HD Failure and Inability to Boot from External

After much gnashing of teeth my hd finally failed. I have a Firewire 800 LaCie HD 300GB that I have a back up system on (OS 10.3.9). Unless I reinstall the original 10.3.4 OS from my original install DVD every two or three restarts/boots the login screen freezes. Here are the many symptoms:
Sometimes the logins screen freezes on "Waiting for local discs..." which I assuming means that my internal HD is still tripping up when the OS wants to mount it.
Yet some other times the login screen freezes on "Preparing login" or whatever that message is just prior to the login screen loading.
And even other times, the Apple comes up my LaCie HD's light blinks and blinks and then I get a black screen and a bash shell command line deal.
When I have run disk utility to repair permissions, I get consistently get errors stating that "Disk Utility has lost its connection with the Disk Tool ' blah blah blah...
Apple hardware test reports an error: 2STF/3/3: ATA-100 ata - 6 - Master
However, I think this is reference to my internel drive, the ATA bit.
I have also received the dreaded multilanguage You have to restart screen as well as a bizarre error message that is too long to write here. It popped up during the Apple logo loading thingy.
It is almost as if I have some sort of voodoo curse on my PB. Could it be signs that my Logic Board is failing? My Lower Ram Slot is broken in addition to these current failures. Looks like I got myself a lemon.
I might install a new a HD but I don't want to drop the cash on it if it is some internal failure that cannot be fixed without replacing major components. I am thinking about getting a iMac G5 before it is too late.
thanks

Andrew,
From the description you are giving it sounds like the faulty internal HD is causing issues with the OS during the boot process. I have seen this in a PowerMac G4 with multiple HD's one of which has died. The machine would get to the "Loading Login Window" and would either sit for ages polling the knackered HD, (you could here it crunching away - it was a nasty failure), or it would just crash / kernel panic the machine during or after booting.
I think if you are going to have replace the internal HD to get it to do anything constructive.
Robbie

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MBP slow to boot and WILL NOT boot from external drive

I have two problems. First my friends MacBook Pro which is less than a month old is taking long to load. So I did a clean install without installing anything other than what came. Still slow to boot. Sometimes I see a light blue screen for a while before getting into the desktop. She complains of the beachball far too often. She says my MacBook is faster than her Pro, which is not right.
So I came down with my external LaCie drive, which I cloned from my iMac 24". I wasn't able to boot from the external (firewire) drive using her MacBook Pro. I thought my LaCie drive was bad or soemthing, but when I got home, I hooked it up to my MacBook and booted from the external drive just fine. I use SuperDuper to make a bootable clone.
So as it stands now, her computer is slow to boot into the OS, and it won't let me boot from my external drive. Does anyone have any idea what this could be? I did a clean install, used cocktail, etc. If it persists, I'll tell her to take it in.
Thanks,
Bryan

Robert,
I have no idea what you mean by Apple is not responsive to the issue. If you want help, please start a new topic thread so someone can help you identify the problem without the distraction of other people's problems around yours. Blaming people does not solve problems.
This is the link to post a new topic on this board:
http://discussions.apple.com/forum.jspa?forumID=1149&start=0
This is a user to user board. If you need help from Apple, call AppleCare directly here:
http://www.apple.com/contact/phone_contacts.html

Inability to boot from alternative boot devices

Hi… I apologize if this has been covered, but my searching hasn't found anything definitive.
A friend asked me to replace the hard drive in his Macbook, one month out of warranty. The techs at Apple (I understand he went to a Genius Bar) told him that the hard drive is the problem on the machine.
The computer is a Macbook late 2008, and it's not booting. In an attempt to salvage some of the HD's data, I tried booting from an external, but no dice. The problem is, now I'm thinking it might be more than just the hard drive… when my hard drive crapped out on me, I was able to boot from my external, from a boot DVD, etc.
When I first got it, it would start up, go to a white/grey screen, and that's it.
Then I zapped the PRAM, and I started getting chimes, but that's it.
I held down option to get boot options, and was able to see my external hard drive, but never my boot DVD (this is not an OS X DVD, it's an 'emergency disc' with various software). It was also able to see my Macbook's HD, which I connected in Target Disk Mode. However, it was never able to open either drive. The cursor would show up on the screen, followed by the orange little FW HD icon, already selected (the Macbook has one FW port, so I was unable to connect them both at the same time), but that's it. Clicking, hitting enter, etc, did nothing. No discernible reaction.
Just for kicks, I reset the SMC. When I restarted the computer, I now got a flashing folder… which actually bodes well, as that's usually just a HD issue, not logic board (as far as I know). But when I rebooted again to try to boot from another external, etc, I got the white/grey screen again, and that's it.
So, my question is this:
Is there anything else I can try? Either to fix this or to eliminate HD vs. other components.
Is this just a hard drive issue?
If this is something else (e.g. logic board), what would it cost to replace?
One thing I found on Google mentioned that removing the hard drive, if totally dead, could possible fix this. Can this be? I mean, I'm telling the computer to bypass the hard drive entirely!
Thanks in advance… I'm hoping I remembered everything I tried.

