Routinely can't find OS on Bootup  - Snow Leopard

Every time I start my computer I have to hold down the "X" key to help it find Snow Leopard. I can also hold down Option to help it find the boot disk. I have no other operating systems on any of the hard drives. I have 4 internal hard drives. I just don't want to have to do this everytime. I'd like to press the power button to turn it on and go get some coffee.

Often this has to do with corrupt PRAM. In turn that is often related to a bad PRAM battery. You might get more help on that on the Mac Pro hardware forum. Depending upon how much you leave your computer totally disconnected from power a PRAM battery may only last a couple of years.
[Texas Mac Man's PRAM, battery, PMU tutorial|https://sites.google.com/site/macpram/mac-pram-nvram-cuda-pmu-battery- tutorial]
[Apple's PRAM reset directions|http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=2238]

Similar Messages

  • Mac Pro can't find hard drive with Snow Leopard installed on

    Hello there,
    I have a three harddrive setup.
    Harddrive 1 is in bay 1 and has two partitions.
    1: For system and apps
    2: For Documents and stuff
    Hard drive 2+3 are in Bay 2+3 and are combined to a RAID 0 drive.
    Some time ago I installed Leopard and the brand new an formatted hard drive.
    It happened that it always took 2 start ups to run Leopard because always on the first time it didn t find the system on hard drive one. Pushing the 'D' button often helped.
    Of course that was nothing to work with, although I at least could get some work done, once I loaded Leopard successfully.
    So I tried Disk Utility, fsck without success.
    I also tried the way of using fdisk to mark the partion as active, which only resulted in now not being able to boot at all.
    Booting from DVD I also tried choosing my Leopard install on my hard drive as boot device (it has always shown up here) but still without success.
    I am afraid things are quite messed up, since there were a few things happening at one time, which I am not overly happy about now. (Installing new RAM, installing SNOW LEOPARD on the new harddrive 1 in bay one, having still the RAID with LEOPARD on in bays 2+3).
    I am already certain to do a fresh and complete reinstall of the system, I have my backup, but still there is some iTunes music and a few documents I haven't backed up yet, which I'd rather would not like to lose...
    Put it short:
    What could I do to get my system running at least once?
    Thanks a lot,
    max.

    After some research I found out about the nice TargetDiskMode which I used to save all my important data with my MacBook.
    http://support.apple.com/kb/HT1661
    Ready to perform a complete and fresh install now!
    Max.

  • Where can i find a v10.6 Snow Leopard installation disc?

    question above

    Answer below:
    http://store.apple.com/us/product/MC573Z/A?fnode=MTY1NDAzOA&mco=MTM3NDgwNzM

  • Where do I find retail install for Snow Leopard?

    Like, I keep seeing the upgrade packages on the store.apple.com but I don't see anything to just buy a fresh Snow Leopard OS to install on a hard drive that is totally blank. The Family Leopard pack for 49.99 just seems a little cheap to be a full install instead of an upgrade... I would like to find the full install but I am not seeing it on the apple store site.. maybe I am just blind....
    BTW, this is on a macbook.

    Apple does recommend that you purchase the Mac Box Set if you're upgrading from Tiger to Snow Leopard, but in this situation, you can get by with just the Snow Leopard disc, Single User ($29) or Family Pack ($49). Despite it's much lower price than previous Mac OS X operating systems, the disc does indeed work as a standalone installer.
    I've sold hundreds of licenses of Mac OS X Snow Leopard, and I have yet to get a complaint.

  • How can I tell where the OS (Snow Leopard) is? I'm not sure if it is on the SSD or the regular HD.

    How can I tell where the OS (Snow Leopard) is? I’m not sure if it is on the SSD or the regular HD. I just had a rough weekend trying to back things up with Time Machine and I think the OS was copied to the regular HD, or could be in two places? How do I find where the OS is? If it is on the regular drive I want to put it on the SSD.
    Thank you very much!

    Some recent systems don't observe that convention - not sure at the moment about Snow Leopard but I have a feeling it doesn't.
    Copy the following into the AppleScript Editor (in Applications/Utilities)
    set dsk to the path to startup disk as string
    display dialog dsk
    click the 'run' button.

  • I have a dual core mac pro tower , can  I upgrade to lion from snow leopard?

    I have a dual core mac pro tower , can  I upgrade to lion from snow leopard?

