New HD won't boot internally; fine externally

I'm trying to swap out the hard drive on my wife's late-2008 Macbook with a new Western Digital hard drive (regular style, not a solid-state drive). Cloning the drive with Carbon Copy Cloner seems to have worked fine (including the hidden Recovery partition) as it can be booted from in an external USB case on startup. The problem starts when I switched out the old drive and placed the WD inside. All of a sudden the Macbook won't boot up and I get the flashing folder icon instead. Switching the drives back and everything's fine; I can again boot up from either drive by holding the option key on startup.
I've read that some older Macbook Pros have an issue with SATA II data transfer rates and need to be slowed down from 3.0 Gbps to SATA speeds of 1.5. Unfortunately, it according to WD's site you can't do that with WD's 2.5" drives, only their 3.5"s. I've tried it anyways with a jumper and it doesn't seem to work for me.
I've also read elsewhere that there is a limit to the size of the drive that can be placed in: 500 GB. The drive I bought is 750 GB, so if this is true, that could be what the problem is. However, I can't find any mention of this supposed limitation anywhere on Apple's site. Does anyone have a reputable source for if this is true for this model of Macbook?
Late 2008 13 inch Aluminum MacBook running Lion
Western Digital Scorpio Blue (WD7500BPVT) 750GB SATA 5400 RPM 8MB Cache 2.5" Laptop Hard Disk (OEM)

Hi Dave, I am having the same issues with a WD Blue. Thanks for your suggestions, but doesn't work for me.
When the WD is in the MBP (15" 2010 Unibody), and I boot from an external HD, firstly the MPD says it can't recognise the WD and offers me the choice to Initialise, ignore or eject. I select initialise and disk utility reports that there is only a FAT partition of 58.2 GB on the WD. Err?
When I put the original HD (an ST950032 500GB) back in the MBP and boot off it, all is fine. I then put the WD in an external exclosure, and the MBP sees it fine and Disk Utility correctly reports a MacOS Journalled GUID partition of 465.8GB.
All the data is there (from doing an earlier clone). I just can't boot off it - weird.
Surely there is a fix for this? Have tried all the SMC / PRAM reset stuff.
The box even says that the WD Blue is 'Suitable for all operating systems (except XP) out of the box". How can you be sure that a drive you but will work in a MBP before you spend your money?
Help? Glum

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New MacBook won't boot from external disk

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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.

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The solution for my problem was reinstalling linux-firmware & linux. Maybe this can help you too.
I have booted from a live cd and doing these steps:
RAID Array scan
mdadm --examine --scan > /etc/mdadm.conf
RAID Array start
mdadm --assemble /dev/md1
mdadm --assemble /dev/md2
mdadm --assemble /dev/md3
mdadm --assemble /dev/md4
LVM scan & aktivieren
vgscan
vgchange -a y
Mounten von „root“ & „boot“
mount /dev/mapper/root-root /mnt/root/
mount /dev/md1 /mnt/root/boot/
In „chroot“ wechseln
cd /mnt/root/
„dev“, „proc“, „sys“ einbinden
mount -t proc proc proc/
mount -t sysfs sys sys/
mount -o bind /dev/ dev/
Nun / ändern
chroot ./
Reinstalling packages with
pacman -S linux-firmware linux
May I could help you
jesus loves you

IMac G5 won't boot from an external Seagate Freeagent FireWire drive

Hi guys,
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Huxley

10.3 Server new install won't boot from Mirrored RAID - HELP!!

Hi all,
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B&W G3 Mac OS X (10.3.4) 450 MHz, 10.3 Server, 80GB RAID mirror

if you backup your data from a NON-RAID Drive (Single drive), create a RAID array and then Restore from the backup you created... you will find you cannot boot from the drive.
Apparently the sector or drive header information in a non-RAID drive is different than in a RAID array... so when you restore the backup data from the non-RAID drive to the new RAID Array; you effectively corrupt the RAID array not allowing it to be booted from.
The solution is to create the RAID array and then re-install your system from scratch... copying over the data you want to keep from your initial backup one file at a time (don't do a complete system copy or you will once again, corrupt your new RAID install).
I had the same problem and it took me a great deal of time to figure it out.
Joe

New machine won't boot

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Quote from: drachenfire on 09-February-08, 14:27:20
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No, the mirroring means you have a safe copy of your data, you will still need 2 disks........

