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.

Similar Messages

  • Macbook won't boot on primary hard drive

    i have a white macbook 2006 i believe, i installed a 500gb hard drive into it about 4 months ago, and just now it stopped working. it won't boot at all from the hard drive. i got it to boot from my external hard drive that was the original 120gb that came with the macbook. After booting from external it continues to freeze when i open i-tunes or the internet. Don't know if it is just the hard drive because getting problems with the other one as well. don't know what is wrong. any advice would be helpful.

    I got a new hard drive recently 500gb seagate. I followed the directions on this page http://www.ehow.com/how2063795format-hard-drive-mac-os.html , Mine was a little more complicated since i had 2 partitions windows and mac on mine. Initially the process took a day and it started getting to the same thing as yours where it would get to the mac logo and not find the hard drive. I reformatted several times before i got to the point where i could boot up.Eventually I just figured out all the info was there the drive was formatted i could boot into windows 7 but not mac. So i put old hard drive back in the computer booted up with that. Attached new hard drive via usb in external case i was trying to put in the mac. I was able not to boot up but it would show the drives that have been formatted into the new drive and i simply copied my existing Disk by dragging it onto the new hard drive. Than turn off your mac keep your hard drive plugged in. Press and hold the option key in start up and you should see the 2 seperate hard drives and be able to boot into the new one. Was a long process for me took several complete deletes of the new hard drive and reformatting before it would work. once you get to the mac logo and spinning wheel its just saying mac cant find your boot up disk though. Sorry its confusing a bit any questions email me.

  • MacBook won't boot from new hard drive.

    I'm trying to upgrade my hard drive, but my macbook will not boot to the new hard drive. I have erased and cloned the hard drive about three times now, using both Carbon Copy Cloner and SuperDuper. It won't boot while it is in the macbook and it won't boot from an external hard drive case. All I get to is the screen with the mac logo and the spinning wheel. I have made sure the drive is GUID formatted, but it still doesn't work. When I put the new drive in an external case and plug it into the USB port of my macbook I can see and access everything on the drive. Can somebody please tell what I am doing wrong?
    By the way the new hard drive is a 500gb western digital Scorpio blue drive.

    I got a new hard drive recently 500gb seagate. I followed the directions on this page http://www.ehow.com/how2063795format-hard-drive-mac-os.html , Mine was a little more complicated since i had 2 partitions windows and mac on mine. Initially the process took a day and it started getting to the same thing as yours where it would get to the mac logo and not find the hard drive. I reformatted several times before i got to the point where i could boot up.Eventually I just figured out all the info was there the drive was formatted i could boot into windows 7 but not mac. So i put old hard drive back in the computer booted up with that. Attached new hard drive via usb in external case i was trying to put in the mac. I was able not to boot up but it would show the drives that have been formatted into the new drive and i simply copied my existing Disk by dragging it onto the new hard drive. Than turn off your mac keep your hard drive plugged in. Press and hold the option key in start up and you should see the 2 seperate hard drives and be able to boot into the new one. Was a long process for me took several complete deletes of the new hard drive and reformatting before it would work. once you get to the mac logo and spinning wheel its just saying mac cant find your boot up disk though. Sorry its confusing a bit any questions email me.

  • Upgrading to Mavericks wrecked my MacBook Pro & now it only works when external hard drive is plugged in

    So I tried to upgrade to Mavericks today and it failed (same error as in this post which seemed to be a common problem). It wouldn't let me repair the disk, and after trying all sorts I rebooted my computer in recovery mode - it wouldn't let me reinstall Lion because the hard drive was apparently locked and I could see no way around this. So I decided to restore from a Time Machine backup on an external hard drive and that worked okay, except my MacBook now only works when the external hard drive is connected. If I remove the external hard drive, I'm back to square one as it still won't let me reinstall Lion as the HD is locked!
    I have no idea what's going on. HELP!

