No startup disk recognized during recovery

Recently my computer malfunctioned and crashed for no reason; it was a seemeingly random crash, my only thought is maybe the computer overheated. I shut down the computer and restarted it. Now all I see is the flashing folder with a question mark. I have no time machine back-ups and have only had this computer for a year. I tried to reinstall the Mountain Lion OS X from the 'Internet Recovery', but when it ask to choose a disk, there is no disk listed at all. I am already assuming that I have lost everything that was on my computer. I can't even get to the normal desktop.
Does this entail that I need a new hard-drive entirely? Or is there possibly another problem? I want to avoid going somewhere to get it repaired if possible.
Any thoughts?

Try it this way..
Startup your Mac while holding down the Option key.
That should launch the Startup Manager window where you can select the startup disk then click Restart.
If the startup disk is not available, it's possible it has failed. This is why it's so important to backup important data on a timely basis so you can restore from a backup.

Similar Messages

Pavilion DV8T stuck on disk 2 during recovery

Hey everybody,
I purchased the computer two years ago, when I tried to make recovery disks I got an error and was told from HP I needed a new set of DVDs which I wasted around 40 to 50 dollars anyways short story told, HP said they were going to send me recovery disks and I didn't receive anything.
2 years later the OS wouldn't load due to a corrupted file, I paid for the recovery disks, it loads disk 1 and when prompted to install disk 2 it just hangs. I've tried around 5 to 8 times in the last couple weeks with no success.
I also deleted all partitions, did a low level format, and tried again with no success, I tried to partition the drive with fat 32 and ntsf with no success, also tried to wipe the hard drive again and used the cyberplayer DVD disk HP recommends to use for wiped hard drives but also didn't work. HDD and memory tests passed
I spoke with HP and they answer was to send me another set of recovery disks which I know it will be useless since the first time I received 2 sets and both of them failed.
I was able to install my own version of windows 7 but half of the drivers don't work and HP doesn't even bitter to post the correct drivers/software on their support web page.
Any help would be appreciated.
Thanks

I recently upgraded my dv8t to Windows 8 Pro (using the built-in disc drive). It installed fine and had no errors with installation. After using Windows 8, I decided to try to use my recovery partition (which I verified is still on the disk drive) but F11 failed. Given I spent close to $1900 on this dv8t entertainment notebook, I figured I would pay the $12 to order this recovery set, directly from HP.
Yesterday I received the CD set. The CDs arrived in prestine condition, no scratches or cracks of any kind on the set. So I turned on my notebook, and it booted into Windows 8. I then inserted Disc 1 of the set into the drive, and then rebooted from the sign-in screen.
Disc 1 (Volume label: BOOT) was detected and proceeded to launch. First, it wiped my hard disk and then it copied the files. I verified it was reading because I can feel the drive spinning along with the LED light flashing as it read the disc.
Next, it requested Disc 2 (Volume label: DISC1). I then inserted disc 2 and confirmed that the optical drive detected the disc as the drive spun and the LED light was visable. I verified this by observing the HDD & optical drive LEDs which never illuminated after that. I waited for nearly 45 minutes after that and there was no activity from the system. I even ejected & re-inserted the media to see it the drive would detect the disc upon auto-run.
I performed some research online and found this forumn which confirms everything I have experienced. I believe the user in this forumn who received multiple replacement sets by mail and experienced the issue repeatedly.
Though my notebook is out of warranty (1-year warranty), I decided to call HP support and inform them of the issues with the disc media I received. After being on hold, I spoke to a "technician", one of those outsourced customer service representatives from India that actually call themselves "technicians". So I explained the issue with the discs, known issue as it's reported in this forumn, my troubleshooting (I'm a helpdesk technician myself), and my results. The technician kept saying I would have to purchase a support plan for support as it may be a issue with my hard drive or optical drive... I asked him "if it was an issue with the hard drive, how did Windows 8 launch every time prior using your recovery set?" He then said it was my optical drive. I asked him "if it was an issue with my optical drive, how did it read disc 1?" Unable to answer my questions he tried to sell me a support plan. I asked several times to speak to a more qualified technician. He would tell me "let me check with my resources" and then put me on a brief hold. Unable to allow me to talk to anyone, I asked for a refund on the faulty authored recovery media. He then said he was going to transfer me to the correct department, and then guess what... he hung up on me.
***Note to HP - I believe that the recovery media set needs to personally be evaluated and tested by HP as I do not believe end users are using defective or scratched media for this recovery disc set. I believe the issue to be either a programming error on either Disc 1, or maybe even Disc 2's volume label being named DISC1.
For your convenience, I am listing the HP part numbers for the faulty authored media set which should be tested on a dv8t-1000 notebook. If you need a product number for the notebook it is: NQ226AV
Media set part numbers:
HP PART#: 588725-001
HP PART#: 592889-B22
HP PART#: 588725-001-CD1
Individual disc part numbers:
Disk 1 of 2 - 588726-001
Disk 2 of 2 - 588727-001
Please look into this and e-mail me. If you fail to respond with a resolution to this post, then I am buying Sony or other brands moving forward. I encourage anyone else who reads this thread the same.
Best regards,
HP Customer

