Difference between choosing startup disk at boot, or via System Preferences

Not a technical problem exactly, just a straighforward question: when I choose a startup disk in System Preferences or in the Windows Boot Camp Utility, where is this preference stored?
I have noticed that using either of these utlities is the only way to make the disk choice persistent; booting while holding down the Alt/Option key only allows you to temporarily select a startup disk.

Only difference is when you use the Startup disk applet in System Preferences the system will auto boot to that OS. When using the Option key boot system no matter which OS you select the next time you Reboot the system will boot back to the one that was selected from the Startup Disk selection.
So if you are auto booting into OS X and then reboot and use the Option key to get the Boot selection screen and select Windows (or another version of OS X) the system will boot to that selected OS. But when you do a Shut down or Restart the system will then boot back into OS X. The Option Key boot selection screen is only for that one startup.
Same thing go for if you are auto rebooting or auto starting up in Windows and use use the option key to boot into OS X. Then next time the system is restarted, Restart or shut down and then turned back on, it will Auto boot into Windows.
The Startup Disk option tells the EFI firmware which OS to Auto Boot To. The Option key is a ONE Time Boot option.

Similar Messages

How do I set the Startup Disk to Boot Camp via ARD

All,
I typically use ARD and Set Startup Disk to image and reconfigure our lab computers (http://support.apple.com/kb/HT2789) via a network image, namely DeployStudio. This works well. Now I want to be able to set it to a local disk to boot into Windows 7 which we have setup with Boot Camp. I get nothing but Failed responses. I am hoping it is a matter of what name or format I need to use.
I have tried:
BOOTCAMP
Windows
Windows on BOOTCAMP
None of these work. HELP!
These are iMac 21.5's running 10.6.8. ARD is 3.5.1. Same for clients.

have you considered using Send Unix Command to set boot Volume?
For instance if you have "Macintosh HD" and "Boot Camp". And you wanted to set the boot volume to "Boot Camp". You could try sending the unix command, as root:
bless -mount /Volumes/Boot\ Camp -setBoot
After setting this, if you reboot, the computer should boot to the Boot\ Camp volume. But One the computer boots to windows, getting them to boot back to the mac os x is going to be a whole other story.
FYI if your boot camp volume is labeled "Untitled" then you would send the unix command, as root, bless -mount /Volumes/Untitled -setBoot.

Burning discs... The difference between Finder and Disk Utility?

I am trying to burn an Ubuntu Live CD. I downloaded the ISO and am trying to burn it correctly. My question is, what is the difference between burning a disk image from Finder and burning it from Disk Utility?

Put a blank disc in the tray.
Right click or control-click the .iso, select open with > disk utility.
When Disk utility opens, select "Burn" in the upper left corner.
Kj

Option key can't function to access start up manager, so i can't choose startup disk. please help me

option key can't function to access start up manager, so i can't choose startup disk. please help me

If you have Apple Care, call them and get a case number. Otherwise, take the computer to an Apple store or an AASP. Whichever is more convenient for you.

Choose startup disk

I know there's a bunch of procedures for starting up in different modes, I just can't find them on the Apple Support pages. (I know, I'm supposed to know them) Right now I want to start up on the mode where you choose the startup disk. There's others too, like starting in safe mode. I'd like to see a list of them. Like choosing startup disk, do I hold down the 's' (for startup) or the 'd' key (for disk), or maybe the 's' key is for safe mode. Thanx, sorry to ask such a nooby question.

Hi Ken Spiker;
If your Mac is shut down and you are starting it then holding down the option key will reveal the system disks.
If you are running open System Preference > Startup disk will reveal the system disks also.
Allan

System Preferences Startup Disk Vs. Boot with Option key depressed.

External FW drive connected via standard 400 FW cable, is recognized by System Preferences>Startup Disk, proving that it contains a valid OS X system. But when selected, and clicking Restart, first in the System Preferences>Startup Disk window, then in the modal dialogue, the computer beeps, but does not restart. Same behavior when the computer's internal drive is selected.
The only way to select a startup disk is booting the computer (select Restart from Apple Menu) holding the Option key, clicking the required icon, and then clicking the arrow at the right end of the window.
I have run DiskWarrior, zapped the PRAM (that should take care of startup settings), no change.
Sum up: System Preferences>Startup Disk does not perform.
Powerbook PPC.

Charly,
there might be a timing problem. At the time when the Mac PRAM asks for the startup disk the firewire disk might not be "present" yet. Can you turn on the external disk manually?
Does the preference pane "remember" your selection of the startup disk or does it change it back to the internal disk?
You might want to run some system maintenance, especially clean the caches: Mac OS X 10.3/10.4: System maintenance
If this answered your question please consider granting some stars: Why reward points?

Duplicate Startup Disks in boot menu

I have two ssd drives, one in optical bay and one in standard hd bay. I have a clone of Yosemite on both drives. When I boot and gold down option key to bring up boot menu I am seeing duplicate entries for one of my startup disks. So instead of two startup disks to boot into, I see three. How would I
go about removing the duplicate?