    The startup drive is failing, or there is some other internal hardware fault.
    Make a "Genius" appointment at an Apple Store, or go to another authorized service provider.
    If privacy is a concern, erase the data partition(s) with the option to write zeros* (do this only if you have at least two complete, independent backups, and you know how to restore to an empty drive from any of them.) Don’t erase the recovery partition, if present.
    Keeping your confidential data secure during hardware repair
    Apple also recommends that you deauthorize a device in the iTunes Store before having it serviced.
    *An SSD doesn't need to be zeroed.

  • Cannot boot when external hard drive is connected.

    Hello everyone!
    I got a brand new Macbook Pro w/ Retina 13" for Christmas today, and I've ran into an issue. I have a Samsung external hard drive with my documents and photographs on (and nothing else), and if I start up my mac with it plugged in, my computer hangs on the black screen (no Apple logo). If I leave it for 5 minutes, it eventually works. Also, shutdown is very slow as well. I've tried booting without it plugged in, and it works perfectly. I've ran the disk utility on it, and it reports no problem.
    My hard drive's format is in ExFAT (previous Windows 7 user).
    Booting in verbose mode doesn't work either, as no text shows up.
    Could someone please tell me how to boot my mac quickly without having to disconnect the external hard drive every time?
    Thanks.

    KaiSilverthorne wrote:
    Hi CellarDwellr,
    My Samsung HDD uses power from the Mac (and I didn't have the mac plugged in when tried). I am going to reformat my external HDD to see if that helps (it's in ExFAT), as I need to in order to use it for Time Machine backups.
    I'll let you know if anything works.
    Thanks,
    Kai
    I see. Well, yeah, in order to use it with Time Machine, format it to Mac os Extended (Journaled)

  • My macbook won't recognize my external hard drive.

    I have just bought my new macbook, but have some problems with the 300Gb external hard drive. There are 4 partitions on that respectively of sizes 10, 60,90 and 120Gb. When I connect it to my macbook by the USB2 cable, only the the first partition formatted as FAT32 shows up while the three others don't even mount. According to Disk Utility, these three volumes are formatted as NTFS. It gives me the folowing messages respictively when I try to verify or repair each of those three volumes:
    ** Reporting that the volume is fine without checking anything.
    ** /usr/local/bin/ntfsfix has been disabled because of volume corruption issues.
    ** If you still want to try fixing your volume, use /usr/local/bin/ntfsfix from the command line...
    Error: Filesystem verify or repair failed.
    I tried both Macfuse and Paragon to read/write NTFS formatted volume on MAC but no success yet:(
    BTW There's some thing wierd about the format. In my windows XP the format of all the three volumes are said to be FAT32. I have no problem in mounting them there!
    Any help by you is highly appreciated.

    Start a Finder window and on the menubar, Finder > Preferences > General Tab > check External disks.
    Regards,
    Captfred

  • IMac won't shutdown when external hard drive is hooked up.

    Hello,
    I have a 2011 iMac which i've loved using. I bought a Seagate goflex external harddrive so I could start using time machine. I've noticed that whenver I power my iMac down it will sit on the grey screen just before shutting off for a long time. In fact, it will not actually shut down until i unplug my external hard drive. As soon as I unplug my harddrive the mac starts thinking again and shuts down within seconds. Does anyone have any idea what the problem is? Why it would do this. I now hard plug my harddrive in because of this, which is kinda of dumb since I bought it to work as a time machine. Any help would be greatly appreciated. thank you

    Safe Boot from the HD, (holding Shift key down at bootup), run Disk Utility in Applications>Utilities, then highlight your drive, click on Repair Permissions, see if it opens in Safe Mode, reboot when complete, test again.
    Mac OS X: What is Safe Boot, Safe Mode...
    http://support.apple.com/kb/HT1564

  • G5 won't boot from external hard drive

    I have installed Leopard on my external hard drive, but have not gone through the 'setup'. I want to boot my G5 from the hd now, but when I restart holding down the option key, the internal hard drive is the only option that appears. When I do boot from the internal hd, the external hd is recognised perfectly and I can see all the files and everything - I just can't seem to boot from it. The newer iMac I used to install Leopard on the external hd will boot from it, but the G5 refuses to recognise it in the boot options.
    Any help much appreciated.

