Option key boot error

I run 10.9 on eight differnt devices - iMac, MacBook Pro, MacBook Air ...
A strange problem apears if you try to boot with option(alt) key.
After that you could selcet your Network/WLAN or you have to fill in your Firmware-PW.
In every case: 10.9 denied your PW.
Reboot normal, try to access your WLAN - it works. The PW is vaild!
But 10.9. reject any valid PW.
Thats a really frustrating BUG.

Hi there,
i can imagine your frustration and have exactly the same problem!! disk error after installing windows with boot camp and not possible to eject the disk anymore. visual circle. imac broken?
currently waiting for assistance from mac..
please let me know how you solved this!
thanks.

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Startup Manager (Option key boot)

I have a working multi boot flash drive. It has the install dvds for 10.5 & 10.6. I have tested the flash drive on a bunch of Macs and it works fine. When I boot my iMac and hold down the option key. It will not show the flash drive as boot devices. It only shows the OS X HD.
Some facts
I did a fresh install of OS X 10.6 (wipe the HD)
I used to have bootcamp installed and running.
Thanks in advance

cdcooper wrote:
I have already run the permission repairs. No Dice
What exactly do you mean by that? Do you get errors or are the buttons grayed out?
Also, what build number shows when you use the flash drive to successfully start up another Mac? It it at least the same or later than the one your iMac requires?
Message was edited by: R C-R

What's happening on my iMac? There are two choices of selected start up disks appearance without hold down option key. On the other hand, it start up normally show apple picture when I hold option key.

There are two choices of selected start up disks:Main HD and Recovery HD, appearance without hold down option key. On the other hand, it start up normally show apple picture when I hold option key.

Hi artdiva28
Welcome to Apple Discussions
First go to *System Preferences > Startup Disk* > select the *Mac OS X 10.5. on Macintosh HD* > click the Lock > hit the Restart button.
Then if the iMac is still having trouble starting up, insert your Install Disk and restart holding the Option key. In Startup Manager select the Install Disk and boot into it, choose your language, skip the Installer and go up on the menu bar to Utilities and open Disk Utility. In Disk Utility select your Macintosh HD and hit the Repair button. Once finished note any errors and what was repaired for future reference. Quit Disk Utility and restart once again holding the Option key boot back into the Macintosh HD and eject the Install Disk.
Also see > http://support.apple.com/kb/HT2956
Dennis

Problems with using Option key when starting up

I have 3 internal drives using a PCI card (2 slots) that allows me to use large drives with more capacity than stock allowance on my G4 Quicksilver 867 mhz 1.5 GB RAM tower.
All drives are Seagate Baracudas ATA: 2-400GBs and 1-200GB. I bought the 400s at the same time.
My main drive has OSX 10.4.11 (#1), and it is backed up to Baracuda #2 (400GB) which is a slave to my Main drive (using SuperDuper All files for a mirror bootable copy). The 3rd drive has Leopard 10.5.1 for learning and trying Leopard.
On the second PCI slot is the smaller 200GB Baracuda.
After backing up using SuperDuper (Main to #2) as a mirror, I see #2 in the Apple > Prefs > Start Up Disk.
After the first backup I can see all 3 drives when using Option key at startup, but instead of seeing the names of each drive under the normal hard disk icons, #2 has a SCSI icon underneath the hard drive icon, it's name (Mac BU) is missing and I can't start up to it. The other #1 and #3 looked as expected. I chose #1, it launched, fine.
On second backup, #2 is still in Prefs > Start up Disk panel, but this time doesn't show up on when using the Option key at start up. I have replicated this, but erasing #2, rebacking up twice.
With only the #1 and #3 drives showing at start up with Option key and #1 selected in the Start up Disk panel, I chose #3 (Leopard) in the Option window view, and my G4 froze at the gray apple screen. I hard shut downed, powered up and the G4 defaulted to Main (10.4.11)
I selected #3 Leopard in Prefs > Start Up Disk, restarted OK.
I restarted with the Option key (only #1 and #3 show) and now my main drive didn't have it's name only the SCSI icon under the normal hard disk icon like #3 was doing. UGH!
Nervously, I chose #3 with Leopard and the G4 started up to it OK.
I then reselected my Main #1 drive in the Start Up Disk panel, restarted to #1 OK.
OK, problems summary:
1) I can't use SuperDuper to create a blessed bootable #2 drive at Option start up, but I mention this for more info about a possible problem at Option startup, more than I want comment on SuperDuper potential bug / conflict.
2) I didn't try choosing #3 in the Start Up Disk panel, as I was affraid the G4 would freeze and then I might not be able to select either of the other #1 or #3 at Option start up as something is wrong with using Option key start up, and #3 would have been selected in Start Up Panel, which I was afraid I might not be able to get to again.
2) When I start up either of #1 or #3, I get momentary black screens after the gray apple screen at Option key start up and then again after the apple progress bar. This doesn't happen when I start up directly either drive when the drives are selected using the Start Up Disk panel
When using the Option startup, I am experiencing the above problems.
Whew, I know, but does anyone have any input and fixes?
Thanks, in advance,
Steven

