Internal Drive Going...

I am using three of my four drive slots. The first slot contains an original 500G hard drive and it runs the system. Slots 2 and 3 hold 1TB drives. I also have two 1TB external USB drives. I had three but during some very hot weather I lost one. I tried to save it using Disk Warrior but DW couldn't find or work with it.
So I used DW to run a repair on all of my drives without a problem - except for that first internal drive. To run a repair required booting from the DW disk and running DW from there. It started out alright and got to a mid-point of reviewing the drive then just stopped. After 6 hours I ended the repair process (it wasn't actually repairing, just locating the files), tried it again and came up with the same problem. The system runs as well as it did before the attempt but I don't want to take any chances.
I have a new 2TB Western Digitial drive I'll slide into the 4th slot and move the data (movie and editing stuff) from slot 3 over to Slot 4, erase/reforma Slot 3 and use Carbon Copy to clone my original hard drive (Slot 1) over to Slot 3, then switch the two drives so Slot 3 beocmes Slot 1 and restart the machine so I boot from Slot 1 (the newer 1TB drive).
My question is, I can do that, right? I shouldn't run into problems, right?
I'll be moving the operating system (10.5.6) from a 500g over to a 1TB just in time for the upcoming release of Snow Leopard.
If anyone sees a problem please speak up and let me know. I've never cloned an OS before but theoretically see no problem (or am I just too full of myself???)
Thanks, Lisa

Here is a better solution that will handle what you want, take a small amount of time to setup.
Always work with an "emergency boot drive" for maintenance and repairs, doesn't get used for anything else and has DW etc on it with just Apple current system. Small 20GB and backup once for safety on a DU "sparse" disk image.
Make a bootable backup of your current system.
Never repair a drive that is not backed up, try to backup anything essential.
- you can Preview and backup inside Disk Warrior.
Never run repairs off a CD or DVD, just use your "E" drive.
Before upgrading to 10.5.7, backup, and then boot from "E" drive and run maintenance.
There are no slot depend positions and it doesn't make any sense to move a physical drive to another slot or drive bay. Sounds complicated and doesn't buy anything in the process.
You could put your emergency 20GB on any of your non-system drive, or on more than one, plenty of room on the 2TB WD.
There are times when DW can take a long time if the directory is damaged, if the journal is wrong, if there are a large amount of file fragments and has trouble finding files. It has been known to take a day - or three.
Use the System Pref control panel to set the default boot drive. And use the OPTION key to boot from an alternate drive for one time.
Keep it simple and you will have less trouble - and work.