Thanks. I had actually tried that with the boot mode set at UEFI and it didn't work, but I gave it another try set at legacy and it works fine.
The documentation for this seems confusing to me, though. Isn't this RAID card considered a mezzanine card? The documentation here says to enable the onboard controller to get a mezzanine card to work:
http://www.cisco.com/en/US/docs/unified_computing/ucs/c/hw/C200M1/install/RAID.html#wp1016766

Hey, I'm doing some cross browser testing and i want to know Is there any difference between the behavior of Firefox in an operating system 64bit & operating system with 32bit. (like windows7/windows vista...)

''duplicate of https://support.mozilla.com/en-US/questions/905881''
Hey, I'm doing some cross browser testing and i want to know Is there any difference between the behavior of Firefox in an operating system 64bit & operating system with 32bit. (like windows7/windows vista...)

Hi Kossa,
You can also check if the issue occurs in
Clean Boot. If the issue disappears in the Clean Boot environment, you can continue to narrow down which entry is causing the issue.
Besides, uninstall it and re-download
a fresh copy of FireFox to check the result. If the issue still exists, create a new user account to see if it occurs.
If the issue persists, you can contact Mozilla Support directly and use Internet Explorer (IE) during the time.
J
Please Note: The third-party product discussed here is manufactured by a company that is independent of Microsoft. We make no warranty, implied or otherwise,
regarding this product's performance or reliability.
Regards,
Linda

Hey, I'm doing some cross browser testing and i want to know Is there any difference between the behavior of Firefox in an operating system 64bit & operating system with 32bit. (like windows7/windows vista...) Thanks,

Hey, I'm doing some cross browser testing and i want to know Is there any difference between the behavior of Firefox in an operating system 64bit & operating system with 32bit. (like windows7/windows vista...) Thanks,

Hi O_H_I_O,
Have you got an error code ?
Considering it is a brand new machine ,please update the machines .To get a better performance of the machines ,we should always keep it up to date .
There is a possibility that the DVD/CD-ROm drives driver is old or has corrupted .Please open the device manager , update or reinstall the driver to have a check.
Apart from this ,we can run the built-in tool to a diagnostic :
Control Panel\All Control Panel Items\Troubleshooting\All Categories\Hardware and Devices
We also can run the following fixit tool to have a check.
Fix problems with CD or DVD drives that can’t read or write media
http://support.microsoft.com/mats/cd_dvd_drive_problems
Best regards

No startup disk on boot

Okay, this will be a long story and I hope some people would have the patience of reading everything. I just want to tell everything that may have contributed to my problem. My main problem is, when I start my iMac, it does not find any startup disk (not my Mac OS, and not my bootcamp partition).
It all started when I opened my iMac and got an error message, something about a missing/corrupt ntfs.sys file (I default Windows on startup, and I don't know why this appeared, I didn't convert my HD from FAT to NTFS because I don't even know how to do this). So I looked for it on the internet and most of the suggestions said that I should insert my Windows CD and boot from there, and choose Repair. Unfortunately that didn't work, so I booted from Mac instead (holding down the Option key on startup so that I can choose which partition/OS to start from). I successfully booted on Mac. While I was there, I changed the default disk to boot from to Mac (using Startup Disk). And somewhere in the lower left part of the screen, I saw a lock button that when enabled, it will prevent future changes (on what startup disk to start from I guess), so I locked it.
The next day when I started my Mac, it just showed a blinking folder with a question mark. Again, I searched for it on the internet and followed a thousand suggestions on how this might be fixed. These are the things I tried (not in order), and not one of them worked:
1. Safe Boot/Safe Mode - holding down the Shift key
2. Holding down the Option key - before, it showed my 2 available partitions (Mac and Bootcamp/Windows), but now I just get a blank white screen with my mouse pointer
3. Resetting the PRAM - I can tell that the reset worked because previously, I disabled the gong sound during startup, and after I resetted, the gong sound came back
4. fsck - fail. It fsck'd my Mac OS CD (see step 5)
5. Booting from Mac OS installation CD - although I successfully booted from this one, when I ran Disk Utilities, it only showed the CD and not the startup disks. I even tried reinstalling, but when I got to the part that says select which drive to install in, there were no options at all.
Basically I tried everything that I can find on the Internet, to no avail. I'm worried that this could be a hardware problem, although I still have my warranty. It has only been 7 months since I bought it...
Additional infos: I tried removing my USB keyboard and mouse but that didn't change anything, and I didn't add a memory card on it. I never opened my iMac ever.
HELP!

1. This might happen if it wasn't connected well to begin with, but given that you were already having problems with the drive, almost certainly isn't the case here.
2. Useless except as a paperweight. Any data stored on it and not backed up can only be recovered by a professional service.
(59298)

Macintosh HD boot drive doesn't show up as Startup Disk (but boots fine)?!?

