MacBook Pro WONT boot when Firewire Hard Drive is attached....?

is anyone else having a problem with Booting up their MacBook Pro when they have a firewire device attached?
I use a Lacie 400Gb External drive and it just wont get past the start screen (grey screen, before the Apple even appears), unless I unplug the firewire drive first...
I know Apple will fix these bugs, so I really shouldn't moan... but I just wanna double check others are having this problem and I haven't got a dud one!! (or I'll take it back to the Apple Store ASAP!)
Thanks!!!

I have this about 50% of the time! I generally have my FW400 drive hooked up, and if I forget, it may or may not boot. I have sent an email about that to apple. Oh, if I was in Windows last, it is not a problem since it remembers it...
Bob

Similar Messages

  • MacBook Won't Boot When External Hard Drive is Plugged In

    I have a Seagate FreeAgent Pro 500Gb external hard drive. When I have it plugged into my computer through the USB port. When the computer is off and I turn in on with the external plugged into the USB port, it will not boot. It just chimes over and over. I have to unplug the external then restart to get it to boot.
    Anybody know how to get my MacBook to boot with the external plugged in so I don't have to unplug it every time?
    Thanks

    The problem is probably the drive. I have several of these drives and have no trouble booting with any of the computers I use.

  • MacBook Pro Retina with a 500gb hard drive - 400gb storage space?

    I have a MacBook Pro Retina with a 500gb hard drive. I recently deleted a windows 8 partition, and now my macbook says its total storage capacity is 399.42gb. Is this normal? Or am I missing 100gb storage space?
    When I deleted the partition through boot camp, there was an error, but the boot camp partition seemed to have been deleted completely. I ran disk utility repair and single user mode command prompt /sbin/fsck -fy to make sure my disk was properly partitioned, but it still shows 399.42gb total storage in my "About This Mac".

    You did not remove your Windows partition correctly. You need to remove it using Boot Camp Assistant. If you cannot then you will need to repartition the entire drive back to a single partition/volume.

  • How to install an SSD in a MacBook Pro and keep the original hard drive

    Step by step instructions on how to install a Crucial SSD as the primary drive in a MacBook Pro and use the original hard drive as a second drive in place of the optical drive.
    Apart from the time needed to back up your data and clone the original drive to the new SSD, you should be able complete this in less than an hour. 

    Verifying
    Install the SSD in the HDD slot
    Install the HDD in the optical slot
    Boot to the HDD and format the SSD
    Boot using Command R and restore the operating system from Time machine to the SSD
    Reformat the HDD and restore the data files to it.

  • I have a macbook pro with only 128gb of hard drive. I have lightroom installed and all my photos on an external hard drive. Can I store my lightroom library on the external hard drive too?

    I have a macbook pro with only 128gb of hard drive. I have lightroom installed and all my photos on an external hard drive. Can I store my lightroom library on the external hard drive too?

    Yes. Find the LR catalog file by looking in Edit/Catalog Settings/General. Close LR and navigate to that spot. The catalog file is the one that ends in .lrcat - move it to wherever you want. Next to the .lrcat file is a subfolder called Previews.lrdata. You can move that over as well, but if you don't LR will generate new previews. Double-click on the .lrcat file in its new home and LR will open with that catalog. Set Preferences to When Starting Up Use Most Recent Catalog.

  • Macbook pro using a lot of hard drive space

    I just bought the new macbook pro with the 250 gig hard drive.. but without even transferring anything at all to my new mac from my old.. it already says it only has 178.1 gig's of hard drive space available.. is it seriously already using over 50 gig's of space just out of the box???

    What did you figure out? I am having the same problem!
    Have a 200GB HD
    My System Profiler states:
    Capacity=185.99GB which I understand BUT-
    It also states Available=26.25GB
    Then, when I go to the Activity Monitor it states:
    Space Utilized=99.14GB
    Space Free=25.85GB
    With a total of 124.99GB
    WHERE IS THE MISSING 51GB of memory?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?
    What is the deal????
    Anyone?