Similar Messages

Booting From Internal Drive Goes To Darwin/BSD

Hi,
I recently put a new internal drive in my Mac Pro and was booting between drives (Bay 1 = OS 10.4.11 and Bay 2 = OS 10.6.3) just fine. Then I added a user account and when I tried to boot up from the OS 10.4.11 drive it went to Darwin screen. I have since erased the other user and went back to one account. I am still getting the darwin screen when trying to boot from the 10.4.11 drive. After reading through forums I have gone this far:
Darwin asks for login: I complete and it says Welcome to Darwin!
Then I type: tail -20 var/log/system.log
it reads fine until I get this message:
kernel[0]: IOResources: match category DigiIO exists
ntpdate[123]: the NTP socket is in use, exiting
ntpd[194]: bind() fd 5, family 2, port 123, addr 0.0.0.0, in_classd=0 flags=8 fails: Address
ntpd[194]: bind() fd 5, family 30, port 123, addr ::, in6is_addrmulticast=0 flags=0 fails: Address
mDNSResponder: NOTE: Wide-Area Service Discovery disabled to avoid crashing defective DNS relay 64.25.228.6.
ntpdate[124]: no server suitable for synchronization found
ntpd[200]: bind() fd 7, family 2, port 123, addr 127.0,0,1, in_classd=0 flags=0 fails: Address already in use
ntpd[200]: bind() fd 7, family 30, port 123, addr ::1, in6isaddr multicast=0 flags =0 fails: Address already in use
ntpd[200]: bind() fd 7, family 30, port 123, addr fe80:1::1, in6is_addrmulticast=0 flags=0 fails: Address already in use
ntpd[200]: bind() fd 7, family 30, port 123, addr fe80:6::21:e3ff:fe0e:7a86, in6is_addrmulticast=0 flags=0 fails: Address already in use
ntpd[200]: bind() fd 7, family 2, port 123, addr 192.168.1.111, in_class=0 flags=8 fails: Address already in use
configd{39}: target=enable-network: disabled
ntpd[200]: sendto(17.151.16.21): Bad file descriptor
launchd: Server 0 in bootstrap 6807 uid -2: "/System/Library/Frameworks/CoreServices.framework/Frameworks/Metadata.framewor k/Versions/A/Support/mdimportserver"[223]: exited with status: 1
launchd: Server 0 in bootstrap 6807 uid -2: "/System/Library/Frameworks/CoreServices.framework/Frameworks/Metadata.framewor k/Versions/A/Support/mdimportserver"[229]: exited with status: 1
I hope somehow someone can tell me how to get this drive booting up again. I have Verified/Repaired and always get that the drive is fine from Disc Utility.
Thanks,
Jamie

Reinstall:
How to Perform an Archive and Install
An Archive and Install will NOT erase your hard drive, but you must have sufficient free space for a second OS X installation which could be from 3-9 GBs depending upon the version of OS X and selected installation options. The free space requirement is over and above normal free space requirements which should be at least 6-10 GBs. Read all the linked references carefully before proceeding.
1. Be sure to use Disk Utility first to repair the disk before performing the Archive and Install.
Repairing the Hard Drive and Permissions
Boot from your OS X Installer disc. After the installer loads select your language and click on the Continue button. When the menu bar appears select Disk Utility from the Installer menu (Utilities menu for Tiger, Leopard or Snow Leopard.) After DU loads select your hard drive entry (mfgr.'s ID and drive size) from the the left side list. In the DU status area you will see an entry for the S.M.A.R.T. status of the hard drive. If it does not say "Verified" then the hard drive is failing or failed. (SMART status is not reported on external Firewire or USB drives.) If the drive is "Verified" then select your OS X volume from the list on the left (sub-entry below the drive entry,) click on the First Aid tab, then click on the Repair Disk button. If DU reports any errors that have been fixed, then re-run Repair Disk until no errors are reported. If no errors are reported click on the Repair Permissions button. Wait until the operation completes, then quit DU and return to the installer. Now restart normally.
If DU reports errors it cannot fix, then you will need Disk Warrior and/or Tech Tool Pro to repair the drive. If you don't have either of them or if neither of them can fix the drive, then you will need to reformat the drive and reinstall OS X.
2. Do not proceed with an Archive and Install if DU reports errors it cannot fix. In that case use Disk Warrior and/or TechTool Pro to repair the hard drive. If neither can repair the drive, then you will have to erase the drive and reinstall from scratch.
3. Boot from your OS X Installer disc. After the installer loads select your language and click on the Continue button. When you reach the screen to select a destination drive click once on the destination drive then click on the Option button. Select the Archive and Install option. You have an option to preserve users and network preferences. Only select this option if you are sure you have no corrupted files in your user accounts. Otherwise leave this option unchecked. Click on the OK button and continue with the OS X Installation.
4. Upon completion of the Archive and Install you will have a Previous System Folder in the root directory. You should retain the PSF until you are sure you do not need to manually transfer any items from the PSF to your newly installed system.
5. After moving any items you want to keep from the PSF you should delete it. You can back it up if you prefer, but you must delete it from the hard drive.
6. You can now download a Combo Updater directly from Apple's download site to update your new system to the desired version as well as install any security or other updates. You can also do this using Software Update.