    No. If you boot an installer disc on an Intel Mac it will only install an Intel version of OS X. You would need to boot the installer disc on the G5 then install OS X onto your external drive. However, if you do that you will not be able to boot the Intel Mac with the external drive. The only solution to using one external drive on both computers is to partition the drive. Install OS X on one partition using the G5, and install OS X on the other partition using the Intel Mac.

  • IMac won't boot if external hard drive running Time Machine powered on

    Upon rebooting, my iMac 3.06 GHz Intel Core 2 Duo with 4GB RAM, running OS X 10.5.4, locked up in a gray screen, the "gray screen of death."
    At the recommendation of the Apple Tech Support rep, I turned off the iMac using the power button, and rebooted with my USB and Firewire devices removed.
    The iMac boots fine with everything except my G-tech drive 1GB external hard drive running Time Machine with no partitions, attached using a Firewire 800 cable.
    If the external hard drive is on, I get the interminable gray screen.
    If I boot with the external hard drive powered off and then power it on after I'm at the Mac desktop, the disc image mounts normally on the desktop.
    I've already repaired all disc permissions and it doesn't help.
    My external hard drive has used 907 of the 931 GB true capacity. Supposedly, Time Machine removes the old files to make room for the new files.
    Time Machine itself is running properly once I get my iMac booted in this peculiar way.

    Raja,
    Do a SMC reset perhaps even a couple of times and see if that helps. Also in System Preferences + Startup Disk make sure the internal HD is selected.
    SMC RESET
    Shut down the computer.
    Unplug the computer's power cord and all peripherals.
    Press and hold the power button for 5 seconds.
    Release the power button.
    Attach the computers power cable.
    Press the power button to turn on the computer.
    PRAM RESET
    Shut down the computer.
    Locate the following keys on the keyboard: Command, Option, P, and R. You will need to hold these keys down simultaneously in step 4.
    Turn on the computer.
    Press and hold the Command-Option-P-R keys. You must press this key combination before the gray screen appears.
    Hold the keys down until the computer restarts and you hear the startup sound for the second time.
    Release the keys.
    Roger

  • 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

  • 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

  • Booting from external hard drive on intel-based MacBook Pro

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

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

  • My notebook won't recognize my external hard drive

    my notebook won't recognize my external hard drive.  I can safely remove it, but when i look for it on my computer its not there?

    Disable Time Machine from System Preferences.
    Choose Select disk button, remove the old TM backup disk and add the new one.

  • Why my new iMac won't read my external hard drive?

    Why my new imac won't read my external hard drive??

    Liz,
    Sorry for not responding sooner, I support your position completely - as for the external drive I assumed that the individual was a previous mac user and knew about that (my mistake) at home I have a couple of external drives
    one drive is acknowledged regardless of format (mac/win) its a partitioned drive.... the other one - far as the mac is concerned does exist when i connect it.  I believe its a win only drive (will have to check the specs on it) but it works on the win-notebooks.
    so my point of reference was coming that perspective, with no additional posts I have to assume you had the correct answer.  have a great day.

  • Itunes freezes when my external hard drive is plugged in

    Awhile back, in the summer, I upgraded to the newest version of itunes, and ever since, itunes doesn't work when my external hard drive is plugged in (which contains most of my music). When I unplug it, it will play the music on my computer, but when it's plugged in, it won't work at all and only freezes. I reinstalled it, and then slowly started putting some music in from the external hard drive, and it worked, but after I put a bunch in it froze up again. I have no idea why this is happening, as it was never a problem before. SUGGESTIONS?!

    Either use the startup key commands or use System Preferences>Startup Disk to select the external hard disk before you shut down.

Maybe you are looking for