How do you boot from an external drive when internal drive is dead?

The internal drive is dead, but I have a complete dupolicate on my fire-wire external drive. I think I remember reading that there is a combination of keys to press down when starting to allow one to choose which drive to use as a startup volume. As it is, the thing won't start up at all.
So I know it's supposed to run from the external drive, but how do you get it to boot from it without having designated it as the startup when it was last running?

Hold down the Option key when booting the computer.
When I asked the question I was working on my daughter's ibook.
Now I'm back home and I have a firewall external drive, so I tried pressing option when I started and icons for startup drive come up BUT there is only one icon -- that being for my internal drive. I know that the external drive, which has a duplicate of the internal, is capable of starting it up ok, because when I go ahead and , after starting it up on the internal drive, then pick the external drive to start and then restart it, it goes to the external drive ok. But again, if it has been preferrenced to start on the internal drive and I do the thing by pressing with option when I start, it doesn't give me the option to use the external drive. (The external drive is partioned, and the duplicate startup is in one of the volumes, but I don't think this should have anything to do with anything, since it can start up using the appropriate external hard drive volume when I have selected it in my preferences.)
G4 tower Mac OS X (10.3.9)
G4 tower Mac OS X (10.3.9)

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How do you boot from an external hard drive if...

Thanks in advance to anyone who can offer any advice. My 24" IMAC suddenly had hard drive ****. After much investigation it has been determined that my internal hard drive has bit the dust. Instead of taking the IMAC apart and replacing the internal drive(which I know a bit about and also could get help doing)can I just replace it with an external drive and load the OS on that and boot from there? If so what exactly, step by step, would I need to do? What are the disadvantages of doing this? If this is possible it seems like an easier solution than replacing the internal drive.
Again, thanks for the help.
Bill

easybpw wrote:
can I just replace it with an external drive and load the OS on that and boot from there?
Yes, but it's not recommended for long-term use.
If so what exactly, step by step, would I need to do?
First, make sure the drive will boot a Mac. Most will, but some won't. If it's a Western Digital, check here: http://wdc.custhelp.com/cgi-bin/wdc.cfg/php/enduser/stdadp.php?pfaqid=1787. But note the disclaimer that they don't support it +*at all.+*
If you're reasonably sure the drive is capable of booting your Mac, you need to format it. Start up your Mac from the Install disc (insert it, and hold the "C" key while starting up). After selecting your language, select Utilities, then +Disk Utility+ from the menubar.
Select the drive, select the top line (with the make and size), click the Partition tab and select 1 Partition from the the pop-up menu under +Volume Scheme,+ unless you need more than one.
Give it a name under +Volume Information,+ and select +Mac OS Extended (Journaled)+ for the Format unless you're certain you need Mac OS Extended (Case-sensitive, journaled). Click the Options button below the box, and select GUID (that should be the default, but make sure), and click the OK button, then Apply. That should only take a few moments. Quit Disk Utility and you’ll see the Utilities menu again.
Quit that and proceed with the installation to the new drive. When done, I think it will reboot automatically from the external; if not, start up while holding down the Option key, which will give you the +Startup Manager,+ where you can select the desired drive.

How do I boot from an external drive?

I've just Carbon Cloned my 60GB drive to a firewire external drive. I'm about to replace the 60GB with a 160GB drive and the CCC instructions say boot from the external drive I'd just created once the new disk is installed. Then CCC the cloned drive back to the new hard drive.
So, how do I boot from an external drive? Do I have load anything to the new drive? Will the macbook detect the external drive and boot from that? Or what??????
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Dick

Thanks DWB. Being the rash impetuous guy I am I didn't wait for replies and just switched on the macbook after installing the new disk (which was so easy it was unbelievable - had to go and buy a a little torx bit though) to see what would happen.
Blow me down with a feather if it didn't just boot off the external drive all by itself :-O It did come up with the disk was unverified and I could see it in FINDER and I was prseented with a screen to ERASE/RESTORE etc.
When I went to CCC the external drive back to the new hard drive it didn't give show me the new hard drive so I guessed I'd have to do something to format (?) the hard drive.
I don't know if I did the right thing but I went to disk utilities and chose ERASE in the vague hope it would maybe format the disk in some way.
Seems to work now and the CCC replaced the system perfectly as far as I can see.
Basically very impressive all round. Piece of proverbial to replace the disk and CCC made life so easy.
Thanks again.
Cheers
Dick

How do I boot from an external CD drive?