Can I use an external hard drive on my iMac if the internal drive is dead?

The internal 1 TB hard drive on my 2009 w/Mavericks hard drive is failing. I clone that drive to an external hard drive as a backup and often boot from the external when I want to do some maintence (Disk Warrior) on the iMac drive. So far Disk Warrior has saved that iMac drive but eventually it won't be able to do so.
I looked into buying a new internal drive and replacing the old iMac drive but the procedures are not as easy as I hoped. So my question becomes: if/when that internal drive goes belly up will I be able to set the external drive as the main drive through System Preferences and automatically boot into it each time I need the machine? Or would I have to boot into a USB Maintenance drive then reset to reboot into the external drive each time I wanted to use the machine.
Of course I'll be looking into buying a new iMac but until then I want to use this older machine as much as possible.
Thanks.

Yes, you’ll be able to do that.
(116841)

Could both my internal drives be going bad at once?

i posted an issue a moment ago about a write protection warning, which has never happened. so i run disk utility on this particular drive - and it stops half way through with a random error!
ok, so i start dumping files onto my other internal drive like a mad man. and what do you know? when i try and open the particular folder on the backup drive which holds the data i just copied over, my system stalls for about 10 seconds and then apparently restarts my finder!
could it be that both my drives are going bad at once? what could be causing this madness. i ran disk utility on the backup drive and it went without a hitch, but solved nothing.
please help!

Save your contents of your user folders to a external drive that you know that works in addition to the other internal. Especially your iTunes folder and User/name/Library/Safari & Mail folders contents.
You might have something going wrong with your boot drive, it could be a bad sector, a bad OS install, corrupted OS file who the heck knows, but it's looking like your going to need to Erase with Zero option in DU (to eliminate bad sectors) and reinstall Tiger fresh, use your same name, drive name and password, update, install apps from fresh sources (don't use Migration Assistant, doesn't do copy protection and copies blindly) and copy those folders mentioned above back to the same location.
If that doesn't work, it could be a mechanical problem, which the drive needs to be replaced under warranty or AppleCare. Give them a call and they can send you a new one and you can replace it yourself, holding your CC hostage until they receive the bad one.
Later once your back up and running, learn to clone your boot drive to a external drive just for cases like this. It's boot-able, you can fix the original drive, you can copy files over and just erase and reverse clone.
It will save your bacon. Read my text docs.
http://homepage.mac.com/hogfish
Oh if you do a fresh install, might as well do Tiger and iLife 06 in the process.

I am migrating to a new iMac via TimeMachine back up. My iPhoto libraries are on external drive. I'd like to migrate only the internal hard drive data to the new internal Drive then just plug in iPhoto library drive. Is this going be a problem?

I am migrating to a new iMac via TimeMachine back up. My iPhoto libraries are on an external drive. Both drives are backed up on Time Machine. I'd like to migrate only the old internal hard drive data to the new internal Drive and then just plug in iPhoto library drive to the new iMac. This would save having to transfer several hundred GBs of data. Will this work using Set Up Assistant?

Your user account on the new Mac must have a different UID than on the old one. See the pink box in Problems after using Migration Assistant for an explanation.
You'll need to change the permissions on the iPhoto library on the external HD. Do a Get Info on it, click the padlock at the bottom of the Sharing & Permissions section of the Info window and enter your Admin password.
Then click the plus sign, select the user account you want on the next screen, and click Select. Then change Read only to Read & Write for that user via the little arrows. Finally, click the "gear" icon and select Apply to enclosed items. That may take a few mintutes on a large library.

External Mac-formatted drive goes blank when internal

Okay so, I have an External drive that sat in a USB enclosure until the USB connection snapped off on the inside. I figured I'd remove the (SATA) drive and re-purpose it as an internal drive. When I did this, it shows up as unreadable. The drive itself shows up in disk utility apps, but the two partitions (one was a Time Machine backup, the other a regular Mac-formatted (Extended) partition, do not. I get the ol' "This drive cannot be read. Initialize?" message when the machine boots up. Any idea how I can get back to the data I know is on there? Am I gonna have to do a RESTORE to another drive?

