Dual boot from SD card?

I would like to participate in the Beta program for Yosemite but have little room on my 256 GB SSD. Can I install Yosemite on a 64GB SD and boot from that and keep Mavericks on the internal drive?

Most likely yes, but from experience, SD Cards are not generally the fastest Mac OS X boot device. You might be better off using an external USB3 disk (assuming your generation of Mac has USB3, otherwise use a USB2 or Firewire 800 disk if you expect to have any performance).
And when I say any performance, I can assure you that everything will seem slow compared to that 256 SSD you are currently using. Maybe an external USB3 SSD might get close to your internal SSD speeds.

Similar Messages

Will bios boot from SDHC cards?

I'm trying to put an Arch Linux install on a 32GB SDHC card. I'm able to install the required files, but for whatever reason I can't get the SDHC card to show up in the boot menu, and UEFI doesn't seem to work. Of course, I haven't had any luck with UEFI booting on the W530 for some reason. I can get UEFI to work fine on my desktop, but no luck on the W530 from regular hard drives or my SDHC card.
Will the W530 recognize and boot from SDHC cards that have GRUB installed on them? So far I've had no luck with that. The card never shows up in the boot menu. I can't even get it to boot installer images. Booting from USB works just fine.
Solved!
Go to Solution.

The SDHC reader on thinkpads is attached to the PCI Bus. Makes for faster Read write, but kills booting from it.
W530(2436-CTO): i7-3720QM, nVidia Quadro K2000M,16GB RAM, 500 GB hard drive, 128GB mSATA SSD, Ubuntu 14.04 Gnome, Centrino Ultimate-N 6300.
Yoga 3 Pro: Intel Core-M 5Y70, Intel HD 5300, 8GB RAM, 128GB eMMC, Windows 8.1, Broadcom Wireless 802.11ac.

ZTE OPEN C boot from SD card

I have an ZTE OPEN C hardbricked into QHSUSB_BULK mode (trying to flash flame image)
Does it support boot from SD card or there is any other method for debricking?

My brick is totally bricked - there is no fastboot or adb modes. When I connect it dmesg shows
[Сб. нояб. 8 10:31:55 2014] usb 1-1: new high-speed USB device number 15 using ehci-pci
[Сб. нояб. 8 10:31:55 2014] usb 1-1: New USB device found, idVendor=05c6, idProduct=9008
[Сб. нояб. 8 10:31:55 2014] usb 1-1: New USB device strings: Mfr=1, Product=2, SerialNumber=0
[Сб. нояб. 8 10:31:55 2014] usb 1-1: Product: QHSUSB__BULK
[Сб. нояб. 8 10:31:55 2014] usb 1-1: Manufacturer: Qualcomm CDMA Technologies MSM
[Сб. нояб. 8 10:31:55 2014] qcserial 1-1:1.0: Qualcomm USB modem converter detected
[Сб. нояб. 8 10:31:55 2014] usb 1-1: Qualcomm USB modem converter now attached to ttyUSB1

How to boot from SD-card on Satellite Pro S300?

My windows 7 32bit based S300 has a build-in SD card reader. The Toshiba utility for making the SD card bootable comes with an error message stating Fault: 00-61-FF02-26.
Is does not see or recognize the card.
In the BIOS version 3.00 WIN there is also no possilility for booting from SD card.
The SD card can be formatted and you can read and write to the card.
Why is this not possible?

As far as I know the BIOS of the Satellite Pro S300 supports the following bootable devices:
- USB FDD,
- Primary HDD,
- ODD (or USB ODD),
- Network(LAN),
- SD-CARD,
- USB Memory, supported at the same time
So BIOS provides the booting from SD card.
You should try following way:
Insert the SD card in the SD card slot and then power up the notebook.
Then press F12 in order to get the boot menu. Now the SD card should appear in the menu

Uninstall Linux and Grub dual boot from Win7 HP dm4..

uninstall Linux and Grub dual boot from Win7 HP dm4. I only have recovery disks. I just want to do a Startup Repair not a full system recovery.
When I reboot with the recovery disk there is no choice for Startup Repair.
thank you for any help.
Blue Jacket

