Firewire drive as startup

The hard drive in my iMac recently failed (clicking noise, computer can't find startup disk). So I set up OSX on an external firewire drive and designated that as the startup. That works, except that the computer seems to want to check the internal drive first - on startup and some other disk functions I can hear the clicking drive and then eventually the external drive is accessed. Is there any way to tell the computer that the internal drive is really dead so just leave it be? Thanks for the help.

Mac OS X needs to poll the system to find all available disks on those occasions you mentioned. Since the drive is physically connected to the system and still active (though broken), Mac OS X is still attempting to access it.
The only way I can think of to prevent it is to open the iMac and disconnect the drive internally. But if you do that, you might as well replace the drive.
In Disk Utility, how does the drive appear in the sidebar. Does it still have a volume under the drive, or is it just the drive?

Similar Messages

  • Firewire drive startup problems

    Gang,
    There's been a lot of talk regarding issues with Firewire drives and Leopard. I've tried reading through these posts in an effort to solve a problem I've been having. I haven't found any posts that match what I've been experiencing; however, I apologize if this has been covered elsewhere.
    All right, here's what's happening. I've been using a Neptune external firewire drive from OWC for the past couple of years. I've experienced flawless operation until last week when I upgraded to Leopard. Things were OK for a few days, but now this particular drive hangs upon startup -- I get the spinning beachball. When I turn this drive on, everything stops: the finder, and programs I try to open, etc. Sometimes it shows up on the desktop, sometimes it does not. Sometimes it shows up in Disk Utility, sometimes it does not. Once I turn the drive off, the Finder regains its composure and continues along its merry way.
    Any attempts to repair the drive using Disk Utility (when it shows up) have been unsuccessful, because the program freezes before too long. I've also tried the "unplug your machine for 15 minutes" trick, but this doesn't resolve the problems either. Doing this allows the drive to show up on the desktop, but it still hangs after a few moments.
    From what I can tell, the FW drive is attempting to do something, I just don't know what. I hear lots of crunching going on inside the enclosure. I don't think it's a Spotlight issue, because there is no dot inside the spotlight icon.
    Anyone have any suggestions? Am I just not being patient enough?

    Hey i had the same problem with one of my external drives as well but it was a drive that i just got so i was able to have Lacie help me track down the problem. I am not sure if my problem was the same one you are having if you have had the drive for 2 years and use it allot it may just be getting ready to die but here is what they said so give this a try.
    Make absolutely sure that the drive has a direct connection to the computer, and is the only external drive connected if you have more than one. Do not connect through a hub, or a port replicator, as those are things which could possibly be contributing to the problem. And, use ports on the rear of a desktop machine, as front ports are always hubbed. If you have any other external hard drives aside from this one, make absolutely sure they're disconnected, for troubleshooting.
    The method for correcting corruption, which also is our next hardware troubleshooting step, involves repartitioning and erasing the drive in the Disk Utility. This is a process which does erase the drive entirely, including the corruption.
    Disk Utility is accessed by opening the Macintosh HD, then the Applications folder, and then the Utilities folder. Within that, Disk Utility has an icon of a hard drive with a stethoscope on it.
    - Highlight the GB hardware line- in your case, the approximately 465GB disk line.
    - Click the Partition tab which becomes available up top.
    - There should be an Options button at the bottom. Click it, and on the following window, make sure that the dot is next to ‘Apple Partition.’ Click OK through the window.
    - Volume Scheme must be changed from 'Current' to '1 Partition'.
    - Format is ideal to leave default Mac OS Extended Journaling.
    - Uncheck the option for ‘Install Mac OS 9 Drivers.’
    - Change the volume name 'Untitled 1' to whatever you prefer, alpha numeric only, and it is very important to give it a name that is new to it.
    - Hit the Options button at the bottom of the window, and make sure the dot is in Apple Partition, then click OK through.
    - Hit the Partition button in the lower right. Then click the Partition button through the warning window that comes up.
    - The process is finished, when you see the name you gave it, indented under the GB hardware line you highlighted at the beginning.
    If complications occur during or shortly after the format, that's when we're leaning towards isolating a physical problem to the drive. I recommend changing USB cords, trying a different power supply, and if possible another computer, to see if it makes things better. If it completes, I advise copying some data to it manually, to make sure it works. If it does, you should be all set.
    If you find that your computer does not properly dismount the drive when it goes to sleep, you might want to consider changing this setting so that the computer does not go to sleep when the drive is attached. Unfortunately, there's nothing in the drive that can be changed to affect the way the computer dismounts the drive when it enters sleep mode.

