[URGENT] Problems Booting from External HD

I'm at a complete loss on this one. I'm a pretty competent Mac geek, and even I can't figure this out. Bear with me, I'll try and explain my problem as best I can. First, some basic info:
My hardware setup:
• iMac G3 600MHz
• 1GB RAM
• 120GB internal HD, running OSX 10.4.7
The computer's internal drive is used by someone else for work during the day. I run all of my files and programs from a 2nd HD, which I boot from:
• Seagate 300GB HD
• Bytecc combo USB/Firewire drive enclosure
Software:
The only recent install I've done is Super Duper, which I did after I began having problems. I used it clone my Firewire boot drive to a (backup) 400GB external USB/Firewire drive, and I restored from the clone once when I began having the problems that now appear to have come back. At the time, it appeared that restoring from the clone had solved my problems. I'm fairly certain that my problems are software-related: I've installed the drive in question in another Mac (internally), S.M.A.R.T. status appears fine. I'm not using anything awful like Norton Disk Doctor, I've tried rebuilding the volume using DiskWarrior, without success.
Problem:
I am unable to boot from my Firewire drive. When I start up using it, everything appears normal, until I get to the boot panel. The progress bar loads very slowly, and only gets about halfway finished before the login panel appears on top of it (even though the boot drive is a single-user volume, set to login automatically). The username and password fields are both blank, and if I enter my username and password it says it's incorrect.
Symptoms:
• OSX/programs become unresponsive after waking from sleep. Computer freezes, and most recently the screen went completely gray. After forceably turning off the computer and HD and restarting, I get the problem I just mentioned with the login panel. I don't have any problems waking from sleep if I'm booting from the computer's internal HD.
• Certain programs (notably iTunes and Adobe CS2 apps) periodically become unresponsive and quit. Several times I've gotten an "unknown error" message from iTunes saying that it is "unable to save the iTunes library". Both of these issues usually precede the main problem of being unable to boot/login.
• Occasionally, if I boot from the computer's internal HD and then switch on the external, it refuses to recognize it as being a formatted OSX extended (journaled) volume. Turning it off for several minutes and then turning it back on sometimes fixes it, as does repairing it using Disk Utility.
These problems have been plaguing me for months now, and with more than one external HD (although using the same enclosure). Everytime I do something to fix it, the problems seem to go away for an increasingly shorter amount of time, before reappearing, each time slightly worse than before. I'm convinced all of the issues I've been having are in some way related, I just can't figure out how they're related (or what I can do to fix them). Hopefully, one of you can help me.
iMac G3 600MHz Mac OS X (10.4.7) 1GB RAM | 120GB HD (Internal) | 300GB HD (External) | 400GB HD (External)

I occassionally get a similar problem, when playing a corrupt video via mplayer. The scrren freezes and I have to poweroff. When I log back in no user and no password is valid, even when root is enabled.
Solution: replace from a cloan. You will need to boot from a good cloan before you can do this, and be able to retain the original permissions.
I use: sudo rsync -avE /private/var/db/netinfo/ /Volumes/vol-name/private/var/db/netinfo
PB 15 1.5 Ghz

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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).

Problems booting from external drives

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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.

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.
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Hey guys,
Thanks for the feedback... here's my update (still no joy):
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• 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.
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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.
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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.
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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.

Problems booting from external firewire drive

Here's a weird one...
I'm trying to help a buddy with a 3rd gen MBP and a new WD 'My Studio' firewire external drive.
He can mount and use the drive but is unable to boot from it. When starting up his machine with option, the drive doesn't show up as selection. The really odd part is the drive does work if plugged in with the USB cable!
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I've tried different sets of cables (even though everything works on my system). I actually had him send the drive back for warranty replacement but of course the new one behaves the same way.
What could be the cause of apparently certain firewire drives not being bootable (but otherwise working) on a 3rd gen MBP? The intended workflow is to be studio/audio work so using the USB connection for a workaround would not be an option.
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baltwo wrote:
FWIW, many WD HDs won't boot Macs and booting Macs isn't supported. Details at their site. That's the main reason I never recommend their crappy HDs.
Actually I'm very familiar with that list- spent a lot of time looking at this past week!
Ironically, the majority of that page is a list of drives which they claim WILL boot Macs. In fact, the list is entitled "List of Mac-bootable WD external drives..."
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But that's all beside the point. Like you, I couldn't recommend their drives at this point. At least make sure if you buy one that the vendor has a good return policy.
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Password problem booting from external hard drive