What brand of drive and what enclosure? If it's a brand name external from, for example, WD or Hitachi (Touro), the drive may have been "specially" formatted for the enclosure. If that's the case, you will need to reformat, probably.
You are generally better off buying a decent enclosure and installing your drive of choice in it yourself.

I had tried installing windows 8.1 pro with many different solutions like using Bootcamp or using gdisk part and upgrading the disk part from hybrid to EFI also tried Using Lenevo external Optical drive which doesnt worked my internal drive is damage

I Am fed up after getting error after errors on the installation of windows 8.1 in my late 2011 MBP 15" 750 GB HDD and OSX Yosemite 10.10.2 and i am trying to install windows 8 or 7 and the error doent go away also i tried various other methods like gdisk part to make next button appear and Afte next button appear i am getting the error after the check list is done
please someone help me out i am getting paranoid in this and i am going to be a threat to society because its making me insane.

1. You cannot use the Lenovo external drive, because you already have a built-in SuperDrive. Get your internal drive fixed.
2. Your Mac does not support EFI Boot, because it is a PreUEFI model based on How to identify MacBook Pro models - Apple Support and the following list. If you force it with EFI boot, some of your hardware GPU/Audio will not work properly.

Backing up images on external hard drive and restoring to new internal driv

I recently purchased a new external hard drive and a new internal hard drive. Before installing the new internal drive, I backed up the old internal drive on the external drive. Then I installed the new internal drive to my Macbook Pro. However, when I tried to access and print my Aperture images on the new internal drive, I received an error message saying "versions with unavailable master images cannot be printed." I clicked on 'show referenced files," but couldn't determine how to recover my master images. I checked the forum and under "referenced files go offline after restore from a backup" it said to go to "File>manage referenced files" but nothing else. How can I recover my master images? Please help - I have nearly 6000 images that are lost without recovering the master images. And no, I was ultra stupid in not placing everything in a vault = but I'm relatively new to Mac OS and thought a backup would be sufficient. Thank!

The volume name of the new hard drive needs to be the same as the old hard drive - rename it if you have to - then they should be fine.
If you cannot seem to make this work then you will have to reconnect them with locate referenced files under the file menu. Select all the files that are disconnected before going into the dialog.
RB

Time Machine won't back up to internal Drive through AFP?

Hi All!
Heres my Problem.
I have a Mac Pro system with 4 Hard Drives installed inside the internal Bays. I wish to use one for Time Machine for the Clients.
On the clients i get the error about it not having the correct AFP version. (I know this is a common problem within Lion).
Although surely if the hard drive is inside a Mac Pro Server running Lion then the client should be able to back up through it to its INTERNAL drive.
Or does this still count as NAS?
Thoughts?
Dan

We are going to need more information from you in order to help.
What kind of hard drive is this?
How is it formatted?
Where is it connected? Directly to your Mac?
How is it connected? USB? Firewire?
What have you tried so far?
What error messages have you received?

