External drive boot

Dumb question —
What keystrokes are required to boot from an external drive?

If your computer has FireWire ports, hold down the Option key at startup, click on the drive in the list of disks and then on the button with the straight arrow. If your computer doesn't have FireWire ports or the first suggestion didn't work, see this article for information.
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External drive boot problem

I have a Verbatim USB external drive plugged into my iMac used for backups with time machine. When I start the computer it immediately stops at a blank white screen. If I turn the computer off and unplug the external drive and restart it works fine. Is there anyway to make the computer boot with the external drive plugged in?

Open Sys preferences then Startup disk and select your internal drive and click Restart then again restart from the drop down that Drops Down.
Once you have done that and the system restarts shut it down and connect the external then start it back up. It should now go to the internal drive automatically.
If it doesn't then you have some other problem which may be a hardware problem. Post back with your results.

External drive boot options

Ok Mac experts, here's an easy one for you more than likely.
I'm currently running Tiger on a '2006 Model' iMac and I plan to upgrade to Snow Leopard here shortly. My thought was instead of reinstalling over my current install or doing a clean install, I'd kill two birds with one stone. I'd buy a new drive along with the new OS, replace my computer HDD, and install the new OS onto the new drive. Then I can use my current drive as a backup, extra storage, etc.
My plan was to utilize this extra storage via external drive. So, I need to buy an external drive enclosure. I would like to also have the ability to boot from this drive if need be. So, with my current drive installed in the enclosure, I would have the ability to boot from it should something go wrong, I forget to copy something over, backup, etc. What is the best option for me? Can I simply buy an external enclosure, hook it up via FireWire or USB, and have it boot up? I'm not referring to the software part - I understand all that. I just need to know about the iMac booting options and how the hardware works. I apologize in advance for being a veteran PC guy. Thanks!
Matt

Yes you can do it, and good ideas too, Firewire/400 will be faster than USB2, FW/800 almost as fast as the internal drive.
Not all FW drives are equal though, here's some to pick from...
http://eshop.macsales.com/search/firewire+drives
My Books have had far less than glowing reviews for Macs...
http://discussions.apple.com/thread.jspa?threadID=2191614&tstart=0
http://x704.net/bbs/viewtopic.php?f=12&t=3219&p=42023&hilit=western+digital#p420 23
http://x704.net/bbs/viewtopic.php?f=6&t=2939&p=34120&hilit=western+digital#p3412 0

Rasping SuperDrive destroys discs. Can external drive boot, install OS?

My pampered iMac FP, its SuperDrive seldom used, has taken to ruining any discs which I'm foolish enough to ask it to play.
First noticed the problem last evening when, after inserting an audio CD, the drive rasped--a ferocious, ugly sound. (Yes, played, but the mechanical noise was overwhelming.)
Ejecting the media, was shocked to see its condition; it's as if it had been spun on a lathe--rings surrounding rings surrounding rings, some deep, others faint, all coated with the fine dust of the gauged out material.
Confirmed the problem by trying to play a different disc. Result: more rings.
No, the machine is no longer under warranty. I dare not imagine how much Apple would charge to fix it. Any of you have an idea?
How can I repair this? Is it even possible to repair? Might I be better off attaching an external DVD drive via FireWire? Would such a drive enable me to boot from an installation DVD, upgrade the OS, that sort of thing?
Or, should I just shrug it off as yet another Apple QC problem, then go shopping for a cheaper, easier to repair PC?
Appreciate hearing from you,
JLS

I'd say it was an OEM (Pioneer/Sony etc) QC issue not an Apple one.
It's not too difficult and not that costly to install a faster replacement Superdrive.
First pick you new drive - the Pioneer 110DBK is a popular choice.
Check that the drive you intend to buy is well supported on the iMac FP/OS 10.4.5. Use this database - ( The Pioneer is, esp. under Tiger)
Find the drive at the right price.
Install the drive - This site has all Apple's service guides - scroll down and pick your Mac - you didn't give your processor speed.
Restore Thermal Paste iaw the Service Guide.
Boot Mac and check drive functionality.
Install Patchburn if your burning software isn't working - (Tiger and iLife 06 provide good 3rd Party drive support though.)
File report on the database linked above to list your success!
If you don't fancy cracking the case on the iMac go for an External FW/USB2 drive like this.
An AASP would charge about £55-£65 and hour plus parts to install an internal drive.
regards
mrtotes

