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.

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Mac Mini will not read dvd data disk ie osx install disk with internal drive but will read dvd movies

As title said , cant get internal drive to read data dvd's havent tried cd's. I also tried to use an external drive with no luck with any disks. system info shows the drive though. So i guess i have 2 issues. any ideas will help thank you

If the drive can read a movie DVD then the problem must be that the OS DVD is either dirty or badly scratched. Look at the shiny side. If it has finger prints clean it with a lint free cloth. If it has scratches you can call Apple for a replacement disc for a nominal charge.

MS-6728 won't boot from DVD drive?

I have a MS-6728 motherboard with bios v2.5 that won't boot from a bootable DVD disk. Here's what I've tried so far:
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- Tried two different DVD drives. One plain DVD drive. The other was a DVD dual layer writer. Both were PATA.
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How many IDE controllers does you board have? If it has more than 2, make sure that the DVD drive is connected to Intel controller and not Promise Controller.

Mac Mini won't boot from dvd

I just picked up a used Mac Mini and the previous owner didn't wipe the hard drive. He did include the original install disks in the package, though. I inserted the install disk & it says that OS X Tiger can't be installed on the mini (currently it is running Snow Leopard 10.6.8). I tried to boot from DVD but if I hold down the c key, nothing happens and it boots to the HD like normal. If I hold down the option key, the only boot option shown is the HD. I don't get any request for a password, so this mini doesn't appear to have a firmware password set. The DVD drive appears to be functioning fine since it can read the DVD - I just can't boot from it. If I use the Startup disk utility the only option shown once again is the HD. I even tried upgrading to Mavericks, but get an error message that it can't be installed on this mini (I checked the requirements and this machine meets them - running 10.6.8, at least 2 Gig ram, 1.83 GHz Core 2 duo, 60 Gigs free space on the drive.......
I want to do a clean install but am at a loss on how to do so. Any suggestions?

I inserted the install disk & it says that OS X Tiger can't be installed on the mini (currently it is running Snow Leopard 10.6.8).
You can't install an older version of OS X on top of a newer version. You would have to erase the disk first.
I tried to boot from DVD but if I hold down the c key, nothing happens and it boots to the HD like normal.
Make sure you're using disk# 1 of 2 of the two gray disk set., and that you hold the C key down for enough time, the boot process from the DVD is much slower than from a hard drive. However, since you have Snow Leopard installed now, there is no point in trying to install Tiger, unless he didn't give you his Admin password; you wouldn't be able to add yourself as a new user or delete his user name without knowing the admin password.
If you did get Tiger installed, then you would have to buy a copy of Snow Leopard on DVD.
I checked the requirements and this machine meets them - running 10.6.8, at least 2 Gig ram, 1.83 GHz Core 2 duo, 60 Gigs free space on the drive.......
Those aren't the complete requirements. It has to be an Early 2009 MacMini, Model Identifier number 3.1, to be compatible with Mavericks. Click on the Apple Menu's, "About This Mac," More Information, then System Report, to locate that information.

My 27" iMac Freezes, Won't boot from DVD

My iMac has started to freeze up every few minutes. Every so often, it becomes unresponsive; the mouse cursor still moves (sometimes it turns into a beach ball), but I can't click or type anything. Whenever this happens, the hard drive begins to churn as if it's reading or writing something big. This usually lasts only about thirty seconds to a minute, but it's happening with frustrating regularity.
I've been trying to troubleshoot this for a few days, now. I'll walk you through the steps I've tried so far.
I ran a check on the hard drive with Disk Utility. This came back with a message about the files/directories not matching up with their expected counts. The solution it suggested was to boot from a Snow Leopard disc and let Disk Utility run a Repair Disk while the startup drive is not mounted. It was at this point that I realized that I couldn't boot from the dvd. Whether holding 'C' or 'Option', when it tries to boot from the disc, it gets to the Apple logo and then hangs.
I kept researching and found a workaround; boot into Single User Mode and perform fsck, which fixed the Disk Utility error, but did not solve the freezes/noises, and I still can't boot from the dvd.
Any ideas?

