No startup Disk to select

Hi,
I have a Macbook retina13, I installed Yosemite-BAD CHOICE.I decided to restore to Mavericks using cmdR and selecting time machine. After several failures,the startup disk doesnt show up anymore.I cant even reinstall Yosemite because recovery HD is locked.

Hi,
there seems to be some light in the end of the tunnel.
I took the Mac to a service center, they say that all the data has been lost and my only option is to reinstall os. They asked for a whopping 60euros for one hour's work. Might be worth it, but I still have faith in experts like yourselves prior to turning my mac in.
The situation is as follows:
- pressing option upon restart takes me to a screen that offers the recovery HD but doesn't allow me to choose it - saying it's locked.
- Going to the recovery options, none see to find the startup disk
- I created a Mavericks usb flash drive, installed the system (on the flash drive). now the machine is booting from it, slow and all, but it has injected some life. The internal HD is nowhere to be found, except in Disk Utilities. In disk utilities I can see the original (internal) HD with no partitions. In the options, I can read info, verify and repair - although the machine claims there is nothing to be repaired and the disk is OK. In the partition menu, I am not allowed to amend anything.
I would really appreciate your help on this, I await a response

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I installed bootcamp but became a pain to use so I unistalled it. Now every time I turn my Macbook pro on it keeps asking me what startup disk to use. I tried using the system preferences to correct this but it hasn't worked. Can someone help

I installed bootcamp but became a pain to use so I unistalled it. Now every time I turn my Macbook pro on it keeps asking me what startup disk to use. I tried using the system preferences to correct this but it hasn't worked. I even restored my mac back to factory settings but it still asks me what startup disk to use. I have looked everywhere for a solution but one anywhere

Delete the System Preference .plist file (preference file) and when rebooting and #2 Reset the PRAM
Deleting the System Preference or other .plist file
..Step by Step to fix your Mac
Then head to System Preferences > Startup Disk and select the OS X volume to boot from.

Windows 7 on Bootcamp not Recognizable in Startup Disk AND not bootable?

Hi, I'm new here. Anyways, can someone help me here; I had a bootcamp partition set at 5GB for Windows XP. I recently formatted, expanded to 32GB, and installed Windows 7 on that partition. The installation went fine without problems, and I installed the drivers from my Snow Leopard install disk, again, everything is fine. then I booted into Mac OS X Snow Leopard (10.6.5) without problem. What I used to do with my Windows XP install, is go to System Preferences > Startup Disk > and selected BOOTCAMP, and hit restart; and everything would boot fine, and when I was done in Windows I selected Macintosh HD and my main boot device and restarted. But now, with my Windows 7 install, I can do that. It won't come up in Startup Disk and in Disk Utility I can't mount it. When I do try to mount it, the button presses and does nothing. I could really use some help here, I need to get that Windows up and running for some applications needed for school.

Depends what you used to change the size.
Would have been better probably to just backup (if you haven't already) and just do a full erase and restore for OS X and then start over.
And yes, some find Windows only shows in the startup (Boot Camp) control panel in Windows.
Resizing / expanding and shrinking from Windows causes partition for Windows to disappear even from Finder.
Windows still works. You can still OPTION boot and change the default while in Windows. Otherwise, go back to scratch and start over.
And 32GB really is the minimum.

Startup disk/master password dilemma....

Hi there,
I hope someone can help me here,I`ve already looked in the relevant forums for an answer but nothing really helps. I was trying to find out why my father`s pc printer (lexmark) wouldn`t work on my G4.And I was instructed that maybe I didn`t install panther 10.3 correctly.So I tried re-installing it when it asked about the startup disk I selected macintosh HD.Next thing it`s asking me for the master password and apparently I`ve forgotten it,even after the hint becomes visible,I still have no luck,is there any way I can delete it.I`ve already changed the user passsword,but it`s the master that I can`t get passed.
Thanks Jon
g4 powerbook Mac OS X (10.3)

The proper way to reset the pmu is outlined here.
http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=95037
If you did not enable FileVault then it should not be there. It is not the default installation. You, or someone else, has to go the preferences, open Security, put in a password and enable file vault.
It encrypts everything on your hard drive using your password as a "key" for the encryption. Without the key, all the info is hopelessly scrambled.
Once, years ago, I had a similar problem in that I could not get the password reset and the computer would not accept what had been my password for a year. Obviously a file was corrupted that kept my password. I could not use the password reset by the install disk either. Fortunately I had cloned my hard drive and could boot off of the clone and copy files that were not up to date since the last clone.
At this point I'd say you are going to have to do the same. Use or purchase another hard drive, install X to it, copy your user files and re install your applications.
As an alternative, you could try posting to the Unix forum on Apple Discussions and see if anyone there can help you use command line to get a new password.

