Harddisk/Boot Disk Question

I've got an older Power Mac with the 877 mhz processor. It has served me admirably but alas after seven years of faithful service the factory installed boot disk (60gb IDE) died.
Maybe a year and half ago, I added a 200gb SATA (plus the controller card) to the system. All was not lost thanks to DiskWarrior which helped me retrieve the data. I am planning to buy a shiny new MacPro this week. However, until that time I am dead in the water unless I can find a way to put old faithful on life support.
1. Can I just turn the SATA disk into the boot disk and reload the OS onto it and transfer the rescued data back to it without having to reinstall all of my software?
2. If so, can disable the dead disk without affecting anything?
3. If not can I turn the SATA disk into the boot disk and disable the dead IDE without affecting anything?

There is no "C:" drive. The Mac has never considered any particular drive at any particular Hardware Address or using any particular technology to be "magic". You can freely boot from Master or Slave IDE/ATA devices on multiple busses, SCSI drives on multiple Busses, SATA drives on multiple Busses, and (on many Macs) Firewire drives on multiple Busses. The only exception i know of is that on a beige Mac with a built-in diskette drive, if there is a System diskette in the drive, it has priority (and otherwise it is ejected).
The Hardware supporting those Busses must simply follow the Mac rules about bootability -- the card must have the proper firmware to support booting a Mac, and some appropriate version of Mac OS must be installed on one or more of the attached drives.
There are times when I have had three or four bootable drives attached to a Mac without any conflict. It will boot automatically to the one selected in Startup Disk Preference or Control Panel; you can steer it to the proper drive through various techniques such as Startup Manager, invoked with the Option key at Startup.

Similar Messages

OS 10.5 Family Pack Retail Questions: PowerPC Install; Used as Boot Disk?

I have a MacBook Pro (which I've not unsealed yet) that was sold with 10.5:
(http://www.everymac.com/systems/apple/macbook_pro/stats/macbook-pro-core-2-duo-2 .53-aluminum-15-late-2008-unibody-specs.html)
and I have a Mac G4 Dual 867 powerPC, which will continue to run 10.4.11.
I also have a piece of database software that requires 10.5 so I am thinking of installing 10.5 on a separate hard drive in the G4 so I can run that software on the G4 if needed.
I believe I also recall reading that the install disks sold with the MacBook Pro can't be booted from (you need the retail).
So my questions are:
1. Does the retail version (family pack) include installers for both PowerPC and Intel Macs (i.e., I am free to install on any Mac which meets the minimum requirements)?
2. The retail pack can be used as boot disk for the MacBook Pro in case of an emergency?
So far, from the research I've done I would say yes, but wanted to check.

Does the retail version (family pack) include installers for both PowerPC and Intel Macs (i.e., I am free to install on any Mac which meets the minimum requirements)?
Yes, as long as the Mac isn't newer than the disk.
The retail pack can be used as boot disk for the MacBook Pro in case of an emergency?
See above.
(57335)

MacOSX 10.4.11 internal harddisk Booting Possibilities

Hi,
It is possible to boot an internal iMac hard disk, system (10.2.8) into a G4 dual system (10.4.11)?
Thanks!
Message was edited by: Eduardo B1

Hi Baltwo,
Thanks for answering! Here is the scenario. I removed the iMac internal harddisk and my questions are:
-What are the possibilities to boot this internal iMac harddisk in one of the extra internal harddisk docks of the the G4?
-Does anyone here have done such installation successfully without messing up with the actual 10.4.11 system of the G4?

Do I need to change boot disk partition types - if so how?