    The 2006 and 2007 Mac Pros can be upgraded as far as Lion. Mountain Lion can be installed on Mac Pros from 2008 onward. See below:
    Upgrade Paths to Snow Leopard, Lion, and/or Mountain Lion
    You can upgrade to Mountain Lion from Lion or directly from Snow Leopard. Mountain Lion can be downloaded from the Mac App Store for $19.99. To access the App Store you must have Snow Leopard 10.6.6 or later installed.
    Upgrading to Snow Leopard
    You can purchase Snow Leopard through the Apple Store: Mac OS X 10.6 Snow Leopard — Apple Store (U.S.). The price is $19.99 plus tax. You will be sent physical media by mail after placing your order.
    After you install Snow Leopard you will have to download and install the Mac OS X 10.6.8 Update Combo v1.1 to update Snow Leopard to 10.6.8 and give you access to the App Store. Access to the App Store enables you to download Mountain Lion if your computer meets the requirements.
         Snow Leopard General Requirements
           1. Mac computer with an Intel processor
           2. 1GB of memory
           3. 5GB of available disk space
           4. DVD drive for installation
           5. Some features require a compatible Internet service provider;
               fees may apply.
           6. Some features require Apple’s iCloud services; fees and
               terms apply.
    Upgrading to Lion
    If your computer does not meet the requirements to install Mountain Lion, it may still meet the requirements to install Lion.
    You can purchase Lion by contacting Customer Service: Contacting Apple for support and service — this includes international calling numbers. The cost is $19.99 (as it was before) plus tax.  It's a download. You will get an email containing a redemption code that you then use at the Mac App Store to download Lion. Save a copy of that installer to your Downloads folder because the installer deletes itself at the end of the installation.
         Lion System Requirements
           1. Mac computer with an Intel Core 2 Duo, Core i3, Core i5, Core i7,
               or Xeon processor
           2. 2GB of memory
           3. OS X v10.6.6 or later (v10.6.8 recommended)
           4. 7GB of available space
           5. Some features require an Apple ID; terms apply.
    Upgrading to Mountain Lion
    To upgrade to Mountain Lion you must have Snow Leopard 10.6.8 or Lion installed. Purchase and download Mountain Lion from the App Store. Sign in using your Apple ID. Mountain Lion is $19.99 plus tax. The file is quite large, over 4 GBs, so allow some time to download. It would be preferable to use Ethernet because it is nearly four times faster than wireless.
         OS X Mountain Lion — System Requirements
           Macs that can be upgraded to OS X Mountain Lion
             1. iMac (Mid 2007 or newer) — Model Identifier 7,1 or later
             2. MacBook (Late 2008 Aluminum, or Early 2009 or newer) —
                 Model Identifier 5,1 or later
             3. MacBook Pro (Mid/Late 2007 or newer) — Model Identifier 3,1 or later
             4. MacBook Air (Late 2008 or newer) — Model Identifier 2,1 or later
             5. Mac mini (Early 2009 or newer) — Model Identifier 3,1 or later
             6. Mac Pro (Early 2008 or newer) — Model Identifier 3,1 or later
             7. Xserve (Early 2009) — Model Identifier 3,1 or later
    To find the model identifier open System Profiler in the Utilities folder. It's displayed in the panel on the right.
    Are my applications compatible?
             See App Compatibility Table — RoaringApps.
         For a complete How-To introduction from Apple see Upgrade to OS X Mountain Lion.

  • My iMac running Mountain Lion can't see my iMac running Snow Leopard on my network.

    My iMac running Mountain Lion can't see my iMac running Snow Leopard on my network.  Both Macs work fine and the SL Mac can see and connect to the ML Mac.

    There isn't a script.
    Mail connects to any standard email server.
    Open the Connection Doctor from the Window menu.
    Click Show Details and Check Again.
    What errors does it post trying to connect to your email provider.
    I dont' think there is any personal information in the output, but you might want to sanitize the output in a text editor before posting the output here in case there is a login user name or something like that.

  • Can I dual boot Mavericks and Snow Leopard?

    Hello. I own a 2011 i5 iMac. I recently started working with some softwares that will only work properly on Snow Leopard, but I have Mavericks installed. My question is: can I create a new partition in my HD and use BootCamp to install Snow Leopard?

    If it is a Late 2011 model, then you cannot. The earlier models came with a special version of Snow Leopard on DVDs. You can install only that version of Snow Leopard. If you've lost those discs, then you are out of luck.
    You do not use Boot Camp for this. Rather, you will use Disk Utility.
    To resize the drive do the following:
    1. 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.
    After the main menu appears select Disk Utility and click on the Continue button. Select the hard drive's main entry then click on the Partition tab in the DU main window.
    2. You should see the graphical sizing window showing the existing partitions. A portion may appear as a blue rectangle representing the used space on a partition.
    3. In the lower right corner of the sizing rectangle for each partition is a resizing gadget. Select it with the mouse and move the bottom of the rectangle upwards until you have reduced the existing partition enough to create the desired new volume's size. The space below the resized partition will appear gray. Click on the Apply button and wait until the process has completed.  (Note: You can only make a partition smaller in order to create new free space.)
    4. Click on the [+] button below the sizing window to add a new partition in the gray space you freed up. Give the new volume a name, if you wish, then click on the Apply button. Wait until the process has completed.
    You should now have a new volume on the drive.
    It would be wise to have a backup of your current system as resizing is not necessarily free of risk for data loss.  Your drive must have sufficient contiguous free space for this process to work.