Startup disk gone

I went into preferences and somehow I hit something and it changed my startup disk to a question mark. Now it says it starts from a network startup or I have to have it start from OS X. How do I get the question mark off of my startup disk, (hard drive) and get it to startup from the hard drive?
tgrlily

tgrlily,
Welcome to the Apple Discussions!
If necessary, hold the 'x' key down at startup to force the Mac to boot off the OS X System on the hard drive (more exactly, off the first partition on the hard drive if you partition the drive), then open Applications> Utilities> System preferences, click on Startup Disk, and select the OS X System on your hard drive as the boot volume.

External backup drive doesn't show in System Preferences/Startup Disk

Using SuperDuper!, I thought I created a bootable backup on my LaCie FW 200GB ext. HD. I opened System Preferences/Startup Disk to try booting from the LaCie by changing the Startup Disk to the LaCie. The LaCie didn't appear, there. My Mac HD is there, and a Network Startup icon with a question mark in it, is there. I'm on a standalone machine. My Ethernet port is used for a cable modem.
I Restarted and held down the Option key to see if the LaCie would show up that way. No luck. The LaCie is mounted on my desktop, and the System Profiler shows it on the FW bus. So, I don't really have a bootable backup drive (or volume). The LaCie is not partitioned, nor is my internal startup disk.
I did use Disk Utility & found I had to repair the LaCie. Initially, DU said the disk couldn't be repaired, but on a repeat, the LaCie shows as repaired.
How can I get the LaCie to show up in System Preferences/Startup Disk?

Select the external drive's icon and press COMMAND-I to open the Get Info window. In the pane labeled "Ownership and Permissions click on the small triangle gadget beside the word Details. You should see at the bottom a box labeled "Ignore permissions on this volume." If there's a checkmark in the box uncheck it. Close the Get Info window. Now see if the drive appears in the Startup Disk preference.
If you still have a problem then you might try the following:
Extended Hard Drive Preparation
1. Open Disk Utility in your Utilities folder.
2. After DU loads select your hard drive (this is the entry with the mfgr.'s ID and size) from the left side list. Click on the Partition tab in the DU main window.
3. Set the number of partitions from the dropdown menu (use 1 partition unless you wish to make more.) Set the format type to Mac OS Extended (Journaled, if supported.) Click on the Partition button and wait until the volume(s) mount on the Desktop.
4. Select the volume you just created (this is the sub-entry under the drive entry) from the left side list. Click on the Erase tab in the DU main window.
5. Set the format type to Mac OS Extended (Journaled, if supported.) Click on the Options button, check the button for Zero Data and click on OK to return to the Erase window.
6. Click on the Erase button. The format process will take 30 minutes to an hour or more depending upon the drive size.
Next clone your system to the external drive:
How to Clone Using Restore Option of Disk Utility
1. Select the destination drive on the Desktop and press COMMAND-I to open the Get Info window. At the bottom in the Ownership and Permissions section be sure the box labeled "Ignore Permissions on this Volume" is unchecked. Set Ownership and Permissions as follows: Owner=system with read/write; Group=admin with read/write; Other with read-only.
2. Open Disk Utility from the Utilities folder.
3. Select the backup or destination volume from the left side list.
4. Click on the Erase tab in the DU main window. Set the format type to Mac OS Extended (journaled, if available) and click on the Erase button. This step can be skipped if the destination has already been freshly erased.
5. Click on the Restore tab in the DU main window.
6. Select the backup or destination volume from the left side list and drag it to the Destination entry field.
7. Select the startup or source volume from the left side list and drag it to the Source entry field.
8. Double-check you got it right, then click on the Restore button.
For added precaution you can boot into safe mode before doing the clone.

Can't change startup disk

Disk Utility reported, in bright red letters, an impending fatal hardware error on the internal hard drive in my iMac G5. I got an external firewire drive, and cloned the internal drive to the external drive.
Then, in System Preference -> Startup Disk, I select the external drive as the startup disk and restart. It then restarts -- with the internal drive.
What do I need to do to change the startup disk?