  • Going Crazy! How to force startup using firewire drive on G3

    Okay, I think I'm going crazy. I have searched last night and today for my answers and still no solution.
    I have an old G3 I'm trying to install Tiger on. I don't have a dvd drive in the G3, so I installed onto a firewire drive from my G4. I booted from the firewire drive and manually copied all the file over to the internal drive on the G3. Some things wouldn't copy. Obviously, this is part of my problem. Unfortunately, I did not run the disk utility, etc before restarting after doing this. Now, I get a kernel panic on a grey screen with frozen beach ball cursor. When I reboot from my Techtool 4 pro disk, I can access the program, but it's all fuzzy grey on the screen. Plus that didn't work. I have tried to reboot from my older OS10.1 install disk. But I can't do anything with it, and it won't install over the newer "incomplete" system. If I restart pushing X or C or Option button, nothing happens. The G3 has two internal drives, each with a system on it. Neither will start up. The firewire drive is hooked up, and I can't reboot from that.
    Can anyone tell me the shortcut to reboot from the external firewire drive? What do I push? Or is

    G3s cannot boot from FireWire drives:
    http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=58238#faq10

  • External FireWire Drive Can't Install OS 10.4.6 as Startup Drive

    I have a QPS 60 GB FireWire Drive shows as non-bootable Drive for OSX. Is this dive upgradeable through Software or Firmware:
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    GUID: 0x80CF0034000CB2
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    Product Revision Level: 4.24
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    Removable Media: Yes
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    1.25 GHz Dual G4 Desk Top   Mac OS X (10.4.6)  

    are the install disks that come with the computer limited to that specific computer? We have 2 powerbook G4s (a 15 and a 17 inch) The 15inch is giving me the trouble. It's possible that I grabbed the install disk for the 17inch.
    Never used the disks before. When I insert the disk, reboot and hold the c key, the computer eventually goes to a solid blue screen without anything on it and stops.
    As an experiment, I inserted the install disk in the 15, then attached the 15 to the 17 as a target. Teh 15 mounted on the 17 with the install disk mounting. I then drilled down through the install files until I go to the os install package and double clicked. It started to install but after about an hour it ended with an error message.

  • How do I install a bootable copy of Tiger to an external Firewire drive?

    I've got a problem with my optical drive and cannot boot from a CD or DVD on my 17" flat panel iMac, running 10.2.8. I have bought Tiger and would like to upgrade my OS but want to be able to run some disc repair utilities on the iMac prior to doing the upgrade but can't run them on my boot disc.
    I'd like to be able to install Tiger on my external FW hard drive, install Techtool pro on that same drive and then try to repair the internal drive on my iMac by booting from the external drive. Is that possible? Is it a good idea? Can I install to the external drive from my internal Superdrive without being able to boot from the install DVD? How should I do that?
    Thanks in advance for any help.
    Michael

    Because you must boot from the Tiger DVD in order to install Tiger I'm afraid you are somewhat out of luck. However, with no guarantee either express or implied here's something you can try:
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    Go away for a while because the clone process will take time. Once it finally completes you can eject the Tiger DVD. You now should be able to boot the computer from the Firewire drive partition. Open your Startup Disk preference pane, select the Tiger partition on the Firewire drive from the icon list, then click on the Restart button.
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    http://discussions.apple.com/thread.jspa?messageID=607363&#607363

  • 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

  • Can't install OSX on firewire drive?!?

