Server won't allow login booted from external drive

I have a client who was running Leopard Server on a Mac Mini G4 1.42Ghz. (Hey, it serves their needs fine.) They had installed it onto an external Firewire drive since this particular Mini had a bad internal drive. It's been working great for them for months - so great in fact, that they decided to upgrade to an Intel Mini.
We simply unplugged the external drive and hooked it up to the new Mini and expected that all would be well. Instead, it boots as far as the login screen and then fails any login attempts. When hooked back up to the old Mini - everything is happy.
Any suggestions?
Thanks!
-Landon

The drive is probably formatted w Apple Partition Map.
Format a different external to GUID copy the files over and try again.

Similar Messages

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.

MBP slow to boot and WILL NOT boot from external drive

I have two problems. First my friends MacBook Pro which is less than a month old is taking long to load. So I did a clean install without installing anything other than what came. Still slow to boot. Sometimes I see a light blue screen for a while before getting into the desktop. She complains of the beachball far too often. She says my MacBook is faster than her Pro, which is not right.
So I came down with my external LaCie drive, which I cloned from my iMac 24". I wasn't able to boot from the external (firewire) drive using her MacBook Pro. I thought my LaCie drive was bad or soemthing, but when I got home, I hooked it up to my MacBook and booted from the external drive just fine. I use SuperDuper to make a bootable clone.
So as it stands now, her computer is slow to boot into the OS, and it won't let me boot from my external drive. Does anyone have any idea what this could be? I did a clean install, used cocktail, etc. If it persists, I'll tell her to take it in.
Thanks,
Bryan

Robert,
I have no idea what you mean by Apple is not responsive to the issue. If you want help, please start a new topic thread so someone can help you identify the problem without the distraction of other people's problems around yours. Blaming people does not solve problems.
This is the link to post a new topic on this board:
http://discussions.apple.com/forum.jspa?forumID=1149&start=0
This is a user to user board. If you need help from Apple, call AppleCare directly here:
http://www.apple.com/contact/phone_contacts.html

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.

MacPro can't boot from external drive

Running 10.7.3 and a MacPro which gets backed up each night with SuperDuper. Can't boot from this drive (black screen). Yet I can take the same drive and start up my Macbook Pro! So it isn't the drive or the data on it. I'm stumped. Could this be related to an issue where I can't get this same MacPro or system to successfully backup to Time Machine without error? The boot drive seems OK (ran Disk Warrior and Disk Utility).

Please read this whole message before doing anything.
This procedure is a diagnostic test. It’s unlikely to solve your problem. Don’t be disappointed when you find that nothing has changed after you complete it.
The purpose of this exercise is to determine whether the problem is caused by third-party system modifications that load automatically at startup or login. Disconnect all wired peripherals except those needed for the test, and remove all aftermarket expansion cards. Boot in safe mode and log in to the account with the problem. The instructions provided by Apple are as follows:
Be sure your Mac is shut down.
Press the power button.
Immediately after you hear the startup tone, hold the Shift key. The Shift key should be held as soon as possible after the startup tone, but not before the tone.
Release the Shift key when you see the gray Apple icon and the progress indicator (looks like a spinning gear).
Safe mode is much slower to boot and run than normal, and some things won’t work at all, including wireless networking on certain Macs.
The login screen appears even if you usually log in automatically. You must know your login password in order to log in. If you’ve forgotten the password, you will need to reset it before you begin.
Test while in safe mode. Same problem(s)?
After testing, reboot as usual (i.e., not in safe mode.)

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.

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.

SL won't boot from external drive

i tried installing SL on an external FW800/400/USB drive. while the first part of the install went fine, upon the restart, it would only get as far as the gray apple screen. after many false starts, i tried finishing the install by booting my wife's (non-unibody) macbook with the drive attached and the SL disc in the optical drive. sure enough, the install finished and it booted to SL.
now, when i try to boot from this same drive on my new MBP, it stays stuck at the gray apple screen. i'm able to see and choose the SL partition when i start up, but it just won't continue booting. i've tried booting via FW800, FW400 and via USB. none work.
has anyone else experienced this?

