Unable to use option key on startup

My Macbook Pro is running Yosemite (version 10.10) and runs Windows 7 through Boot Camp.   Until now I have been able to hold down the Option key on startup to enable me to select OS X or Windows.   Starting today the option key does not make any difference and the computer always boots straight into Yosemite.
To eliminate a couple of possibilities:
1.   When in Yosemite I can use the Keyboard Viewer to show that the Option key does still work.
2.   If I go into settings I can select the startup disk as the Windows partition and then the computer always starts in Windows.   This shows that the Windows partition is still there and the Windows setup works.
Why can I not use the option key to allow me to select which operating system to use?

Sounds like he set the Open Firmware password - doing so will (intentionally) prevent these things. The good news is that you can undo this with some effort.
Defeating the OF password:
1) Change the amount of RAM in the machine.
2) There are programs out there that will (reportedly) extract the OF password allowing you access.
3) Resetting the PRAM 3x in a row and rebooting is supposed to do it as well. (Warning this information has been considered "secret" at times.)
Hope that helps. Searching for Open Firmware Password will give you way more information if you want it.
=Tod
G5/2.0x2, Dual XServes x2, XRAID, beige G3 501Mhz

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XServer Mac OS X (10.4.7)

Sounds like he set the Open Firmware password - doing so will (intentionally) prevent these things. The good news is that you can undo this with some effort.
Defeating the OF password:
1) Change the amount of RAM in the machine.
2) There are programs out there that will (reportedly) extract the OF password allowing you access.
3) Resetting the PRAM 3x in a row and rebooting is supposed to do it as well. (Warning this information has been considered "secret" at times.)
Hope that helps. Searching for Open Firmware Password will give you way more information if you want it.
=Tod
G5/2.0x2, Dual XServes x2, XRAID, beige G3 501Mhz

Problems with using Option key when starting up

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

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

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

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

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

My Mac HD doesn't start up, I get the reinstall prompt and do not see a macintosh HD icon while starting up using option key

My Mac HD doesn't start up, I get the reinstall prompt and do not see a macintosh HD icon while starting up using option key.
When start up I land into the Mac OSX Installer. Has my LION crashed or the HD is not responding?

Try booting while holding down the Option key but make sure there aren't any disks in the optical drive first.
I just found this:
Select a startup disk *(on some computers)*
Option (To open the optical drive when choosing a startup disk, press ⌘-period.)
here. http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?path=Mac/10.5/en/cdb_strtup.html
Carolyn

Winxp is gone when pressing option key at startup, "no bootable device"

Hi everyone,
I'm new to mac and recently bought a MBP.
I did bootcamp and installed windows xp and SP3 at the same time in a small partition, I remember it was 8gb.
I had no problem booting in to xp or mac after the installation, I can even press option and see both OS.
But now I cannot boot to windows, at startup while pressing the option key, I only see mac os and not windows. I also tried rebooting from the startup disk utility, but it has a black screen saying "no bootable disk found." It wants me to insert a bootable disk, so I inserted the window xp disk and has to force restart the laptop. Then it started a process like trying to load the files to reinstall win xp, of course I didn't let it.
Now when I went back to disk utilities I see that the winxp partition is 9.2gb, it was 8gb when I made it.
Recently I split my mac partition into 2, I tried to do the time machine back up, but then it takes too long so I canceled it and deleted the partition. I wonder if this affects my window xp partition.
Now I cannot see winxp when pressing option key at startup, but can see it in startup disk utility, and disk utility. When I boot from startup disk utility, it shows "no bootable device, insert cd, and press anykey..." I tried verifying and repairing the parition in disk utility, didn't work.
So this is all I did before I cannot boot into xp.
1. made new partition for winxp (formated partition as FAT)in bootcamp and installed winxp + sp3. everything was fine.
2. create another partition, and call it "data" <-want to create this for data only, while the other half is for software installation only.
3. create another partition for time machine, but when running time machine it says the partition is too small, so I delete it and make the partition bigger.then I run time machine, but since it takes way too long, I canceled it, and deleted the partition.
4. in winxp, had installed kapersky anti-virus 9.0
Now, I have 3 partitions: 1 for software installation, 1 for data, and 1 for winxp.
So why can't I boot to windows? Did things overwrite? Please help me, I'm so frustrated. Thank you.
Message was edited by: nobutan
Message was edited by: nobutan

Thanks fortuny,
I had read the link you suggested. And since my partition for windows is FAT32, as noted in the website, I can edit the boot.ini directly in my mac. In my mac, it already shows that the partition # is 3,
[boot loader]
timeout=30
default=multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(3)\WINDOWS
[operating systems]
multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(2)\WINDOWS="Microsoft Windows XP Professional" /NOEXECUTE=OPTIN/fastdect
but my window os is not booting.
Like the link noted, "it crashes with the "I'm sorry, we couldn't start up Windows. Do you want to start in Safe Mode?" screen. You'll also see a flicker of the BLUE SCREEN OF DEATH, which flashes an UNMOUNTABLEBOOTVOLUME error so quickly you won't have a chance to read it. This was the hint that the BOOT.INI entries were incorrect..."
According to the boot.ini in the site, my boot.ini file was already set up correctly, so why can't windows startup?
Also something I don't understand from this:
"NOTES: If you didn't follow the instructions and chose to PARTITION the existing volume instead of RESIZING then ADDING a partition, this appears to mess up BootCamp's boot loader and you may have to start again. Step 3, however, may offer you a way out."
When I did the 3rd partition, I did it in Disk Utility in mac, not from the mac os cd, and I split the mac partition into 2, I didn't do the "resizing," then using the unused space to make new partition... I wonder if this is causing the normal booting...
So do I start again by deleting my data partition or start from reinstalling windows? If the problem can be fixed without installing windows, of course, it would be great.
Message was edited by: nobutan

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Dec 14 22:08:37 xserve bootpd(6722): re-reading /etc/bootptab
Dec 14 22:08:37 xserve bootpd(6722): Loaded 0 entries from bootptab (0 bad)
Dec 14 22:08:37 xserve bootpd(6722): server name server.example.com
Dec 14 22:08:37 xserve bootpd(6722): interface en0: ip 158.36.32.190 mask 255.255.255.192
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Dec 14 22:08:37 xserve bootpd(6722): bsdpd: shadow file size will be set to 48 megabytes
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Dec 14 22:08:39 xserve bootpd(6722): BSDP INFORM (en0) 1,0:17:f2:2:d5:9e NetBoot001 arch=i386 sysid=MacPro1,1
Dec 14 22:08:39 xserve bootpd(6722): NetBoot: (1,0:17:f2:2:d5:9e) BSDP ACK(LIST) sent 158.36.32.161 pktsize 310
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Dec 14 22:08:52 xserve bootpd(6722): BSDP INFORM (en0) 1,0:17:f2:2:d5:9e NetBoot001 arch=i386 sysid=MacPro1,1
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Dec 14 22:08:52 xserve bootpd(6722): service time 0.000622 seconds

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Unable to use option key on startup

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