I set my boot disk up with several partitions, one of which is the Apple_UFS partition type. I now want to be able to use if for Mac data files - pdfs, word docs, etc. (I'm running 10.4.11 on a powerpc - when I can afford an Intel macbook, I'll upgrade to Leopard).
I have some questions:
1) Will puttting Mac files on a Apple_UFS volume cause problems (rsource & data forks in files)? (If its OK, then skip to Q6 &Q7 which I'd like to know for future reference).
2) Should I change the partition type (to Apple_HFSX)? There's no data on it now, so that's not a problem.
3) Disk Utility won't let me change partition type, only change the name. Diskutil has the command " eraseVolume format name device", but I suspect that format is the current format, not a new format - please correct me if I'm wrong.
4) pdisk interactive mode has the "t" command which looks like what I want.
5) after the partition type is changed, I presume I then need to use newfs_hfs -
6) I am confused about the device/partition name - "diskutil -l" shows "/dev/disk0" with the partition I want to change as "disk0s11". "pdisk - l" shows "/dev/rdisk0" and the partition number as 11. The "newfs_hfs -h" gives an example of "newfs_hfs -v Untitled /dev/rdisk0s7". So in my case, is my device "/dev/rdisk0s11"??
7) I have an external firewire drive that also is partitioned. "pdisk -l" and "diskutil list" give different outputs - partitions 1-9 are the same on both (Apple stuff), but pdisk show several "Apple_Free" partitions that diskutil ignores - pdisk has 23 total partitions, hdutil has 18. So which number do you use for the disk-identifier?
Thanks for any help on this confusing matter.

The regular versions of PSE 10 have the same kind of automatic updating (just go to Help>Updates and let the updater do its thing) that full Photoshop has. You can update the raw converter in the app store version, but since apple requires that everything in app store programs has to live within the app package itself, the file paths are different, so unless adobe updates the whole program so you can update through the app store, the adobe updater doesn't know what to do. You can do it manually, but it's kind of complicated to dig everything out of the adobe update, not as simple as it was in older versions of PSE.
This thread over at the adobe forum gives you the general process for updating the app store version:
http://forums.adobe.com/message/4106312#4106312