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).

How long should I let Safe Mode startup run? I keep getting the "disk0s2 i/o error" message and I'm just not sure when to give up and try a different method. I already ran disk utility in Recovery Mode and it said there were no repairs needed.

How long should I let Safe Mode startup run? I keep getting the "disk0s2 i/o error" message and I'm just not sure when to give up and try a different method. I already ran disk utility in Recovery Mode and it said there were no repairs needed but it still kept getting stuck on the apple loading screen.

You have limited opportunity to attempt to create a backup of your created files.
That is what the SafeBoot or safemode appears to allow you -- at the moment.
Since the hard disk drive exhibits signs of failure or other major issues, plan
on a replacement in the near future. You may be able to get the computer to
start up in a regular full OS X (not safe mode) but consider its hours are limited.
An externally enclosed hard disk drive (with own power supply, not relying on
Mac ports to run it) is a good basic means of which to use a disk utility to make
a copy or a Clone of the current OS X. This may help retrieve an archive that
could be used along with a Time Machine backup, to restore your Mac once you
get a new hard drive installed inside.
Good luck & happy computing!

Mac Pro (Early 2008) freezes, reboots to recovery system, trouble locating startup disk

I have two issues which may or may not be related with my Mac Pro. First, off and on for several months is has been frozen when waking from sleep. I can hit a key and see my desktop with the windows I left open, but I get the spinning beach ball and the time is typically several hours behind. The only way I can get it to start is to restart from the power button. This typically happens overnight when my computer has been asleep for a long time. Sometimes I hear the fan run while the computer is asleep and I don't know if that is related. I've tried switching from Firefox to Chrome to see if that was the problem since I typically have a few tabs open on Firefox when it freezes, but that does not solve the problem. The next step I plan to try is to get a can of compressed air and clean the fan and check if the video card air intake might be clogged, based on information I have read in various forums. Does anyone have other suggestions for things to try to eliminate the freezing? Another suggestion I read was to get a new logic board battery installed but I hate to lug this thing into an Apple store unless I really have to. Most of the time I'm comfortable fixing things on my own.
The second issue is that when I reboot after shutting down the computer with the power button, it does not always load the startup disk. Sometimes I get the recovery system instead, and if I try disk repair, restore from backup, or the startup disk option from the apple menu, it cannot locate the startup disk. Usually after a few tries, I can restart it and get my desktop, but I'm not sure how long that will work. I hoped that resetting the NVRAM would take care of this but it has not fixed the issue. When I do disk repair, it says the drive is fine. I've also used idefrag to clean up the drive. I'm thinking my hard drive might be about to die and I should just get a new one, but I don't want to spend the money if that is not the issue. I have 83 GB free on the drive so space should not be an issue.
Any suggestions on fixing either or both of these issue would be very much welcome! I need to make this computer last at least a couple more years.
Specs:
Mac Pro early 2008
Processor 2 x 2.8 GHz Quad-Core Intel Xeon
Memory 8 GB 800 MHz DDR2 FB-DIMM
Graphics NVIDIA GeForce 8800 GT 512 MB
Software OS X 10.8.5 (12F37)