Hello bluecape. I understand you'd like to uninstall Grub/Linux. Is your recovery disc a Windows Recovery disc or the HP System Recovery disc?
You will need to begin by fixing the "Master Boot Record." This is where Grub is installed and what allows you to select your operating system. If you have a HP System Recovery disc the steps may be different--these steps are specifically for a Windows Recovery Disc. Try the following.
Boot the notebook with your Recovery Disc.
Select "Repair your Computer."
Select your Windows version once the dialog box populates.
Choose "Command Prompt" as your Recovery Tool.
From the command prompt type "bootrec /FixMbr" and press Enter.
Once this is finished type "exit" and press Enter.
Take the disc out and reboot the PC. It should boot straight into Windows without a boot loader prompting you.
The Linux files and partitions are still there but you can now remove those partitions from Windows. Simply format the partitions to "uninstall" Linux.
I hope this is helpful. If you have further questions just let me know. Have a great day!
Please click the white star under my name to give me Kudos as a way to say "Thanks!"
Click the "Accept as Solution" button if I resolve your issue.

P10-873 boot from SD card?

Hi there
Is this possible? The BIOS has an option to enable/disable the SD slot so presumably the slot can be accessed to some extent at BIOS level. I've tried setting the Removable Drives to the top of the boot order and putting in an SD card with Windows 98 boot files on it, but it ignores this and boots from the hard drive. Is there a way?
Thanks
Mark

Hi Mark,
I had the same problems when I tried to boot from a SD card. I tried different settings but it didn't boot!
Then I called a toshiba technican and they told me that booting from SD card is at the moment not possible. Toshba is working on a solution, but we have to give them a little bit more time!
Cu Theo

V3-471G how to boot from SD CARD?

On the BIOS BOOT MENU I dont see any sd card option. Is it possible to enable booting from sd card?

as far as i know, it's not possible.

T400 Boot from SD card

Hi,
I just got a 8 GB SD card and I was wondering if anyone know how to or if its possible at all to install Ubuntu 8.10 in persistence mode to an SD card and have it run off that on a Lenovo T400.
Thanks.

In the user's manual, it is clearlu written that it can be boot from SD card. Anyway, I made it done with USB flash memory. Now, I am using my laptop with new Win XP. Although there was small glitch, it worked.
The program 'WinToFlash' seemed that it did not work, and I found accidently (pure coincident) software 'WinsetupFromUSB' version 0-2-3 in the internet, and followed the instruction. It worked. So, problem is solved anyway. Thank you for your help.

R100 Boot from PC-CARD?

Hi,
I own a SanDisk SDP3B 1.2GB (Industrial Grade) ATA PC-CARD which I'm trying to make bootable in order to run another O/S on. I'm also considering putting a recovery image on it with the help of Acronis TrueImage, so I just can boot from the card to restore my computer.
This isn't working well and I have not been successful in getting this to work. I'm wondering if anyone else have tried to boot off a pc-card with their R100's?
Thanks,
Tim

Hi
In my opinion there is no enough capacity for whole image on this card. I have no experience but try to check all BIOS settings. Check if there is a option called Boot from other devices.

Zynq custom board not booting from SD-Card

Hi all,
I have a custom designed board woth a Zynq XC7Z100 SoC and try to bring it up. The schematics are based on the ZC706 board so the MIO connections on the PS are the same.
Now I'm trying to boot just the simple Hello World example from XSDK (Vivado Version 2014.3). Booting from JTAG and from QSPI Flash is working but booting from SD-Card fails. The FSBL is producing the following output:
Xilinx First Stage Boot Loader
Release 2014.3 Nov 5 2014-17:42:52
Devcfg driver initialized
Silicon Version 3.1
Boot mode is SD
SD: rc= 0
SD: Unable to open file BOOT.BIN: 3
SD_INIT_FAIL
FSBL Status = 0xA009
This Boot Mode Doesn't Support Fallback
In FsblHookFallback function
I've measured all data pins and they are toggling. What I've found out is that the SDIO Clk is somehow strange. When starting the FSBL it is a very slow clock (kHz) and afterwards it's speeding up to 41.6666 MHz. I've already changed the SDIO clock in Vivado from 125 MHz to 50 MHz but nothing changes, when I'm measuring it. Do I miss something out?
Any help would be greatly appreciated.
Thanks
Christoph

