No startup disk found

I get the folder with the question mark.  Using the restore CD I accessed the Disk Utility but my computer doesn't see the HD.  I purchased a new HD and it still doesn't see it.  What else could be cause this?

If a new hard disk didn't fix the problem, the hard drive cable of the logic board is damaged. The logic board has to be replaced, and it's the most expensive repair. Take your Mac to any Apple Retail Store or reseller

Similar Messages

  • Classic folder not found BUT it os9 appears in startup disk list and boots!

    I installed my friends system from scratch it is an old imac G3 with latest firmware updates..
    In the end the only way to get it installed the way they wanted was to install tiger and drag the system folder over from the old install
    Now what happens when booted to OSX 10.4 "Classic" in the system preferences looks for a classic folder but cant find one.... yet if I go toe system preferences startup There are both the OS X starup and OS 9 Startup disk listed there and if selected OS 9.22 boots and runs fine.
    It is listed under startup as Mac OS Z1 - 9.22 Machintosh HD
    I have not run software update on Tiger yet so it is probably 10.4.3 or 4 maybe this would help ?
    Any ideas why it wont see this as haveing Classic on the system ? It seems strange that Apple wont allow you to point to the correct folder when it exists and boots from it fine.
    Interesting enough when I plugged in my external firewire drive (which is where i copied the OS 9.22 system folder across from) and run the system preferences and classic setup it looks and sees the external drive folder as ok to run for classic !
    Naturally I have unmounted this as it is my drive and not my friends
    thanks for your help

    when I open
    Classic Preferences, the system looks for eligible
    System Folders and lists the ones it has found. On my
    Tibook, there is normally only one, and that one is
    selected by default. In order to deselect it, I would
    have to connect my external drive, which contains (on
    separate partitions) three other System Folders
    suitable for use as Classic. I would then expect to
    be able to choose manually from among the four
    eligible candidates, even if one of them were
    initially selected by default.
    Are you saying that the Classic pane of Sys Prefs on
    your computer fails to list any System Folder at all,
    even though the one that boots your computer into OS
    9.2.2 is present and ready for duty? If so, that is
    strange indeed.
    mine works exactly the same as your then.
    and yes you are also right that it fails to list any system folder as all

  • Startup Disk issue in new Mac Air. Replaced with another new mac, then again. MS Excel culprit?

    Hey guys, I bought a macbook Air 11’ 4GB 128GB (Mid-2011(after selling my 13” macbook pro) and the problems seem to be never ending.
    My primary work involves using MS Excel so I installed  a licensed version of Office for Mac 2011 and started using excel on my new mac machine. Within few minutes I got a message pop-up on screen “YOUR MAC OS STARTUP DISK HAS NO MORE SPACE AVAILABLE FOR APPLICATION MEMORY”.
    I checked the size of storage and there was just 5 GBs worth space left despite the fact that there was not a single photo, music, video on the new mac apart from a few MBs of excel files. I took it to the vendor (APPLE PREMIUM RESELLER) who after re-installing lion returned it to me and the same issue again popped up. Finally, they diagnosed an SSD problem and after a week of waiting, I was given a brand new shiny macbook air MC969 (same model).
    I used the new one and again while using excel, the same issue has come up. I’m really fed up of this stupid error bcoz I was using the same OFFICE FOR MAC suite on my macbook pro and never suffered any such problem. I have also twice thrice completed all the steps I was told to do (like repair disk perm. Emptying the cache etc. )
    Since India doesn’t have any Apple owned stores but only Premium Resellers whose replacement etc policies are not governed by Apple.
    They do not even refund the money but have given an option of diagnosing the machine and replacing the problematic part.
    I googled the web and found no such issued with EXCEL. Strangely, other apps in the office suite seem to work well without any issues.
    I have attached the screenshots that how while using excel, within a couple of minutes, mac starts to heat up, then storage decreases and finally the error where mac becomes dead slow.
    Please help me to determine where the cause lies.