Hi hudgie,
There's any number of situations that occur when a HD fails, having worked at one of those "Genius Bars" for a while I can honestly say that there's no across the board, failure indication. Some of the more common indicates were:
1.) Startup to a flashing folder with question mark
2.) Loud clicking/grinding noise
3.) No noise/responsiveness from drive
4.) System bus lockup / inability to launch startup manager / inability to boot from external source
It sounds like you're dealing with situation #4. When my HD failed in my MacBook Pro it did the same thing, the drive would lock up the startup sequence and prevent me from doing anything. When I removed the HD and attempted to boot from an external source it would then startup just fine.
I personally don't think you're dealing with a logic board issue, but the only way to confirm that would be to connect another HD to the drive connection and try to boot the machine. If the issue persists I'd even go so far as to replace the SATA connection cable and then point a finger at the logic board.
Apple offers a "flat rate" repair service for machines out of warranty but with no accidental damage, I believe the price runs about ~$350. If you're just replacing a HD or the SATA cable and drive it's much cheaper to do it yourself. If you determine that the logic board is the point of failure, then I'd go the route of having Apple do it for you. Especially because the repair service grants you a 90-day limited warranty on the machine.

Help restoring disk and booting from external clone

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Butlins,
Welcome to the Apple Discussions!
The fixed 640x480 display resolution indicates that your external drive is missing the drivers for the eMac's video hardware. You can build the OS on the drive using the OS X install disc that came with the eMac, but that's a model-specific (gray label) disc that only has a full set of drivers for that particular Mac model. You really want to build the external drive's OS using a retail (black label) OS X Install disc that was released at or after the same time as the most recent Mac you need to be able to boot; retail OS X Install discs (should!) have the necessary drivers for all compatible Mac models released prior to that particular OS X disk.

Mac Mini Will not boot from external drive or install disk

Hi,
I just bought a new 2.0 ghz mac mini 1 gb ram. 120gb hdd.
I have a separate external HDD attached and wanted to boot from this. It works with my MBP and IMAC.
When i plug it into the Mac Mini and start up with Option key. It recognizes it.
I then click on it. It automatically reboots.... then grey screen comes on. It goes black after about 10 seconds. then boots into original operating system.
I also tried to use the MAC install Disk, thinking it might be a corruption in the shipped software. It does the same thing.
I have MAC Install DVD on an external drive too. Same issue.
I partitioned the HDD and installed a copy of the Mac install disk onto that with disk utility... Same thing grey screen, then black then back to original operating system.
Not sure what is going on?
thanks
Chris

Hi,
Thanks.
It is running 10.5.8.
I am trying to boot up an external drive with 10.5.8 on it. It works on my Macbook Pro which is running 10.5.8, runs on my IMAC running SL. But doesnt work on the mac mini?
It had been running SL, however there are a number of programs I have like Windows Live Sync which are not yet compatable with SL so i downgraded to 10.5.6 which came with the Mac Mini then loaded all updates.
It seems to just go into an auto reboot as soon as i click on it.
i thought it might be the firmware? Is it possible to downgrade them and then re-install?
I have reset the PRAM.
Any help would be appreciated.
Thanks

Yosemite won't Boot from External SSD with Firewire Connection

Seeking help, I boot from external SSD drives from my 2010 iMac. I recently installed Yosemite on an External SSD with a firewire connection and all went well with the installation and first boot. After completing set up and restarting my iMac Yosemite will no longer boot from the firewire connection it will boot to the loading bar and then get the dreaded Goest Buster Emblem, if I swap out the SSD to USB connection it boots normally. I have 6 SSD Drives with Mavericks and Lion installed on that will boot from the Firewire Connection. Any suggestions ?