External Hard Drive Failures after iMac internal drive replaced

I was one of those lucky ppl who had to have my internal 1TB Seagate HDD replaced due to the recall. It was replaced on Friday.
After the drive was replaced (with another Seagate, ***?), I cloned my previous system back to the new drive (restoring from Time Machine required me to re-download Lion, which required me to re-download to a newer version of Snow Leopard, and just, Oi, vey, I used my clone).
I then had to create another bootcamp partition, and after that, I restored my previous bootcamp from an image backup with Winclone.
The next morning, my Time Machine external backup drive (a Maxtor OneTouch) makes horrible fluttering and crunching noises and cannot be found via disk utility, certainly doesn't mount to the desktop. I figure it just coincidentally failed and attached a new drive (a different OneTouch) for backup.
While Time Machine is performing an initial backup to this new drive (will take 10 hrs), I try to move a few media files to another external media drive (LaCie 1TB). I receive a couple of error -36s on a few particular files, so I figure I should wait for the Time Machine to backup and then diagnose the media drive.
The next morning (after 10 hr backup is finished), I have a stop-sign error that a disk was unmounted improperly (the LaCie media drive). The drive cannot be seen in disk utility or on a completely different MBP running Snow Leopard. It's spinning up, but it can't be read.
Only thing I can think to do is reinstall 10.8.2 over top the cloned system, make sure that the recovery partition was recreated and working.
This can't be a coinicidence, right? At this point, I'm afraid to keep my external storage drives and clone attached to the iMac, but I'm afraid to not have TM drive attached. Anyone know where to start diagnosing the problem?
1. Could a new internal drive be the problem, hardware wise?
2. Could the lack of an initial recovery partition or the setting up of a bootcamp partition have these sorts of consequences?
3. Could the problem be from restoring a clone?

Well, it is a LaCie-packaged adapter, some version of that model. The hub is on the mac mini inspired line of LaCie HDs (http://www.lacie.com/company/news/news.htm?id=10269). I've had it for 6 yrs, and the hub is still going. Other drives have been running from the hub without issue for all that time (and still are). There is no hissing, and the display light indicates the hub is getting power.
You think it's time for a new hub?
The internal switchout is just a coincidence?
(Basically, I'm not a hardware expert. Does anyone know if an internal drive or internal sensor/connection problem can cause externals to fail or blowout a controller? I'm waiting on a drive dock to arrive—I'll know more whether these are HD failures or chip failures after that. Both drives showed normal-seeming power use via their display lights.)

232 GB internal drive - can't be right

My brother, who has a 2ghz MBP with 1GB RAM (2x512) was having problems opening an iMovie project and called me up for help. While guiding him through the process of repairing permissions, I noticed that his internal drive was being reported as 232 GB?
Actually, since we did this over the phone, I only "noticed" this oddity when he offhandedly mentioned that Disk Util said the drive was 232GB. I said "huh... what is did you say?", "are you sure your external drive isn't hooked up?", "could you check again?" I had him shutdown and unplug everything from his computer except the power chord. I had him restart (multiple times). And I made him re-check it in disk utilities 4 times (and also through "get info").
Obviously this is impossible as there are no 232GB internal SATA drives on the market, and he got his MacBook direct from the Apple Store and the only custom config he did was to have them add 512 of RAM at the store.
Any ideas what might be going on???? Any suggestions???
=======================Background info=================
Earlier in the day he was working iMovie, using an external drive, lost all his work and had to start over and recreate the project (saving to his internal HD). At some point that started acting up and he called me for help (he could not open the file).
I discovered he was saving his iMovie Project to the root of his Macintosh HD, so I had him move it to the "Movies" folder (within his username), and then guided him through repairing permissions. This solved his immediate problem, and he was able to launch iMovie and open the project.
It was while we repaired the permissions that we discovered the 232GB issue for his internal drive.
==================================================

Actually 232 GB is not an uncommon formatted capacity for a 250 GB hard drive, due to the issues listed in this article:
http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=30065
However, since the largest laptop hard drive on the market is currently 160 GB (200 GB is being reported as coming out in 2nd half of 2006 by several news media sources), I agree that something is messed up with the partition table, or directory.