USB External Drive Boot with Internal Drive DEAD

Can I boot from an external USB drive on my iMac when I know that my internal (250 GB) drive is dead?
I have run a diagnostic on the computer and everything but the internal drive is fine.
Thanks for the help.
Kevin

Answer is 'definitely'.
I'm doing it myself for the same reason. BUT, I greatly prefer Firewire 800 if that option is available to you (If not, you could always buy a cheap {=> quality but Fugly Firewire 800 case ....}
I would ALSO like to be able to 'tell the iMac' that it doesn't have an internal drive so that it powers the drive down and 'rests' it....(or never powers it up) I really don't like the idea of all those electrons and Quarks being pumped into a electro-mech device which may well have friction/heat problems... I wonder if I can get the back off the Mac and unplug/sever the power to it... {until I can get around to a permanent fix, of course...}
{It won't let me 'eject" or "dismount" the drive.}
As always: the ONE really big disadvantage of the otherwise magnificent iMacs, MacBooks etc... Us tech heads can't really get at them...

External drive boot up

i know you can boot up with a firewire drive, but what about usb (2.0)?

When your drive is connected, you can select it in the Startup Disk-pane under system preferences. The next time you reboot it'll look for that drive, and if possible boot from it.
Cheers,
Martin

HT201250 how do I disable time machine? I want to use my external drive as additional storage. But it mirrors everything I edit. If I remove a document, it removes it from the external drive as well.

how do I disable time machine? I want to use my external drive as additional storage. But it mirrors everything I edit. If I remove a document, it removes it from the external drive as well.
I purchased a 1 TB WD passport drive, formatted for Mac. I set it up originally (mistakenly) to backup time machine. I went back and set it to "do not backup" It still backs up evey document I edit. If I add a document when the drive is disconnected, it automatically adds it to the external drive the next time connect to the passport drive. If I remove a document the same thing happens.
I need additional storage to free up space on my laptop hard drive. This is not working the way I want it to. Help!

Do not backup your startup volume to another partition on the same drive. If the drive fails you have nothing. Always backup to another drive or volume on another drive.
The I/O error usually means there's a problem with the drive. Clone ASAP, then repartition and reformat the main drive. Then restore the clone. Here's the basic process:
You will have to backup your OS X partition to an external drive, boot from the external drive, use Disk Utility to repartition and reformat your hard drive back to a single volume, then restore your backup to the internal hard drive.
Get an empty external hard drive and clone your internal drive to the external one.
Boot from the external hard drive.
Erase the internal hard drive.
Restore the external clone to the internal hard drive.
Clone the internal drive to the external drive
Open Disk Utility from the Utilities folder.
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.
Restart the computer and after the chime press and hold down the OPTION key until the boot manager appears. Select the icon for the external drive and click on the downward pointing arrow button.
After startup do the following:
Erase internal hard drive
Open Disk Utility in your Utilities folder.
After DU loads select your internal hard drive (this is the entry with the mfgr.'s ID and size) from the left side list. Note the SMART status of the drive in DU's status area. If it does not say "Verified" then the drive is failing or has failed and will need replacing. SMART info will not be reported on external drives. Otherwise, click on the Partition tab in the DU main window.
Under the Volume Scheme heading set the number of partitions from the drop down menu to one. Set the format type to Mac OS Extended (Journaled.) Click on the Options button, set the partition scheme to GUID then click on the OK button. Click on the Partition button and wait until the process has completed. Do not quit Disk Utility.
Restore the clone to the internal hard drive
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 internal hard drive. Source means the external startup drive.
Note that the Source and Destination drives are swapped for this last procedure.