    The Excel files size range between 29KB to 60KB.
    That's it.
    I called up the reseller and he said that the replacement period is now over and mac would only be repaired.
    I dont want my Mac to get unscrewed

  • Trying to get rid of error "The startup disk cannot be partitioned or restored to a single partition". Recovery HD visible.

    Hello,
    I've been stuck for some hours now trying different things to install Windows 7 on my Macbook Air, and I think now is the time to call for some custom help.
    I'm using OS X 10.9.5 Mavericks.
    So some months ago I just wanted to run Linux on my laptop so I installed rEFInd, shrunk the Macintosh HD partition by 25GB and booted on a linux live USB flash I burned using dd.
    Then I used gparted to create my linux partitions.
    It worked just fine, even though disk utility from OS X seemed quite unhappy about this (it seemed to have incorrect informations about the filesystem on these partitions, seeing them as journaled Mac OS while they were clearly not). At this point already, the Recovery HD from mac showed up in disk utility, which I found weird but didn't bother me.
    But recently I needed windows on my Mac. So after a few tries for the triple boot, I managed to create a bootable USB stick with boot camp, which already showed me the message "The startup disk cannot be partitioned or restored to a single partition" and hence refused to partition/install himself.
    So I thought "OK, that's no big issue, I can just partition with disk utility and then boot on the USB stick and everything will work fine". But when EFI booting on the USB flash drive I got stuck at the beginning of Windows installer with no keyboard or mouse support.
    After some hours spent googling, I was unable to find a working fix for that, and as there was no support for my case (where I used bootcamp to create the bootable flash but NOT to partition/reboot) I decided to give bootcamp a try.
    So I erased my linux partitions, and cleaned up everything I could on the HD with disk utility. That means I now have two partitions showing in disk utility : Macintosh HD and Recovery HD.
    When using disk utility from terminal, the list is :
    /dev/disk0
       #:                       TYPE NAME                    SIZE       IDENTIFIER
       0:      GUID_partition_scheme                        *121.3 GB   disk0
       1:                        EFI EFI                     209.7 MB   disk0s1
       2:                  Apple_HFS Macintosh HD            80.0 GB    disk0s2
       3:                  Apple_HFS Recovery HD             650.1 MB   disk0s3
    But boot camp still isn't happy, and the message "The startup disk cannot be partitioned or restored to a single partition" keeps popping after the intro and I can't partition/boot from bootcamp.
    So, as I don't understand what is wrong here anymore, any help would be greatly appreciated!
    I will be watching the thread a lot because I really would like this resolved (or windows installed one way or another) this weekend; so any questions on my past manipulations or config just ask!
    Thank you.

    keyboard issues are also something of a common issue.
    I wish the best threads were voted to the top of forums, something! Me, I literally burned out here, but after installing 10 Preview, wanted to "see what was going on" after hiatus of a couple years and see if anything had changed (no, not really!)
    Also, these new Communities are not putting "more like this" and failing to help too.
    I think rewriting Boot Camp Assistant's built in help and pdf would help a lot, and needs to be clearer and go into details. And Yosemite was not it seems tested against Boot Camp, and drivers for new Macs + new OS also lag behind. Again, common and no sign of improvement or change.
    One of the tricks to the "can't partition" is rather simple - of course backup is step #1 and is spelled out - SHRINK the main HFS+ partition! then stretch it back to full length. Sometimes a reboot is needed, and sometimes even do a Safe Boot - not sure what but Recovry Mode might be a good option too. That does seem to consolidate free space, move files that are locked and cannot be moved otherwise, and allow BCA to partition, jusst be sure to have enough space left and large enough for a proper Windows install (and fudge factor).