White Screen at Boot When Attempting to Access Recovery or Select a Boot Disk

Introduction
I want to share a solution for a problem I encountered that Apple technical support was unaware of (they said they would create a new kdoc when I called them to share my problem and its solution) and for which I could find no documentation online.
First, this is really a tip rather than a question, but I did leave it marked as a question in case anyone wants to earn some points by responding with a different solution to the problem I am about to describe. Additionally, I do not have a enough points to post a "Tip" so I am just starting a discussion instead.
Next, when I encountered the problem I am about to describe, I had not yet enabled a firmware password.
Finally, a massive "Thank you!" to the Great Pondini (James Pond - http://pondini.org) for helping me learn so much more interesting stuff about various OS X features and functionality (all for no charge) over the years.
Now on to why I have started this discussion...
The Problem
I recently purchased a new MacBook Pro (Core i7, SSD, etc.). After working with Setup Assistant to transfer everything from the most recent Time Machine backup of the older MBP I was replacing, applying all OS updates, and then enabling FileVault 2 and letting the requisite disk encryption process complete, I decided to I would go ahead and just proactively repair any permissions and ACLs for my user directory just in case any repair was necessary.
However, after shutting down my MBP, waiting, and then starting it up with Cmd-R being pressed while turning the MBP on, nothing would happen - I would just have a white screen with no Apple logo, no EFI login, no Recovery Console, nothing (and I waited for a very long time for something to show up). My only option was to do what I really do not like doing and that was to just power my new MBP down.
So, I tried again, this time holding down Opt while turning my computer on so as to select a disk at boot. The same problem returned.
Just to check, I once again started up while holding down the Shift key to attempt a Safe Boot. No dice.
Prior to trying all of this I made sure that I did have the Apple Recovery Partition in addition to my user partion and the EFI partition, so I did not understand why this would be happening. Why could I not boot into Recovery? Why could I not select a boot disk? And, why could I not go into Safe Boot?
To be safe, I started up and logged into my MBP as I normally would, then set my startup disk to be my Recovery USB for OS X 10.8, restarted, and verified all three partitions (and, since I had my Time Machine disk connected all three times I forced the computer to power off, I verified it as well). I then set my startup disk back to my SSD, and logged in and got online to see if anyone else had experienced this issue. After making sure I was not being crazy and using key combinations that were somehow made irrelevant, I shut my MBP down and walked away for a few minutes.
The Solution
So what solved my problem? A good 'ol reset of the NVRAM (aka/fka PRAM). If you are not familiar with how to reset the NVRAM:
Power off your Mac and go do something else for 30 seconds to a minute.
Press and hold down the Opt, Cmd, P and R buttons, and then press the power button. I have big hands and this is a one person operation for me. If you are not so "lucky", find someone to press the power button as you hold those four buttons down.
Continue holding those four buttons down through the first startup chime and then release all four of them only after the second startup chime is sounded.
So, for some reason, I had to reset the NVRAM on a brand new MBP that had been started up only once and restarted only once when I enabled FV2. Maybe something cached needed to be cleared out following the FV2 process, or maybe something funky was carried over after it was setup in the factory and shipped direct to me from China.
The moral of the story is: If you have strage issues during the startup of your Mac, just reset the NVRAM and try again. This has worked for a number of strange issues on various Macs for me in the past and proved to be useful once again on a brand new MBP that I never would have thought needed its NVRAM reset so soon into its lifecycle.
Special Note
There are two processes I always complete and recommend to others following a major software update (e.g. upgrading to a new version of OS X) and when I restore or otherwise transfer the most recent Time Machine backup to my current Mac or to a new one.
First, following a major or massive software update, go into Disk Utility, select your system and data drive(s), and then just click on "Repair Permissions" (Choosing "Verify Pemissions" will result in having to then click "Repair Permissions" if any permissions need to be repaired, so remove one click from the process).
Second, after transferring from a Time Machine backup, I like to make sure that my user directory permissions are good to go before any time is allowed for problems with those permissions to set in. If you are not familiar with the user directory permissions and ACL repair process (this process is not the same as the "Repair Permission" functionality in Disk Utility), here is how to do it:
Shutdown your Mac and wait about 30 seconds.
Press and hold down Cmd-R and then power on your Mac. Once the Apple logo with the spinning wheel shows up, release those two keys.
From within the Recovery Console, open a new Terminal session via the "Utilities" menu.
Invoke the following command (all one word, lowercase): resetpassword
In the "Reset Password" application that opens, select the disk that your user home directory is on, and then click the "Reset" button at the bottom underneath the "Reset Home Folder Permissions and ACLs" heading and wait for the process to finish. Any messages displayed can typically be safely ignored. If you want to be sure, search for information regarding any messages that you do not like.
Restart your MBP and enjoy using it.
(Note that if you have FV2 enabled, you will need your FV2 Recovery Key to actually reset your password. This is one of many reasons that I enable FV2 - anyone can startup a Mac and go into the Recovery Partition if it exists and reset a password, but having to also enter the FV2 Recovery Key adds a nice extra layer of protection. In addition to that, setting a Firmware Password makes it nearly impossible to start up from any disk other that that which is currrenlty installed in your Mac without knowing the Firmware Password - another security bonus. If someone gets ahold of your Mac, and you have FV2 enabled and an appropriately complex Firmware Password set, then them using your Mac as their own becomes a decently difficult process. It's by no means perfect computer security, but it makes it more challenging for someone to steal and use your Mac.)
If anyone has any other tips to share or additional solutions to problem I described, please discuss and share.

Which OS X is installed on your Mac ?
Troubleshooting advice can depend on that information.

I've downloaded Lion. I have a boot disk. Can I use it to install on another machine?

I downloaded Lion from the Mac App store and it's working 100%. Love it.
After downloading and before installing, I copied the installESD.dmg (I think that's the correct filename) to a DVD (as per all the instructions out there to create a boot disc). I did NOT copy the entire "Install Lion App" to the DVD.
My question is: if a friend buys lion from the app and then cancels the download, can he use my boot disk to install lion as an upgrade? The reason I'm asking is that his Internet connection is rubbish and he can't download it. Presumably if I copy the dmg file to his hard disk I can run it that way?

Actually, you can burn a DVD or USB (8GB) thumb drive and let him boot and install from it. Or, you can actually run the InstallESD.dmg file from his machine. I've done both and Lion installs.
Personally, I would burn a DVD or thumb drive so you always have it.
Burn the InstallESD.dmg to a bootable DVD.
Launch Disk Utility and click the Burn button
Select the InstallESD.dmg file from your desktop as the image to burn. Insert a blank DVD and wait for the the image to be burned.
Burn the InstallESD.dmg to a bootable USB thumb drive.
Open Disk Utility and drag the InstallESD.dmg file to the left side pane. Go to the Partition tab ad select 1 Partition from the drop down menu. Choose Mac OS Extended (Journaled) on the left. Click the Options button under the partition table and choose GUID Partition Table. You will need this to make the drive bootable on a Mac. Hit the Apply button when ready to format the drive (it will erase everything on the drive).
Click on the Restore tab and drag the InstallESD.dmg file to the Source. Drag the USB partition to the Destination. Hit the Restore button and it will create the bootable USB drive with the OS X Lion installer

Boot disk Vista Home required after new HDD was placed!

