Mac mini boot from external disk & clustering

Can we have a "boot from SAN" possibility using mac mini server and a NAS?
Another question... is-it possible to have a full redundancy solution by clustering 2 mac mini?
Thanks for your help.

Ah, I see, very good question, but I think you may get more/better help from the experts over in Servers area...
https://discussions.apple.com/community/servers_enterprise_software

Similar Messages

Does run Mac OS X from external disk will damage Win7 installed at internal disk?

Hi,
When I buy a Mac Mini Server 2011, I replace the Mac OS X Lion bootable disk with a SSD and install Win7 64, the other internal disk is also used by windows.
Now I need write some code in Mac OS using XCode, I assembling the Mac OS X Lion bootable disk with a USB disk shell and plug in Mac Mini's USB port, when I power on the machine and press the ALT key, the firmware show the Max OS disk, but I stoped.
I want to know if I boot into Mac OS, will it damage the Win7 disk? Can I apply OS patch or upgrade firmware?
Thanks in advance!

Does run Mac OS X from external disk will damage Win7 installed at internal disk?
Of course not. Why would it?

New MacBook won't boot from external disk

I have a new MacBook that I am trying to boot from an external disk that had the system from my first gen MacBook Pro. When I restart holding the Option key, and select my external disk, the system restarts again and won't let me boot from that disk. Is there something different with the OS (10.5.6) that is installed on a newer MacBook that won't allow it to boot from the same OS from an older MacBook Pro?
Thanks

Ian Patterson wrote:
golferx,
Will any other Intel Mac boot from the drive? If not, it's possibly because the drive uses an Apple Partition Map (bootable for PowerPC Macs) instead of a GUID Partition Table (bootable for Intel Macs).
To check: open to Disk Utility, select the hard drive on the left, select the Partition tab and look at the text at the bottom right corner of the window under Partition Map Scheme. If it says anything other than GUID Partition Table, you will need to erase and repartition it as such before it will be bootable.
Just a thought. Hope this helps. Good luck!
-i-
I can boot an prev gen MacBook and also my iMac (current gen). I took it to the Genius Bar and he could not get it to boot a new MacBook either and didn't have a solution.

Can Mac mini boot from thunderbolt?

Can Mac mini (mid 2011) boot from thunderbolt?
Thanks.

Yes, Thunderbolt is bootable. Now all we need are some reasonably priced Thunderbolt drives to try it!

Core i7 mbp will not boot from external disk

One upon a time, I tried to boot my new:
Model Name:    MacBook Pro
Model Identifier:    MacBookPro8,1
Processor Name:    Intel Core i7
Processor Speed:    2.7 GHz
Number of Processors:    1
Total Number of Cores:    2
L2 Cache (per Core):    256 KB
L3 Cache:    4 MB
Memory:    4 GB
Boot ROM Version:    MBP81.0047.B0E
from a bootable Carbon Copy Cloner backup on my external FW800 drive. (This, after I used Migration assistant to move the user over from My MacBookPro 5,1 core 2 duo machine.)
It didn't like it, booting from the CCC clone, that is. There were problems with the boot of the new machine from that external disk and then problems with the boot from the internal disk. I repaired disk permisssions and all seemed to be well booting from the internal disk for several months until I tried to boot from my SL 10.6 2Z691-6431-A CPU Drop-in DVD upgrade included with the initial purchase. That didn't work. I got the grey "restart your computer by holding down the power button" screen with a bunch of words and numbers in the background. This also happened with the grey intsall disks that shipped with the machine with 10.5.7 on them.
Following this, the turning gear times are erratic, varying from 11 to 40 turns on boot up with an odd flicker happening for a fraction of a second during the turning gear screen. From time to time I'll get some beach balling while the login is taking place and all of the icons are loading in. After that, the machine functions fairly normally.
I know there's a problem though and I'm looking to resolve it with any advice the community can offer.
I have used DiskWarrior in the past but not for this machine which has not been used with this machine since it's incompatible. I also have a full timecapsule backup. I also have a partition on an external drive with OS 10.6 on it. Haven't tried to boot from it because I'm scared it'll mess things up worse.