  • I have a 500 gig time capsule.  I have used with a Macbook.  The Macbook has a 500 gig hard drive which is about 3/4 full.   Now we just purchased a new MacBook pro with a 1 TB hard drive.   Do I need to buy a larger Time Capsule?

    I have a 500 gig time capsule.  I have used with a Macbook.  The Macbook has a 500 gig hard drive which is about 3/4 full.   Now we just purchased a new MacBook pro with a 1 TB hard drive.   Do I need to buy a larger Time Capsule?

    Do I need to buy a larger Time Capsule?
    Probably yes. You might be able to get the full backup of the new MacBook Pro on the Time Capsule, but it will not be long before the Time Capsule is out of space.
    Better to add a new Time Capsule and backup the new MacBook Pro to the new Time Capsule, and keep the old MacBook backing up to the old Time Capsule.
    If you do not want to add a new Time Capsule, another option would be to erase the Time Capsule disk and start over again with new backups of both Macs and move forward.

  • Wont boot if external hard drive is on

    PC wont boot if external hard drive is turned on. If I turn them off boots fine. This has happened since day one.

    Hi,
    Turn "them off" implies more than one.
    You might be experiencing one of three issues or all or them.
    1. The external HD needs a firmware upgrade to be compatible with your PC
    2. The BIOS boot order is incorrectly set which is typically not the situation with new PCs.
    3. The external HD is drawing excessive current from the USB port.
    HP DV9700, t9300, Nvidia 8600, 4GB, Crucial C300 128GB SSD
    HP Photosmart Premium C309G, HP Photosmart 6520
    HP Touchpad, HP Chromebook 11
    Custom i7-4770k,Z-87, 8GB, Vertex 3 SSD, Samsung EVO SSD, Corsair HX650,GTX 760
    Custom i7-4790k,Z-97, 16GB, Vertex 3 SSD, Plextor M.2 SSD, Samsung EVO SSD, Corsair HX650, GTX 660TI
    Windows 7/8 UEFI/Legacy mode, MBR/GPT

  • Macbook wont boot from new hard drive.

    I installed a new Western Digital 500GB hard drive into my Macbook Pro (2006 edition). The computer boots up, but it just stays at the screen with the apple and the thing circling underneath it. It won't go any further than that. I have to boot from my external hard drive to get to the Operating System.
    Also it won't shut down nor restart unless I hold down the power button.
    I installed Snow Leopard 10.6 on the new hard drive. The longest I waited was like 10 minutes. Should also note that there is a CD stuck in my CD/DVD optical drive (I used an external drive to install snow leopard)...I don't know if that's interfering. It didn't interfere with my old hard drive.
    I've also used Disk Utility. It says the disk needs repairing, so I repair it, and it says successfully repaired, but I can't shut down or restart the computer, so I have to shut it down by holding the power button. When I turn it back on, it says it needs repairing again. Maybe it's not saving because of the improper shut down?
    Please help

    Welcome to Apple Discussions!
    Did you format the new drive before trying to install the OS?
    http://discussions.apple.com/thread.jspa?threadID=1885474&tstart=60
    Try that, and if still no joy, you might have a defective drive. If so, WD will replace it under warranty.
    Good luck!

  • Macbook will not boot. Locked hard drive. Blue screen when booting

    Hi, my little brother decided he wanted a few files off of my mac book, so he went to settings>sharing>file sharing and added my only hard drive to the list and tried removing everyone but his name and password thinking it would only effect people trying to log into my hard drive, not actually me on my computer alone trying to boot mac osx from it.
    He came crying to me telling me he paniced because he saw a locked icon on my hard drive and couldn't do anything, so tried to restart the macbook and now i just get a blue screen and nothing happens when i try booting it.
    Right now i'm thinking i gotta archive and reinstall from booting the osx disk, but i'm affraid it'll just apply the same settings again and keep me locked out. I need files off of my hard drive since i'm in school and have several assignments that i have not backed up at all.
    Any help would be greatly appreciated

    after searching the forums deeper i found the solution. it's now working. you may delete this thread.
    http://discussions.apple.com/thread.jspa?messageID=2087835