Try starting from your install disc with the clone plugged in, then select it as the startup disk.

Startup trouble - looking for startup disk

I've been experiencing occasional start up trouble for a few weeks, where my iMac takes a long time on the startup phase (getting stuck on a blank gray screen), and on 3 occasions it has just come up with a folder with blinking question mark (can't find startup disk) icon. When this happens, I hold my breath and manually restart, and so far it's then started right up (knock on wood). But obviously this is worrisome.
I did recently swap out some RAM (trading out one card from 1GB to 2GB), and since the Apple store no longer carries the appropriate RAM for my iMac (fall 2006), I can to buy it elsewhere, but that seemed to go fine... could it have affected my startup?
Another, probably unrelated issue, is that when I do start up successfully, or even come up from sleep, the computer now makes a big POP sound. I have a JBL "creature" amp with little speakers plugged into the computer, but it doesn't seem to be that - it's definitely an in-computer sound. Could the sound card be going bad, or somehow affected by the start up problem or the new RAM? I'm guessing it's an unrelated thing, but wanted to include as much info as possible.

Hi Jessamyn
Many times a connected External HD, iPod or other storage device can cause the startup manager to have a problem finding your startup volume, first disconnect all other storage devices to see if that helps. Second go to *System Preferences > Startup Disk* and select the *Mac OS X, 10.4 on Macintosh HD* click the lock and restart.
If you are still having a startup issue then use the following link for testing and repairing your startup disk: > http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?path=DiskUtility/10.5/en/duh1018.html
Dennis

Yosemite Disk missing from Snow Leopard Startup Disk

I recently installed Yosemite in a triple-boot configuration with Snow Leopard and Windows 7.
Note: to anyone trying the same I learned the hard way that the Yosemite has to go after Windows or Windows' 4-partiton limit will be exceeded and it won't install. My partitions look like this: (Invisible) EFI, Snow Leopard, Windows 7, Yosemite, Recovery.
But the topic of this post is the fact that the Yosemite Disk does not appear in Snow Leopard's Startup Disk in System Preferences. I've seen a few other posts about this and want to share a work-around I've found. Here's the procedure:
1) Boot into Yosemite.
Open System Preferences>Startup Disk.
If the Yosemite startup disk is not already selected, select it and reboot.
2) In terminal, enter these commands:
     nvram efi-boot-device > ~/desktop/YosEFI
     nvram efi-boot-device-data >> ~/desktop/YosEFI
The YosEFI name is arbitrary; call it whatever you like.
The > and the following code on the first command creates a file named YosEFI on the desktop and sends the output of the first nvram command to it.
The >> on the second command appends its output to the existing YosEFI file. A single > here would overlay the output of the first command.
3) Open System Preferences>Startup Disk.
Select the Snow Leopard disk and reboot.
4) Copy the YosEFI file from the Yosemite desktop to a folder of your choice.
5) Create a file in Text Editor (I called mine BootYosemite - with no .txt extension), and put (a version of) this code in it:
     sudo nvram -f ~/Documents/YosEFI
For simplicity this example assumes the YosEFI file was saved to your Documents folder. Adjust the path as appropriate.
6) Open Terminal, navigate to the file created in Step 5 (BootYosemite), and make the file executable:
     chmod 755 BootYosemite
7) You can now double-click the BootYosemite file and it will open a Terminal window and prompt for an Administrator password. When the command runs, it imports the efi parameters from the YosEFI file to NVRAM and the next system restart will boot into Yosemite without the need to use the Option key.
Of course, it's debatable whether being required to enter an Administrator password is really any easier than holding down the Option key, but for those who want a work-around for the missing Yosemite in Snow Leopard's System Preferences>Startup Disk, this is one solution.
8) If you really want to get creative, you can put BootYosemite in your ~/Library/Scripts folder (create the folder if you don't already have it) and run it from the Menu Bar.
To add a Scripts option to the menu bar, open AppleScript Editor (It's in Applications/Utilities), open Preferences, and check Show Script Menu in Menu Bar. You'll need to re-logon (not reboot) to pick up the new script and show it on the Menu Bar.

