Problems booting with external drive

Hello,
I just upgraded from an older model MacBook Pro that was happily running OS X (10.5.4) to a 2009 model that is currently running 10.5.7. There was a gap of a few months between models, though, so I cloned the old one onto an external drive and used it to boot an iMac loaner -all without any problems. My problem is that now that I have the new MacBook Pro , when I hold the option key while starting the computer in order to select the external drive, the computer reverts to the internal hard drive rather than booting from my external drive.
Any advice, suggestions to help me overcome this would be most welcome.....

If I understand your post correctly, I think the reason the new MBP won't boot from the external drive is that the OS that's on the external drive is incompatible with the new MBP. What I would try in that situation is to connect the external drive to the new computer, and then use the new computer's OS X install disk to install the operating system onto the external drive. It should then boot (though why you want to boot from the external drive is not something you explained).

Similar Messages

IMac won't boot with external drives attached

I am using iMac 27" Late 2013 model upgraded to mavericks 10.9.4. Two external drives are always attached with it, one is segate 3.5" 2TB USB 3.0 drive and another one is 2.5" usb 2.0 drive.
when i start my imac with external drives attached it won't boot up. Stuck at plain white screen after a startup chime, not even any apple logo or any progress circle appears. And i have to detach all of my drives to make it boot.
This problem arises after upgrading to mavericks. Already tried resetting PRAM, SMC and checked Startup disk and verify disk with disk utility.

Raja,
Do a SMC reset perhaps even a couple of times and see if that helps. Also in System Preferences + Startup Disk make sure the internal HD is selected.
SMC RESET
Shut down the computer.
Unplug the computer's power cord and all peripherals.
Press and hold the power button for 5 seconds.
Release the power button.
Attach the computers power cable.
Press the power button to turn on the computer.
PRAM RESET
Shut down the computer.
Locate the following keys on the keyboard: Command, Option, P, and R. You will need to hold these keys down simultaneously in step 4.
Turn on the computer.
Press and hold the Command-Option-P-R keys. You must press this key combination before the gray screen appears.
Hold the keys down until the computer restarts and you hear the startup sound for the second time.
Release the keys.
Roger

Problem booting from external drive

I'm having trouble booting my MacBook from an external USB drive.
I've created a bootable backup of my hard drive, using SuperDuper! (in order to be able to install a bigger hard drive and restore my current drive state). If, with the drive attached, I restart and hold down Alt (which I understand should offer a choice of drives from which to boot), I get nothing but grey screen (ie. the first grey you see before the apple logo comes up right at the start of startup). I have been able to boot from the external drive by changing Startup Disk settings, so I'm sure there's no problem with the external disk volume.
The drive is an Iomega 80GB USB 2.0 drive, and I'm running 10.4.10 on a 2GHz Core Duo MacBook.

Hey guys,
Thanks for the feedback... here's my update (still no joy):
• I'm not sure about the GUID table - how do I check? Does the fact that I can boot from the drive having selected it in my System Preferences mean that it is? It is definitely HFS+ formatted, however. (I gave bad information about the drive type, however - it's a Freecom 400GB, not Iomega 80GB, not that I suppose that makes a difference.)
• After holding that Alt key for a very long time, my MacBook did show me something other than a plain grey screen: a single, large, internal HD icon in the middle of the screen, above a vertical arrow icon. I take this to mean that the MacBook is recognising the internal HDD and no other volume. The external drive was still plugged into the USB port.
• The external drive is in fact partitioned as two volumes.

Problems booting from external drives

Ever since I got this 6-core 2013 MacPro (January 2015), I have had strange problems and glitches, but for this posting, I am talking about problems being able to boot up from external drives. I took the 4 external drives out of my old 2009 MacPro and put them into a 4-bay Thunderbolt enclosure. This enclosure can be configured as a RAID if all drives are the same (which they are not) or it can just be a place to be able to access all 4 drives. I used to be able to boot from each of those drives on the older MacPro but I am unable to do so now. They show up in the System Preferences/Startup Disk but if I choose one, it just reboots into the new MacPro drive. I even tried pulling out a couple of the drives and mounting each into a USB 3.0 (Sabrent) dock and still I could not boot from those drives which have the latest version of Yosemite. Yes, they are formatted correctly. I used to boot from them. I was able to clone one of the drives to a Seagate USB 3.0 hard drive and boot from that. Although, the clone was not perfect. It didn't transfer all my settings so I could recover some logins and serial numbers I wanted that I have never been able to retrieve since I got this new Mac.
Yesterday, I formatted a 32GB flash drive and tried to install Yosemite on it. I planned to put DiskWarrior on it. When I started to install Yosemite (from a saved download) it let me choose that drive, but when it restarted before installing, I was right back where I started on my MacPro's hard drive.
Is this normal behavior for the 2013 MacPro? Or is it just mine? I am beginning to think I may have a lemon since I have had other strange problems that don't go away.