  • Mac Pro won't boot when a hard drive is in drive bay 1

    I have a 2006 Mac Pro with a slight issue.
    Whenever I put a drive in bay #1, the system will no longer boot.
    I've removed all of my hard drives except my boot disk.
    Placed it in drive bays 2,3 or 4, and it boots no problem.
    When I place it in drive bay 1, the system won't go past the grey screen.
    When I hold down the option key when booting with the drive in bay #1, the arrow pops up like I will have a choice of selecting the boot disk, but then no choices appear.
    It's super strange. The computer is still working great, it is just a little annoying that one of my drive bays is no longer functional.
    Any ideas?

    It seems the problem is not with the hard drive(s) since they work in another bay. So the thing to check is the power and SATA cabling from the bay to the motherboard. The SATA cables from the bay plug into the motherboard and perhaps has come loose, gotten dirty, or tarnished. Likewise the connector on the drive bay may be dirty or tarnished.
    So my only suggestion is to check the cabling and connections.
    Tom

  • Old MacBook Pro slow and hangs frequently, hard drive problems?

    Hi,
    I have an old Macbook Pro (one of the originals, from about 4 1/2 years ago). Recently I've been noticing that it runs really slow, especially when its been running for a while and there are multiple programs open. It will take a long time to switch between windows, opening a tab in Safari will usually cause a spinning beach ball for 10-15 seconds and Safari crashes frequently. Other programs have similar problems, but don't normally crash. It's running Snow Leopard and has 1GB of RAM. Obviously I expect it to be slower with lots of stuff open, but my usage patterns haven't changed and its performance certainly has. The harddrive always seems to be being accessed when I have these problems.
    The hard drive S.M.A.R.T. status is "verified," and I ran the Apple Hardware Test and it came out fine. But I'm still really worried that something could be going wrong, especially with the hard drive and since I am going away in a few weeks to work on a project and will be away from my backup drive I really want to make sure any problem is taken care of beforehand.
    Does anyone have any ideas as to what could be the the problem or about anything I should try?
    Much Thanks.