Hi Dave.
Well... good news / bad news
Turns out, I have an Acard 6280M and have 3 drives connected to it as mentioned (#1 & 2 are mirrored using SuperDuper with 10.5.1, #3 is a clean install off a new Apple OSX disk 10.5, then updated to 10.5.1)
I also have a Firewire external drive, that I used SuperDuper to make it a mirror of #1, using the same procedure backing up #1 to #2, to test SuperDuper.
The firmware update directions tells you to start up off a drive not on the PCI card, I used #4.
While running off #1, I selected #4 in the Start Up disk pref and it booted OK! This seems to rule out SuperDuper being the problem - of creating a mirror from #1 to #2 (both on the Acard) and then not seeing #2 in the Option key boot screen.
I applied the firmware, which directs you to first update the Acard driver to 2.06, which is included in the folder with the firmware updater.
I did this and then applied the firmware updater.
I then applied the driver upgrade to drives #1 and #2 (10.4.11) while running off #4. I did not apply the driver update to #3 (10.5.1) and restarted, using Option key.
All 4 drives appeared successfully on screen as expected with their names!
Then I selected each drive one by one:
#1 = kernal panic. Hard shut down, used Option key again
#2 = kernal panic, same as #1
#3 = froze at gray Apple screen - no spinning gear. Hard shut down.
Tthankfully, left Start Up disk pref to be #4 external and on restart, let the system boot off without going to the Option screen. #4 booted OK. Whew...
So all 3 drives on the Acard, won't boot. I was concerned it was the 2.06 driver, but since it wasn't applied to #3 Leopard drive, I'm assuming the firmware is the issue and perhaps not compatible with 10.4.11 or 10.5.1?
Two things I've not tried:
1) With #4 selected in Sys Prefs, then using Option key and selecting #4 there too to see if using the Option key selector is a problem too.
2) Selecting any of #1, #2, or #3 drives in Sys Prefs and restarting without Option key selector.
My fear is that if my last working drive #4 isn't the default drive set in Sys Prefs, if Acard isn't the problem alone and there is also a problem selecting any drive using the Option key - even #4, then if #4 isn't the default and all 3 Acard drives panic on regular boot (non-Option key) and I have to hard restart, will keep defaulting to whatever drive I set in the Sys Prefs and not be able to get back to #4.
Should I just go to my local computer store and see if they have a newer model PCI card and trash my existing one as I may have ruined it with the firmware updater?
Thoughts?

How to remove boot options while booting in mac with the options key

I've just installed windows trough bootcamp, but somethings went little bit wrong,
Everythings works fine, mac works and windows 7 works properly. But when i hold down the option key while booting i dont have the normal 3 options (Mac, Windows, Mac Restore). I now see these options (MAC, Windows, Windows, Windows efi, mac restore).
MAC -> works fine
1e windows -> (error no operating system installed)
2e windows -> works fine
3e Efi windows (boots into mac)
MAc restore -> works fine
So is there an way to clean up these options?
Thanks

You think someone will use Boot Camp Assistant?
EFI is / was always there. Sometimes it shows up (from using Disk Warrior).
Windows has its own 100MB system reserved as well that is the boot area.
I'd start with Lion Recovery, show hidden features and partitions, and check the health of all, and repair HFS volume.
Also try your Windows DVD and see if it sees a problem.