  • Can a 10.5.8 bootable clone be used as a startup disk in 10.6.8

    For the very experienced users and experts.
    We have a mbp bootable clone with 10.5.8 and want to use this as a backup startup disk on a mba with 10.6.8.  We understand that it is generally not possible to startup a bootable clone that has a different os than what you are currently running.
    In the reverse, if we tried to use a mba bootable clone with 10.6.8 as a startup disk on a mbp with 10.5.8 would this work or also crash?  Would this be possible or would be expect kernel panics due to missing sandy bridge drivers?  We understand that we would get 3 beeps and the grey screen if we tried.
    In system preferences it temptingly shows that the different os bootable clone as being useable as a startup disk so it gives the impression this is an option that works.  However we understand that if we do indeed try to boot, we will freeze due to a bunch of permissions problems and such.  We're hoping to avoid our computer from freezing mid-stream in a startup disk switch and create a whole bunch of other problems.
    We have no real desire to upgrade the 10.5.8 mbp to 10.6.8.  We did notice that an old iphoto library had to be upgraded for 10.6.8 when the 10.5.8 library was first opened in 10.6.8 and we understand this will now be unopenable in 10.5.8.
    Many thanks for any responses to our questions.  Cheers.

    E27 wrote:
    We have a mbp bootable clone with 10.5.8 and want to use this as a backup startup disk on a mba with 10.6.8.  We understand that it is generally not possible to startup a bootable clone that has a different os than what you are currently running.
    You should as long as the MP had booted off the 10.5.8 clone previously.
    However I, and others also, found out that we can no longer boot off the 10.5 disks in a later 10.6+ Software Update, it might be the firmware was changed to disallow 10.5 from booting once on 10.6.+ sometime.
    Apple might have done this because they don't want people using the 10.5 disk to repair their 10.6 altered drive.
    Got the written kp hard boot screen and had to unplug the clone while frozen but there appears to be no permanent damage to any of the drives.  We suspected this may happen.
    There is your answer and no, no pernament damage was done, it's all a read operation and the machine/firmware couldn't use the 10.5.8 drivers.
    You'll have to find a Mac that is of the same model and runs 10.5 to boot off that 10.5.8 clone.

  • Boot Camp partition not showing in startup disk or when holding alt key

    I've read countless discussions about similar questions to this one, however, I still haven't been able to find any solution.
    I have an old 2006 MacBook that has just been fully updated and reformatted. I'm running OSX 10.7.5 and Boot Camp 4.
    I went through the Boot Camp installation from an Windows ISO image in my usb drive, where it succesfully downloaded all files needed, and prompted me to make the partition, after which it restarted and was supposed to take me to the installation manager in the Windows partition. I first got the "No bootable driver" error, to which I read I was supposed to restart the computer, hold the alt key, and choose the boot camp partition. However, it does not show up. I only get Mac and Recover drivers.
    I went into the Mac's startup disk, and only the Mac driver is showing, no Boot Camp driver, however, when I go into Disk Utilities, I can see that the BootCamp driver there.
    I read somewhere that I should zap pram and reset SMC, which I did with their instructions. It didn't change anything, I still only get the Mac driver and Recovery when hitting the alt key.
    Does it have something to do with my MacBook being older? That's the only reason I can think that would not allow me to do this.
    Let me know what other info I can give you so that you can please help me!! Thanks in advance!

    In last resort I solved my missing BOOTCAMP partition problem using a program called: iPartition from coriolis systems located in the United Kingdom http://www.coriolis-systems.com/iPartition.php it took me a coupleof days to figure out the credit card system they have Hint: use your 9 digit zip code to find your credit card address and call your bank if you have an overseas hold on the card!!!! The program found my missing BOOTCAMP partition and restored it. It did take a couple of e-mails to learn to use their program. Let me know how you turn out!

  • My MacBook Pro is almost out of space on my startup disk?? The computer is only a month old!!

    I have a new MacBook Pro, and I also got the iphone 5 for Christmas.  I wanted to upload all the pics/videos off of the old iPhone onto my MacBook before restoring it and setting up the new iPhone.  Once I started the import process, halfway through, I got a notice saying I was getting close to running out of space of my startup disk.  This seems weird to me.  I am new to Mac systems, and am trying to find where I can see how much memory I am using, how much I have available.  Can someone help me?
    I feel very computer illiterate!!!

    Would you please post these two displays from your MBP:
    This is found >About This Mac>More Info...>Storage.  (the Apple icon  is in the left hand corner of your menu bar)
    Click on the HDD icon in the upper left hand corner of your desktop, COMMAND I (the letter i).  The icon will probably be labeled McIntosh HD.
    Ciao.