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Hi, Jeff --
Well, I think my problem is finally solved, thanks (partly) to your help. Just to help other folks who have this problem, I'm going to state briefly how I fixed it:
-- I did an Erase and Install on the Seagate AFTER spending all day burning 30 CDs with the archived files I'd taken off the Mac but didn't want to lose.
-- After that, I could indeed boot up the Mac from the Seagate in 10.3 and all seemed fine.
-- But I made the mistake of doing a full backup to the Seagate from the Mac (which took two hours).
-- After that, I couldn't boot up the Seagate at all -- I spent two 20-minute periods waiting for it to get off the gray screen with the Apple log, to no avail. A friend of mine suggested that the backup program might be the problem.
-- After some trepidation but knowing that I already had everything I needed on those 30 CDs, I decided to experiment and partition the Seagate (via Disc Utility) into one partition with only the 10.3 install on it and the other with whatever files I needed, including the applications I needed to open in 10.3.
-- That worked!! I can now boot up the Seagate "10.3 drive" and access all the files and applications I need from the Seagate "Backup Drive."
I hope this information helps someone else in the same predicament.
Thanks for all your help and patience; your suggestion to do an Erase and Install was the right move to get me started.
Eileen

G5 Dual Core 2.3 Problem booting from external firewire running Tiger. HELP

I want to startup from an external Lacie 600GB firewire drive to run maintenance on my hard drive, I am able to choose it in the Start-up disk, but upon restarting my computer defaults back to the G5 for startup. I have also tried to boot up on the latest version on DiskWarrior, same problem. Please help me tell what I am doing wrong.
As always thank you for reading and replying to my post,
Sebastian

Perhaps you might try creating a bootable clone of your original installation rather than installing Tiger directly onto the external HD. That way, you can update it periodically, will have access to all your 3rd party apps, etc. I can recommend SuperDuper which you can use for free if you wish.

Problems booting from external DVD writer.

I have used an Optibay to put a second HD in my MBP 3,1 2.2 GHz in place of the original burner.
I am using a Freecom Mobile DVD LS Pro instead of the internal.
The Freecom will boot the original install disk, Snow Leopard and Leopard disks, and a Techtool Pro disk.
But it won't boot any Diskwarrior disks, or any Paragon Rescue disks, or the EFI Windows 7 disk I made and used to install Windows 7 while the internal DVD writer was still fitted.
All the disks boot my Mac Pro fine, so the problem is not the actual disks.
I have tried with the Freecom connected both USB and Firewire.
I will probably put the original burner back, but before doing so, I wanted to ask if there are any other explanations, or anything I could do to make these disks boot?
If there is a different brand of external known to boot better, I would consider getting it.
Thanks for any input.

I put the original burner back in, and now the other disks are booting OK!

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.
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13"
1.8GHz Dual-core i5
8GB
128 SSD
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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.

Cannot boot from external HD

I have an external HD which my iMac backups my system daily. I use CCC for that and it has run fine so far. I never had any problem booting from that HD either by using Option/Alt during booting or thru using System Preferences.
Not now anymore. The iMac (late 2013, 27", FusionDrive) refuses to boot from it.
In System Preferences I can see the external HD as a bootable device. However the iMac still uses the internal drive.
When using Option/Alt I only see the internal drive and the restore partition.
I have made a (new) full backup to the external HD and CCC says it "blessed" the HD. But not possible to boot from. Further I did things like resetting Pram, resetting SMC. But does not help.
So next I installed the iMac from scratch (meaning starting the Internet restore and then do a full erase). But still the iMac will not boot from external.
I have connected the external HD to another Mac (Mini) and there it boots flawlessly. So to me there must be a problem with the iMac. But what can I do, this is a serious problem since I now have a backup but this can not fully be used?