To wrap everyone's comments, since I just got back—we had a rare power failure due to someone knocking a local transformer down—yes, the new machine won't allow you to boot an earlier version's disc. The one that came with your new machine is now your GM for that machine. The other, the SL GM, is unusable for it, but good for all the machines that shipped before it arrived. The new disc can be used on any properly formatted volume, internal or external. If you followed the steps in Best Practices and Setup new Mac, then your new MBP should mimic your previous machine. You do the same. Install the OS onto the ext HD and, on first boot, use the Setup Assistant to migrate from the MRB to the ext HD. We used that procedure throughout the beta-test period. HTH

LCD/Santa Rosa systems won't boot from external drives or DVDs

A critical issue with supporting the LED MacBook Pro systems is that to boot from (or install OS to) any external FW Hard Drives MUST be partitioned with the GUID Partition Table option, not the older Apple Partition Map.
This also seems to impact utilities like Disc Warrior and Tech Tool Pro -- the lastest versions of these will not boot either of the two LED MacBook Pro 15" models that I've tested. (This is confirmed on the utilities websites.)
In short, to boot from an external drive it apparently must be formatted with the GUID option (I have no un-partitioned external drives to test). And to boot from a utility CD/DVD -- I haven't found any discs other than the included Apple Software Restore DVD's that will boot these systems.
All models Mac OS X (10.4.9) Corporate support

I'm looking at 4 external FW HD's sitting on my desk
next to our second LCD MacBkPro. These drive can,
and have, booted EVERY INTEL MAC IN THE COMPANY --
with the single exception of the LCD Macs.
I'm looking for hard facts here, not theory. Yes, a
hard drive partitioned with GUID will boot earlier
Intel macs -- but IT WASN'T REQUIRED.
Those of you in theory-land can ask yourselves why
Alsoft's Disk Warrior and Micromat's Tech Tool Pro
CD/DVDs can boot every Intel mac made --- with the
single exception of the LCD Macs. Go to their
websites if you don't believe me...
Back to the topic -- the LCD MacBookPro models
require the GUID partitioning, and seem to require
something else for booting that Alsoft and Micromat
are working on right now. But for those of us who
make our living supporting macs, working with these
machines may require reformatting of external drives
(you can't reformat just one partition) and not allow
use of our standard CD/DVD bootable utility discs.
You know, you might get a bit more help if your tone was a bit more pleasant. I hope it works out for you.
One might argue that those who "make their living supporting macs" might have done better to keep themselves abreast of what was happening in "Theoryland" some time earlier - say 15 months ago when people first realised that intel macs used the GUID partition system. Then they wouldn't be too surprised. I'm not, neither are the others here who are wading in to HELP.
As for hard facts - April 2006 re: firmware updates
http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=303609
Best of luck.

Leopard Won't Boot from External Drive

I'm using an iBook G4 running Mac OS X 10.4.10. I just purchased a Western Digital 320GB eSATA external hard drive to use as an external Leopard boot disk because my internal hard drive does not work (I've been using a 20GB Lacie external hard drive as my boot drive up to now).
I have installed Leopard onto the new external drive using the Leopard install DVD. The installation was successful, and the new external drive mounts on the desktop. In addition, I can see all of its contents, and it appears as a startup disk in the startup disk preference panel. However, when I select it as the startup disk and restart the computer, it will not boot from the new external drive.
Notes:
1. The drive is formatted in the Apple Partition Map scheme.
2. I have pressed "option" during restart, but the drive does not appear.
3. I have restarted with only the new hard drive connected to the cpu, to no avail.
Am I missing something? Please assist.
Thanks!

I've been trying all day to boot from my external HD after installing Leopard on both my HD and external HD. I was convinced that my external HD volume wasn't being read and recognized. What I discovered a while ago was that my internal HD volume always shows up at the top of the list on my desktop whether it's the volume running or not!!
When running 10.4.11 and booting from the external HD, the icon for the external HD volume always appeared at the top on the desktop, over the internal HD icon. That's how I could remember which one I was on. That's not happening now. I may have been working on the backup for half the day and not known it.
The only way I'm able to tell for sure which is the active drive is to check the User folder to see whether the House/Home icon appears (the system running) or the name is in text (the system not running).
Is there some way to change that or is it a glitch in Leopard? It's weird!