Thank you for your prompt response.
Well, I'm not sure if I explained it clearly. Holding the Option key does indeed bring up a list of bootable devices. The problem arises when control is passed to the Snow Leopard disc. The Apple logo flashes, I can hear the optical drive being accessed, but then it locks up.
I should also clarify that it's not the disc that came with the iMac. I just moved and can't find the original disc, so I borrowed my neighbor's (which came from a Macbook he bought after mine (which I bought last year)). I am under the impression that Macs can't boot from discs that are older than the version of OS X that they shipped with. I wouldn't think that's the issue, here, as his came out later than mine, but I've still got a lot to learn about life in the Appleverse.
My data should be safe--I've got an up to date Time Machine backup on an external drive. The performance issues aside, I'm really looking to understand the underlying problem(s) here.
So, one option is that the RAM might be bad. I can test that by swapping out each DIMM and checking if the problem is resolved. One thing I don't understand, though, is why bad RAM would manifest as the hard drive being accessed. Is there a definitive way to test the logic board, as there is for testing RAM?
Also, I keep thinking of other little syptoms which may or may not be related.
Recap of Symptoms:
Magic Mouse occasionally loses its magic (right click, multitouch, etc.) and needs to be turned off and on.
Free disk space fluctuates by as much as eight gigs (without my intervention).
System stalls (accompanied by HD access sounds) multiple times per hour.
Can't boot from dvds (though, this could be a version problem).
**Fixed: Disk Utility Verify Disk error.
I do understand that this might be a hardware error, and I certainly know how much trouble that sort of thing is to find/fix. I'm definitely willing to open the case and swap out DIMMs and drives, but not until I've exhausted my software solution options. *crosses fingers*

Won't boot from dvd

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The open firmware password can be reset reset and changed by any administrator user, as designated in the Accounts preferences, via physical access to the inside of the computer, or when the computer is started up in Mac OS 9.
Follow these steps:
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2. Click the icon to authenticate. Enter an administrator username and password when prompted.
3. Click Change.
4. Click to select the checkbox for "Require password to change Open Firmware settings".
5. Type your password in the Password and Verify fields.
6. Click OK. A confirmation appears.
7. Click lock icon to prevent further changes.
8. Choose Quit from the application menu.
From Apple note http://support.apple.com/kb/HT1352

MacPro won't boot from any disk but the original

We picked up a lightly used MacPro 2 x3.2G Quad Intel Xeon at work. The plan was to remove the internal drive (which is also the boot disk) and replace it with a brand new WD Caviar Black 500G drive with OS 10.5 freshly installed, and then use Migration Assistant to transfer from the old machine.
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So, after successfully doing an install of the OS on the fresh drive using a different machine, i put it back into the new one, restarted holding OPT, and selected the fresh OS drive. I get the same multi-language message, and the machine will not boot. I've tried installing the OS on a different HD as well, to the same results.
The new machine will restart using the startup disk (internal HD) that came with it and will run Apps, etc. To confuse things further, i pulled my startup HD out of my personal tower at home (also running OS 10.5, but it's been updated to 10.5.8), stuck it in the new machine, and tried to reboot from that. This DID work (normal time startup, apps work, etc).
I thought this might be a HD problem, but now it seems like a machine problem. Maybe it doesn't like the OS install? I dunno.. Thoughts?
I just had one. I'll try to clone my HD/OS from my personal computer to the new WD 500G drive, and if that works, i'll just go from there...maybe i just had to type this out to think of something different to try, but i'll post it anyways...

So you're saying essentially that this new machine, when it came out of the Apple factory, had OS 10.5.x installed on it, and because that was the original install, it won't recognize something that has OS 10.5.0, even if that install is on a fresh HD? Basically the hardware inside the tower can't/won't recognize any OS prior to the original 10.5.x factory install?
well, if that's the case, then 1)that's ridiculous of Apple to do, and 2)it makes this whole problem make more sense, and it's good future knowledge for me to have.
I cloned my personal OS (but not the users, docs, etc) and stuck that in the new tower, and it works well so far. I'm in the process of copying files to other internal drives, and i'll be using Migration Assistant to transfer users from our old system to the new one, and if all still works fine after that, i think we'll be good to go. So, based on what you've told me about the factory OS install, etc, i think we're on the right track.
Thanks very much for your input!