  • How to move Startup Disk clone from one external drive to another?

    I thought this would be a question easily answered on the WWW and easily found via search engines, but so far no luck, hence this question.
    Prior to upgrading from Lion to Mountain Lion I followed some very good instructions from Tom Nelson on ask.com (http://macs.about.com/od/backupsarchives/ss/diskbackup.htm) related to using Disk Utility to clone my internal Macintosh HD drive to an external hard drive, making it a bootable drive.  I cloned to a very nice LaCie external FW drive that had far more room than that needed for the clone.  This drive booted just fine as a startup disk, so mission accomplished:   I have now a bootable clone of my Lion system prior to upgrading to Mountain Lion. 
    The upgrade to Mountain Lion went well, and now, before I put any additional apps or much additional data on the original internal  Macintosh HD drive, I want to use Disk Utility again to clone the drive so I'll have a snapshot of the system right after the upgrade to Mountain Lion.
    Questions: 
    Is there any way to use the same LaCie drive that now holds the Lion startup disk clone to hold the yet-to-be-done Mountain Lion startup disk clone?  
    If not, how can I move the Lion startup disk clone from the oversized LaCie external drive to a drive more the size of the Lion clone (approx 140G)?   The LaCie drive is far too roomy and nice to have sitting gathering dust for only 140G to be used in an emergency restore. 
    Thanks in advance for your advice.

    Good info Csound1, and thanks. 
    So my final question (I think):  How does one move/copy a startup disk clone from one external drive to another, and still have it bootable on the new external drive?   I'm still considering freeing this LaCie drive up for more dynamic storage and getting another drive for the bootable startup disk clones IF I can move this Lion startup disk clone to a new external drive. 
    I guess the summary question is:   how does one clone a startup disk clone?  As I think about this, and recall the Disk Utility screens, couldn't I simply select the Lion clone on the LaCie FW external drive and do the same operation I did with the original internal Lion drive?  Basically the same steps as before but this time the source is the LaCie FW external and the destination is a new external drive? 
    Thanks again; wonderful forum here with very smart people.  

  • I changed my wheel group properties to no access at top disk level.  I messed up, how can I change back in single user mode "command s" as I am now in Thailand and not able to access startup disks?

    I messed up, I changed my "Wheel group" properties to No Access ( or something other than the default) at the top level of my startup disk "Macintosh HD".   Now my computer won't start up, I just get the spinning wheel of death.    I also am in Thailand right now, so I cannot go to a Genius at an apple store, nor do I have startup disks available.
    So I was hoping there was a way to change back the properties of my disk (Volume) in single user mode (via Command +s) during startup, i.e. can I do a chmod command on the Macintosh HD listing under the Volume Directory.    Or where do i fix this?   Is it fixable without startup disks, etc...
    THANKS FOR ANY HELP!!!!
    If you could also please let me know you have an answer, I WOULD REALLY APPRECIATE IT!!! 
    thanks so much
    mark
    <Edited by Host>

    Thomas,
    Thanks for the info on command-R, didn't know about that!!!
    Yes I changed the sharing "Wheel Group" permissions on my hard drive via Get Info.    But that's all I did.    And then most of the apps wouldn't respond with anything.    So not knowing I did something stupid, I decided to re-boot, and then nothing but the Wheel of Death at startup.
    I was trying to limit access to my computer on this network, changed my public folder settings, and then I thought why not the whole hard drive, but at that time I had no idea what the "Wheel Group" was... so I shouldn't have touched it, BUT IT DID ...... argggggg....
    I managed to go to an internet cafe & research the problem yesterday.    I used the command +s single mode to get in, and then did the necessary steps to mount the drive so I could make changes.   I basically did this:
    Boot into single-user mode (boot while holding down CMD-S)
    Follow the on-screen instructions to mount the file system as read-write (a fsck command followed by a mount command)
    Type the following: "chmod o+r /" followed by "chmod o+x /"
    Type "exit" to leave single user mode and complete the boot sequence.
    I found it at this link http://forums.macrumors.com/showthread.php?t=416180
    It worked... thank God!!!   Well so far so good.   
    I was going to try my own fix by chmod on the Hard drive listed under Volumes directory, but that doesn't seem to match the info under Get Info Window.    So I just used the fix above.    I probably should now go and do "Disk Utility - repair permissions", however I am a little gun shy right now, so I will probably wait until I am back in the States so I can go to an Apple store if it messes up.   Right now I'm following the "if it ain't broke, don't fix it" MOTTO...
    So Thomas I just wanted to say THANKS for replying so quickly, and I really appreciate your help!!!
    (yes I know I shouldn't have used my email addresses, but I WAS DESPERATE, but that's still no excuse)
    Hopefully maybe this thread will help someone else out in the future....
    Okay, thanks again!
    Mark