Back up all data immediately as your boot drive may be failing.
If you have more than one user account, these instructions must be carried out as an administrator. I've tested them only with the Safari web browser. If you use another browser, they may not work as described.
Triple-click anywhere in the line below on this page to select it:
syslog -k Sender kernel -k Message CReq 'Channel t|GPU D|I/O|n Cause: -' | tail | open -ef
Copy the selected text to the Clipboard (command-C).
Launch the Terminal application in any of the following ways:
☞ Enter the first few letters of its name into a Spotlight search. Select it in the results (it should be at the top.)
☞ In the Finder, select Go ▹ Utilities from the menu bar, or press the key combination shift-command-U. The application is in the folder that opens.
☞ Open LaunchPad. Click Utilities, then Terminal in the icon grid.
Paste into the Terminal window (command-V).
The command may take a noticeable amount of time to run. Wait for a new line ending in a dollar sign (“$”) to appear.
A TextEdit window will open with the output of the command. Normally the command will produce no output, and the window will be empty. If the TextEdit window (not the Terminal window) has anything in it, post it — the text, please, not a screenshot. The title of the TextEdit window doesn't matter, and you don't need to post that.

USB flash drive not being recognized as a startup disk?

Hi everyone, I've been searching for similar questions but haven't found one that exactly matches my experience. So, I'm going to try and explain my issue in hopes that others may be able to help.
I'm trying to create a bootable flash drive from which I can install lion, and eventually Mountain Lion when it is released onto my main hard drive. My main reason for doing this is to have a way that I can perform a clean install of the operating system. Yes, I know I am old fashioned, but sometimes I prefer clean operating system installs rather than upgrading. In any case, I have downloaded the lion setup file from the Mac app store (Install Mac OS X Lion.app) and am following the directions given on this page to do this procedure. These directions are consistent with directions found on various other sources online. Having this file saved to my hard drive, I was able to find and extract the disk image file from the package InstallESD.dmg to another folder. Once extracted, I plugged in my flash drive and attempted to use disk utility to restore the disk image to my flash drive. I selected the dmg file as my source and the flash drive as the destination. I then clicked restore and was warned that all data on the flash drive would be erased while the disk image was restored to my flash drive. I was prepared for this, so I allowed the process to continue, and it appeared to proceed with no problem. When disk utility was finished, I did a quick look at my flash drive using finder and confirmed that it did in fact appear to contain a disk image of the .dmg file. Here's where things get interesting however.
When I go to system preferences and choose startup disk, my flash drive is not listed as an optional disk from which to boot, only my hard drive ("macintosh HD"). When I restart and hold down the option key, my flash drive is not listed as a startup disk either. I know that the non-intel based macs are not capable of booting from USB, but this is certainly not my issue as I have an intel macbook pro, mid 2009 model. My flash drive is about 4 or 5 years old; it is a PNY Technologies Attaché 16 gb flash drive. I have no trouble viewing and transferring files to and from the flash drive, the only issue is that my computer seems to refuse to recognize it as a startup disk. Are there certain flash drives which do not support booting? This would normally seem more like a computer issue rather than a flash drive issue, but most people seem to have no problem doing what I'm trying to do. Unfortunately I do not have another flash drive with which to test this, and I didn't really feel like buying another flash drive just to test this out if in fact this is not a flash drive issue. I am planning to upgrade to the macbook pro retina soon which of course does not have an optical drive, which is one of the reasons I would like to get this working. Can anyone think of something else I can try? Is it more likely an issue with the macbook pro or the flash drive?
Thanks in advance for any thoughts.

The format says Mac OS Extended. All of the settings were set during the disk image restore process. Even if I format the flash drive as extended journaled or some other format, all of these settings are reverted when I do the restore from the disk image. I will just copy all of the information that disk utility has so that you can see it.
Mount Point : /Volumes/Mac OS X Install ESD Capacity : 16.11 GB (16,106,110,976 Bytes) Format : Mac OS Extended Available : 12.3 GB (12,303,499,264 Bytes) Owners Enabled : Yes Used : 3.8 GB (3,802,611,712 Bytes) Number of Folders : 128 Number of Files : 876

For installing software packages, long delay in recognizing startup disk

I have found that any time I install software using an installer package (e.g. flip4mac) on my iMac, there is a long delay before my startup disk is recognized as a valid installation location. All of the other drives are evaluated immediately, but I'd say it's about 20 seconds before I get the option of my startup disk (green arrow pointing down at a picture of a hard drive).
Does anyone know what is causing this and how I might alleviate the problem? It's annoying, and I wonder if it's a sign of some deeper problem.
I do have a bootcamp partition that I rarely use, and I have an external USB drive that I use for time machine backups.