Not all external devices are bootable. First stop would be involve whoever handles the 4-bay Thunderbolt. Seeing how it has a bridge most likely in order to support RAID mode that may not have the correct frmware or other reasons.
https://bombich.com/kb/ccc4
https://bombich.com/kb/ccc4/search/bootable%20volume
CCC is the only program I would be using.

Not booting with external drive attached after itunes 10 installed.

Since installing itunes 10, my computer will NOT boot into Mac OS X with the external drive attached. It consistently freezes at a grey screen with the apple logo.
If the external drive is powered off, it will boot normally - but slowly. Anyone else with this glitch?

AndyPeardrop wrote:
if I forget to UNPLUG the Lacie (by pulling out the Firewire cable), when I boot the Macbook it will give me the Question Mark.
Try opening the Startup Disk panel of System Preferences and redeclaring the startup disk. You could see this behavior if your Mac isn't sure what device to use for booting.

Problems Booting from External Drive

I have a 2009 era Mac Mini (refurb) 2GHZ, 2GB RAM and 320GB internal hard drive and running Snow Leopard. I have been using a 1TB NewerTech miniStack V3 drive to boot from.
Last night the computer froze up while watching a show on Hulu.com. Nothing would respond so I had to shut it down with the power buttons. Now, when I boot from the NewerTech drive it boots but shows a blue background, the hard drive icons (Mac HD, NewerTech and Boot Camp) and the menu strip at the top. No dock, spotlight won't look up anything and trying to shut down through the Apple icon in the top left corner causes the whole screen to go solid blue, spinning beachball and then back but nothing opens or drops down to show choices. I can look in the hard drive icons but all the files show "0 bytes" and nothing can be done.
I can boot fine from the internal Mini drive and everything shows up that should. I can and have run various Disk Utility stuff on all the drives from there. No change when booting from the external:-(
I WAS able to boot from the external in Safe Mode which shows me that my files (over 300GB in iTunes alone!!) and applications are really still there!
I now have Drive Genius 3 at work along with the new NewerTech MiniStack I bought to do a clone backup (ironic isn't it?). No, I don't have a time machine backup either. I couldn't afford another drive until recently.
What has happened? It's like something has gone missing but I don't know what.
Thanks, AndyB, NH.

Well, I was afraid I'd have to do something like that. But I started it in Safe Mode (hold Shift down when restarting) and everything showed up like it should have (with whatever gets disabled by safe Mode). I ran repair permissions which I am sure did nothing else. When I got back this morning I restarted normally and everything was there. So I guess that fixed it.
I was really freaking and now have the other 1TB drive as a clone copy just in case something happens again.
Thanks, AndyB, NH.

Trouble Booting from External Drives - MBA 2012

Hello,
I have a brand new 13" MBA which I'm working on building an image to use for deployment using Carbon Copy Cloner 3.4.5. For whatever reason, I can't boot the new 2012 MBA from an external LaCie FW800 or Thunderbolt 1TB Little Big Disk that is running either 10.7.2 or 10.7.4. As soon as I select the drive to boot from when holding the Options key or from selecting the partition from Startup Disk in System Preferences, I get the do not enter icon(circle with the diagonal slash). I tried both plugged in through a Cinema Display and plugging the Thunderbolt drive directly to the laptop. I confirmed both LaCie drives boot properly on an iMac and the last gen MBP/MBA.
Laptop Specs:
13"
1.8GHz Dual-core i5
8GB
128 SSD
10.7.4
Curious if anyone has run into any problems booting from external drives on the new 2012 MBA.
Thanks,
Paolo

Please be sure you have prepped these external drives correctly:
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. Under the Volume Scheme heading set the number of partitions from the drop down menu to one. Click on the Options button, set the partition scheme to GUID then click on the OK button. Set the format type to Mac OS Extended (Journaled.) Click on the Partition button and wait until the process has completed.
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.) Click on the Security 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 can take up to several hours depending upon the drive size.
My suggestion for cloning is to use Disk Utility. This will also automatically clone the Recovery HD, as well:
Clone Lion using Restore Option of Disk Utility
Boot to the Recovery HD:
Restart the computer and after the chime press and hold down the COMMAND and R keys until the menu screen appears. Alternatively, restart the computer and after the chime press and hold down the OPTION key until the boot manager screen appears. Select the Recovery HD and click on the downward pointing arrow button.
Select Disk Utility from the main menu then press the Continue button.
Select the destination volume from the left side list.
Click on the Restore tab in the DU main window.
Check the box labeled Erase destination.
Select the destination volume from the left side list and drag it to the Destination entry field.
Select the source volume from the left side list and drag it to the Source entry field.
Double-check you got it right, then click on the Restore button.
Destination means the external backup drive. Source means the internal startup drive.