Simpler is to use the donationware QuickBoot app.
27" i7 iMac (Mid 2011) refurb, OS X Yo (10.10.1), Mavs, ML & SL, G4 450 MP w/10.5 & 9.2.2

Booted to OS 9. Now stuck. Startup Disk doesn't show OS X as a boot option.

i decided in mac osx 10.2 to go into startup disk and select mac os9 instead of going into classic now im stuck in mac os9 when i go into control panel>startup disk all i get is (select a disk to start macintosh HD and my slave partition. but on my imac G3 i get mac os9.0 and mac os9.2.2 please help me i need it

Another way to get there, using the method you expected to work, is to update to a later version of Startup Disk Control Panel. The version you are using does not understand how to boot Mac OS X directly:
TA20415- Mac OS X, Mac OS 9: Use Current Startup Disk Control Panel or Mac OS 9.2.2
a link to download of the latest Startup Disk Control Panel is included in the article. It is compatible with every version of OS 9.
Message was edited by: Grant Bennet-Alder

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.

How to select OS X startup disk after booting up in 8.6

I recently purchased an old iBook G3 (original clamshell model) to run some old Mac games I had laying around (was in a nostalgic mood I guess). It came with OS 8.6 and I installed an old copy of OS X 10.2 Jaguar onto it. It wouldn't let me run in the "Classic" environment, as it has OS 8.6, not OS 9.x. I found I was able to launch the computer from 8.6 by selecting the 8.6 start up disk, and thought I could try running some of my really old Mac apps. Long story short, once I booted up in 8.6 I've been unable to figure out how to boot back up in 10.2. It's been over 10 years since I last used anything older than Mac OS X, and I don't remember where everything is, and how to change the startup disk back to 10.2.
If anyone knows, please help. I'd really like to avoid doing a complete system restore if possible.

Two ways:
Boot Using OPTION key:
1. Restart the computer.
2. Immediately after the chime press and hold down the
"OPTION" key.
3. Release the key when the boot manager appears.
4. Select the desired disk icon from which you want to boot.
5. Click on the arrow button below the icon.
Use Startup Disk Preferences:
Open Startup Disk prefs from System Preferences.
Select the volume from which you want to start.
Click on the Restart button.
Click on Restart again.

My Firewire Clone is not showing up in the Startup Disk selection window

Going to the Startup Disk section Under System Preferences to locate my mounted Firewire/cloned HD - But it's not showing up there for start up selection.
The external firewire clone, running OS X 10.4.11 shows up in the finder right away. Also I have mounted and used it as the start up disk on several other computers just fine. The current computer I'm having issues mounting to is a: 2 ghz Intel MacBook with 1 gb ram running 10.4.11
The previous computers that I have had success mounting to were a G4 ibook and a G5 imac(OSX 10.4.11). - Don't know if the Intel part is why I can't mount?
Any ideas or fixes - Thanks!

What to do if your computer won't recognize a FireWire device
http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=88338
Dealing with FireWire problems (drives not mounting, devices unrecognized, etc.)
http://www.macfixit.com/article.php?story=20041221081432908
 Cheers, Tom

Boot Camp 3.0, unable to select Default startup disk in snow leopard

I've installed Snow Leopard On my black Macbook, actually upgraded on 10.5, and then installed Bootcamp 3.0 on my Boot Camp partition which is on Vista Ultimate, everything is fine but this little annoying detail! I can't select default Startup Disk when I'm in Snow Leopard. I can select default Operating system from Vista but no chance to select it from SL! Just wonder did this happen to anyone else?! and any suggestion to solve it?

Rather than use a 3rd party product to enable writing to ntfs drive you can enable native ntfs read/write support. The method is described in Mac World OS X Hints.
Use this link to the article
http://www.macosxhints.com/article.php?story=20090913140023382
You get read/write privilege and all the partitions show up in the "Startup Disk" window.

You can't change the startup disk to the selected disk?

System Preferences: Startup Disk: Bootcamp (Windows 7 64): "You can't change the startup disk to the selected disk. The bless tool unable to set bootcamp disk"

I got the same problem, only with Win 7, but after a day's search on the net I found a solution. Something very simple and easy to use.
Open up Terminal and run the following command, where DISK NAME is the name of the disk you want to boot in. PS. use the quotes (") if you disk's name is longer than 2 words.
sudo bless -mount /Volumes/"DISK NAME" -setBoot
THIS WORKED FOR ME!!

No startup Disk to select

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