The more external storage devices you have connected to your computer the longer it's going to take to for your computer to evaluate which volumes it can install on. Short of dismounting the external HD's first this is the price you will be paying for all the external devices. BTW I'm in the same boat, I have 3 EHD's daisy chained together using FW 800.

My Powerbook G4 Is not being recognized as a potential Startup Disk by my M

My old Powerbook G4 laptop (3 years old)
Is not being recognized as a potential Startup Disk by my Mac pro,
it is however being recognized as an external hard drive
any help , ideas ???

Hi
You won't be able to start up your Mac Pro from your Powerbook drive since one uses Intel disk partitioning and the other uses old-style Apple partitioning.
As you've found, you can still read the drive as a storage drive.
Matt

HP Envy dv6 7398ca. win 8 64 bit. During recovery disk 4, get 3f0 error

Hi,
I have a brand new HP Envy dv6 7398ca.win 8 64 bit. I had a problem that caused me to do a system refresh. After that, Windows update and MS Office would not update/install. Talked to Tech Support, they wanted me to go thru every service and started task to see if one was corrupt (requires reboots and update and recovery from win Update). Anyway, decided to do a system recovery/system reset. I had recovery disks and files backed up, so thought I should be fine.
During Recovery (from Win 8, recovery manager) when disk 4 was inserted, it gets to 56% and then stops with the 'dest drive not connected' msg. The system hangs and have to power off. Tried a couple times, then went to sys reset. got to disk 4 again and then 3F0 msg with 'boot device not found, install os on hdd'. did quick check on hdd, all ok. Am running a full check now, but takes 5 hours(geesh, like back in the 80's again).
I can't believe the hdd is bad, because it goes through format, and 4 disks of loading files ok, and keeps stopping on the same spot.
Any ideas, before I finish waiting the 5 hours (1tb drive). Any ideas for after it finishes the test (I'm betting it's okay).
Thanks so much!

Hello socalfun64,
You’re getting an error 3f0.
Here are steps that Big_Dave wrote that might help with the problem.
The below solution may correct this problem:
Download UEFI Shell x64, rename the file to shellx64.efi, move it to FAT/FAT32-formatted USB-flash. Label the USB flash drive something that you will quickly recognize.
Insert the USB flash and then power up the HP UEFI enabled laptop and tap the ESC key to allow you to display the Start up menu.
Select Boot device Options (F9)
Select Boot from EFI file
Select the USB flash drive and hit enter
You should now see Shell.efi. Hit enter.
Ignore all the screen information that scrolls down on the screen
Once in the shell enter bcfg boot dump to see current boot manager entries. Option 00 should be the hard drive or SSD, option 01 the USB drive (UEFI) and option 02 the Internal CD/DVD Rom drive (UEFI)
This posted HP document will give you some ideas on how to remove, reorder and add the entries in the EFI boot manager. Review #3
If you’re not able to correct the problem, you may have to send the laptop in for repair.
Here is a link to a number to call HP and see what options they have to repair the laptop.
Let me know how everything goes
Have a good day.

New HD not recognized as startup disk after Time Machine restore

I installed a 320 GB seagate HD (original drive from my Mac Pro) into my wife's iMac G5 1.8Ghz replacing the stock 80 GB drive. Once I completed the installation, I used the "Restore from a Time Machine Backup" option on the OS X 10.5 installer disk to restore the old data onto the new drive. All went we but now the drive isn't recognized as a startup disk. It shows up in disk utility but not as a bootable device.
Any suggestions?

Good catch! That's exactly what the problem is. The G5's drive needs to be reformatted as Mac OS Extended (journaled), but before that is done, the data should be transferred to an external, so it can be reloaded onto the G5 afterwards.

Stuck in recovery, I cant re-install lion, I cant select startup disk.