Internal disk error and won't boot from DVD

After verifying my HD with Disk Utility, I had a message claiming the volume is corrupted.
I tried to boot from Install DVD, but it won't do : I hear the optical drive
clicking indefinitely.
Mac Book Pro is new (bought in may).
I tried to boot by every possible way, presing C key, selecting DVD from
Disk Preferences, etc.
What gives ?
Message was edited by: Hellstan

I also could not find my original disks, and tried to use the Snow Leopard DVD that I bought for another machine in the house. I also just bought MicroMat's TechTool Pro. It also would not boot. The MicroMat support sent something back stating that Apple has not yet released the boot code for these newer machines.
This *****, I would have expected Apple to know a few months ahead of time (when Snow Leopard was released) that there would be some changes to the boot code.
Oh, bye the way, I have an external DVD drive as well that I tried to boot from. Holding the <option> key down during boot, the MacBook sees the Snow Leopard disk as a choice, but the spin up and search sound is the same as the internal drive.
When I had my Mac at the Apple store on Saturday to replace the hard drive, the tech had to do a network boot and install. He also could not boot up to his SL dvd, or the Disk Warrior disk.

New Unibody MBP won't boot from DVD or external drive, just loops

Hey
We bought a new Unibody MBP on Monday, and loaned it to our CTO for a presentation. Having got it back from him now I wanted to nuke the installation and put a fresh copy of leopard on it, so I dropped the DVD in the drive, powered down, and booted holding the "C" key.
I get the chime, screen lights up, thinks for a bit, and if you use your imagination you can almost hear the DVD spin up. Then the screen goes black, lights up, chime, thinks a bit, goes black, lights up, chime and so on
I've tried booting from an external bootable clone I created with CCC (firewire external HDD), and same symptoms.
I even tried swapping in a hard drive that I know has a working bootable copy of Leopard on it, and then all I get is the eternal cycle, without pressing any keys on startup.
I also tried holding down the Option (Alt) key on boot to get the boot device selector. This correctly identifies the various boot devices - the DVD, on-board HDD and external firewire drive (if connected), and lets you select them, tries to boot, thinks, black screen, screen lights up, chime, repeat cycle endlessly until extremely frustrated.
Is there a known cure for this or am I doomed to take the thing back to the Apple store on Monday?
Thanks
Konrad

Raj wrote:
That is not the reason it didn't work. Here is the actual clarity:
*A retail Leopard DVD should be able to boot a new Macbook Pro unibody.*
So you are saying even if the driver for the controller on which the DVD drive sits is not available in the Leopard DVD you are using because the hardware was not manufactured at the time the Leopard release on the DVD was made, the OS should magically just boot? How is that possible? Unibody MacBook Pros have entirely NEW AHCI chipset - for which there won't be any drivers on the older Leopard DVD and as such the DVD wont be detected once the OS on the DVD loads. In cases where the chipset used is same (as in previous generations of MBP) it will boot.
The key difference here is that if you used an older version, some new hardware may not be supported - however, the computer *should still boot from the DVD*, which is the subject of this discussion.
The OP said that his computer boots from the DVD that came with the computer - just not with the old retail Leopard DVD. Also - what should happen if the new hardware happens to be the controller on which the DVD drive is sitting? How will it be able to read the DVD? What about the graphics card? If the drivers on the old leopard disk do not recognize the new graphics card - how is the OS going to display on screen?
On my way home, I stopped at a Mac store and asked them to test this. They successfully booted a new Macbook Pro unibody from an older Leopard DVD. And this is why Apple is replacing my computer, because it is a hardware issue, not a software one.
Again - you fail to understand that whether or not the old DVD boots on a new machine all depends on how much hardware has changed and what hardware has changed. It may boot on some generation of machine because the basic chipset and graphics did not change or were handled generically by the drivers on the older DVD but it may totally refuse to boot on new gen machine which has totally different / incompatible hardware.
So your claim that any old Leopard DVD must continue to boot on any new machine is not really technically explainable.