  • No boot disk found when system is turned on

    Hello all, and thanks in advance for answering my question. I booted my intel based iMac from an Ubuntu Linux live cd to install Linux to a partition that I had set aside using disk utility but did not end up installing Linux. When I restarted the computer after removing the Linux CD, the screen was white for a few seconds longer than normal and then an error message appears saying that now bootable volumes were found and please insert a bootable disk and so I put in the OS X install disk that came with the computer but it still refusies to boot and does not respond to key presses at power on so I cannot eject the OS X DVD. Any thoughts on how to fix this?

    Welcome to the Apple Discussions.
    Have you tried starting up while holding the Option Key? That will take you to startup manager and you can select the startup disk.
    When you started from the OS X DVD, did you do that while holding the C key?
    You can also do the PRAM reset by starting up while holding command-option-P-R keys.

  • Windows partition no longer available on startup disk tool

    I can no longer see my Windows XP partition from the startup disk tool.
    The WinXP partition was created with bootcamp, and it was visible ok on the startup disk. Now it is no longer visible, although it keeps working if I select the partition at startup using the Option (Alt) key.
    I suspect the problem is related to the fact that I have installed NTFS-3g and MacFUSE to make the WinXP partition read/wirte, but I have no evidence that this could be the root cause of my problem.
    Any hint?
    Thanks,
    Fede

    Hi, me again.
    When you found the setupact.log file (from the other thread) did you do a search for "detected boot environment"?

  • Hard time for selecting Startup Disk (partition) in Mac Classic II.

    Dear coleagues, I'd like your help to understand and solve a tricky trouble. I'm sorry for the long text, but the issue is probably living in a small detail.
    The issue regards a Mac Classic II with internal and external HDDs. Internal HDD has two partitions, a smaller with System 7.1 (first) and a larger with System 7.5.3 (second). This one is installed there since 5 years ago, working fine.
    The (just installed) external HDD has 6 partitions (because of its size 9 Gb). It has been formated runing VCP in this Classic II itself and all partitions are initialized with HFS. It is intended to be a backup for my Classic II as well as my Mac Plus. I've started Installing System 7.5.3 in its third partition. Other partitions remain still empty.
    Using only internal HDD I can already perceive that "Startup Disk" control panel is unable to change the boot partition attribute between partitions in the same drive. When I open "Startup Disk" it usualy both partitions of internal HDD are highlighted. I can select a Zip Drive, for instance, and it will boot from Zip. But, when I switch it back to HDD, doesn't bother wich partition I select, it will always boot with the same partition (usually 7.5.3). Then, If i open Startup Disk CP again, both partitions are again highlighted.
    To switch between partitions in the same drive, I use Lido 7.5.6 PMount and there I select the boot partition. Then every time I select my HDD, that'll be the default boot partition.
    My conclusion is that in Mac Classic II the Startup Disk CP is unable to set a partition within a drive, it selects the drive only. The boot will obey the drive's partition table flag. That's why I can do it whith Lido, writing directly at HDD's flags.
    Now, attaching the external HDD, I can see all its partitions in Startup Disk CP and then I select one of them (the 3rd, with 7.5.3). Before rebooting, I close and open again the Startup Disk CP, then I can see all its 6 partitions highlighted. Just like I've been doing with the internal HDD, probably the solution to set a specific boot partition would be through Lido 7.5.6 PMount again. But Lido is unable to handle this drive. It appears gray in the drives list.
    What does it sound to you? What would you recommend to test? Is there an alternative for Startup Disk CP?
    Thank you.
    Regards, Ciro (Brazil)