- The issue is only if you want to boot from a USB3 external device.
- There are other ports on your machine that you can boot from, refer: Startup Manager: How to select a startup volume
- The ASC is not where Apple make announcements, Refer to their main website.
- Your question / query / feedback should be referred to : https://ssl.apple.com/support/feedback/
- If you find from Apple a resolution, post back. We would like to hear !
Cheers

The Air cannot boot from external dvd-drive

Hi!
I am using my rev.2 air, 1.86 Mhz prosessor, 120 GB HDD, leopard 10.5.7 with a Samsung writemaster external dvd-writer, but I am having problems booting from it.
When I try to boot (pressing option) I can choose the disc and the applesymbol will appear, but the spinning wheel below does not, and the screen just stay the same until I cut the power.
I have tried to boot both the original OS X-disc and Windows 7 (both through boot camp and normal restart) with the same result.
Any help will be...well, helpfull

Not sure if this will help - but whenever I need to boot from an install disc on my MBA - i turn on the MBA and hold the 'c' key until i hear it loading the disc. that's how I boot off of optical discs... worth a try?

2010 13" MBP Wont boot from internal. Will boot from external

This is fairly long winded, I will try to be as clear as i can.
Last week my 13" MBP refused to boot after running out of battery during sleep.
I have done the following to the original drive:
Booted from Lion Recovery, repaired, verified, and repaired/verified permissions.
Booted from Snow Leopard DVD, done the above.
Used Disk Utility on another Mac, done the above.
The drive still will not boot from the internal cable.
I can see the drive when attached internally, but cannot do any of the above actions as it is "unable to unmount"
I can boot from the drive if I use a USB external adaptor.
I bought a new hard drive....
I have done all the same on the new HDD with additionaly installing fresh Lion / Snow Leopard to the new drive whilst its in the internal position (Leopard from the DVD originating with my laptop, Lion from Lion Recovery whilst the other drive was on USB) but still having the same problem when it comes to booting - i.e. wont boot from internal. will boot from external USB.
Ideally I would like to end up with a lean install of lion, on the new hdd, booting from inside the laptop.
Please help, this is driving me mad.

I think you have solved your own problem. If you have two different HD's and they both do not work once connected, but do when placed in an external enclosure, then I would think it has something to do with the connection.
Slap the old drive back in the machine, and take it to the genius bar, and have them diagnose it. Hopefully they will have an answer for you. If not, bring the other drive too inside he external enclosure, and show them that it boots via the external.
Then, lay the whammy on them, and tell them that the original drive works inside the enclosure too.
Would be interesting to know what the actual issue is, and the resolution as well...

Problem booting from Hdd

I have a problem booting from a external Hdd comes up with a command screen then a box with shutdown then restart any ideas

There must be something wrong with the data on the drive or it's hardware as you are experiencing a Kernel Panic. Run a repair on it maybe?
DALE

Satellite L20-100 can be booted from external USB hard drive?

I recently bought Toshiba Satellite L20-100 and I wonder if:
1. is there any possibility to boot this machine from external usb hard drive?
2. it is possible to attach another internal hard drive?
Supposing that the both answers above are 'no', how can I solve the following problem: I need hdd space, I need to boot 3 separate Wxp Operating Systems onto the same machine (Toshiba Satellite L20-100).

Booting from external USB HD - "No" would be the official, mcrsoft sponsored, answer. However, it is possible. Not easy but it can be done. I've seen it done with my own eyes and there are guides how to do this. Just look for it with search engine. But if you have enough disk space you better do what was suggested here - create 3 partitions and use boot manager.

[URGENT] Problems Booting from External HD

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