Problem booting from external DVD drive on Lenovo S10e

Hi,
I recently purchased a new Lenovo S10e ideapad, a few weeks prior to that I purchased an external DVD rewriter drive manufactured by LG, the drive works perfectly on every computer I try with the exception of the Lenovo ideapad S10e.
The thing is that the drive is being recognized and installed by the Windows XP Home Edition the S10e came with but when I try to boot a bootable CD using then drive on the S10e ideapad I almost alwasy fail to do so.
I set the S10e BIOS to have the USB CDROM as first boot device, in addition I used the F12 key to use the boot menu to choose the boot device, in 9 out 0f 10 atempts my external drive will not show in the boot menu and when choosing the enter setup option I see that the BIOS do not list it as the USB CDROM, instead it says "USB CDROM:" rather than have the drive name after it.
In the 1 time out of 10 it does work the BIOS seem to be identifying the drive and it shows in the boot menu, however I cannot work with it for a more than 1 minute without it stopped being recognized again.
The problem seems very strange to me as the drive works under the windows operating system and do not have any problem whatsoever on other computers, I have tested the external drive on my PC, another Mini Laptop from LG and a GIGABYTE Laptop (Normal one), all of which had no problems recognizing the external drive and booting from it.
I will really appreciate if I can get some help with the problem.
Thanks.

I've had a similar issue with X61 and the external DVD drive from Lenovo.
In my case, it was the power issue. On the back of the drive, there is a small table says that the drive needs a 3.0A 5V power input. One USB 2.0 port can only provide 0.5A. I don't know if the drive has any special, low power mode, but I suspect that even if it has, 0.5A is still not enough to fully power it. I've checked the current with the multimeter, and at peak times, the drive draws 550mA. Even then, it makes a stuttering sound for a few seconds, before finally spinning the DVD disk. I've also noticed that the DVD works most of the times when it's connected to the left USB port. That may be because of how the laptop's internal power circuicity is laid out (+separate USB host controller for each 'side' of the laptop). Another thing that seems to help is to disable all 5V driven devices that the laptop uses: the wifi card, bluetooth, any additional devices connected to the USB bus / to the ethernet port / SD card port (I'm not actually sure which of the devices are 5V and which are 3.3V, but the best option is to disable all of them), maybe even remove the battery (if it's charging). Finally, the DVD drive works better if the laptop was turned on and runnig for some time, rather than it being turned on "a minute before". Also, in the BIOS, there is a setting that changes the speed of the DVD drive, but switching it to "low" didn't seem to affect the external drive (at least not before Windows boots up).

Why wont my macbook pro boot with external hard drives connected?

After two years of uninterrupted success running my MBP with five external hard drives attached (two USB, two eSATA with LaCie Expresscard 34, one FireWire 800), my MacBook Pro with Mountain Lion 10.8.2 installed will not boot with the drives attached. Starting up with the option key depressed does not work. Anyone have insight? This didn't happen until I upgraded to 10.8.2, so is there a bug fix needed in that update?

Update, I reset the PRAM (i think) and now the chime is back as I start up... small win but thats all it does.
So I decided to dload a copy of Lion and burn to a disc, then try and boot from there. When i boot holding option and select the dvd it sounds like something is happening, contstant turning or reading of the disk, but nothing is happening on screen, just my old friend the apple logo and his mate the spinning wheel. Starting to concede now, just hoping to get my data back, its mostly photos and some files i cant duplicate.
I am going to purchase Mountain lion on my current apple ID using a friends macbook and try and reinstall from there. Although i never had Mountain Lion installed in the first place (just lion) there isnt an option to buy lion on the app store (i dont think) This is prob my last spin of the dice i think before handing it in, unless anyone on here has some ideas....

Serious problems after Mavericks installation with External Drive Lacie P9220.