  • Can I use Face Time on Snow Leopard 10.6.8

    Can I use Face Time on Snow Leopard 10.6.8

    Beth,
    Yes, absolutely.  I have a 10.6.8 iMac here, and FaceTime works very well with it.  The minimum requirement for FaceTime for Mac is 10.6.6
    Wuz

  • HT6114 How I can upgrade 10.5.8 to snow leopard. thanks

    How I can upgrade 10.5.8 to snow leopard. thanks

    Buy a copy of the Snow Leopard Disc from Apple (or eBay or such). That's the only way. It does not come as a download.
    Pete

  • Mail application is still there. All of my emails and folders are gone since iCloud. How can I get them back using Snow Leopard? Or can I? Do I have to wait for Mountain Lion?

    Mail application is still there. All of my emails and folders are gone since iCloud. How can I get them back using Snow Leopard? Or can I? Do I have to wait for Mountain Lion?

    I need to check a few other things...
    Click on 'Mail' in the upper left corner next to the Apple ()
    Click Preferences
    Click the 'Accounts' tab
    Make sure your iCloud account is highlighted in the column on the left.
    In the account information section what does it say next to:
    Incoming Mail Server?
    Outgoing Mail Server?
    Also, did you use MobileMe before the iCloud?

  • When trying to burn a playlist to a blank CD, iTunes 10.3.1 won't recognize the blank CD I've inserted (Verbatim CD-R). I've burned using these CDs before, this is a recent problem. Not the burner, as I can burn using Toast. iMac with Snow Leopard 10.6.8

    When trying to burn a playlist to a blank CD, iTunes 10.3.1 won't recognize the blank CD I've inserted (Verbatim CD-R). I've burned using these CDs before, this is a recent problem. Not the burner, as I can burn using Toast. iMac with Snow Leopard 10.6.8

    What kind of CD are you burning (Audio or MP3)?
    If you're burning an MP3 CD, the songs must already
    be in mp3 format.
    If not, iTunes will tell you that you have no songs
    in the playlist.
    M
    I was making an audio cd. But I have since found out what the problem was. The files in my PLAYLIST I converted to aiff, since they were SDll files (I thought they were similar to AIFF, and they PLAY on Itunes...just won't burn.) When I selected the songs in the playlist and converted them...I thought all those files were converted, They were not. The converted files went into my LIBRARY, even tho I selected the ones in the playlist...and once I exchanged the SDll versions of the songs in my playlist. THEN they burned fine...but still...it's confusing..you say convert..it says it's been converted..and what they don't say is it's not been converted inside the playlist...where I had selected the songs...It just ADDED aiff versions..but only in the library...Anyway, that's what happened. But it's strange that it PLAYS SDll but won't burn them....and you'd think, logically..the ones you selected would change...but they don't. Playlists are mainly pointers to the actual files I guess...a sort of Alias..
    At least it works now. But it's sad that the latest itunes does more, but also does LESS...as I used to be able to burn SDll files. Now I'll have to convert all my files to AIFF, and mp3's as I assume my ipod video won't play anything but mp3's?

  • How can i download maverick and keep snow leopard,i am not very tech savy

    how can i download maverick and keep snow leopard,i am not very tech savy

    You'll be given the option to change the target after the download is complete and before the actual installation begins. The process is otherwise the same as normal.
    (91555)

  • How can i get xcode for osx snow leopard?

    how can i get xcode for osx snow leopard?

    I'm an experienced software developer (C, C++, Lisp, Linux, Unix, etc) but have never done any Mac development, and wanted to try some stuff on my iMac at home, but I have Snow Leopard and most of the turtorials I looked at said the first thing I had to do was download XCode and the first thing that happened when I tried to do that was it said I had to upgrade to Lion.
    My iMac is running SnowLeopard.   I don't have any big reason to stay at SnowLeopard, but from stuff I've seen in the forums I can't see any big reason to upgrade to Lion.   I might eventually want to do development for IOS on an iphone or iPad, but for now I just want to do a simple tutorial app for my iMac.
    I found the downloads search page, and it looks like there's two versions of Xcode  3.2.7 which has a release date of Sep 2011, and 3.2 with a release date of Jan 2012.
    Which one should I download?   And if I download one of these will it be a problem if I do upgrade to Lion in a few months?

  • Can I restore files from a Snow Leopard

    Can I restore files from a Snow Leopard Time Machine backup onto Lion?

    DaveH123 wrote:
    Not really a reply, but I have the same question.  I purchased a new iMac and installed Lion.  I used the Migration Assistant to copy everything to the new machine, but I would like to have a backup copy in case something gets lost.
    Why don't you just do a new backup?
    Can I restore individual files from the Time Machine backup on Computer A running Snow Leopard to Computer B running Lion?
    Yes, via #16 in Time Machine - Frequently Asked Questions.  But the permissions from Computer A will be restored, too, so the user account you restore them to on computer B may or may not have permission to see or change them.

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