I'm trying to boot my core i7 from any external disk without success getting only the grey restart screen. The machine will neither boot from the 10.6 upgrade disk, nor the external firewire disk.
I'm not sure, but it seems that you're suggesting that I rebuild the OS as though it were a brand new machine without any of my s/w or data, and I cannot conceive of such a monumental task. If you mean that I should reinstall the OS, that would be fine, but I can't boot from a DVD, which is what prompted this query to begin with.
I would like to resolve the external disk boot failure.

Remove Mac OSX installation from external disk

Hello,
I installed an extra max osx installation on an external disk. So i can starup from my HD or my ext disk depending on my start up disk choice. Everything works fine. Unfortunately i installed it in a partition with a lot off backup files in it, instead of creating a new partition dedicated only to the OS. I was wondering if there is a clean way of removing this installation without completely formatting the ext.disk again, so that i don't loose my data.
Thanks

I hope you don't mind my jumping in. AFAIK, dumping the OS X files isn't a simple process because many of it's files and folders are hidden. It appears that the ext HD has more than one partition. If so, move your data to the other, then you can erase the partition, removing all of OS X's stuff. However, doing that looses your bootable backup. Details WRT to the HD, its size, number of partitions, how much used and free space, etc. should help to determine a strategy that saves the data and also provides for a bootable backup.

Will latest Mac mini boot from 10.4.0?

The late 2005 (1.5GHz) Mac minis ship with OS X 10.4.2 installed. Does anyone know if they can be started from a 10.4.0 Install CD/DVD? I'm trying to help someone with a mini in another location, don't have one here to try out.

Thanks for the KB reference, but actually this wasn't exactly what I was asking. I've been using and working on Macs since 1988, and am aware that in general, especially in the pre-OS X era, a Mac model can't be run with an earlier System version than the one that shipped with it; e.g. System 9.0 can't be used with a PowerBook that came with 9.0.4.
I thought I'd read somewhere, though, that OS X is sometimes a little less demanding in this regard, e.g. that a Mac that came with 10.4.2 might start from 10.4.0. I wondered if this might be the case with the 2nd generation mini, which, so far as I'm aware, differs from the original mini only in having a faster CPU -- no scrolling trackpad, sudden motion sensor or other novelties that might require new drivers. So, since I don't have a 2nd generation mini on hand at the moment, I thought I'd ask if someone who does might give it a try and let me know. So far, that question hasn't been answered.
As for model-specific System Installers not working with other models, Apple used to be quite strict about this, even disallowing use of, say, a 7.6.1 Install CD that came with a particular Mac model on an earlier Mac that would run that OS; I believe the Installer actually checked the ROMs of the target machine to see what model it was. I suppose with the advent of software-based ROM files, this became more difficult to pin down exactly, which may be why a PowerBook G4 (400MHz) OS 9.1 Install CD seems to be usable with any Mac that will run OS 9.1, and why there's a lively eBay market in model-specific OS X Install CDs/DVDs that apparently can be used with other models (but not always, in my experience).
It's news to me, however, that model-specific 10.4.x Installers cannot be used with other models; I'll have to check that out next time I have one in hand. Of course, beginning with 10.4.4, there are now two entire versions of OS X, and the PPC version cannot be used with an Intel Mac and vice versa.
PowerBook G4 17" 1.5GHz Mac OS X (10.4.4)

Can 2011 Mac Mini boot from Leopard and/or Snow Leopard?

I want to replace my G5 with the latest Mini but need Rosetta to run my old PPC and Universal applications for a while longer.

As I had mentioned in another thread, you cannot install
any version of OSX that is older than the version that the
computer was shipped with. This is not anything new.