My imac was running terribly suddenly today. So I thought I might try seeing if a re-install of Lion would help. I booted into recovery, downloaded Lion again and proceded with the install. I came back to find it had an error, tried to reboot. It goes right back to trying to install.
After several tries of installing I gave up, ran disk utility, checked the disk, fixed permissions. Tried to select the startup disk to reboot and I cant.

You may need to start from the beginning, start you Mac with the original DVD that came with the computer and then open disk utility, see if your disk shows up in the left window. If you do not see your hard drive is bad. If you can see it then you may need to format it then reinstall Mac OS X 10.6 then update to Mac OS X 10.7. Do you have a Time Machine backup?

HD drive can't be recognized as bootable startup disk

Hi
I am using a MacBook with snow leopard. The HD is almost full, so I install new bigger HD. I used disk utility to restore the new disk from the old disk.
But the mac can't recognize the new disk as bootable startup disk. I get nothing when try to set startup disk in "System Preferences". There is only "Network Startup" option is available.
Every time start, I need to press the "Option" when I turn it on, and select the disk manually.
What should I do? Is there a configuration file so I can set the disk to be the startup disk?

Nihao GuoGuo & welcome to discussions.
Your new HD needs to be set for 'GUID' before it can function as a boot drive on an Intel machine - this means for use with Snow Leopard, which requires an Intel processor, the disk must have a 'GUID primary partition map'.
You should use the version of Disk Utility that is supplied with SL (/Applications/Utilities folder) and reformat the drive if you want to use it with your current configuration. When reformatting, create at least one partition (primary) and enable the GUID option at that time.
Without this particular configuration, the drive will not be able to perform as a boot drive with an Intel based computer and OS X 10.6.x

Hard Disk Drive not Recognized as Startup Disk

Hi:
I am an experienced Mac user, and have been for 20+ years. But I need a little help.
I recently purchased a Western Digital 'Caviar Green" SATA internal 3.5" disk drive (model number WD15EARS-00Z5B1). I installed it into my Mac Pro as I have done with several other drives in the past.
After installing it I loaded Snow Leopard and attempted to make it my startup disk. However, my Mac Pro will not recognize it as a startup disk. I wrote to Western Digital to ask if they had a firmware update to fix this issue, and they responded with this:
"Thank you for contacting Western Digital Customer Service and Support. My name is John E.
It is possible that the drive may not be compatible with your computer. Western Digital does not have hardware compatibility information. You may need to contact Apple to see if this drive is on their Hardware Compatibility List (HCL).
Sincerely,
John E.
Western Digital Service and Support"
The reason for this post is that I find it hard to believe that a supposedly industry-standard SATA drive would not be supported by Mac OS X. My current feeling is that the drive is faulty, but Western Digital is pointing the finger at Apple.
Any help re: this problem would be appreciated. Oh, and before I contacted WD about this, I ran disk utility and disk permissions repair on the new WD disk drive, and I reset my Mac system's PRAM. Is there something else that I could try?
Thanks,
-AstraPoint

Looks like you are not alone:
http://community.wdc.com/t5/Desktop/WD-1-5TB-Green-drives-Useful-as-door-stops/t d-p/1217/page/2
http://community.wdc.com/t5/Desktop/WDC-WD15EARS-00Z5B1-awful-performance/m-p/52 42
I'm actually a WD FanBoy. I won't be buying any of their external drives or "Green" drives though.
I love their Desktop and Enterprise class drives. There seems to be a quality difference of Night and
Day between some of the products in their product lineup.
Kj ♘

Startup Disk not recognizing Windows disk

I had a working Snow Leopard installation with Windows XP on a separate disk. Bootcamp worked correctly. I reinstalled Snow Leopard on the primary disk and now Startup Disk will not recognize the Windows disk, although holding down Option at startup recognizes both disks and using Startup Disk on Windows recognizes the OSX partition.
Any ideas on how to solve this?
BTW, I do not have any NTFS software running on under OSX.
Thanks,
Mitch

I'm having the same issue except with Windows 7. Mac OS X refuses to see my NTFS partition.

Changing target startup disk during boot

Does anyone know how to halt a boot process and target a different startup disk? I mistakenly changed the target disk and now cannot login to change it back. I need to figure out how to interrupt it while it is booting up. Any ideas?

Hold down the 'Option' key at start...takes you to the 'Startup Manager'...make boot preference there....

No startup disk recognized during recovery

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