    Dear Jan, good Evening.
    Thank you for your time.
    In fact I can select a specific partition, but by closing and reopenning Startup Disk CP I realize that the selection has been attributed to the physical drive (all partitions highlighted).
    I have tried Startup Disk CP in both System 7.1 and System 7.5.3. They do the same way.
    Internal HDD has been formated, partitioned and initialized with Apple HD CS Setup.
    This external HDD in a different way. Apple HD SC Setup hasn't been able to "see" it, probably because of its prior format system. Lido neither. That's why I went to VCP. Moreover, as it is too big for 68030, I had to format it attached to a Performa 6360. After formating, I've let VCP make set the partitions in HFS mode (partitions with 512, 1024 and 2032 Mb).
    I've mounted VCP in Mini VMac to get some screenshots for you:
    Bringing it back to Mac Classic II, it could be mounted with Lido, but System 7 has asked to initialize all partitions again. I've accepted, installed system 7 on it, and it didn't boot. Then I've repeated the partitioning and initializing procedures using Apple HD SC Setup (since now there's a Mac HDD with "small" logical drives). Nothing changed.
    I'm following your tip about System Picker. I've downloaded the sit file and read about it. It seems to be able to overlay the problem. I'm gonna try it and report back here.
    But I feel still uncomfortable not to be able to do things the regular way. As far as I know, the boot partition is an attribute of a drive partition in partition map, just like the "Active Partition" found in FAT systems. I should be able to write there as I can do with Lido in internal HDD.
    Thank you, Jan.
    Best regards,
    Ciro Bruno.

  • No startup disks in System Preferences

    ...only "Network startup" shows.
    I was trying to install a firmware update via OS9 (or so I hoped) onto my pismo so that I could use migration assistant for my new mbp. I had a fw drive attached, with 4 partitions, along with the pismo's hd and its 2 partitions. From the fw drive, I selected an os9.2 system folder to boot from, and the pismo booted up into 9.2 as expected; after restart, the pismo came up in panther however, rather than os9.2. Only after starting up Classic from the fw drive did I get the message the update failed. Next, I copied over the system folder with os9.2 onto the pismo. please note, the os9.2 folder is from a backup of my wife's g4 iBook. When I opened system prefs hoping to select the just-copied system folder as the start up disk - I got nothing, just network startup. No other folders. I just ran applejack to repair permissions, but afterward, still nothing in startup disk.
    What did I do, and how can I fix it? Any help appreciated.

    Alright - I've run Disk Utility and repaired permissions and now Sys Prefs has found all the volumes on my drive.
    At first nothing had changed when I looked in Sys Prefs, and I highlighted the Network icon assuming I could deselect it. I could not. I triple clicked in the space next to the Network icon, and sys prefs seemed to wake up and immediately scanned. I selected the volume I wanted, and closed the lock to prevent changes. I had not clicked in the space before running Disk Utility, so perhaps clicking was all I needed to do, but since the log from DU suggests permissions were repaired, I suspect it was necessary.
    Here's the log from Disk Utility. If someone can translate this for me to let me know what was done, I'd be grateful. I assume the glitch was in the system library filesystems line:
    Repairing permissions for “Steve's Computer”
    Determining correct file permissions.
    We are using special permissions for the file or directory ./Library/ColorSync/Profiles/Displays. New permissions are 16893
    We are using special permissions for the file or directory ./Library/ColorSync/Profiles. New permissions are 16893
    We are using special permissions for the file or directory ./System/Library/Filesystems/cd9660.fs/cd9660.util. New permissions are 33261
    We are using a special uid for the file or directory ./private/var/at/jobs. New uid is 1
    We are using a special uid for the file or directory ./private/var/at/spool. New uid is 1
    The privileges have been verified or repaired on the selected volume
    Permissions repair complete

  • The iCloud Drive folder in Library/Mobile Documents is taking up way too much space on my startup disk.