Move iTunes library from external disk to internal disk

Hello,
I am currently using a Mac Mini with an external disk to store my iTunes library as well as all the media files, apps, etc. The library is managed (consolidated) by iTunes and is also organized by iTunes.
I am about to buy the new Macbook Pro and with a 1 TB drive, I wanted to move the iTunes stuff (library, media, playlists, play counts, ratings, everything) to the internal drive of the new MBP.
My questions are:
Can I do this migration (from external disk to internal disk of new Mac) as part of the Migration Assistant?
In case I can't do the above, what is the best way to do this after the new Mac has been set up?
How do I ensure that play counts, playlists, ratings, album art are preserved as I have spent considerable time setting those up?
I have 3-4 IOS devices syncing to this library. How do I ensure that when I sync them to the new computer/library, they will continue to work?
Thanks in advance.

Hi,
1. See if this support answers your query http://support.apple.com/kb/HT4889 and http://support.apple.com/kb/HT4527
3. Make sure complete intune folder is copied over. The Itunes Library.itl file contains all meta data.
4. Maybe someone else can make a definitive comment on this. I used migration assistant and was able to sync my ipad and ipod classic without doing anything special. I presume that it worked because both were syncing to the same library albeit on a different computer.
Jim

Can the new Mac Mini boot Snow Leopard from an external hard drive?

I currently boot my 2009 Mac Mini from a FW800 external drive with 10.6.8. If I just plug my external drive into a new 2011 Mac Mini, will it boot into Snow Leopard if I set it as the startup disk or will I get a kernel panic?

I bought a 2011 Mac Mini, which came with Lion installed. I thought maybe I could repartition it and have a Snow Leopard partition. So I repartitioned it (500gb split into two 250gb partitions). I named the new partition "SnowLeopard" just to make it easy for me to tell the difference.
I attached the external DVD and put in a Snow Leopard installer disc, holding down the C key so it would boot and install from that, but it just spun for awhile. Doesn't appear to work.
Then I read somewhere else that someone had managed to clone a copy of Snow Leopard onto an external drive and boot from that. In their situation they were talking about a MacBook, but the principle seemed sane.
So I rebooted, holding down the T key to put the Mac Mini into Target hard disk mode, and attached it via Firewire to another MacMini (circa 2008 or so, not sure of year, but it was upgraded last year to Snow Leopard and has been upgraded along and along). Then I used Carbon Copy Cloner to copy Snow Leopard (that is, the entire hard disk-- System and all applications and data) to my newer Mac Mini's "snow leopard" partition.
For yucks, when it was done cloning, I restarted the older Mac Mini, and had it boot from the newer Mac Mini's snow leopard partition--- it worked! To make it easy to tell the difference, I changed the desktop background to something completely different. I think I tried booting from Lion but I can't remember if that worked.
Then I rebooted the newer Mac Mini, which booted up in Lion, of course. Going into System Settings, I changed the startup disk to the "snow leopard" partition, and rebooted, and it booted up in Snow Leopard.
I have yet to test the applications on the Snow Leopard partition. Another problem has arisen.
Because with both of the Mac MInis being active on the network, they both had the same computer and user name. So I renamed the newer Mac Mini to something completely different, and changed the password.
Unfortunately, now I cannot change any other setting in the System Settings that requires a password. While the newer Snow Leopard lets me log in with the new user and new password, whenever I try to click the "lock" icon to change something, I'm prompted for a username and password. Apparently this is some different username and password than either the new or old username/password.
I've tried various combinations of both: new user/old password, old user/new password, old user/old password, etc.
So if you do what I've done, be careful about changing the username and password on your cloned computer. I think it may be wiser to create a new user and then delete the old cloned users. I may just have to re-clone the old Mac Mini to the new one again.
If anyone has any ideas about this password conundrum, please pass along!

Can Mac Mini boot XP from an External HD ? ? ? ?