Option key is out of order when I want to select a boot disk

I've upgraded the OsX10.6.8.
after then, I can't boot by Bootcamp any more, because the Option key is out of order. I've tried it over 10 times. What's wrong?

Reinstall OS X without erasing the drive
Do the following:
1. Repair the Hard Drive and Permissions
Boot from your Snow Leopard Installer disc. After the installer loads select your language and click on the Continue button. When the menu bar appears select Disk Utility from the Utilities menu. After DU loads select your hard drive entry (mfgr.'s ID and drive size) from the the left side list. In the DU status area you will see an entry for the S.M.A.R.T. status of the hard drive. If it does not say "Verified" then the hard drive is failing or failed. (SMART status is not reported on external Firewire or USB drives.) If the drive is "Verified" then select your OS X volume from the list on the left (sub-entry below the drive entry,) click on the First Aid tab, then click on the Repair Disk button. If DU reports any errors that have been fixed, then re-run Repair Disk until no errors are reported. If no errors are reported click on the Repair Permissions button. Wait until the operation completes, then quit DU and return to the installer.
If DU reports errors it cannot fix, then you will need Disk Warrior and/or Tech Tool Pro to repair the drive. If you don't have either of them or if neither of them can fix the drive, then you will need to reformat the drive and reinstall OS X.
2. Reinstall Snow Leopard
If the drive is OK then quit DU and return to the installer. Proceed with reinstalling OS X. Note that the Snow Leopard installer will not erase your drive or disturb your files. After installing a fresh copy of OS X the installer will move your Home folder, third-party applications, support items, and network preferences into the newly installed system.

Bootcamp volume selectable in Startup Disk but won't boot. Bootcamp not visible with Option Key

My bootcamp volume is selectable in Startup Disk System Preference, but Windows 7 will not boot stating no bootable volume. The Bootcamp volume does not appear when option key held down during startup. Windows 7 booted fine before I booted into MacOS. When I tried to reboot in Windows 7, that's when I received the non-bootable error. All looks fine on the Windows 7 volume.
I'm working with a Macbook Pro Early 2008, 256 GB SSD, Windows 7 and the Boot Camp Support Software 4.0.4033.
I tried to re-install Windows 7 on its 32 GB partition, however Windows reported volume is not in proper format???
I tried repairing my Windows 7 volume with my install disk, but apparentl after having to update my initial Windows 7 instalation (disk bought in 2009) about 3 or 4 times, my Windows 7 install disk reports it cannot repair the now updated version of Windows 7 on my hard drive. Lovely. Brilliant engineering.
I looked into editing my partition table, but that process appears more a hack/bandaid for the underlying problem that more than likely still exists.
Any suggestions, other than painfully starting from the beginning???
Thanks.

Well, want to rule out drive case,, as those do come up with EVERY new OS, just hit Lion 10.7 forum when it came out, or when 10.6.0 came out 3 yrs ago.
Maybe the power adapter is the weak link.
As I said, and goes back yrs, not a fan of FW/USB/eSATA case from major vendors (LaCie, WD, Seagate etc).
And you could try another case. Be sure to buy a case that lets you swap in your own hard drives though.
http://www.macsales.com/firewire - look for bare drive case "0" capacity hard drive

Swapped drive with SSD, now have to use option key to boot

I recently replaced my HD in my Macbook Pro with an SSD. I used SuperDuper to create an image to an external USB drive that I had. I then removed the stock HD from the Macbook Pro, replaced it with the SSD, booted with the Lion install disc and went into disk utility, created a partition (Journaled, guid) and restored my SuperDuper image to it. Now, every time I reboot my MBP, it sits at the gray screen (no apple logo) for quite a while, then finally the apple will pop up and it will boot, although quite slowly. If I hold down the option key when I reboot, the option comes up right away for the SSD, I click it and it's very fast to boot. Once in the OS, the speed is awesome and no problems. I also used Onyx to check the startup volume, repair permissions, etc and everything went off without a hitch. No errors and according to that my startup volume is OK. Also updated to the latest 10.7.2 patch and that went fine too, although I had to use the option key on reboot.
Does anyone know what I could investigate that could be causing this boot issue. I'd like it to boot directly into the OS quickly without the option key. Is there somewhere that I have to specify a new primary boot device or something?