Additionally when testing while the SSD is connected to a USB Connection and booted if I attach any firewire device they are not recognized or connected to the operating system.

Macbook pro cant boot from external dvd device please help !!!!

hello everyone please help me i have macbook pro 2011 core i5 version
i just installed 2.5 ssd as second hdd
i cant boot from external dvd device to install any os the external dvd keeps on spining and mac is just thinking it doesnt show press any key to install
it shows the device when a boot into mac parition
i am trying to install windows on origianl 500 gb hdd and linux on ssd
but not luck
the external dvd drive works i pluged into my pc and it works
please help thansk in advance
200 gb mac
300 gb windows
120 ssd linux

I do not know about Disk Warrior but if you have a compatible OSX on an external HDD you certainly can boot the MBP. Use startup manager:
https://support.apple.com/en-us/ht1310
Ciao.

How to boot from external Hardisk where sap is installed

Hi friends,
I have an External Hardisk where SAP is installed in it i.e., Win 2003 on C drive & SAP on D drive.
In my laptop Win XP is there, but I am trying to boot with External Hardisk where Win 2003 is installed.
I am selecting to boot from External Hardisk where Win 2003 is installed but it shows the Win 2003 booting screen and the next moment screen becomes black.
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santhosh

Hi,
You can not boot OS from USB devices in Windows.
Create the separate drive on your existing disc and install windows on that drive and use ur USB disc for installing SAP.
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How to prevent boot from external devices?

Hello,
Does anyone know how I could disable my imac's boot from external devices (firewire/USB disks etc.) like it can be done on PC hardware by changing BIOS options? Also, how can you password protect your machine pre-boot? I believe both issues are important to protect from unauthorized access (know the "evil maid attack"?)
Many thanks,
Georgios

There is a firmware password feature
http://support.apple.com/kb/HT1352
but there is an ominous Warning below the Summary. It basically sets the hardware so that a password (not the same as you user account password) is needed when you start up the Mac and nothing much can be done without it.
At the most basic level, if you turn off +Automatic Login+ in System Preferences Accounts pane, a login window will appear when you start up. If a different account (or a different drive) is used to start up your iMac, your user account home folder will not be accessible directly. However, the data is not encrypted in any way, so a determined hacker would be able to access your data.
If you want to encrypt your user account home folder, you can use the File Vault feature which is set up in System Preferences Security pane FileVault tab.
http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?path=Mac/10.5/en/8727.html

Tiger won't boot from external firewire

Installed 10.4.3 DVD on clean external firewire (Extended/Journaled). Before I installed Tiger, I ran updates, and repaired permissions. Everything looked good to me.
I'm keeping Panther on main system drive for now - so from System Preferences>Startup Disk>the external tiger drive appears and I select it. Then I select restart and the promt confirms that the computer will restart with 10.4.3. Looks good so far.
After restart, I'm looking at the desktop, guess what? It's 10.3.9, not 10.4.3. How could that be?
Also, when I restart and hold down the Option key for Startup Manager options - the firewire drive does not appear as an option.
So Tiger appears in System Preferences>Startup Disc as an option, but the option doesn't actually work, and that drive does not appear at all in (Option key) startup manager.
I'm Indexing the firewire drive now (OMG is that slow or what!), but I'm not expecting this to make any difference. I'm stumped. What am I overlooking? Please advise.
Muchas Gracias

R MacCool,
"What if I manually drag and drop the 4 folders (from the Tiger DVD) onto a second internal SATA drive without partitioning the drive first? Will I be able to boot off an internal SATA drive like that? When I installed Tiger on the external firewire I see that 4 folders are there - I could drag them from that drive onto the second internal drive. Does that work?"
No, this does not work. MacOS X consists of more then 20,000 invisible files, most of them somehow connected and referencing each other.
MacOS X DOES boot from external firewire drives, both hard disks and DVD drives.
Why don't you just upgrade your current 10.3.9 to Tiger using this procedure: 10.4 Tiger Upgrade: Decision tree+Checklist?
"Why does Tiger seem to install correctly, then System Pref>Startup Disc recognizes it, but then after selecting 10.4.3 it restarts into 10.3.9?"
I am not a technician, but it could be that the firmware is the primary source for connectivity. After MacOS X has booted the internal firewire drivers might take over and "overrule" the firmware (this is why you can see it in the startup disk preference pane) but at boot-time it exclusively depends on the firmware. This theory might be completely wrong though.