Hi All,
Just a quick question.
I have a recently deceased PC. RIP.
I was able to salvage my boot drive with much of my media content.
I would very much like to buy a Mac Mini to use as a PC / Media Center.
Can a Mac Mini boot Windows XP from an external drive?????
thanks to any who can answer this question,
or possibly point me to more info .
best regards

Hi,
without the preperations to be made, that are outlined in the link I gave, Windows always tries to read and write certain files during bootup, which it can't find when you 'only' have a Windows on an external HD.
I only know of these instructions to get Windows on external HDs to work.
If it weren't for games you like to play, I would suggest to have a look at the 'Virtualization' apps like Parallels or VMWare Fusion.
But these aren't good for playing games.
Sorry
Stefan

Booting from external Hard Disk

I just got a portable usb 2.0 160gb hard disk, and I want to boot from it on a different computer. I used SuperDuper! to clone my hard drive, but Leopard won't recognize it as a bootable disk. Is there a way to boot from this disk?

Same problem here.
Booted up using an external USB drive running Mac OS X 10.4.9 (or is it .11 now?), and it worked great the first time, but after that it will no longer see it. Wish I hadn't made two partitions now, but I'll just delete the OS installation and use that partition for other unique items.

How can I transfer pictures from my old Mac mini to an external hard drive?

HHow can I transfer pictures from my old Mac mini to an external hard drive? Thanks.

Normally you should be able to drag and drop them onto the drive, provided the drive is Mac formatted. Have you already tried that?
Matt

Problems in booting from Firewire disk

I had an iMac 400 G3 until recently, just got a mini Core Duo 1.66.
My Firewire 120 GB disk was always the main disk, but now I cannot install the Tiger disk that came with the Mac mini on it (it says my Mac cannot boot from this volume), even though it recognizes the disk just fine when I boot from the Mini's HD.
Maybe it's the system in it, since it has the 10.4.8. with PPC updates? Should I erase the system from my disk and try to install OS X on it?
Thanks a lot.

The simplest way to do this is to connect your external drive to the mini and copy all your data from it to the mini's internal drive. Don't copy applications or MacOS, just the documents and files, video, music etc. Then use Disk Utilities (in Applications/utilities) to reformat the external.
Download and install a copy of CarbonCopyCloner (from www.versiontracker.com) and use it to copy the internal drive to the external.
Then open System Preferences/Startup Disk and set the external as the startup volume. Reboot and the system should then boot to the external which has a fully compatible copy of MacOS, complete with your documents, files, music etc.
The startup Disk preference pane can then be used to switch back to the internal if you should need to do so.

Mac Mini boot up problem.

Recently, I started to come across a rather annoying problem. Whenever I start my mac mini, boot menu comes up as if "alt" key was pressed. I choose HD and then mac mini boots normally. I suspected an imminent HD failure and checked the HD for errors with OSX built in disk utility and third party SMART utility. Nothing seems to be wrong with volume and smart tests are OK. While the OSX is running, I don't see any unusual problems like stalls, beach ball or so. Any ideas appreciated.
Mac mini 3,1 OSX SL 10.6.8.

No, I doubt it's a hard drive failure although that cannot be ruled out yet. I would first consider doing a reinstallation of OS X:
Reinstall OS X without erasing the drive
Do the following:
1. Repair the Hard Drive and Permissions
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. 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.
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. Reinstall Snow Leopard
If the drive is OK then quit DU and return to the installer. Proceed with reinstalling OS X. Note that the Snow Leopard installer will not erase your drive or disturb your files. After installing a fresh copy of OS X the installer will move your Home folder, third-party applications, support items, and network preferences into the newly installed system.
Download and install the Combo Updater for the version you prefer from support.apple.com/downloads/.
Let's see if that fixes the problem. Any chance you have another keyboard you can try? In case this doesn't help.
BTW, are you really a physicist? If so what specialty?

Mac mini boot from external disk & clustering

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