G3 won't boot from external drive

Hello.
I really have a big problem, namely:
My son (3 years) turned the power adapter to 120 instead of 240, which explode.
I changed it. But when I tried to start up again, the Power Mac couldn't find the HD. I tried everything but but nothing worked. So I installed Mac OSX 10.4 on a external firewire drive. But I don't know how to boot from this disk.
Please help me.

so the machine can still boot?
try this: open the case, there should be a button in the far right corner, like around the video card. press & hold for 15 seconds.
check all the cables. make sure everything is still plugged into the drive.
power up & see what happens.
are you using a pc computer in the mean time?
I can convert the dmg to iso you can burn using a pc utility, but I'm at work & 7 hrs behind you.
http://www.macosxhints.com/article.php?story=20040121135301830

Incorrect Login when Booting from External Drive?

I just used Carbon Copy Cloner to create a bootable system on my external firewire Hard Drive (Iomega) so if my aging system fails I can boot off the HD. Everything seems OK, holding down the option key gets me to the Iomega, but then a login window comes up and my name and password don't work to finish the login process.
Using Tiger 10.4.9 on a G4 Dual PowerPC.
What am I doing wrong?

Neil,
Thanks for that info. Not that familiar with these kinds of steps, so I want to make sure I do the right thing.
If I do the steps listed, am I working on the system on the internal hard drive, or the external? If I'm working on the internal, do I then need to copy anything over to the external drive to be able to boot?
And the instructions there are confusing for me. I have no idea what it's talking about. It says:
"yourhostname", substitute your computer's actual hostname, likewise for "youripaddress". For "yourpath", substitute the actual path to the location to which you saved createrestorenidb.
I don't know what it means by hostname or youripaddress or the actual path to the location?
Mark

Can't boot from external drive, no options...

Okay so I just upgraded my 24" iMac to Snow Leopard, from an external drive, and things seemed fine. I was migrating my old settings and then after I noticed I couldn't access system folders. It wanted old settings' permissions, not the new one, so I right-clicked on the folder and set permissions so that anybody could write to it.
Still didn't work. I thought I should then reboot.
So I did. But now when I try to log on, to my old profile or my new one, neither password works. Even though they're the same. If I get it wrong enough times, it will let me put in the master password for the computer, in a separate pop-up, which is the same, and that works.
Then it wants me to give a new password, back in the old password box, and then it just shakes angrily afterward, not accepting anything I type. Why is this?
The next step seemed to be re-install Snow Leopard. But pressing the option key at startup doesn't let me boot up from the external drive. I looked online with my macbook and found all these other boot options, but none of them work. Not a single one has any effect.
One thing I should mention is that I'm not using the standard iMac keyboard, not sure if that makes a difference. It's a PC keyboard and the keys are just slightly rearranged but it has Alt, Ctrl, and the option key is a circle with the windows logo in it. Any chance that the new OS isn't recognizing the new keyboard properly?
I just don't know what else it could be. Any help is appreciated.