MacPro won't boot from (2) internal drives but will from DVD

My MacPro hung this morning, blank screen but mouse red LED working. I restarted it and it booted into my 2nd internal drive with 10.5.2 rather than "Macintosh HD". Checked Time Machine and seemed to be all good.
I used the DVD to get TimeMachine to do a complete restore from internal drive 4 onto the main Macintosh HD. This got as far as saying something like "restore complete, click to restart using restored disk".
After clicking I just got a beachball of death.
Used DVD to run disk utility, clean bill of health on all drives except verify permissions gets 15% through then stops.
Now, when I try and boot from either of my two startup disks the MacPro starts up, goes to greyscreen then I get a couple of little clicking noises and the whole thing shuts down.
Tried unplugging everything then just put power lead back in and monitor connection,
Tried running Apple Hardware Test (as it boots from disk but not drives, thought it might be a power supply problem) but AHT gets to "test 1" then locks up
I can boot into single user mode, am about to try FSCK but running out of things to try.
Can I access files from the desktop and put hem onto a remote machine or USB stick from Single User Mode - or access/mount my drives from the DVD. In the "old" days it was poosible to boot to a desktop from a CD - can that still be done?
Cheers
Beardy man
Message was edited by: Beardy man
Message was edited by: Beardy man

I always keep spare drives, and use SuperDuper to keep images even of drive volumes.
Keeping one drive to OS only and no data or prefs helps.
Having an emergency drive or partition: a must (sort of like Micromat TTPro eDrive only better).
Pull the drive for now. Maybe Data Rescue II later. And a FW case you can throw it into for repairs or to recover files.
I am surprised you don't get the "stop" sign, a circle + slash, that often indicates corrupt journal/directory and no boot device where it expects to find one.
TechTool Pro, commercial $90 5.0 is due soon, hopefully they were just waiting now for 10.5.5 to be out and see if it would change or alter (or break) their utility.
Backups, whether TS or a clone made with SuperDuper, are critical, should run on their own automatically in background, and the OS doesn't have to be that large, fit it on 60-100GB disk image so you don't have to worry about partition and size.
For now, use the DVD to install OS X on a new drive partition to begin to build a foundation from which you can do more and mark this as emergency-only. You can clone it later if needed to a "working" system. SuperDuper is free for full copy, or use Disk Utility Restore even to set the source and 'target' destination volumes.

Disk Utility says everything's fine, but Install disk doesn't find my internal drive as a possible destination. When I startup with Command S, I get a looping "cannot mount errno = 19" message.

Disk Utility says everything's fine, but Install disk doesn't find my internal drive as a possible destination. When I startup with Command + S, I get a looping "cannot mount errno = 19" message.
Problem started when I used Tech Tool Pro 6 to "de-fragment volume". Had to cancel that process before it finished because I ran out of time. Thereafter, when I startup my machine normally, I get the gray Apple logo at first, but it changes to a prohibited symbol (circle with a slash thru it) and hangs.
When I startup holding the Option key, I can see my internal drive, but I get the same results as above.
When I startup using the MacBook OSX Install DVD, it does not find my internal drive as possible destination.
When I startup using the MacBook OSX Install DVD and then run Disk Utility, it finds my drive, allows me to "repair" and says everything is fine.
When I startup with Command + S, I get a looping error message "errno = 19" and cannot stop it to do anything else.
When I startup from Disk Warrior v4.4, it does not find my internal drive to do any repairs.
When I startup from Tech Tool Pro 6 and run the "computer check" diagnostics, everything passes but the Volume Structure, which fails at "Volume Extents (B-tree)." When I use TTP's "Tools" option to run "volume repair" it will show my internal drive and allow me to click the GO button, but nothing happens and nothing changes.
I have a Time Machine backup on an external USB drive, but for as long as the internal drive doesn't mount, I can't use the backup to restore.

It's a false report and should be ignored.
I would not rely on TT as I've already said earlier even before Grant posted similar advice.
I really think the Rigid Disk Block may be corrupted. This holds the partition map and could prevent a volume from being unmounted. Unfortunately, there is no way to fix that without repartitioning the drive which will remove everything. So, before going down this road I hope you have backups or can make a backup.
Drive Partition and Format
1. Boot from your Snow Leopard Installer Disc. After the installer loads select your language and click on the Continue button. When the menu bar appears select Disk Utility from the Utilities menu.
2. After DU loads select your 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.
3. Under the Volume Scheme heading set the number of partitions from the drop down menu to one. Click on the Options button, set the partition scheme to GUID then click on the OK button. Set the format type to Mac OS Extended (Journaled.) Click on the Partition button and wait until the process has completed.
4. Quit DU and return to the installer. Proceed with reinstalling OS X.
5. Download and install Mac OS X 10.6.8 Update Combo v1.1.