Boot from external Firewire Drive-cannot repair or optimize internal drive.

Hi all
Connected my new 300 GB Seagate External Firewire Hard Drive today.
Installed Tiger from DVD. Updated to 10.4.3.
Installed Tech Tool Pro 4. Updated to 4.1.1.
Booted from External Firewire Drive.
Disk Utility cannot Verify or Repair internal drive. Does not say or do anything.
Tech Tool Pro cannot repair volume or optimize. Says, "Cannot Unmount Volume."
Is there a fix for this?
Thank you for the help!
Jeff
eMac 800 nVidia. Mac OS X (10.4.3) 160 GB Internal HD. Pioneer Superdrive. 1 GB RAM.

Hi
I did name the new external completely different from the internal.
After booting from the external Firewire Hard Drive, I tried running Disk Utility and Tech Tool Pro from both drives. No matter which drive I run the Utilities from the same things happen every time...
Nothing happens when trying to use Disk Utility to Verify Volume on internal eMac Drive.
Tech Tool Pro says, "Cannot unmount volume" when trying to check Volume or Optimize internal drive.

Cannot boot from external HD

I have an external HD which my iMac backups my system daily. I use CCC for that and it has run fine so far. I never had any problem booting from that HD either by using Option/Alt during booting or thru using System Preferences.
Not now anymore. The iMac (late 2013, 27", FusionDrive) refuses to boot from it.
In System Preferences I can see the external HD as a bootable device. However the iMac still uses the internal drive.
When using Option/Alt I only see the internal drive and the restore partition.
I have made a (new) full backup to the external HD and CCC says it "blessed" the HD. But not possible to boot from. Further I did things like resetting Pram, resetting SMC. But does not help.
So next I installed the iMac from scratch (meaning starting the Internet restore and then do a full erase). But still the iMac will not boot from external.
I have connected the external HD to another Mac (Mini) and there it boots flawlessly. So to me there must be a problem with the iMac. But what can I do, this is a serious problem since I now have a backup but this can not fully be used?

- The issue is only if you want to boot from a USB3 external device.
- There are other ports on your machine that you can boot from, refer: Startup Manager: How to select a startup volume
- The ASC is not where Apple make announcements, Refer to their main website.
- Your question / query / feedback should be referred to : https://ssl.apple.com/support/feedback/
- If you find from Apple a resolution, post back. We would like to hear !
Cheers

Ibook g3 M2453 boot from external DVD drive

Hi, I'm Simon from Germany.
I have an iBook M2453 Mac OS X and a lot of dvds.
But the iBook has no DVD drive. So I bought an external DVD drive. But no matter what I do during boot (press the C key or alt)
I can not boot from external DVD drive.
Please help me
Thank you.
Simon.
PS: I have translated the text using Google translate

Hi Simon,
the iBook is able to boot from USB, but this is not expected behaviour and not supported by Apple.
http://support.apple.com/kb/TA20554
There are some external enclosures that do the trick.
But only when you press ALT after Power on. (Select a startup volume via the Startup Manager)
External enclosures with Prolific PL-3507 chipset (Firewire/USB Combo)
You will find them on Ebay Germany
I have a Delock IDE>USB 2.0 enclosure for 2,5" HDs
http://www.delock.com/produkte/gruppen/Geh%C3%A4use/Delock_25_external_enclosure _USB20_42365.html?setLanguage=EN
that works also.
Hallo Simon,
das läuft nur mit einigen wenigen externen Gehäusen. Such auf Ebay nach "PL-3507"
und nimm eins mit Firewire und USB Anschlüssen.
Ein Festplattengehäuse von Delock für 2,5" Festplatten ging auch ( Link oben)
Ein Boot ist nur möglich wenn du die ALT Taste nach dem Einschalten drückst und dann über den Startup manager dein Boot volume auswählst.