Anyone that knows what to do now? I never received any discs with my Laptop (legal purchase). I have windows Vista Home on my laptop?
Anyone had the same problem and has it sorted? Will any boot disk download work?
Does anyone have a good tip? Thankyou.

Hello
All new Toshiba notebooks are delivered WITHOUT installations discs and you must create such disc alone using preinstalled "Toshiba Recovery Disc Creator". the shortcut of this application is placed on the desktop.
When you buy new notebook and start to use preinstalled operating system small recovery disc reminder with follow content should be shown:
*+Important INFORMATION+*
*+your system is equipped with hard disk recovery system. If you need to repair your computer by restoring it to original factory state, you can do it directly+*
*+from harddisk (press F8 when you boot your computer, choose "Repair your computer" and follow the menue instructions) or create a bootable Recovery Disc Medium for this purpose.+*
*+Toshiba recommends you to create Recovery Disc Medium using the "Toshiba Recovery Disc Creator" to ensure that you are able to restore your computer to the original factory installed state, even if your computer gets seriously damaged.+*
So please create recovery DVD using empty DVD-R medias. I presume you need 2 of them.

No bootable device -- insert boot disk and press any key, over and over again...

I've seen a lot of discussions about "no bootable device -- insert boot disk and press any key" but the answers in them don't seem to help me at all.
from the begining...
i was tryin to instal windows 7 on my 2014 iMac and after bootcamp prepared the iso on a flash drive, the computer restarted in the windows instalation screen and i chose the "BOOTCAMP" partition.
After thi i got an error with a mesage that the partition wans not in ntfs, and a question if i wanted to format it. As i am recent to OSX but i was a windows user for quite a while i thought, ok there should be no problem about letting windows format this BOOTCAMP partition so i went ahead and did it. after this i stopped the process because at the moment i seem to recal that in the mac osx bootcamp help there was something about making sure to installing windows to the BOOTCAMP partition. So i canceled the process and restarted the iMac.
Now i get the "no bootable device -- insert boot disk and press any key" message over and over.
I've tryed restarting with alt, alt+cmd+p+r, alt+r, etc and allways get the same message.
Just before tryin to install windows on a secondary partition had the iMac backup to an external drive on my airport express via time machine.
Questions.
are there any other ways to boot into OSX again, or after letting windows format the BOOTCAMP partition all is lost?
If everything is lost, how do i boot to restore my time machine backup from the external drive?
all help is apreciated.
Thanks in advance

Sorry about that I just realized that Boot Camp may have decompressed your ISO, We can't really do much because Boot Camp may have told the mac to boot from the flash drive, but now your mac is most likely not being told to boot from it. (You where able to boot from the drive before so I would keep it all intact) Is your keyboard wireless (because it can cause your mac to not to register keys being pushed at the Macs start) which this may be preventing you from getting into recovery mode (Command-R) or the OS choosing screen (Option).

Hard drive failure (why can't I start up with boot disk)?

Running OS 10.4.6. I was getting flashing question mark at startup. Tried starting with Disk Warrior holding down "C" key. Got Apple logo, but then screen frooze with horizontal lines across screen.
Rebooted, held mouse to eject disk. Tried TechTool Pro disk. Would not boot from that either (got circle with slash logo I think).
Finally was able to boot with Tiger install disk.
Ran disk utility from Tiger disk. My internal hard drive showed up in red letters and said "failing"
OK.....I can understand that.....I guess my hard drive crashed (on my 2 year old Powerbook...oh well)
But, why can't I start up with any of my boot disks (Disk Warrior, TechTool) only the Tiger install disk. Also the Panther and Jaguar disks will NOT start it...only the Tiger disk works. One more thing I'm wondering....I connected my external firewire drive that has a boot partition on it that I have started up with in the past....and it won't boot my laptop either.
Any ideas? Thanks for any insight. Guess I'll head to the genius bar tomorrow. At least my extended warranty is still good (I think).
Powerbook G4 17 1.5 ghz Mac OS X (10.4.6)