    The iCloud Drive folder in Library/Mobile Documents is taking up way too much space on my startup disk
    I was hoping my files would stay in the cloud and not take up a ton of space on my machine (only a 128gb SSD).  But while performing an overnight time machine backup I came back to find a "Startup Disk Full" error message.  I only have about 20gb used locally but over 200gb in iCloud Drive at the moment.
    Is there a way to clear the cache so my files stay on iCloud and not hogging space on my SSD? Or a way to redirect this library to my 2nd hard drive?
    I'm using a 15" mid-2012 Macbook Pro with a 1TB hard drive and I've replaced the optical drive with a 128gb SSD for my OS (which is where my library is, hence the difficulty).
    Thank you!

    While puttering around after posting this I think I found my personal solution here: http://macs.about.com/od/diyguidesprojects/qt/Move-Your-Home-Folder-To-A-New-Loc ation.htm
    I'm just going to move my home folder to my 2nd internal 1TB hard drive to solve my problem.
    But my question remains, how can we minimize the amount of local space iCloud Drive ***** up?  I wanted to get the rumored new macbook air that might come out next year but this is a big turn off if iCloud drive is going to overwhelm the SSD in the AIr.

  • Switching startup disk from OS 8.6 to OSX.

    Hello,
    I posted this issue once before however it became a long post and I thought I would start again so that I could focus the question more accurately and as well to indicate that some of these solutions might not work.
    OK, Here is the issue: Against conventional practice, I am trying to use both OS 8.6 and OS X on the same computer but on different disks. The question is, how does one re-startup in OSX once one was previously in OS 8.6? The challenge is that OS 8.6 (unlike OS 9) is not very compatible with OSX in terms of being able to boot back and forth between the two systems.
    Here are my three solutions. I am particularily interested in keeping the two OSes on separate disks (as in solutions 2 and 3 below) - which makes this a challenging problem - how do you boot back into OSX after previously being in OS 8.6?
    Here are the three solutions:
    solution 1 (if OS8 and OSX are on same partition)
    Since 8.6's Startup Disk can't recognize Mac OS X directly, and the Blue and White G3 does not support the Startup Manager, rebooting back into Mac OS X is best done if both are on the same partition, since all you have to do is hold the X key to startup in Mac OS X. You won't be able to do so if they are on separate partitions. For good measure when you restart back into Mac OS X, repair permissions.
    solution 2 (if OS8 and OSX are on a different partition)
    If you want to be able to switch to OSX while booted to OS 8.6, you will need to update the Startup Disk control panel - the one in OS 8.6 can not recognize OSX as a valid boot OS.
    You can download and install this replacement, which (in spite of what the info about it states) others have found also works with OS 8.6 -
    Startup Disk 9.2.1 Document and Software:
    http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=120024
    solution 3 (if OS8 and OSX are on a different partition)
    I just found another way to reboot back into OS X from OS 8.6:
    "To unbless (or make inactive) a system folder simply pull the Finder File out of it."
    So, I suppose I could just unbless the OS 8.6 system folder by pulling the finder file out of the 8.6 system folder and then restarting the computer and it should find OSX.
    But then I would have to put the finder file back into the 8.6 system folder if I wanted to reboot back into 8.6. I suppose I could so that from OSX
    Summary of question:
    Unfortunately I tried solutions 2 and 3 and both did not work on my beige G3 due to some issues which I am determined to troubleshoot later. In any case, could anyone think of another way boot back into OSX after previously being in OS 8.6?

    The procedure for transferring files over Ethernet depends upon the exact operating systems involved. Recent Mac OS X versions have limitations as far as file sharing with older Macs is concerned.
    One alternative method with fewer limitations could be to use a web server on the old machine. Personal Web Sharing (the Web Sharing control panel) may already be present on the G3 computer, or can possibly be added through a custom install. A router with a built-in multi-port Ethernet switch (LAN ports), with the WAN port disconnected from the Internet, can be used for a local setup. A web browser on the new computer would give access to files.
    A utility creating compressed archives can simplify transfers.
    Jan

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