On a different thread, I've been reporting problems with my internal HD.
When I went to Disk Utility and ran Verify Disk on the HD, I got the error back telling me that the Mac HD needs repairing. Now, to run the repair facility, I seem to have to reboot from the OS X CD rather than the Mac HD.
Trouble is, my internal optical drive failed some time ago (seems to be a known fault with iMacs that have the MATSHITADVD-R UJ-846 optical drive) and I've been using an external optical drive connected via firewire with no problems...until now. When I went to reboot from the CD (holding the C button down whilst selecting Reboot), my Mac just booted again from the internal HD.
How do I reboot from an external CD?
If I can do this, I can run the disk repair utility and hopefully all will then be well...
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Hi Chris.
What is the version of the OS on the computer and what is the version of the OS Disc that you have inserted?
Make sure you have inserted the same version of the OS disc that is currently running on the computer.
For Example. If there is 10.5.x running on your computer, you have to insert 10.5 Disc and boot to it.
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Gop's.

How can I boot from an external drive?

I am unsuccessful trying to have the external backup drive to boot the Powerbook. I tried first a USB Lacie Mobile Disk, then thinking USB was the problem I got a FireWire Little Disk of the same brand. None will boot even if the disk appears in the startup disk control panel. When I boot with option key, the choice is no longer there. Maybe they require a power supply other than the USB power lead? Any experience?

USB drives are not bootable for PowerBooks. FireWire drive usually needs to be used with the power supply since it consumes more power than the USB
Right! So there is no way to boot from an external without a power source.
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Do you boot from an external startup disk? Which one?

My IOmega USb 80gb will not be recognized as a volume that can accept the OS X install from the disk (10.4.3). I need the room for the jampacks and Reason 3.0 apps and I only have 10gb left on the internal harddrive. Does it need to a fire wire port with the appropriate partition and format to get the install software on the disk to be able to be the start up disk. If I get the "This volume can not run OS X " again on another drive I will be ******. Please let me know what external drive you boot from on your iBook

John,
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Volume format choices
Once you've selected this option, you can choose from two types of volume formats:
Mac OS Extended (Journaled)—This is the default option and should be used unless you have a specific reason not to.
UNIX File System—Only choose this option if you specifically need it.
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IMac G5 won't boot from an external Seagate Freeagent FireWire drive

Hi guys,
So, the internal drive on my sister's iMac G5 finally died a few days ago. On my advice, she stopped in to Best Buy and bought a Seagate Freeagent Xtreme 1tb external drive (with FireWire). I had her connect the Seagate to her MacBook (in Windows Boot Camp mode) and use the Seagate Manager to disable the drive's power-saving mode. I then talked her through using her OS X Leopard DVD to (re)partition the Seagate (using the Apple Partition Map scheme) and format it as Mac OS Extended Journaled, and Leopard installed just fine on the external drive (from the G5, via USB).
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Honestly, that's exactly what I would do if I had hands-on access to the iMac, but such a swap is a bit beyond my sister's skill-set.
We never did figure out what the issue was, so I had my sister return the drive and order one from MacSales.com (aka Other World Computing) - if anyone will have a Mac-friendly drive, it's those folks!
Huxley

How do I boot from an external hard drive if my MacBook Pro only recognizes the internal drive?

Hi there, I recently got the white screen of death (w/ circle slash) on my 13" 2009 MacBook Pro. Most people are saying that it is hard drive failure, so I am trying to boot it from an external hard drive to save some of my data before having it repaired. Unfortunately, every time I press "option" while it boots, it only shows the internal drive on the grey screen. I have my external drive connected, but it won't recognize it. What should I do?
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Welcome to the Apple Support Communities
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Hello deacm,
Supposedly you can insert your CD in the drive and, upon restart, (immediately after the chime) hold down the "C" key until the screen shows "Press any key to boot from CD". For some reason, this does not work for me.
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2) If you can't boot into Windows, in Apple's System Preference, select "Startup Disk" and then click on the Windows partition. Close System Preference, insert the CD and (after a couple of minutes when the CD is recognized) restart. Immediately after the chime, hold down the "Option/Alt" key. Select the CD and press "Return". Moments later, the screen should display "Press any key to boot from CD", then press any key.
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Message was edited by: Gary Kawamura