Here is what the outcome was:
I took my Powerbook into Apple Genius bar (still under 3 yr. AppleCare), he determined that my hard drive had crashed. He shipped it for me to be repaired.
It came back with a message attached saying that the source of the problem was my 3rd party RAM, which was a 1 GB module. The note said that the memory had been removed...and that in some cases like this the removed memory will be sent back to the customer and will be in the box somewhere. I checked and it wasn't there. The "Get Info" for my system said I was now running on 512 mb instead of the usual 1.5 GB. The note said that this 3rd party RAM had caused the hard drive to fail, so the hard drive had been replaced.
I ordered a new 1GB RAM module from Apple for $300, didn't want to take a chance on 3rd party again. But....when it arrived, I went to install it....and my 1GB 3rd party module was in the slot....it just wasn't pushed all the way in I guess. I pushed it in firmly, closed up the computer, started it, and the "Info" read 1.5 GB again. I ended up removing the 512mb module and replacing that with the new 1GB one I bought from Apple. So now I have 2GB of memory and and extra 512 that I can't use. It has been running fine ever since (more than 2 months)
Can bad RAM really make a hard drive go bad?
I wonder why they said they had removed the RAM, but it actually had not been removed (at least not completely)
Powerbook G4 17 1.5 ghz Mac OS X (10.4.7)

Satellite Pro A200: Recovery using a network ghost boot disk

Hi all,
Need to ghost several sat pro a200 machines using a network ghost boot disk. when i use the ghost disk provided by ghost boot wizard and booting into PC dos i get the message "No Fast Ethernet PCI Adapter Found!" Serious Internal Error! (hardware works OK in XP/Vista)
i have tried booting from CD, Mem Stick and USB floppy with drivers from toshiba and realtek without any success, searches on google seem to point toward there needing to be a driver to interface with the cardbus / PCMCIA adapter - if this IS the case can anyone shed any light on the whereabouts of such a driver and how i could go about doing this?
Many thanks,
Gav Shakespeare.

Sorry folks answered my own question - the network card is reported as being an RTL8134 in windows XP but is in fact an RTL8100E/RTL8101E so i was using the wrong NDIS2 Driver!. doh!
emergency over.

Black screen with "Insert boot disk"

Hi, there everyone!
So here's the epilogue to my story.
I wanted to install Windows 7 on my late 2011 MBP running Lion. Went to Bootcamp to get the process done, as I get there I see that I'm lacking the option to make a start up disk on a usb, so I looked up ways to change that. After many days of searching and trying I stumbled upon the option to change coding on the info.plist file inside the package contents of Bootcamp. When I was done changing a few things (as directed to online) Bootcamp then no longer would open, only bounce on the dock then close. I tried turning back the clock with Time Machine with no avail. I was left with an error built into the system, and thus forcing me to upgrade to Mavericks.
Now my current issue:
After upgrading, I once again tried to change BC to allow me to use a USB instead of a DVD to install Windows. Once again, desperately, I changed the info.plist in Bootcamp (leaving an original copy of the file, and changing the duplicate) in order to do so. This time with success!
After already having saved the "latest Windows support software from Apple" from when I was on Lion, I skipped this step and proceeded to transfer the .iso file I had to the usb thumb drive. Successful!
From there, I then went on to partition 35 GB of space on my HD to windows and just let the magic happen!
Only (this is were the real question comes in) when the system restarted, post-partition, I was left with (as the title says) the black screen with "No bootable device -- insert boot disk and press any key"
So my question is: Where is the "any" key???
Haha sorry about that, just had to!
But in all seriousness, I was left with the Boot screen and my usb drive sticking out of it containing the file needed to boot Windows 7.
I've tried everything I possibly could:
Restarting on mac, ejecting USB, then sticking it in when the boot screen comes up.
Putting the .iso on a DVD and trying it the original way.
Restarting with no DVD or USB in then placing them in after the boot screen.
Even restoring my partition, repartitioning the HD, and then re-installing the .iso file on the thumb drive once more all over again in an attempt to get it working.
All with no luck.
I've been scouring all over the internet looking for the solution for days to this problem before I took it upon myself to ask the community.
If anyone can offer any insight to what else is left for me to try with Bootcamp would be immensely, appreciated!
If worst comes to worst I may be forced to try Parallels or VMWare Fusion to get Windows 7 running on Mac, but I would much rather have Windows running independently on my Mac for games, rather than having a Virtual Machine slow down the gaming experience.
Thank you!
(P.S. And sorry about the length!)