    I have a brand new Mac Mini (specs below) and just purchased an OWC Ministack v2 for extra USB and Firewire ports, with a Hitachi 250GB drive in it.
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    When I insert the Install Disc 1 that came with the Mac Mini, I run the installer, which boots up from the disc and askes for the destination. It sees the firewire drive, but says that I cannot install OSX on that volume.
    My question is, does the installer only allow you to install OSX on the Mini drive itself?!? Or is there something wrong with my drive? Anything I can do to get around this?
    I have a separate Tiger install CD, but the Mini can't run the installer (presumably because it's pre-Universal Binary?).
    THANKS a ton for your feedback, much appreciated.

    Aye that was certainly the reason behind the problems I recently had when I was setting up an external drive with my Intel MacBook Pro.
    After much testing and a little searching via Google, it would seem that Disk Utility was formatting the drive as an Apple Partition Map (APM) partition rather than a GUID Partition Table (GPT) that is necessary to use an external drive as a startup drive for an Intel Mac.
    iFelix

  • Cannot Boot from OSX on external firewire drive

    I recently bought a seagate hardrive and installed it in an external firewire casing. I partitioned it into two partitions, and installed osx 10.4.10 on one of the partitions, the same as is running on my Ti Book.
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    That not working, i created a clone of my startup disk using DejaVu in my system preferences and saved it on the other, empty partition on the external drive and tried booting from that.
    On restarting, i get the grey screen once again as the backlight fires up, and nothing more. the screen remains grey without any further ado until i hold the power button and force it to turn off. then as i start it up again, up comes the flashing question mark icon followed by a boot from the internal drive.
    Any Solutions on this?
    Many Thanks, Neptune.

    Hi Dale,
    Whoops- everythings not as smooth as i thought it was!
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  • Is it possible to boot a G4 (pci graphics) from an external firewire drive?

    I have a Lacie 250 gig bootable external firewire drive which is recognized on my Power PC G4 400 but I cannot get it to boot from this drive. The procedure works fine on my ibook... I looked into a possible firmware update but the apple site says no update is necessary for the G4 400/pci graphics...
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    There sure are some radically contradictory posts here! (This isn't typical, at least in this section of the Discussions, RMx2.)
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    My G3 running OS X 10.3.9 sees the USB-connected drives in the Startup Disk Preference Pane, but when I click to Restart after selecting the USB system folder there, I get a beachball (haven't seen that in awhile...) and have to Force Quit System Preferences. Console tells me that that it could not get open firmware information or set open firmware information, and that it can't touch or set System/Library/CoreServices/BootX, returning Error 1 running bless.
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    Gary
    Message was edited by: Majordadusma

  • Powerbook freezes when I connect maxtor firewire drive

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    Welcome to the Apple discussion forums.
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  • Can firewire drives in series sometimes cause system failure?

    We have had problems with a 2007 iMac (23") locking up at times. We have AppleCare, and have run numerous tests to try to elucidate the problem.
    After the Apple service center here could not find any problem during several days of testing, we've been doing some testing back in our office. Here's what we seemed to have discovered:
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  • OF can't see external bootable Firewire drive on restart

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  • How to mount one of two external drives on startup without login

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    Stuart A. Forsyth
    <Email Edited by Host>

    I can now confirm this file
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  • How to install tiger on external firewire drive

    I'd like to upgrade my dual 2GHz Power PC G5 to 10.5, but I need access to OS9 from time to time. To solve this I wanted to install 10.4 with OS9 on my external HDD. I partitioned my Western Digital drive (connected by FW800) and installed 10.4 from the install disk. However, when I select it as the startup disk, the startup fails to identify the disk and starts from the internal drive.
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  • 10.4 Installation on External Lacie Firewire Drive

    Hi -
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