PB G4 won't start up in Tiger from external drive

My brother has what I take to be a PowerBook G4 (15-inch FW 800). It has Panther installed.
He wants to try using Tiger, so he bought the standard Tiger install DVD from Apple, and I recommended that he install Tiger on an external hard drive. He has tried this with two FW400 drives and a FW800 drive, and in all cases, after installing Tiger on the external drive and starting up from the external drive, the computer freezes in a horrible way. For example, last time, it got to the spot where, after a new installation, it asks for your name; the mouse became unresponsive and the music turned into a repeating BONG BONG kind of sound.
Why on earth would this be? I run Tiger from an external drive all the time.
He has done all hardware diagnostics, including Rember and MemTest and the diagnostic included with the computer, and everything passes just fine.
The very same external FW drive with the very same Tiger on it works just fine with a different computer attached. So we conclude that there is something about his computer that is problematic. But what could it possibly be?

Hi, mattn.
Here's a better idea. Erase the external drive. Clone your brother's internal hard drive to it as a backup. Test to see whether the Powerbook will boot normally to the clone. If it doesn't, stop right there and run a full battery of first aid and repair utilities on the internal drive, then clone it again and test again. If all tests on the internal drive are OK, your external drive enclosure(s) may just not be bootable — some aren't.
If the clone on the external drive boots the PB with no problems, upgrade the internal drive to Tiger so your brother can put it through its paces for a couple of weeks. If he likes it and decides to keep it installed, clone the internal drive again to the external drive, so Tiger and any work done in the interim is backed up. If he wants to stick with whatever older OS he was using, erase the internal drive and clone the external drive back to it. In the latter case, be sure to make a separate backup of any documents that have been created or modified during his trial period, before restoring the older clone to the internal drive.
Note that a Powerbook with Firewire 800 is Aluminum, not Titanium, and there's a separate set of forums for the Albooks:
http://discussions.apple.com/category.jspa?categoryID=135
Any future questions related to the Powerbook's hardware should be directed there to reach the folks who are most knowledgeable about those models.

I have an itunes library on an external drive I want to use on a dool boot computer. How do I set this up without duplication of files

Ok, here goes with the explanation. I am running a Mac Mini mid 2010 with mt iTunes library on an external USB drive. I dual boot the computer into Windows 7. I want to be able to use the same iTunes library in both Operating Systems. I am trying to set this up on the Windows side without accidentily erasing, moving or duplicating any files. In the past when I have tried I have ended up with multiple files. I have an iCloud also but do not want to download any files again. How can I get iTunes on Windows to simply recognise my existing storage and create a library list from what is already there rather than duplicating files?
Update: As soon as I signed in with my iTunes account iCloud picked up my playlist and now lists all my music. Right clicking on the songs give me the choice to download the files, but the files already exist oin my external USB. I simply want iTunes on Windows 7 to point to the existing files.

How is the external drive formatted?
Allan

Can I set up my Macbook Pro to boot to Win 7 from an external drive?

Rather than partition my internal drive for having to work with Windows & Office 2010 (specifically Access 2010) can I set up my macbook pro to boot to Win 7 from an external drive?

No, not with Boot Camp. I've never even tried it with a VM (which I use) - I keep all the data on my internal drive. I'm not saying that it couldn't be done with a VM, I've just never tried it.
Clinton

Booting two Macs from one external drive: 10.8 and App Store?

I boot two Macs from one external harddrive. Does this mean that when 10.8 is sold exclusively via the App Store and thereby linked to a unique hardware identifier, I am going to have issues with activation/authentification each time I switch machines? I have avoided the App Store since I discovered that an app I bought there, and which I really needed to open automatically on log-in, had to be manually re-activated with my Apple ID after every switch (so that I eventually deleted it and reverted to an earlier, non-App Store version).

Welcome to the forum!
There are a couple of "solutions" to your problem. The easiest, and possibly the best for you (although it is a bit slower) is to copy your catalog onto the external drive as well.
Then when you plug in the drive, you will always have your latest catalog for access.
The other way is to keep a local copy of your catalog, and copy it onto the local drive as a way to transfer it from one computer to the other.
This has the problem of possibly not being in sync, that is, you forgot to copy it over once and did some editing. Then you would end up with essentually two different catalogs, instead of one in two places.
You can copy the catalog either with your OS, or you can "export as catalog" and specify the external drive as the destination. Then, on your other computer, "import from catalog" and only take the meta-data settings (it's on the import dialog box).
Personally, when I'm traveling, I have my catalog on my external drive as well. It just makes life easier, and I don't have to worry about it being out of sync, or losing it (and not the images).
So, I would go with the first method, at least to start. To get your catalog over there, you can either export as catalog or copy it, either one will work.
You can find the location of your catalog file (if you don't know where it is) in the catalog settings menu prompt. Both the location and the name will be displayed.
Cheers!