S3270y Slimline won't boot/shutdown with External USB

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I've run into this in the past but just not out of the blue. I went into BIOS and I don't see any reference to USB support. But the revision on these BIOS are like 2007 it seems. I don't understand how HP doesn't keep BIOS updated for machines that are running a current OS.
Anyway if anyone has any idea, I would greatly appreciate it.

Hi,
Check with Seagate and see if there is a firmware update available or issues with the particular model USB drive.
Check at the HP site for a QFE that pertains to your issue. I do see one available.
If the above fails to solve the issue then try the below.
Power up your PC. Now insert the USB drive (be sure to remove any critical data).
Open up the RUN window and enter the following commands:
cmd
diskpart
list disk    ----> note the drive # for the USB external drive
select disk #
clean   ---> this will totally clean the drive format, all partitions and data will be lost
exit
Now uplug the drive and plug it back in. You might get prompted to format the drive but ignore it for now.
Go to Disk Management expand the screen and locate the USB drive. Now click on it and initialize it as mbr and then then format the drive and assign a drive letter such as Y.
Now perform a windows shutdown and see if it hangs.
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New HD won't boot from CD

So my older white MB wouldn't start. Figured the hard drive had failed. Bought and installed a new HD, but it refuses to boot from CD. PRAM reset, does nothing. Any ideas? If not I'm thinking it wasn't the HD and it is the logic board. Can't get anything to work to check, though.

Hey Pevavol,
Same problem here. New 10.6 install DVD.
My boot disc is free of scratches and boots my MacBook Pro
What didn't work.
- Cleaned the DVD drive with optical drive cleaner
- Formatted the new HD via target disc mode.
What worked.
- Booting from an external Firewire Optical Drive something like
http://www.lacie.com/ca/products/product.htm?pid=11170
[Does not have to be a lacie, just for illustration]
Then I got an error that the computer doesn't have the required RAM to install 10.6 perhaps check that. [http://www.apple.com/macosx/specs.html]
The Macbook has 512mb and 10.6 requires 1GB of memory
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-Jonathan P

New hard drive not booting osx from external

Hi guys, I currently installed a new hard drive into my macbook, and I tried holding down the alt//option key to try and boot osx from my external hard drive ((Connected through USB)) but nothing happens. My mouse cursor appears, but nothing shows up. I tried 5 minutes ago to make sure that I was actually able to boot to my external drive from my old hard drive, and it worked perfectly. But nothing shows up on this end. Any help or suggestions?
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any one have any insight?

New HDD Will Not Boot Internally

I'm trying to install a 1TB HDD into my MBP in place of the 750GB that came with it. I wouldn't have thought this to be important information, but this 1TB drive has come from inside a Seagate Expansion. I've cloned the drive, and made sure it will boot externally, but it will not boot when internal! Here are all the things I've done to try and make this work:
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I went to Disk Utility in Recovery Mode, with the new drive still internal, to see if the disk needed repairing. I noticed then that it didn't appear to have the same name I'd given the partition when I'd formatted it, and I was also unable to reformat it, erase it, or actually do anything to it at all.
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If anyone has some great ideas for a solution they'd be more than welcome!

It worked! Drive and Recovery Partition were cloned without problem and I can now boot to the internal drive as normal.
Thanks for the help Grant!
The fix/method for anyone wanting to do this in future:
Install new HDD into Mac, connect old drive in an enclosure.
Boot to old drive recovery partition
Run Disk Utility from the recovery partition and 'restore' the image of your old drive (which is connected via USB) to the new drive.
Wait a LONG time (5 hours for a 750GB HDD) and it'll clone your entire HDD including the recovery partition.
Whilst still in recovery Disk Utility, change startup disk to the new HDD (the one installed in your Mac)
Disconnect USB drive and boot to the newly cloned intertnal drive.
Celebrate - up to you how to approach this one, I just did a little dance.