    With lots of concurrent processes and insufficient memory you will experience slow performance and beachballing. This is because the OS is forced to use the hard drive to replace the non-existent physical RAM. See the following:
    About OS X Memory Management and Usage
    Reading system memory usage in Activity Monitor
    Memory Management in Mac OS X
    Performance Guidelines- Memory Management in Mac OS X
    A detailed look at memory usage in OS X
    Understanding top output in the Terminal
    The amount of available RAM for applications is the sum of Free RAM and Inactive RAM. This will change as applications are opened and closed or change from active to inactive status. The Swap figure represents an estimate of the total amount of swap space required for VM if used, but does not necessarily indicate the actual size of the existing swap file. If you are really in need of more RAM that would be indicated by how frequently the system uses VM. If you open the Terminal and run the top command at the prompt you will find information reported on Pageins () and Pageouts (). Pageouts () is the important figure. If the value in the parentheses is 0 (zero) then OS X is not making instantaneous use of VM which means you have adequate physical RAM for the system with the applications you have loaded. If the figure in parentheses is running positive and your hard drive is constantly being used (thrashing) then you need more physical RAM.
    Also, a small hard drive with too little free space and a system lacking in any regular maintenance can also lead to slow performance. See the following:
    Kappy's Personal Suggestions for OS X Maintenance
    For disk repairs use Disk Utility. For situations DU cannot handle the best third-party utilities are: Disk Warrior; DW only fixes problems with the disk directory, but most disk problems are caused by directory corruption; Disk Warrior 4.x is now Intel Mac compatible. TechTool Pro provides additional repair options including file repair and recovery, system diagnostics, and disk defragmentation. TechTool Pro 4.5.1 or higher are Intel Mac compatible; Drive Genius is similar to TechTool Pro in terms of the various repair services provided. Versions 1.5.1 or later are Intel Mac compatible.
    OS X performs certain maintenance functions that are scheduled to occur on a daily, weekly, or monthly period. The maintenance scripts run in the early AM only if the computer is turned on 24/7 (no sleep.) If this isn't the case, then an excellent solution is to download and install a shareware utility such as Macaroni, JAW PseudoAnacron, or Anacron that will automate the maintenance activity regardless of whether the computer is turned off or asleep. Dependence upon third-party utilities to run the periodic maintenance scripts had been significantly reduced in Tiger and Leopard. These utilities have limited or no functionality with Snow Leopard and should not be installed.
    OS X automatically defrags files less than 20 MBs in size, so unless you have a disk full of very large files there's little need for defragmenting the hard drive. As for virus protection there are few if any such animals affecting OS X. You can protect the computer easily using the freeware Open Source virus protection software ClamXAV. Personally I would avoid most commercial anti-virus software because of their potential for causing problems.
    I would also recommend downloading the shareware utility TinkerTool System that you can use for periodic maintenance such as removing old logfiles and archives, clearing caches, etc. Other utilities are also available such as Onyx, Leopard Cache Cleaner, CockTail, and Xupport, for example.
    For emergency repairs install the freeware utility Applejack. If you cannot start up in OS X, you may be able to start in single-user mode from which you can run Applejack to do a whole set of repair and maintenance routines from the commandline. Note that AppleJack 1.5 is required for Leopard. AppleJack 1.6 is compatible with Snow Leopard.
    When you install any new system software or updates be sure to repair the hard drive and permissions beforehand. I also recommend booting into safe mode before doing system software updates.
    Get an external Firewire drive at least equal in size to the internal hard drive and make (and maintain) a bootable clone/backup. You can make a bootable clone using the Restore option of Disk Utility. You can also make and maintain clones with good backup software. My personal recommendations are (order is not significant):
    Backuplist
    Carbon Copy Cloner
    Data Backup
    Deja Vu
    iBackup
    JaBack
    Silver Keeper
    MimMac
    Retrospect
    Super Flexible File Synchronizer
    ynchronizer
    SuperDuper!
    Synchronize Pro! X
    SyncTwoFolders
    Synk Pro
    Synk Standard
    Tri-Backup
    Visit The XLab FAQs and read the FAQs on maintenance, optimization, virus protection, and backup and restore.
    Additional suggestions will be found in Mac Maintenance Quick Assist.
    Referenced software can be found at CNet Downloads or MacUpdate.
    This should give you a few things to start sorting things out and getting better performance from your computer within its limitations.
    If you have a Core Duo model then 2 GBs is the maximum RAM you can install. If you have a Core 2 Duo model then you can install up to 4 GBs but they system will only make use of 3 GBs. As for the hard drive it can be replaced. Notebook drives in the 250 to 500 GB - 7200 RPM range are relatively inexpensive. Visit OWC for pricing on drives and RAM. Visit Data Mem for pricing on RAM.

  • Have a HUGE problem, MacBook Pro wont boot.

    Hey there so my friend just bought a used macbook pro, and is having a massive problem. The computer originally came with Tiger so we went and got Leopard installed onto it. For the first couple of weeks she had no problem until last night. She went to boot and it got stuck on the blue screen. So we tried everything, we tried starting in safe mode, tried resetting the PRAM. Then we inserted the Leopard install disk and tried to run disk utility, it wouldn't verify or repair the disk permissions, we also tried to just repair the disk which looked like it worked, then rebooted, nothing happened, still got stuck. So we went to our last resort and tried to archive and install Leopard again, it wouldn't... it said that the install failed and that we should contact support. We did that and all they told us to do was archive and install and if that failed then to bring it to the apple store. Does anyone have any other suggestions before we bring it down there?
    Thanks ahead of time for your help.