So, I decided to restore my Mac into factory settings?
If you want to do that, you have to boot the Mac from your Mac OS X Install disc by inserting the disc, then restart while holding down the 'C' key until you see the Apple logo. Then you choose your language (English) and let the installer do it's thing.
To remove a CD that failed to eject, you startup the Mac while holding down the mouse button (trackpad button on a laptop) until the drive ejects.
So, I tried boot camp.
Don't do that. Boot Camp has nothing to do with this; it's for running Windows on your Mac.
I tried to press the on button, to try and force shut down - failed.
You have to hold it for about 6 seconds for it to shutdown. Did you do that?
I tried pressing the Option key, which I assume is the key with the alt on it, right??
Why would you need the Option key for this?

How to run a boot disk or flash card

как запустить загрузочный диск или флэш-карту, положить в первую очередь, но все же начинает с жесткого диска

Just insert your installer DVD (the one that came with your computer) and run Disk Utility from that to repair your drive.
The reason you could only verify and not repair when running DU from your boot drive is you cannot repair the boot drive while booted from it. Hence the requirement of booting from a different disk . A DVD is a disk, and the installer DVD is already a bootable disk. So no need to create one of your own (other than cloning the DVD as a backup of course).
And as steve359 says, yes, you should have backups. Using popular backup utilities like Carbon Copy Cloner and Super Duper to make bootable backups is convenient and of course you then have backups of your main drive in case it catastrophically fails.
Oh, and to answer the specific exact question of the title of this thread ("Re: How To Create A Boot Disk"), sort of tangential to the problem at hand, get yourself a small disk (even, say about 16GB to 32GB usb flash drive will do) and install the system on it (probably custom install to avoid needless crap). In the case of a usb flash drive, it won't be any speed daemon, but if that's all you got in some emergency, who cares?

How can I get a boot-disk for a Compaq P2500 laptop Windows XP Home Edition?

I'm already in another forum with a eerily similar question, but that's for the HP Media Center Pavilion m8000e desktop system (Windows Vista Home Premium) I was just given; I've ordered a new hard drive for that. I assume the directions to create a boot disk with the *.iso file (using Imgburn) is going to work; I have the 25-digit code for that.
This question here now is for my wife's older Compaq P2500 2596US laptop running Windows XP Home Edition. This too needs a new hard drive, but I also am missing the boot disc for this; I do have the 25-digit product code.
How can I get a boot disk for this laptop? I tried the Ubuntu method outlined in a few posts; geez, what a headache ... never could get it managed. Does HP not make any boot disks available? Microsoft told me to check with HP.
I can furnish the product code; model #; serial# ... gee, maybe the oroginal receipt is even laying around somewhere ...
I need a boot disk to get the new hard drive up on board (if I end up ordering that).
Thanks for any help!
Michael

Hi
Please find the link given below might be helpful for your.
http://www.computersurgeons.com/productdetails.aspx?ID=4219
Let us know how it goes!
"I work for HP."
****Click the (purple thumbs up icon in the lower right corner of a post) to say thanks****
****Please mark Accept As Solution if it solves your problem****
Regards
Manjunath

How do I change the Win7 boot disk under BootCamp?

I have been getting warnings that my Window7Pro64 hard disk may crash. I bought a new disk. Installed it in my Mac Pro. Set up the partitions and cloned my boot disk to the new disk. At the end of the process of creating the clone, the software will shut the computer down. I am instructed to enter the Bios in order to assign the Clone disk as the new 'boot' disk.
Since I am running under Boot Camp I am wondering if I need to follow another procedure? I am inquiring before the cloning process has completed, so I haven't tried rebooting into Bios...
Thanks for any insight...!
Jim