Booting from external hard drive on intel-based MacBook Pro

Good day everyone. I know similar questions were raised in this community, but I still have some questions.
I have MacBook Pro(late 2011) with OS X 10.7.5 and external hard drive with Ubuntu 13.04, from wich i can boot succefully on my PC. But MacBook Pro will not boot from my external drive, no matter which key/combination i use during restart.
After googling I found some answers to my initial question, how to boot from external hard drive
https://discussions.apple.com/thread/1852633?start=0&tstart=0
http://www.everymac.com/systems/apple/macbook_pro/faq/macbook-pro-boot-from-exte rnal-firewire-or-usb-drive.html
http://support.apple.com/kb/ht1948
As I understand I need to format my external hard drive into GUID partition type and this will be enough to be able to boot from it on my mac?
With this new partition type, will I be able to install ubuntu again on my external drive?
Does GUID partition type supports NTFS, ext4 and FAT32, linux swap?(I use ntfs for big files, ext4 as partition for ubuntu and fat32, because i use windows, linux and osx)
Will I be able to boot from my pc from my external drive with this new partition type?
What are downsides, if any, to GPT?
here is info on my e-drive

LowLuster wrote:
The only OS that will boot from an external drive is Mac OS X or maybe Linux. For OS X to be installed on any drive it need to be formatted Mac OS Extended and have GUID partition table.
As for Linux I'm not that familiar with it but again for a Mac to boot it need an EFI partition on the drive and I don't think that is possible with NTFS or FAT32 let alone the native Linux format.
Went to wiki to learn more on efi but found artice on uefi.
Operating system loaders are a class of the UEFI applications. As such, they are stored as files on a file system that can be accessed by the firmware, called EFI System partition (ESP). Supported file systems include FAT32, FAT16 and FAT12, and supported partition table scheme is GPT only. UEFI does not rely on a boot sector, although ESP provides space for it as part of the backwards compatibility.[26]
Here is FAQ on official uefi website.
Can UEFI Secure Boot be adopted and implemented by a variety of operating systems?
UEFI specifications are platform-independent, supporting multiple platforms and architectures. In addition, UEFI specifications are designed to promote cross-functionality, as well as to support broad adoption across multiple operating systems, including Windows as well as Linux-based operating systems. The specifications are robust and can potentially complement—or even advance—other distributions, such as Linux-based distributions.
And here is wiki article on GPT expaining OS support.
It is obvious both uefi and GPT are ok with Linux and file systems such as FAT32, ext4 and NTFS.
I guess there is no much difference(or is that the same thing?) between uefi and efi used in Macs.
In your answer to Stark Industries you said that mac can boot linux from external hard drive, well this is not the info i got of official website and it is still my question, because your answer is very inconclusive and your info is partially incorrect

2010 13" MBP Wont boot from internal. Will boot from external

This is fairly long winded, I will try to be as clear as i can.
Last week my 13" MBP refused to boot after running out of battery during sleep.
I have done the following to the original drive:
Booted from Lion Recovery, repaired, verified, and repaired/verified permissions.
Booted from Snow Leopard DVD, done the above.
Used Disk Utility on another Mac, done the above.
The drive still will not boot from the internal cable.
I can see the drive when attached internally, but cannot do any of the above actions as it is "unable to unmount"
I can boot from the drive if I use a USB external adaptor.
I bought a new hard drive....
I have done all the same on the new HDD with additionaly installing fresh Lion / Snow Leopard to the new drive whilst its in the internal position (Leopard from the DVD originating with my laptop, Lion from Lion Recovery whilst the other drive was on USB) but still having the same problem when it comes to booting - i.e. wont boot from internal. will boot from external USB.
Ideally I would like to end up with a lean install of lion, on the new hdd, booting from inside the laptop.
Please help, this is driving me mad.

I think you have solved your own problem. If you have two different HD's and they both do not work once connected, but do when placed in an external enclosure, then I would think it has something to do with the connection.
Slap the old drive back in the machine, and take it to the genius bar, and have them diagnose it. Hopefully they will have an answer for you. If not, bring the other drive too inside he external enclosure, and show them that it boots via the external.
Then, lay the whammy on them, and tell them that the original drive works inside the enclosure too.
Would be interesting to know what the actual issue is, and the resolution as well...

HD Failure and Inability to Boot from External

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