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How do you boot from IDE3 RAID

I have just installed a new HD on IDE3, no issues getting the bios to recognize it. However if there is a bootable HD in IDE1 it will boot from there and not from IDE3, regardless of what I do. I have tried in the BIOS disabling all boot devices and to boot from HDD-0/3, but it always boots from IDE1.
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First, the system details:
K7N2G-ILSR, BIOS rev. 1.3
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2 x Mushkin PC3200 256K DDR (Promo Dual Pack)
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My main start up disk has crashed. I have made a cloned disk using Super Duper that I have checked recently and the computer will boot from it. I also have another OS 10.6.3 on another internal disk.
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Is there anything I can do to force the computer to start from the clone disk?
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Thanks

I got this, I think I did it right, not much into the terminal
Last login: Tue Dec 20 01:10:54 on ttys000
[Mac-Pro:~] Jon% nvram -p
efi-boot-device          <array><dict><key>IOMatch</key><dict><key>IOProviderClass</key><string>IOM edia</string><key>IOPropertyMatch</key><dict><key>UUID</key><string>7952C499-9C5 2-4D3A-A1CE-DA650BD0EEA0</string></dict></dict><key>BLLastBSDName</key><string>d isk0s2</string></dict></array>%00
prev-lang:kbd          en:0
boot-image          %02%01%0c%00%d0A%03%0a%00%00%00%00%01%01%06%00%02%1f%03%12%0a%00%01%00%00% 00%00%00%04%01*%00%02%00%00%00(@%06%00%00%00%00%00%e0%1f.:%00%00%00%00%99%c4RyR% 9c:M%a1%ce%dae%0b%d0%ee%a0%02%02%04%04%1a%006%00f%009%000%00b%000%00b%000%000%00 0%00%00%00%7f%ff%04%00
platform-uuid          %00%00%00%00%00%00%10%00%80%00%00%17%f2%02%a5p
BootCampHD          %02%01%0c%00%d0A%03%0a%00%00%00%00%01%01%06%00%02%1f%03%12%0a%00%01%00%00% 00%00%00%7f%ff%04%00
efi-apple-payload0          <array ID="0"><dict ID="1"><key>BLLastBSDName</key><string ID="2">disk0s1</string><key>IOMatch</key><dict ID="3"><key>IOProviderClass</key><string ID="4">IOMedia</string><key>IOPropertyMatch</key><dict ID="5"><key>UUID</key><string ID="6">00007608-5456-0000-5118-000032640000</string></dict></dict></dict><dict ID="7"><key>IOEFIDevicePathType</key><string ID="8">MediaFilePath</string><key>Path</key><string ID="9">\EFI\APPLE\FIRMWARE\LOCKED_MP11_005C_08B.fd</string></dict></array>%00
SystemAudioVolume          -
efi-apple-payload0-data          %02%01%0c%00%d0A%03%0a%00%00%00%00%01%01%06%00%02%1f%03%12%0a%00%00%00%00% 00%00%00%04%01*%00%01%00%00%00(%00%00%00%00%00%00%00%00@%06%00%00%00%00%00%08v%0 0%00VT%00%00Q%18%00%002d%00%00%02%02%04%04\%00\%00E%00F%00I%00\%00A%00P%00P%00L% 00E%00\%00F%00I%00R%00M%00W%00A%00R%00E%00\%00L%00O%00C%00K%00E%00D%00_%00M%00P% 001%001%00_%000%000%005%00C%00_%000%008%00B%00.%00f%00d%00%00%00%7f%ff%04%00
efi-boot-device-data          %02%01%0c%00%d0A%03%0a%00%00%00%00%01%01%06%00%02%1f%03%12%0a%00%00%00%00% 00%00%00%04%01*%00%02%00%00%00(@%06%00%00%00%00%00%e0%1f.:%00%00%00%00%99%c4RyR% 9c:M%a1%ce%dae%0b%d0%ee%a0%02%02%7f%ff%04%00
boot-args
[Mac-Pro:~] Jon%

How do you boot from an external drive when internal drive is dead?

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