coconutmelodies wrote:
I only have one master computer password, and it's not the same as any of my other passes. That's the pass that's needed to log on, and access system info. However it's also the same password as my old profile, that I was migrating over (which is still confusing as to how to do a clean install and then bring old admin info over so they work together seemlessly) so now when trying to log on, after the first reboot, I saw that I could log on to the old or the new profile. As well as a guest account, which isn't accessible though.
It sounds like here you are talking about an admin user account & its login password rather than a "master" password. Only admin users can access & change system info (more or less). However, you cannot merge two user accounts, if that is what you mean by 'bringing old admin info over so they work together seemlessly.' Also, keep in mind that each user is a separate entity as far as the computer is concerned, whether or not they have the same login password, & that you can log into & use only one account at a time. So for instance, if you have a user account "A" created on the Mac & an imported/migrated account "B" from another Mac, if you are logged in as "A" you will not be able to access info in the folders belonging to "B" unless while logged in as "B" you previously explicitly set permissions on those folders for "A" to access them.
So whichever profile I attempt to log onto, when I type in the password, (there's even an obvious clue after a few tries, so no chance I'm getting it wrong) the box shakes like I got it wrong.
The box shakes only if you did get it wrong, so I don't understand what you mean about there being no chance that you got it wrong.
After like six tries, it asks me for a "Master Password" "Type the master password to reset this uer's password" into which I put my regular login pass that I've been trying over and over, and here it does work.
"If you change the password for this user account, you will create a new keychain to store the user's passwords"
So then it asks me to put in a new password, and verify it, but after each try it just shakes. It won't accept anything.
Again, I don't understand what you mean in the first paragraph above when you say "here it does work." The Master Password the dialog box asks for is one you would have had to previously explicitly set up for the computer in the File Vault tab of the Security System Preference. It is not associated with any user account (& again, it makes no difference if you set it to the same one as for one or more user accounts). It's purpose is as a "safety net" to unlock File Vault protected user accounts. As explained in Mac OS X 10.6 Help: If you forget your password for your FileVault-protected account, you must first fail to enter the account's password correctly three (not six) times, then click the “Forgot Password” button to get to the Master Password dialog box. Entering the previously set up Master Password allows you to set & verify a new password for that account.
If you can get this far, it means you are successfully entering the Master Password & have successfully reset the account's password to something new. If the box shakes after you then try to log into that account, it means you have not entered the same characters at the login screen as you did when resetting the account password.
If you mean something else is happening please explain it more clearly, in step-by-step fashion including the results of each step. Don't say things like "try it." Instead, say that you clicked on the "OK" (or whatever named) button & say what the result was.

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; Trying to Defragment from External

I have a Verbatim External Firewire 400/USB 2.0 hard drive that has Leopard installed on it. I have installed Drive Genius and Disk Warrior on the external drive. I boot holding the Option key and see the list of drives, and the External does appear. When I select it, the computer just reboots and loads the loads the internal hard drive. I'm trying to defragment the MacBook Pro from an external drive, but I can't do much if it won't boot from an external. I know with Intel Macs, you can boot from USB 2.0 and FireWire. Why won't it work? To be more advanced, I made a disc image of the MacBook Pro Restore DVD and restored it to a new partition of the external, thinking the operating system might be different in the new MacBook Pro because of the new settings in the System Preferences that control the glass trackpad. I'm stuck. Please help.

No, I would not recommend making a disc image. I would recommend cloning the drive to a freshly erased external drive. Cloning is not the same as making a disc image. Disc images cannot be used to boot the computer. They are large and unwieldy. They are intended to be burned to an optical disc and not used as a system backup.
Clones are exact file copies of everything on the source drive such that the destination drive is a mirror of the source drive. You can boot clones, you can update them, and you can access them directly just like any other drive.
How to Clone Using Restore Option of Disk Utility
1. Open Disk Utility from the Utilities folder.
2. Select the destination volume from the left side list.
3. 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.
4. Click on the Restore tab in the DU main window.
5. Select the destination volume from the left side list and drag it to the Destination entry field.
6. Select the source volume from the left side list and drag it to the Source entry field.
7. Double-check you got it right, then click on the Restore button.
Destination means the drive to which you will restore or backup.
Source means the drive you are restoring from or backing up.
There are many alternatives to using Disk Utilities Restore option. Any of the following can create clones as well as perform regular backups, and they can incrementally update a clone:
1. Retrospect Desktop (Commercial - not yet universal binary)
2. Synchronize! Pro X (Commercial)
3. Synk (Backup, Standard, or Pro)
4. Deja Vu (Shareware)
5. Carbon Copy Cloner (Donationware)
6. SuperDuper! (Commercial)
7. Intego Personal Backup (Commercial)
8. Data Backup (Commercial)
10. MimMac (Shareware)
11. SilverKeeper 2.0 (Freeware)

Server won't allow login booted from external drive

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