Experiencing serious problems after Mavericks installation with External Drive Lacie P9220 1TB. Mac Finder totally locked!
I had to format the External hard drive with a Windows PC (fat32), then format again with my IMac (mac Journal.) and hopefully restored data from time machine backup.
So far so good but system looks unstable. Some software were not able to write on the hard drive.Some strange things happens. With Mountain Lion never had an even minor issue.
I read many discussion regarding problems with WD, just wondering if anyone had the same problems with Lacie and if there is any tip to solve the
problem.
Many thanks.
Marco

Thanks very much for your reply.
Unfortunately I couldn't find a solution because the article refers to whom have configured the drive with included software and drivers that came with the drive.
This is not my case, I never used any third party soft ...only OS X disk utility ...
best
marco

FireWire issues with external drive in Yosemite

I have just upgraded to OS X Yosemite, and I have an annoying problem with my 500GB FireWire external drive (which I use for Time Machine backups).
Basically, after updating the drive won't show up anymore, neither in the Finder nor in the Disk Utility. I also tried the "diskutil list" command in the Terminal, but it is nowhere to be found. Note that the drive does indeed receive power from the port - it spins - and when I look into System Report --> Hardware --> FireWire it does show up there (but I can't mount it). Furthermore, if I use a USB cable to connect the drive everything works fine, so the disk itself seems to be OK.
The funny thing is that if I boot with the drive plugged in the FireWire port the system mounts it normally. But as soon as I eject the drive, I am unable to mount it again (unless I switch to the USB cable, as mentioned above).
Prior to the update, everything worked flawlessly. For now, I backed up my Mac via USB 2.0, but it's very slow and I definitely don't want to resort to this workaround everytime. And it goes without saying that I don't like having issues with my primary backup device in general.
I already did all the usual troubleshooting (rebooting, resetting NVRAM and SMC, ...), but the problem still persists.
Any suggestion?

I had the same issue on a rMBP 13'', brand new 2015 March.
Two thunderbolt adapter connected: one for ethernet, one for firewire Lacie drive.
and...
even after taking the ext. Firewire on the Spotlight exclude list, and also after disabling sleeping hard drives, I always got the issue.
Until I realized that touching the laptop or moving the screen was immediately leading to disconnection.
Then I exchanged the thunderbolt connectors, and now it is stable and does not disconnect again.
??? Maybe one of the ports is more "delicate" than the other?
Big hardware weakness here...

Finder crashes with External Drive on Sleep Mode

I purchased my new iMac 21,5" less than a week ago, and I haven't had a problem with it except for one that it's been bugging me a lot.
I have a LaCie 1TB Quadra d2 external drive that I use to store footage (since it's HD, the filesize won't fit in my 500TB internal hard drive), but I noticed that sometimes when LaCie external drive enters in Sleep Mode, the Finder freezes and the only two ways around this, is to force reboot, because the Finder won't answer and won't open again, or unplugging the external drive without ejecting him first, which it's not safe for me to do, because I'm afraid of hurting the device, and the files in it are pretty important.
This happens almost everytime, especially after a long time on sleep mode. I usually leave Final Cut Pro transferring files all night (since it takes a long time) so I kinda need the sleep mode, but when I wake up, Finder and Final Cut Pro won't answer.
I updated to Snow Leopard 10.6.8 on day one. Is there a way to fix this? Is it normal? I read somewhere that some users were having trouble with external drives on Sleep Mode, but I can't seem to find any further information about this problem.
Thanks!

I've got a MacBook Pro 13.3" that's a little over a month old, with a LaCie 1TB LaCie d2 Quadra with USB 3.0, #301542U and I'm suffering the same problems and a few others with it. I've got a partition on it set up as my Time Machine backup drive. I've turned off the Put the hard disk(s) to sleep when possible in the Energy Saver preferences but I'm still having the sleep problem with it. According to the LaCie Manual:
By default, your drive will enter Eco Mode after 30 minutes of inactivity in order to conserve energy. To exit Eco Mode, simply access data on the drive and the disk will automatically restart. You can manage this feature using LaCie Desktop Manager. Click the Eco tab.
The LaCie Desktop Manager (in my case) only takes me to the Energy Saver Preferences in OS X to adjust the time there. Turning off Put the hard disk(s) to sleep when possible doesn't seem to make any difference, the drive still goes to sleep after 30 minutes. However, after 15 minutes the drive seems to wake back up, but then during the next 15 minutes goes comatose (no power light). Sometimes it will go through multiples of these sleep wake cycles without going into a coma, but eventually it does go into a coma. This happens in between hourly Time Machine backups.
After locking up Finder, Disk Utility and Time Machine multiple times trying to access the drive in this state I figured out that I could cycle the power switch to regain use of it (with a Finder warning of course) but this will only lead to file corruption eventually and I shouldn't have to resort to this. I've also dismounted it, expecting it to turn off and instead it goes into an extended spin down cycle (rapidly flashing light) and never turns off (or goes to sleep or what ever it's supposed to do) and once again requires turning the power switch off.
This is just too unpredictible and unrelable for me and as soon as I get the opportunity to do a 7 pass erase I'll be returning to the place of purchase. Based on the reviews of other external hard drives a drive from another company doesn't look to be much better of a prospect so I'm not sure what I'm going to do.

