Trying to boot from external drive using Startup manager

Hello forum geniuses
I would first like to make an announcement...my loved and cherished iMac G5 has moved on to the next life. Something to do with the motherboard. Your thoughts and prayers are welcome...
But some part of her may live on! You see, we had the hard drive taken out and put into one of those Hard drive shells, so it now works as an external hard drive. I plugged it into another iMac G5 and it works fine as an EXHD. However, I have been working with some very complex Final Cut pro projects so I ideally I want to boot the computer from my original hard disk to preserve all of my file paths. Since it is the original system disk, it should contain an installed copy of Mac OS 10.4 and the original system folder, and it should work as intended, correct?
The problem is, when I hold down the "option" key at startup, I don't get my old hard drive (which is now an external plugged in through firewire, for those playing at home) as a bootable option.
Does anyone know where I'm going wrong here?

Thanks for the reply. A couple of things...
Using my iBook laptop, I booted from the original drive from my old computer and it worked perfectly. Startup manager allowed me to select it and it preserved all my settings and data without a hitch. Exactly what I WANT to happen on the other G5
Remember, this isn't a clone or a copy of my old hard drive - it is the ACTUAL hard drive with an enclosure that allows me to plug it in as an external - so it has to be made bootable, since it is the original.
Also, I can't transfer my data from the original hard drive to the other iMac because there is more than 200GB of data on the original and the other one only has a 120GB hard drive.
So I think the question is, if the standard startup procedure works on my iBook why isn't it working on the iMac G5?

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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.
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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.

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.

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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.
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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.
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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.

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.

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.)

How do l play music from external drive using itune.

Does anyone know how to use itune to play music from external drive without upload sounds to the itune libray.

You don't. Use the QuickTime Player instead.
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Trouble Booting from External Drives; Trying to Defragment from External

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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)

Can't boot PB 17" from external drive using Firewire

Title says it all. I've got a WD My Book 500MHz external drive with Tiger loaded on it. The startup drive panel shows it as a bootable drive, but when I select it and restart, the PB briefly displays the question mark folder and then defaults to the internal HD running Leopard.
I repaired disk permissions on both drives, but still no success. Any ideas?
John

Thanks. According to Western Digital, some versions of this drive are bootable, though the Studio Edition I have is not. See the WD My Book page for a list of what they say are bootable versions.
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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.

Can't Boot From External Drive

Situation:
Prior to upgrading to Lion I used SuperDuper to create a copy of the existing internal hard drive on an new external drive (iOmega eGo 500GB).
Tested booting from the external disk and it appeared to work correctly.
Upgraded to Lion.
Several days later attempted to boot from the external disk (by setting the start up disk in the system preferenes ) but it fails.
The system always boots into Lion.
What I've tried:
Setting the start up disk through system preferences
Holding down the option key to select a disk on startup - interestingly enough I only see the internal hard disk and a recover HD. No sign of my external disk.
Using a clean partition on the external hard drive I installed SL from the retail DVD. This produces the same effect of system booting to Lion on the internal drive, which suggests that the problem is not related to the copy I made using SuperDuper, but rather has to do with the external drive or something in Lion that prevents using an external drive (but I've never heard of such a thing).
Talked to technical support at Apple since I had newly purchased Lion. They couldn't offer a solution but did give a lot of thought and suggestions - but they don't support booting from an external disk.
Talked to iOmega technical support. Not helpful but did figure out at the end of an online chat that they don't support their disks being used for external booting.
Emailed SuperDuper. Very helpful. They offered some suggestions but in the end these didn't work.
Characteristics
Lion 10.7.4
iMac 2007
External Drive Interface FW800
I'd appreciate any suggestions as to the cause of the problem and possible fixes.
Thanks

@shootist007
Still no success but more information:
I found the USB cable for the drive, connected it to a powered USB hub (note that there are two cables going into the hub that must merge and go into a single connector for the USB interface on the drive). with both cables plugged in I still can't get the external drive to boot.
I need to do one more experiment on this. The hub is fully loaded so I'll try removing as much load as possible on the USB to see if I can get it to work.
Regarding your question, there is no way to get power to the drive. (Now I think about it, the design is for a portable drive that you can carry around with you so iOmega aimed the design at not needing a power supply to make it very portable). Hmmm, didn't think about that when I purchased it.
If reducing the load on the hub doesn't make it work then I'l have to get a replacement drive with its own power supply.
Thanks for your help. Even though no success yet I suspect you've identified the problem.

Boot from external drive

I used Carbon Copy Cloner 2.6.1b to clone my imac hard drive to an external drive,(as a backup). However I find the external drive will not boot the imac, (holding down option on startup). The external drive icon shows up but is not an option as a startup disk. I tried booting from the Mac OS X Install DVD and using the Startup Disk utility to point to the external drive on restart but I get the gray curtain, "You must restart" response. Why won't the external drive clone boot the computer? How can I get it to do so?

APPLE YOU ARE WONDERFUL!!
I just ended up buying a 250GB USB drive from Fry's to backup my Mac Book Pro. I was going to purchase a FW drive, but they are as uncommon as hen's teeth now! My previous external FW drive is only 60GB, and I have to clean my 100GB drive down to 60GB to back it up.
I love having the option to boot from an external drive - it was something I NEVER had with PC's. It, without a doubt, proves that my backup is complete, bootable, and reliable. I've had this as a backup method for the 6 years I've owned Macs.
Thank you for adding USB support for booting to your Intel Macs!!!

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

Trying to boot from external drive using Startup manager

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