BRAND NEW LENOVO K300 5316 1BU (WON'T BOOT FROM DVD SUPERJULTI DRIVE/CD-WRITER

Would appreciate info from the Lenovo Community as to what might be the problem and a fix.
I just received my new Lenovo K300 5316 1BU. As one of the first tasks I made a Lenovo Repair Disc.
To test my disc I rebooted my computer with disc in drive. During reboot I pressed F12 to get to the proper menu.
I chose the cd/dvd drive as the first boot option. It showed that the drive was recognized stating Boot Priority but then went directly into my Windows 7 deskop.
I called Tech Support and tried everything with them with the same results.
They instructed me to do a complete System Restore to see if that corrects the problem.
I have not done this yet since I will do a backup of my present setup, not to loose all my hard work and time setting up all my programs and settings.
Before I do a complete system restore I would appreciate any comments or suggestions from the community regarding this situation.
Do you also believe that doing a full system restore will help or should I send this computer back?
I do find it hard to believe that a computer less than a week old would have this problem with the DVD Supermulti Drive /CD writer.
If I still have no success after a full restore or a resolve from the Lenovo IdeaCentre Community then I will return this computer back to TigerDirect.
To conclude I would like to mention the following regarding this brand new Lenovo K300 5316 1BU top of the line desktop computer.
One of the reasons I purchased this particular desktop was because of the Lenovo Windows 7 ENHANCED operating system that Lenovo has been advertising so much.
To my surprise and disappointment, this BRAND NEW Lenovo Windows 7 Home Premium 64bit does not have the Enhance version, it is Windows 7 Home Premium 64bit only.
Apparently, Lenovo is making some with Enhanced and some without.
Finally, another reason I purchased the 1BU version is because it has a TV Tuner.
To my surprise again, the TV Tuner card in this model does not have an FM Tuner, which almost all TV Tuner Cards have. So, as a result, no FM Radio with Windows 7 Media Center.
Thank you for taking the time to read this long post, but thought it was important to share with the community.
Comments and Help will be most appreciated.
MateusMan
Moderator note; e-mail address removed to stop the spambots getting it

What brand DVD drive did you install? Some third-party drives won't boot by holding down the C key at startup, because they lack the Apple/OEM drive's ROM programming. I recently installed a Memorex (manufactured by LG) DVD burner in a B&W G3, which is recognized by Toast and (with PatchBurn) the iApps. The compatibility problem occurs when selecting a CD/DVD as the startup disk using the Startup Disk Preferences/control panel or by holding down the C key during the restart. In either case, the drive ejects the disk during the POST, so that I have to immediately close the tray and hold down the C key again, to persuade it to boot from the disk. Is this similar to what you're experiencing?

C55-A won't boot from DVD or USB thumb drive.

I'm trying to boot Linux Mint from a DVD or USB stick and this laptop just says that the media failed when trying to initilize either the DVD or USB stick. I've disabled secure boot in the bios thinking it was UEFI problem but it still won't boot. These discs and usb sticks work in other computers.
Not sure where to go from here, any advice would be much appreciated.

Try this.
In the UEFI, go to the Advanced tab, enter "System Configuration" and set the Boot Mode to "CSM Boot."
Always tell us which Satellite C55-A you have when you post here. There is a label on the bottom.
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If leopard won't boot from dvd, use disk utility mount to partition

wanted to share a way that i successfully installed os 9, tiger, and leopard on 1 hard drive. first of all, leopard was the only installation that i had difficulty with. it would not boot off the original dvd, no matter if i held down the 'c' key or the option key, so this is what i did after a lot of reading on the internet to try and troubleshoot this issue.
First thing i did was partition my internal hard drive in 3 partitions using disk utility. the 3rd partition was around 9gb. I installed os9 first on the 1st partition, i then installed tiger on that same partition. then i put in my leopard dvd, and opened up disk utility. and clicked on "restore", and dragged the dvd image as the "source", and chose the 9gb partition as the destination, and clicked on restore. then, i changed the "startup disk" to start from the 9gb where i just restored the image, and rebooted, and went through the leopard setup and chose the 2nd partition as the place to install. this should work with the dvd, or if you made an image from the dvd. I hope this helps someone else whose dvd won't boot, because it was very frustrating after you purchase a faster processor, and faster video card so that your system meets the requirements, and then the dvd won't boot.