NF750-G55 New Build Won't Boot to DVD

I'm doing a rebuild of a system in which the old motherboard failed. This is only the second time I have done a build, so forgive any apparent ignorance. The following describes the system: Motherboard: MSI NF750-G55, CPU: AMD Athlon II X3 450, PSU: Hiper Type R MkII 880W, Case: Antec Three Hundred, Memory: Rendition by Crucial 1 X 4GB, Hard Drive: Seagate 400 GB, DVD: Samsung 22X SpeedPlus. Only the case, PSU and DVD come from the first build I did 18 months ago and were fine until the old MOBO failed.
The problem I'm encountering with the new MSI NF750-G55 is booting to the DVD so I can load Windows Vista onto the hard drive. The POST gives me a Bad CHKSUM error and directs me to bios setup. In setup, the Boot Sequence shows my DVD and hard drives as disabled and won't let me enable either.
I've uninstalled everything, cleared the CMOS and reinstalled everything five times. Nevertheless I am still getting the same error message and can't enable either my DVD drive or hard drive. Therefore, I'm unable to successfully boot up and load windows onto the new hard drive.
I'm out of ideas and ready to return the MOBO to Newegg for another, but I would rather fix the problem. Does anyone have any ideas as to what I can try next before I ask for an RMA?
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Quote from: Pixy on 16-April-11, 04:24:53
I've tried loading defaults (both optimized and fail-safe) in bios setup as well as by using F2 in the chksum error screen. All result in a screen that looks like this:
The text that is obscured in the upper part of the screen reads:
BTX loader 1.0 BTX version is 1.01
Console: internal video/keyboard
Bios drive C: is disk 0
Bios 636kB/2030208kB available memory
Once in that screen, the only way out is to unplug the PSU and reset the CMOS.
As I said before, I'm stymied and have no idea what to try next.
Quote
Once in that screen, the only way out is to unplug the PSU and reset the CMOS.
do not do this, just hit reset button then press F11 during BIOS post screen and boot from your optical drive.

New Air won't boot after failed Migration

New MacBook Air arrived this afternoon.
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Second thing I did was run Migration Assistant to transfer data from a Time Machine backup on an external USB disk. The old computer was small. Backup is only about 25GB. It is from a MacBook running Snow Leopard.
After about half an hour of running, Migration Assistant reached the "less than a minute remaining" stage and hung there for more than an hour. Finally I quit it. My computer then became unresponsive. I had to hold down the power key and restart.
Computer won't restart. Bong is heard, Apple appears, spinner appears, no progress after that. Unplugged the external disk, rebooted, same thing.
I rebooted to the recovery partition and ran Disk Utility, did the integrity check and the permission repair on the main volume, no improvement.
Finally I gave up and started the Reinstall Lion option. I'd read about this, figured it was something I might need someday, never imagined I'd be running it within hours of getting the computer. Display says I have 5 hours and 45 minutes to wait.
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Too bad mini server won't boot from an external drive

It won't. Enterprise TEch support confirmed this. I bought thew new mini server to get a good value fast machine with a quad i-7.
What's the purpose of Thuderbolt if my apps and doc folders have to reside on a SATA disk?
They really should have non server version with the i7 quad.
Even better Apple should make it clear that this is the case. Even the guy in the apple store said I coud boot it form an external drive!