Can't boot to external drive from g5

Hi, I have a new 1TB firewire 800 external drive. I have 1 G5 with leopard 10.5.8 on it, but it had tiger on it at one point.
I installed tiger onto this external drive (10.4.4) However, after installing, I can't boot to the external drive.
I have tried going to the startup disk- it shows up in the options, but then just reboots back to my internal HD. I have also tried holding the option key down on restart, but the external disk doesn't show up.
Please help- I have put a lot of time and effort into this.

[Western Digital My Book Studio Edition 500GB|http://discussions.apple.com/thread.jspa?threadID=1899888&tstart=0] - is recognized but won't boot.
[List of Western Digital bootable and non bootable models|http://discussions.apple.com/message.jspa?messageID=9022456#9022456]
"DO NOT USE a ** WESTERN DIGITAL ** drive..."
Could well be a problem model, according to the above. I'd see about returning it.

Can't boot an external drive on a PowerMac G4?

Hi,
I've got a PowerMac G4 (w/ Firewire, SuperDrive, and a ZIP drive) that I'm trying to install OS 10.5 on. The internal hard drive is blank.
I tried booting from the OS 10.5 DVD (hold c at boot) and that worked, but during disc install or verification, it says the disc cannot be read. This is strange since this disc works in other machines just fine.
Thinking it was the drive going bad, I hooked up an external firewire DVD drive. I booted up with drive select (hold opt at boot) and it searches for drives but never finds any. Eventually it seems to freeze.
I tried to boot from an external firewire HDD with a bootable 10.4 image on it as well. It also cannot be found in drive select.
I tired booting directly to an external drive (hold e at boot, also hold command-opt-shift-delete at boot), but this seems to do nothing and leaves me with a folder/question mark screen.
I zapped the PRAM (hold command-opt-p-r at boot) just to see if that would fix anything, but it did not.
Why can't this machine boot from an external drive? Is there anything I can do to fix this, or force it to go directly to a drive?
Thanks.

What processor speed does the G4 have? Has this G4's firmware been updated to the latest version? Is your OS 10.5 Leopard DVD a retail/universal version of the installer or is it the restore DVD that shipped with your Intel processor-based iMac? If it's the latter, it won't boot the PowerPC-based G4 Mac. Did the FireWire bus on the G4 function without problems in the past? Do you have an earlier version of a Mac OS universal installer disk (OS 9.x, 10.2, 10.3, etc.), to try booting the G4?

Boot Camp: Seagate External Drive not Recognized in Windows Explorer -- PLEASE HELP!

I'm running in Boot Camp and using a Seagate Free Agent GoFlex external drive as both a Time Machine backup on the Mac OS, as well as a storage unit to exchange files. However, whenever I plug my external drive into my computer while running Windows, it does not show up in the Computer tab under "Devices With Removable Storage", like it should. It does show up on the "Safely Remove Hardware and Eject Media" button in the bottom right hand corner, and it appears as a "Startup Disk" in the Boot Camp Control Panel, so I know that it isn't a cable or USB input issue. Please help me get it to appear as a Device in the Windows Explorer. I need to exchange files from my Mac OS to my Windows OS. Thank you in advance for the help.

I did it but i could not install tool from the dvd. As i said, i can still boot up windows xp i just needs to re-install the service tool.
The drivers are working properly.

Holding down the option key when booting my iMac lo longer shows me my bootable external drives, the system just boots up to the main system. Also, holding down command, option,P,R no longer zaps the p-ram. the system just boots up.

Holding down the option key when booting my iMac lo longer shows me my bootable external drives, the system just boots up to the main system. Also, holding down command, option,P,R no longer zaps the p-ram. the system just boots up normally. Why do these key fonctions no longer work?

It could be your timing if on a bluetooth keyboard. I find it best to hit the keys as soon as i hear the chime, release and hit them again but this time holding them before the chime ends....like a fake pump in football.
But....you can always open up system preferences, startup disk, and select your bootable clone for booting. If it doesn't show up there, the Mac doesn't think it's bootable.

External drive boot

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