I believe the clock is behaving properly. The driver should connect at a slow clock at first then increase to the highest clock that the driver thinks the card can support. If you see this clock speed change, the initialization must be getting past the first few SD card messages. You could try to adding printfs in the card driver to see which message failed.
I've had problems switching from 14.7 to 2014.3 FSBL. The later driver dropped support for older SD card and stop on very first message to the card. Maybe try a different card.
In going from dev board to custom board, did you switch from full size SD to micro SD? The micro SD format does not have a WP signal. Maybe no CD signal either. The FSBL driver cares about both.
Some official answers:
http://www.xilinx.com/support/answers/59476.html
http://www.xilinx.com/support/answers/52023.html

Is it possible to boot from the card reader?

With some linux versions out there, you can use liveCD to create a USB linux boot drive to 'dual' boot into linux without touching the internal harddrive.
The cardreader would be perfect for this as I have some 4 and 8 Gb SC cards, but using F12 at startup, there is never an option to use the card reader device to boot. Looked in the BIOS, but could not see an option to enable this.
Does anyone know of a way around this?
Thanks.
Waste.

No one responded to your post, strange. When I want to test , lets say, a Compact Flash that has WIndows 98 bootup files on it, and a usb config.sys driver, as the CF slot is from a 7 in 1 FDD and card reader, and I first disable any hard drive in my computer from boot order, etc, so that the bios will be forced to simply search. If there is the possibility of your system to boot up here, it will find the OS and use it. It will tell you if it can or not at this point. Every bios is different in what it will or will not use in the boot order or allow for a bootup device. And I have also read about same thing as you read in re to Live CD. Sorry I have not learned that method as yet. I could never get anything but older OS to boot up off USB thumbdrives, and the like, and hacking the new OS usb load up process is not someting I care to master. If you find a way to do what you desire, please let others know how it went.

W530 Boot from SD Card

With the coming release of Windows 8.1 I am currently looking for a solution to boot from an SD Card on my W530. From what I can gather, on all ThinkPads the SD card reader is connected via PCI, which is a connection that can't be booted from.
So what I need is an external SD card adapter.
It is possible to boot from an SD card, I've done it before with a Micro SD to USB adapter. Now I own an SDHC card and need to find a USB adapter that I can boot from. Presumably this requires that no drivers are installed upon plugging it in; it must be a plug and play USB device.
I currently own a Kingston FCR-HS3 USB 3.0 Card Reader, however I can't boot from it.
So to simplify, I need a USB adapter which fits an SDHC card which is a plug-and-play device that requires no drivers. Speed and USB specification is irrelevant. Has anyone found a solution to this?

I am considering buying SD card readers in bulk and simply testing all of them.
One of the choices:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=9SIA2JX0XK4082
due to its description "Works as a USB Disk Drive"
Also
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=9SIA2AU0SB0281
due to its description "Instantly converts SDHC cards into a USB flash drive"
I have also contacted Kingston's customer support to see if they made anything like their FCR-MRG2s, except larger to fit SDHC cards. I have dim prospects for this, as they are likely to misunderstand or give a copy paste reply.

Ideapad S205 doesn't support booting from SDHC-Card

Hello,
I have the Ideapad S205 and I cannot boot from a SDHC-Card (Ubuntu Linux) with the internal cardreader. With an external card reader I can boot from the SDHC-Card.
Is there any solution or maybe a BIOS-Upgrade?
Thanks
Simon

when you see lenovo logo, press f12 to set bios order.
also, check for bios booting option. if there's not option, i don't think s205 supports booting from sdhc, but apparently it supports usb boot.

P6N SLI Won't boot from SCSI card

I have a P6N SLI motherboard with a SCSI card I'm trying to boot from. The BIOS sees the card (as indicated by the BIOS when "Quick Booting" is disabled), however, it doesn't run the option ROM on the card necessary for it to boot from the SCSI card. I've tried several different SCSI cards (BusLogic, LSI, QLogic, Adaptec) and using a couple different video cards, one of them PCI. The only things I have plugged into the board are the video card and the SCSI card. Nothing seems to work. Am I missing an option in the BIOS or something?
Thanks, Mark.