Hi,
My main internal bootable disk (Macintosh HD) does not show up in Systems Preferences > Startup Disk. If I want to boot from it, I have to either hold down the "Option" key at startup (and the disk appears fine, so I select it), or I have to wait for the machine to explore all other boot options before it finally resorts to booting from the internal Macintosh HD.
I cannot simply select "Macintosh HD" from the Startup Disk preference pane.
I have already tried repairing permissions, and I did a "Verify" in Disk Utility - everything checks out fine.
I even replaced the StartupDisk.prefpane file from another disk, but no improvement.
How can I get my hard drive to show up in the "Startup Disk" preferences?
(I should mention that this is a new hard drive that I just installed by cloning it from another bootable drive). The other bootable drive shows up fine in the Startup Disk prefs.
Help would be greatly appreciated!

The Partition Map Scheme is currently set to "Master Boot Record."
What does this mean?
That's normally used for Windows.
Do I need to change it to GUID?
Yes.
How do I do that?
You have to re-partition the drive, which means it will erase everything on the drive.
Boot from the Leopard install DVD (hold "C" while booting), choose you language, then select Disk Utility from the "Utilities" menu. Select the drive (at the left, not the volume indented below it), and click the "Partition" tab. Set "Volume Scheme" to "1 Partition", then click the "Options" button. Select "GUID Partition Table", then click "OK". Enter a volume name, set "Format" to "Mac OS Extended (Journaled" and click "Apply".

Allow all users to choose startup disk

Is there any way to allow all users to choose the startup disk on the OS X side? We want non admin users to be able to reboot to windows without having to hold down the option button when booting.

There are two methods for what you want to do.
1. Remotely - Boot Camp: Set the startup disk remotely from a server
2. Locally - How to choose a startup disk on your Mac - Apple Support

How to select OS X startup disk after booting up in 8.6

I recently purchased an old iBook G3 (original clamshell model) to run some old Mac games I had laying around (was in a nostalgic mood I guess). It came with OS 8.6 and I installed an old copy of OS X 10.2 Jaguar onto it. It wouldn't let me run in the "Classic" environment, as it has OS 8.6, not OS 9.x. I found I was able to launch the computer from 8.6 by selecting the 8.6 start up disk, and thought I could try running some of my really old Mac apps. Long story short, once I booted up in 8.6 I've been unable to figure out how to boot back up in 10.2. It's been over 10 years since I last used anything older than Mac OS X, and I don't remember where everything is, and how to change the startup disk back to 10.2.
If anyone knows, please help. I'd really like to avoid doing a complete system restore if possible.

Two ways:
Boot Using OPTION key:
1. Restart the computer.
2. Immediately after the chime press and hold down the
"OPTION" key.
3. Release the key when the boot manager appears.
4. Select the desired disk icon from which you want to boot.
5. Click on the arrow button below the icon.
Use Startup Disk Preferences:
Open Startup Disk prefs from System Preferences.
Select the volume from which you want to start.
Click on the Restart button.
Click on Restart again.

Problems with Snow Leopard and choosing startup disk.

I just installed Snow Leopard 10.6.3 on my external drive to test it out. Most things seem to work just fine, but I'm having problems selecting a start up disk from system preferences. When I bring up start up disk, I see the internal and external drives but they are greyed out and unselectable. How do I get back to starting up off of my internal drive? Is this a common problem?

Do try CT's suggestion first; that might be the most likely explanation.
In Disk Utility in Applications>Utilities, do you see both drives?
You might be able to get back into the Internal by starting up from Startup Manager. Hold the Option (Alt) key down at the startup chime. When that finishes loading, you should be presented with icons for both drives. If that succeeds, and you can return to the Internal, you can then see if the options in Startup Disk are available.
In Disk Utility, I would also repair the External, if and when you are booted back from the Internal.
And once you are booted back normally, highlight the mounted External Volume and do a Get info (CMD-I). Make sure "Ignore Permissions on this Volume" is unchecked.
Edit: as CT suggested, you should also repair Permissions, but -- and this may have changed in 10.6, not sure -- you should generally repair Permissions booted from the Volume you are repairing. Before repairing Permissions, however, on any Volume, you should first Verify that Volume. Repairing Permissions on a Volume with problems will only make those problems worse.
Message was edited by: WZZZ

Difference between $29 upgrade disk and the $9.95 Up to Date Disk

Could someone tell me if there is a difference between the two? I qualified for both as I just purchased a new MacBook Pro 2 weeks ago and I have a MacBook purchased last year as well. Justwondering if there is any difference.
Thanks,
Jenny

The up to date disk is only licensed for that qualifying computer. The $29 disc is licensed for 1 Leopard computer. If you only have 2 computers that are Snow Leopard compatible, I would get one of each. If you have more than 2, get the Family Pack. If you have any Tiger computers, get the Tiger Family Pack (whose SL disc will also install on Leopard).

Difference between choosing startup disk at boot, or via System Preferences

Similar Messages

Maybe you are looking for