Go into sys preferences then startup disk and check highlight the SSD and select Reboot.
You also need to enable TRIM support.

Booting from a external drive with Option key?

I have made a clone of my MBP's drive via Carbon Copy Cloner.
Now I can boot from USB 2.0 extra drive selecting previousely the startup disk in MBP preferences.
My hard disk has some problems and I want to have an emergency bootup so I have some questions about this:
1-Restart the computer and hold down the Option key until disks icons appear on screen, does't work. It appears only HD (HFS+ journaled) icon and not LaCie USB drive (HFS+) icon why? Any solution?
2-HD with a few bad blocks and volume structure error (other hardware tests passed) can be repaired with reformating and reinstaling OS X?
3-Do I have to format the disk with Disk Utility erase and "zero out data" security options and reinstal OS X from my OS X Installer Disc?
Thanks for the help

Yes I have a LaCie USB and Firewire external drive.
I can boot from USB or Firewire if I select the drive previousely with startup preferences.
The problem is, when restarting with USB (or firewire) external drive, I can see only the HD icon when hold down the alt key of my MBP.
In your case have you two icons at the startup? Your firewire drive is HFS+ journaled formated ? Is this relevant?

Cannot get MacPro to allow me to boot to an alternative boot disk. Can choose in control panel but will not use the disk to boot. Also won't boot using disk selected using option key

My primary boot disk is encrypted as is a secondary boot disk (backup) but I cannot boot using any other disk. System 10.8.5, MacPro 4.1.
All disks mount using primary boot disk. All disks check out as OK and I have repaired permissions.
When I choose in the control panel the Mac boots but will always use my original boot disk.
When I select the disk using the option key at startup, the boot process stalls with a grey screen and a spinning cursor.
Thanks,
Dave

Still trying to figure this out. I erased the drive, did a format using disk util and then re-installed the system but I still cannot get the disk used as a startup drive. I also tried an external firewire drive and it won't allow me to boot from it either.
I can choose it starting up with the option key but it just gives me a blue screen and the spinning cursor.
If I select it in the startup pref pane it boots into my other startup drive only.
DaveLon

I partitioned my MacBook Pro and installed Windows 8 in it.....now I can't find my partition when I pressed option key when booting up.....so how can I do to find the partition to boot...I can see it in the disk manager in Mac....any ideas? thanks..!..

I partitioned my MacBook Pro and installed Windows 8 in it.....now I can't find my partition when I pressed option key when booting up.....so how can I do to find the partition to boot...I can see it in the disk manager in Mac....any ideas? thanks..!..

Hi LamboMong,
just try this:
http://refit.sourceforge.net
install, reboot twice and choose the Windows-Partition on next startup.
(The apple-bootloader doesn't display all bootable harddisks.
With rEFIt you can boot from all partitions/harddisks on your computer.)
I hope that will solve your problem.
Daniel Fernau

I have late 2006 iMac 24" and I cannot boot it up. I have tried everything but it will only come up in safe boot. I can, at last, boot up on the option key and it now gives me the option of the Recover HD but when I select this, it still won't boot up?

When I select the Recovery drive it tries and then I can't get further than a white screen. My curser so has 2 columns of marks like a horizontal barcode. I think it's a software problem. When I boot up in safe boot, I have run the disc utility and it says the disc is fine and I have run the repair permissions but it makes no difference.

Thanks AAndy but I had read all of that and tried everything but I have no disks as I upgraded from Snow Leopard over the internet. I have my Snow Leapard box but the disk is missing so I can't use that and anyway, I can only boot up in safe boot so it wouldn't recognise the superdrive. I had a copy of the recovery on a flash but it doesn't recognise that. I have redownloaded it but cannot get it onto an external because of safe boot. I have done the following
Reset the PRam, reset the desktop.
Tried the D key - no responce
Tried opt D and Command D - no responce
Comant R, jusr R and opt R - no responce
By no responce, I mean that the wheel goes round under the apple and then it goes white - and stays like that.
The only thing that I can do, is to boot up on the option key when it give me a choice of drive. If I select Recover, wheel turns under apple - white wcreen
If I boot up on the shift key, it boots into safe mode and there it stays, quite happy surfing the internet and playing stupid Facebook games, so long as I don't want to use any search engines (none of which work (not finder, not mail, not anything) and then after a few hours of forgotton pleasure, it crashes!
The only thing I can think of to do is to redownload Lion - it appears in my purchased account in the App Store but, Sod's law, our satellite internet is not working and I don't think my phone account has enough MBs - anyone know how many Lion is?
I can't backup because I can't use an external drive and old one stopped working a few months ago, so I haven't been backing up and as this is the first problem I have ever had with my iMac in 7 years, I had got a bit comlascent! However, I am pretty certain that I can re-install Lion without wiping my hard drive - I have done it years ago with an older system and an older Mac.
Do you think that downloading Lion again and re-installing it will help? Does anyone else have any suggestions?
Thanks for responding so far.