    Sounds like the hard drive has become seriously corrupted or is failing. Start with;
    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 and 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 (4.0 for Tiger, and 4.1 for Leopard) and/or TechTool Pro (4.6.1 for Leopard) 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.
    Assuming this doesn't work and Archive and Install doesn't work, then you need to erase the drive and install Leopard from scratch. Start with:
    Extended Hard Drive Preparation
    1. 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 or Leopard.)
    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. Set the number of partitions from the drop down menu (use 1 partition unless you wish to make more.) Set the format type to Mac OS Extended (Journaled.) Click on the Options button, set the partition scheme to GUID then click on the OK button. Click on the Partition button and wait until the process has completed.
    4. Select the volume you just created (this is the sub-entry under the drive entry) from the left side list. Click on the Erase tab in the DU main window.
    5. Set the format type to Mac OS Extended (Journaled.) Click on the Options button, check the button for Zero Data and click on OK to return to the Erase window.
    6. Click on the Erase button. The format process can take up to several hours depending upon the drive size.
    After formatting has completed quit DU and return to the installer. Complete the OS X installation.
    If this does not work then the drive may be bad and should be replaced. This can be done at an Apple service center. If the drive is out of warranty then they will charge for the service and the replacement drive.

  • My macbook pro wont boot ... need help

    battery its fully charged and battery indicator work but wont boot?

    Reinstall OS X.
    To reinstall Snow Leopard:
    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/.
    To reinstall Lion:
    Reinstalling Lion Without Erasing the Drive
    Boot to the Recovery HD: Restart the computer and after the chime press and hold down the COMMAND and R keys until the menu screen appears. Alternatively, restart the computer and after the chime press and hold down the OPTION key until the boot manager screen appears. Select the Recovery HD and click on the downward pointing arrow button.
    Repair the Hard Drive and Permissions: Upon startup select Disk Utility from the main menu. Repair the Hard Drive and Permissions as follows.
    When the recovery menu appears select Disk Utility. 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 main menu.
    Reinstall Lion: Select Reinstall Lion and click on the Continue button.
    Note: You can also re-download the Lion installer by opening the App Store application. Hold down the OPTION key and click on the Purchases icon in the toolbar. You should now see an active Install button to the right of your Lion purchase entry. There are situations in which this will not work. For example, if you are already booted into the Lion you originally purchased with your Apple ID or if an instance of the Lion installer is located anywhere on your computer.

  • Mid 2009 13" MacBook Pro wont boot up.

    The apple store replaced the cable that went to my hard drive on my mid 2009 13" MacBook Pro.  The hard drive still will not boot so they told me to remove it put it in a box and connect it to another computer and save the files.  I have done that and connected it to my father's MacBook Pro.  I can find the external drive but I don't know what to do next. 
    My goal is to save the files on his computer then reinstall the hard drive in my computer and start up in restore mode.  Next I will reformat the drive and move the files I placed on my fathers Mac back to mine.
    Can anyone help me with where I can get step by step instructions to do this?
    Thanks

    I think you mean Office for Mac. In any event, the standard applications will come with the reinstall, like Mail, iTunes, etc. Anything else won't. If you have the original disks the machine came with, the iLife apps should be on there.
    I have to say this... I know you probably don't want to spend money on this, but if the data is important, the better way to handle this is to buy another hard drive. They're cheap. I can tell you how to prep the new drive if you don't know how. Then run Migration Assistant when you're done and let it try to pull over all your stuff from the old drive. Once all that is done, you can reformat your old drive and you'll have something to use for backup. You don't say how big your current drive is, but even a 1TB is well under $100 now. The reason I suggest this is because if you miss anything important on your old drive, once you format it it's gone. The way I'm suggesting, you'd be able to make sure you have all you need first.

Maybe you are looking for