Problems installing windows on a clean Mac Pro internal drive - issues and questions

Hey,
I have a Mac Pro mid 2010 with the following drive configurations:
3x120GB SSD in a RAID-0 as Boot (OS X 10.8.6) and SSD Scratch (working files)
3x4TB HDD in a RAID-0 as Master (data) and HDD Scratch (downloads)
1x100GB SSD (Spare...to install windows on)
I have literally tried every possible way of installing Windows 8 on that single SSD...both using bootcamp and without.
I can get it installed and working, install all the drivers/updates/software...involving multiple reboots into windows. Everything seems fine, and i shut down and boot into OS X, which works perfectly as expected. BUT, when i try and boot into Windows again (using <option> key at startupand selecting the windows volume, called "EFI Boot" which i did not name) I can log in and start using apps and then 20-40 seconds later i get the BSOD.
I can't for the life of me figure out why.
It's the easiest thing in the world to partition a single OSX drive to boot windows ON THE SAME DRIVE, but i can't seem to boot stably into a standaloe internal drive.
NOTE: I prepare the Windows drive by formatting the entire thing to "Free Space" using disk utility in Mac OS X, and can see that there are no partitions (EFI or otherwise) on the drive. Then I pull all the other drives except the target drive, reboot with a Windows 8 USB drive (created by BootCamp Assistant on my macbook air, because apparently some genius thought that task was too complicated for a Mac Pro...jks) and install from there. The funny part is that i can pick out the target drive in the windows setup, it's registering as 1 disk/partition of UNALLOCATED SPACE, as expected, but there is a warming that windows cannot be installed on this drive because my computer does not support booting to this disk, and that i should check that it's controller is enabled in the BIOS.....which to the best of my knowledge is not used by intel-macs, which use UEFI. But i can still click "Next", so I do and install Windows and boot to this drive, restarting and installing software updates and drivers as mentioned above.
The BSOD seems to pop up only after i've rebooted to Mac OS X and then try to go BACK to Windows 8.
The version of windows 8 and install USB were checked using my macbook air, and they work flawlessly. ASLO that warning about not being able to boot to the drive during windows setup isn't present.
I'm wondering if the fact the the RAID volumes are a software RAID, using Disk Utility in OSX is causing windows some issues...which makes no sense.
I'll keep playing, but I'm not confident I'm ever going to find a solution.
Somebody be my hero...

Hey Hatter,
Another question for you:
I can't seem to use system preferences>>startup disk to boot into windows. When I select windows and then restart i get a black "BIOS-like" screen which then cuts out and a message is displayed that says "there is no bootable disc"
This stumped me, because I know i can boot into windows from the boot screen (holding down option and selecting "EFI Boot" which apparently is what my windows drive is called.
because of my Mac OSX Raid arrays, i had to install windows by formatting a drive to HFS+ (GUID) pratition table, then repartition to "Free Space" then using an install usb that i made with my macbook air, pull all my other drives and install by selecting the usb drive to boot from.
I went into disk utility to see if I can repair the disk, and disk utility says that the disk has to EFI partition and that we won;t be able to boot from it....which is very confusing because i can boot from it.
Windows 8 apparentl;y uses UEFI from my research....so i'm utterly stumped.
I beleive this is also the cause of my newly purchased graphics card Mac Edition HD 7950, throwing me a BSOD when i select to boot in windows from the boot menu...
Any advice would be greatly appreciated.

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)

Internal Drive Going...

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