Problem erasing MacBook drive while booted from external drive

Hello,
I'm booted on a MacBook Pro from an external drive, and I want to erase the drive inside the MacBook using Disk Utility from the external. For some reason or another, it won't let me do this.
When I click on the Erase tab (whether clicked on the disk itself or the volume "Macintosh HD") and try to erase it, it returns with the error:
Disk Erase failed
Disk Erase failed with the error:
Could not unmount disk.
When I try to install an image onto the drive, I get a similar error, except it says "Operation not permitted."
When I tried it while booted with an OS X DVD, it worked fine.
As far as I know, I should be able to do this while booted from the external HD.
Any solutions to this problem?
Thanks,
Jason

Hello Jason and welcome to the discussions. You could try to re-partition the internal drive while booted from the external. Using disk utility from the externals Application/Utilities folder click on the internal drive (the manufacturers #, should be above the internal name) and select the partition tab.
change the partition table and then restore it back to the original. This will wipe out all the partitions and should show the drive as empty. Then I would erase all the free space using the erase tab and selecting your Macintosh HD or whatever you named your new internal startup drive the click on the "erase free space" button. Select "zero out deleted files" then erase. It will warn you that the drive is full when it gets near the end...thats okay just click to ignore or proceed. That should do it.
Cheers,
Glynn

External Drive with Time Machine, booting from external drive with utilitie

I'm using Time Machine now with
a LaCie 1TB external hard drive.
Everything works fine.
But, I've been wondering:
Can I place a program like TechTool
on the external drive (that Time Machine uses)
and boot from that external drive.
I would like to be able to do that,
because diagnostics and repair programs
only works properly and fully when they run from
external drives. Anything on the internal drive can be repaired
and examine. Impossible to do if Techtool is on the same
drive that's been examined.
Any thoughts as to what I should do?
Thanks
iMac, Leopard, Time Machine, Lacie Quadra 1TB drive.
P.S. Stupid question: If my computer crashes, and I reboot from Time Machine
(from the external drive) how does the computer know which backup to take ?!?
Isn't there many versions of the OS on the Time Machine backup taken at different times?

pitou wrote:
P.S. Stupid question: If my computer crashes, and I reboot from Time Machine
(from the external drive) how does the computer know which backup to take ?!?
Isn't there many versions of the OS on the Time Machine backup taken at different times?
As V.K. says, you can't boot from TM backups.
But you can restore your entire system from any one of them, per the procedure in #14 of the Frequently Asked Questions *User Tip,* also at the top of this forum.
You can also selectively restore from them, while running normally. See #15 in the FAQ Tip.
You might want to review these:
Time Machine Tutorial
Time Machine 101
How to back up and restore your files
Time Machine Features
Apple - Support - Mac OSX v10.5 Leopard Time Machine
and perhaps browse the rest of the FAQ Tip.

10.5.7 update results in major problem with external drives

yesterday I did the 10.5.7 update and now I can't access any of my external hard drives. The message is "you do not have proper privileges". Have tried downloading/installing the combo update, running permissions repair with Disk Utility, even tried reinstalling my original 10.5.2 system with 'Archive and Install', still the problem persists.
In the privileges dialog, the setting is 'custom' and I can't switch anything back to "read/write".
I'm sure there are other problems but this is quite major as all my work files are located in external drives.
help!

Is it only Lacie drives you've had trouble with, or is it other brands as well?
This is probably a separate problem, but when I updated to OS X 10.5.7, my Buffalo hard drives disappeared. See these threads:
External Hard Drives not recognized now by 10.5.7
http://discussions.apple.com/thread.jspa?threadID=2010075&tstart=0
Don't install 10.5.7
http://discussions.apple.com/thread.jspa?threadID=2004304&tstart=60&start=15
Buffalo has since released a patch:
http://forums.buffalotech.com/buffalo/board/message?board.id=0101&thread.id=9986

Problems booting with external drive

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