Two ways. Use another computer to restore the install disc to one of those ext HD. Then, use it to boot the other machine. Get an ext CD/DVD reader and use it to read the install disc and boot the machine. However, if both the HD and optical reader are kaput, then a trip to an Apple repair station is in order.

MacBook Pro boot issue (constant rebooting / won't boot from DVD)

Hello all --
I have read a few other threads that have similar issues, but slightly different.
Today I went to get a new internal HD for my MacBook Pro 15"... just swapped it out at the store and put the old one in an external enclosure. No problem there. Got home and went to put the OS on the new internal HD. The MBP would not boot from the OS X 10.5 DVD. Weird, I thought. Tried a few more times - holding down the 'C' key, the 'option' key and so on. Each time it failed to boot -- it would just reboot after getting to the grey screen (no Apple). However, the machine would boot from the old HD in the external enclosure via USB port. Everything appeared normal, the DVD mounted and the new HD showed up in disk utilities - and I was able to format it ... tried rebooting to OS X DVD with no luck
Luckily I have an iMac as well, I put the MBP in target mode and was able to install 10.5 onto the new HD. Tried rebooting. No luck. Got a flashing folder with a ? mark. Once again tried various tricks to get it to boot - safe mode, single user mode etc. I tried resetting PRAM and the SMU. Nothing. I am at the point now, where the new HD with a fresh OS install won't boot -- it just keeps rebooting after flashing to the grey screen briefly. OS X DVD will not boot the machine, but the external USB drive (with the old HD) will boot the machine.
I did try putting the old drive back into the MBP, but the machine failed to boot.
I am at a total loss.
Help, thoughts, suggestions?
Thanks,
Michael

Seems to consistently work with the old HD inside the MBP and not the new drive.
There is an OS installed on the new drive (it shows up in Startup Disk preference, and when holding down option key at startup).
The new drive will show up as an external when it's in an external enclosure connected to the MacBook (the old one back inside the MacBook).
I did format GUID and Extended (Journaled).
The MacBook Pro 15" unibody late 2008 2.4GHZ -- this one: http://support.apple.com/kb/SP499. It has 4GB RAM, the 250GB 7200 RPM drive.
The new drive is a 750GB Seagate Momentus 2.5 7200RPM 16 MB Cache Interface.
Never had any issues with the machine previous to this.

Won't boot from DVD no matter how I try

After verifying my HD with Disk Utility, I had a message claiming the volume is corrupted.
I tried to boot from Install DVD, but it won't : either pressing "C" or Option, or selecting DVD in Pref > Start-Up.
It freezes on the Apple logo after chiming and searching briefly the CD driver, which buzzes normally, then goes idle.
Apple sent me a replacement DVD, thinking the install original DVD was corrupted. It re-booted correctly just ince with the replacement DVD, and never again.
Mac Book Pro is almost new (bought in may).

Could very well be an anomaly with your SuperDrive.
I recently had a similar problem. My DiskWarrior DVD would not show up on my screen nor would DiskWarrior launch after restart with "c" key depressed. My installation disk DVD showed on my screen and worked as did other DVDs but not DiskWarrior. (?????)
I took my MBP to a genius bar and the DVD did appear on the tech's machine's screen.
Diagnosis > SuperDrive problem. Was then sent in for repair where SuperDrive was replaced. Problem solved.
Get thee to a genius bar. Yeah, I know, it sucketh and is a PITA.

PMG4 won't boot from DVD or FW Target Mode

I have a 350mhz PMG4 (AGP) that has a DVD/CDRW drive that works fine under 10.4, but won't boot (have tried from prefs panel and by holding C).
Also, it comes up with open firmware and gives an error when I try to start firewire target mode from the prefs panel, and does nothing if I hold up T on start.
Any help is greatly appreciated!

Hi, Brian -
This sequence may do a full reset of Open Firmware -
- Start the computer and immediately hold down Command-Option-O-F
- When the computer starts it should open into a prompt screen (Open Firmware).
- Press Return, you will see OK.
- Type reset-nvram include the dash, here and below.
- Press Return
- Type set-defaults
- Press Return
- Type reset-all
- Press Return
The system should restart. If not, try typing exit or shutdown, or you can manually restart the system.
Note - some machines may return "unknown word" in response to the reset-nvram instruction; if that happens, try init-nvram instead.

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

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