Yes this will all take some time for sure.
If you want to keep lion server on your current machine, then yes, that is correct. It doesnt hurt to have a few spare 500gb+ hard drives to help the long process.
See there was previous controversy with the mac mini servers with the dual cores (the one I have) because we all wanted the better processors but to not run the server version and some also wanted to be able boot from other drives. Same as you..
In non lion versions of OSX you would normally put the SL Server DVD or SL DVD into your mac and instead of installing a fresh OS, you would select utilities , then restore from time machine backup. You could also obviously use an external drive or SD card with SL or SL server installer loaded on it to install the OS or perform the restore.
That being said
I personally only know how to use a Snow leopard Server or Regular snow leopard installer DVD (or disc imaged external hard drive partition as just mentioned) to use time machine to restore an OS. I personally dont have experience with the lion disc repair for using its utilities to restore from a backup. Im sure it works the same way though when you hold option and boot from it..
If you are looking to go NON server on your OS you must have a Snow leopard retail version DVD (not leopard upgrade version) to be installed on to an external drive.
So what you would do is Set up a partitioned external hard drive and load it up with Snow leopard, upgrade it in app store to lion ($29 ) , then update it with software update, back it up to another partition using time machine, then boot from the install dvd (or disc imaged partitioned installer of SL) , go to utilities, and select restore from backup, when its asks wher eto install choose the external you want to boot from (must be partitioned using GUID partition table) and install. When you want to boot from that drive, hold option right after you power up your machine until it gives you the option of the drive you want to boot from, select it and boot.
Unfortunately like I said you will have to have a snow leopard retail installer (no longer at the apple store only online or ebay for $30) and then would have to 'upgrade' to lion in order to NOT have lion server version on a mac mini set up for server.
If lion server version is good for you then yes do what you wrote in the reply would work. My experience with server snow leopard was that it was slower than snow leopard regular and it extremely interfered with my music production even though I was not running any of its server options..
I hope this helps..

New L440 won't boot after weird video problem

My new Thinkpad L440 just stopped working at the worst imaginable time. I hope someone here will be able to help, though I suspect it may be irretrievably broken in some stupid fluke. Let me give you the details: Maybe five hours before this happened, I removed the battery since I don't lug my laptop around much anyway and wanted to preserve it. I used to do this with my Macbook too, and everything seemed fine, until I started watching this video while downloading some totally legal material in the background using a file-sharing application. The screen would go black, and the computer would be completely irresponsive until I started closing the lid, at which point it would resume functioning. When this first happened, I was able to log on and start working again; it happened again, and I fixed it in the same way. Maybe ten minutes later, the screen went black again and I could not get it to respond no matter what angle I bent the lid. I tried shutting it and opening it again, to no avail. I removed the power connection and reconnected it, to no avail except for the fact that there were two short flashes of the green light at the center of the power button. I re-inserted the battery and nothing changed. So what on earth do I do? I can't believe this is happening right now -- I have so many deadlines!
In any event, it's a Thinkpad L440 bought maybe ten days ago. 64-bit Windows 8.1 (it came with Windows 7, but I installed 8.1 from the DVDs that came with it).
My educated guess would be that it's either my bad luck (and possibly some overheating issue, though I certainly don't think what I was doing was outside of what you could expect a brand new laptop to cope with), or that removing the battery led some internal backup battery to discharge and now it won't start again until it has been recharged.
Grateful for any suggestions.

Hi Ews,
I am sorry to hear that you are facing the issue with no POST, and I understand the frustration what you are going through. If the issue still persists after performing the provided troubleshooting, then it might be issue with the system hardware.
I strongly suggest you to visit the nearby service center for further assistance on the issue.
Click here to open a link where you can select the country and get the exact contact support number. I’m sure they will be a great help.
Hope this helps!
Best regards,
Hemanth Kumar
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Mac won't boot up if external hard drive is on

I just purchased an external hard drive to use for my Time Machine backups. The "installation" instructions said that with the computer off, to power up the e.h.d., then power up the computer. Well, the computer is evidently trying to boot up from the e.h.d. - the white screen/apple logo sits there for 5 minutes, then it restarts but cycles through the same thing over & over. Called Apple Care & we simply turned the e.h.d. off and booted up just fine. Then turned the e.h.d. back on & my first Time Machine backup went fine.
Shut down for the night. Turned the computer on this a.m. (external drive still on) and the same rigamarole - no successful start - happened again.
My question: should I just turn the external hard drive off when I turn the computer off (I use it only for Time Machine backups) or should I stress & sweat over finding a solution or, last resort, return it?

I would contact the manufacturer of the hard drive for a firmware update.
It is strange that this drive in particular should have a problem, as it was one of the ones demoed at the Stevenote, and shown on the Time Machine initial advertising. If a firmware update doesn't solve the problem, return the drive, and get a better rated drive that is known to be compatible with your version of the operating system.

New HD won't boot internally; fine externally

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