Quote from: Jack the Newbie on 13-October-07, 06:11:28
Did you ever try with devices attached to the SCSI card? After all, what you want to boot from in the end is a SCSI drive. Try hooking up a SCSI drive to the card, otherwise it is hard to tell if there even is a problem at all.
On the board I am using for example, the Intel ICH7DH RAID BIOS is only executed if there is more than one SATA drive hooked up to the ports hosted by the controller.
That RAID BIOS has hooks into the system BIOS so it knows whether to initialize itself or not. How a SCSI card works is by having a boot ROM which scans the SCSI chain to determine drives. My use in all this is to have my system boot from my SAN. I'm using a QLogic 2300 for this purpose - and yes, it is connected into the SAN. However, as I said, it doesn't matter what if any devices are connected. The system BIOS MUST execute the option ROM on the card before the system even KNOWS there are SCSI devices to boot from. I'm not even getting as far as that. the option ROM never executes.
Maybe I'm not explaining myself well and my use of "option ROM" needs explaining further. When you power on a system you'll see the following in order:
1. Memory detection and count.
2. IDE/SATA scan.
3. BIOS looks for external cards and option ROMs, if they exist, are executed (SCSI in this case). You see this stage when you see something like "Adaptec 2940 BIOS v xx.xx - Press Ctrl-A to enter settings" or something like that. Next you'll see a listing of devices connected to that card, SCSI devices in this case - assuming you have any plugged in.
4. After POST status screen - displays CPU, memory, any serial/parallel/USB IO configured and all devices initialized by the system BIOS and their assigned IRQs.
5. System BIOS loads and runs the boot sector on the configured boot device. If any option ROMs have hooked themselves into interrupt 0x13 (option ROM boot interrupt), i.e. SCSI, then a SCSI boot device is used.
My problem is that step 3 is skipped. My system goes straight from step 2 to step 4. Without the option ROM being called by the system BIOS, there's no chance of any SCSI device being used as a boot device.
A good explanation of what an option ROM can be found at:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Option_ROM
- Mark.

Booting From SD Card, External Drive, USB Stick, etc...

If you configure an external HD, usb stick, sd card, etc. to be a startup volume for your mac, does the computer write or otherwise use the computer's 'default' internal hard drive?
For example, if I insert an sd card into an iMac and boot off of that and open safari and visit a website, once I startup again from the iMac's internal drive, will that appear in the safari's history when booting up again form the internal HD?
Will there be any trace otherwise of anything I do while booted from the sd card?
If I sent the iMac to DriveSavers or some other computer forensic analysis place would they find anything on the internal drive?
I'm inclined to think they would not, but I was hoping this could evolve into a technical discussion with somebody perhaps being knowledgable enough to explain how data travels from the internet, over the ethernet connection, to the motherboard, and then the hard drive. I try to visualize it, myself having a basic understanding, and I think that if there is an entirely different boot volume being used, the 'secondary' volume wouldn't even get written to - unless I obviousy elected to save a file to it.
*Oh, without sending super sketchy I thought maybe I should put this question into context. So, I'm a college student and I was thinking that maybe I could just spend a hundred bucks on an sd card and always have it with me and just go to the library or lab (or local apple store? thought I think they don't allow it) and boot from a 'host mac'. My concern is that I don't want to leave traces of a paper, or email, or private chat, or browsing history on the computer's internal hard drive. If this works I'll save like $1,000 - to a college kid that's like a billion dollars, even in this economy.
Thank you very much!
Tom

Each boot drive will use a different set of home folders, so the history and other settings created in one will not be available in the other.
The operating system is just software that loads from a storage device. For Macs this can be the internal drive, an external drive, a DVD, or a networked volume. This software loads at boot and allows use of the system's hardware (mouse, keyboard, graphics processors, etc.). Booting does not require the use of the internal drive. When the system is powered on it gets a list of all attached storage devices and will preferentrially try to load an operating system from the default boot device, but if it cannot or if it's instructed to look elsewhere (e.g., if you hold the C key to boot to a DVD), then it will load the operating system software from a different location.
When the system has an specific boot drive loaded, it will reference every location of where to save things from that drive. This is the "root" of the system, on which the system has references to storage locations both on the "root" drive and to those on other storage devices. Very briefly, the system sees your external drives simply as folders on your boot drive.
If you boot to an external drive, then this will be the "root" drive, and your system's internal drives will be likewise seen as folders like any other secondary storage locations.

Dual boot from SD card?

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