circle with the diagonal slash). I tried both plugged in through a Cinema Display and plugging the Thunderbolt drive directly to the laptop. I confirmed both LaCie drives boot properly on an iMac and the last gen MBP/MBA.
    Laptop Specs:
    13"
    1.8GHz Dual-core i5
    8GB
    128 SSD
    10.7.4
    Curious if anyone has run into any problems booting from external drives on the new 2012 MBA.
    Thanks,
    Paolo

    Please be sure you have prepped these external drives correctly:
    Drive Preparation
    1. Open Disk Utility in your Utilities folder.
    2. After DU loads select your hard drive (this is the entry with the mfgr.'s ID and size) from the left side list. 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.
    My suggestion for cloning is to use Disk Utility. This will also automatically clone the Recovery HD, as well:
    Clone Lion using Restore Option of Disk Utility
    Boot to the Recovery HD:
    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 then press the Continue button.
    Select the destination volume from the left side list.
    Click on the Restore tab in the DU main window.
    Check the box labeled Erase destination.
    Select the destination volume from the left side list and drag it to the Destination entry field.
    Select the source volume from the left side list and drag it to the Source entry field.
    Double-check you got it right, then click on the Restore button.
    Destination means the external backup drive. Source means the internal startup drive.

  • Problem booting from external drive

    I'm having trouble booting my MacBook from an external USB drive.
    I've created a bootable backup of my hard drive, using SuperDuper! (in order to be able to install a bigger hard drive and restore my current drive state). If, with the drive attached, I restart and hold down Alt (which I understand should offer a choice of drives from which to boot), I get nothing but grey screen (ie. the first grey you see before the apple logo comes up right at the start of startup). I have been able to boot from the external drive by changing Startup Disk settings, so I'm sure there's no problem with the external disk volume.
    The drive is an Iomega 80GB USB 2.0 drive, and I'm running 10.4.10 on a 2GHz Core Duo MacBook.

    Hey guys,
    Thanks for the feedback... here's my update (still no joy):
    • I'm not sure about the GUID table - how do I check? Does the fact that I can boot from the drive having selected it in my System Preferences mean that it is? It is definitely HFS+ formatted, however. (I gave bad information about the drive type, however - it's a Freecom 400GB, not Iomega 80GB, not that I suppose that makes a difference.)
    • After holding that Alt key for a very long time, my MacBook did show me something other than a plain grey screen: a single, large, internal HD icon in the middle of the screen, above a vertical arrow icon. I take this to mean that the MacBook is recognising the internal HDD and no other volume. The external drive was still plugged into the USB port.
    • The external drive is in fact partitioned as two volumes.

  • 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

  • Satellite P300-1A8 will not boot from disc drive

    Hi,
    I had a little play with start up programs, partitioning the hard drive and marking as active and deleting programs i thought i did not need.
    I obviously had no idea what i was doing!
    Laptop will go to toshiba screen then goes blank, i can not boot from the disc drive.
    I put the hard drive into another laptop and it works fine.
    I put the hard drive of that laptop in the buggered one and that works fine.
    How the hell do i put the original one back with it working??
    Really really stuck with this!!!!!
    Any help would be appreciated.
    Only thing i havent tried is the recovery disc but im not paying for one if it wont boot as itl be a waste of money.
    Seems like its a compatability problem with cpu and hard drive as they dont want to be friends anymore!!
    Thank you in advance

    Hi!
    Can you boot in the safe mode?
    If you dont have a recovery disk, use the Microsoft installation disk and try to boot from it.
    And you said that you cant boot from disc drive, did you tried different disks?
    Maybe some are not readable or not bootable.
    The best way would be a recovery disk. The installation takes a few minutes and you have a clean installation with all drivers and tools from Toshiba.
    Bye

Maybe you are looking for