So, Mr. Hatter...
You have raised some additional questions:
1. Will Boot Camp now support Windows 8?
2. On the Windows side of Boot Camp I have installed Acronis software to clone my old boot disk (500GB) to a new clone disk (1TB). That cloning process worked. I rebooted to the Mac side. I chose Boot Camp and chose to reboot into Windows 7 using the new clone disk. Windows booted up. It appears to me that I now have two Windows bootable disks. Is this correct? Does this create any potential problems?
3. On the Mac side of Boot Camp, I have installed Carbon Copy to clone my old boot disk (500GB) to a new Clone disk (1TB). That cloning also appears to have worked. It appears I now have two bootable disks on the Mac side, too. Any problems with that?
4. Inside my MacPro my 4 drive bays are currently assigned disks in the following order (reading from the left side of the compartment): Drive Bay 1: MacBoot (500GB); Drive Bay 2: WinClone (1TB); Drive Bay 3: MacClone (1TB); Drive Bay 4: WinBoot (500GB). The reason I ask is because when I go into Acronis / Carbon Copy they report the disks as Primary Master / Primary Slave; and Secondary Master / Secondary Slave without regard to their physical locations. This is suggesting the master / slave relationship may need to be maintained physically - in which case my allocation of disks to bays would be incorrect. Any insight on this topic may reduce my anxiety that I could be causing a disk failure (I had a new 1TB disk indicate a mechanical failure and replaced it with the current, new MacClone (1TB) disk. It is in the same bay relationship. This got me thinking... is it possible to have a Mac disk as Primary Master and a Win disk as its Primary Slave? If so, what damage might result).
In any case, at the moment, everything seems to be functional on both sides (Mac & Win). However, I rarely come out of these exercises with a complete sense of security that I have done everthing correctly...
5. Should I still run CHKDSK? How do I invoke it?
6. What is NVRAM and how do I invoke it? Does it apply to both Win & Mac?
7. Still boot from Win7 DVD and run system repairs?
Sorry to burn your ears, but its on my mind and since you guys have sooo... many 'help' points I figured I tapped into serious capabilities I should not pass up!
Thanks, again
Jim

External 'boot disk' for G5 won't boot

First attempt was to make an OS 10.5.? boot disk from the installation DVD. The second attempt was to use Carbon Copy Cloner to make an exact duplicate of the internal Boot Macintosh HD disk. Both onto one of a pair of external 4Tb Iomega drives. Connection is Firewire 800 daisychain. The external drive in question is the last in the daisychain. The G5 has twin internal drives already and the G5 will boot happily from either. (One is 10.5.8, the second is 10.4.11/Classic.)
Both installations attempts on the #2 4Tb drive appeared to "work". The now CCC version is an exact copy of the main internal drive and is OS 10.5.8. 'Startup Disk' appears to recognise it as a system boot disk. I can select it for booting on restart but it fails to do so and eventually finds the main internal drive after some wait.
Holding down the Option key as you restart the machine brings up just the two choices of the two internal drives to start from - no external drive choice.
This all used to work just fine in the days of SCSI...
I'm presuming altering the order of the external drives on the Firewire chain won't make any difference?

jsd2 wrote:
Both onto one of a pair of external 4Tb Iomega drives.
I wonder if such a drive is just too big to boot a PPC Mac.
Hmm. Interesting thought. You have a good point.
I just found this technote:
*Secrets of the GPT*
http://developer.apple.com/library/mac/#technotes/tn2166/_index.html
It contains the following regarding the Apple Partition Map scheme:
APM is restricted to 32-bits worth of blocks. With a standard block size of 512 bytes, this translates to a maximum disk size of 2 TB.
In Disk Utility, if you again click on the upper icon as before, and look again at the lower right of the window, what does it say for "Total Capacity?" Does it report the full 4TB?
It reports the full size - strictly it reports 3.6Tb - ie well over 2Tb.
(I do have the hardware option of switching to twin 2Tb on these 4Tb Iomega drives and strictly, that is what is inside the physical housing. It's a matter of throwing some switches. Of course, I don't actually want 2Tb drives. )
MacBook Pro (10.5.8) Power Mac G5
It might be of interest regarding the capability of the drive enclosure hardware to connect the drive to your MacBook Pro, repartition it as GUID (which will erase it), install OS X on it or clone the MBP to it, and then see if the MBP will boot from it.
Hmm. I don't think I want to do that as the MBP is an Intel machine and the G5 isn't. It won't solve the actual problem. (At least I can't see how it will.) Though I see what you are getting at.
It's probably worth a shot emailing Iomega, I guess.

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