Updated to Tiger, stuck on grey screen BUT boots fine with option key

I've searched the forum and found many other similar threads. But no real answers for my particular problem. Here it is. iMac 800 MHz G4, 512 RAM was on 10.3.9. Updated to 10.4.5. Then booted from a firewire hard drive and fixed permissions and ran Disk Warrior. Now when I try to boot up normally it just stays on a blank grey screen. No Apple logo. No spinning wheel, nothing. Weird thing is it boots up fine if I hold down the option key at start up and select the hard drive. So, I've done that and repaired permissions and run disk utility. Says everything is OK. Even zapped the PRAM. But still, only way to get it to boot is by holding option key and choosing hard drive. Any ideas?

Hi Steve, What other start up options are you seeing when you boot with the 'Option' key? Have you tried a 'Safe Boot"? Hold down the 'Shift' key while restarting until (hopefully) you see the spinning gear wheel. Wait while it restarts, this takes a lot longer. If you can boot into 'Safe mode' then in System Preferences>System>Start up disk, make sure that your hard drive is selected.
If you can't boot into 'Safe mode' (you should be able to) then when you have booted with the 'Option' key, follow the 'System Preferences' advice above. Select your hard drive & 'Restart'.
Also have a look at
Dr Smoke's Troubleshooting Startup and Login Items.
For future reference, bookmark his X-Lab home page. There is a wealth of helpful information. Obviously he'd like you buy his 'Troubleshooting' e-Book, but there's loads there for free.
As Dr Smoke would say: "Good luck! "
Have fun too!
An  a day...
Adrian
ibook G4: 768mb, iMac 17" G4:768mb (10.3.9) Mac OS X (10.4.4) Belkin Wireless F5D7632

Option Key for Boot Camp not working with New iMac Keyboard

Hi, I own a early 2006 Intel iMac. Recently, my wife complained that the keyboard was getting dirty. Basically I think she liked the new keyboard on the new Aluminum iMac better. We purchased it back in August and everything worked great. Oh I also had the beta version of Boot Camp installed. Everything worked great, hold Option down on boot and could choose which OS to go into.
Fast forward to now, purchased Leopard and love it! Decided to wipe the system and do a fresh install. Everything is installed (Leopard, Boot Camp, Windows XP) and working great, that is except when I press and hold the Option key at start up. If I have the new keyboard installed, the Option key does not bring up the boot manager. However if I plug the original keyboard in and hold Option, it works!!!
Ok I could see a problem if the new keyboard was NOT an Apple product. But it is and frustraiting as I can use the control panel to choose. This is a long round about method and does not make a happy wife with me. HELP!
Jhan Jensen

Thanks for the info! I was about to call myself and I may still do so. I am hoping if Apple gets enough of these calls then maybe it will spur them on to get it done sooner. (Apple are you listening) I will do the same with the KB swapping, she will be happy at least she can still use the new keyboard. She types a lot and has be really happy with the new keyboard and its response.
Thanks again for the help!!!
Jhan

How do I resolve this error message? The iPhoto library is on a locked volume. Reopen iPhoto when you have read/write access, or reopen iPhoto with the Option key held down to choose another library.

How do I resolve this error message? The iPhoto library is on a locked volume. Reopen iPhoto when you have read/write access, or reopen iPhoto with the Option key held down to choose another library.

Hi j,
I don't know if this will work, but I'd try logging in to an admin account, going to your main library (not user library), opening it, opening Application Support, selecting iPhoto, hold down the command key and press i, click on the lock in the lower left, entering the password and making sure you have Read & Write privileges for System and Admin.

Option key boot error

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