USB flash drive prevents iMac startup

Anyone having a problem where inserting a USB flash drive into one of the back ports or a keyboard port prevents their iMac (or other Mac) from starting? After trying many things, that's what I concluded was my problem. It does not happen on my wife's identical iMac using an identical Viking USB flash drive. It's as if the iMac is getting confused at boot-up by the presence of another (non-bootable) drive. The iMac still has its factory-installed 512 meg RAM. Anyone?
iMac G5 2.1 Ghz 20 in.   Mac OS X (10.4.6)  

It turned out the USB flash drive was somehow defective, because another identical-model USB flash drive did not cause the problem -- the vendor replaced it under warranty

Similar Messages

  • IMac Dropping Firewire Disks & USB Flash Drive

    I have a 3TB 800mb WD Firewire Disk daisy chained to a 1TB 800mb WD Firewire Disk on my iMac  along with a 3.95GB USB Flash Drive.
    All my stuff is kept on these disks so the iMac runs light.
    After awakening from sleep, I often find that one of the Firewire Disks or the USB Flash Drive has gone AWOL and it's a real pain to get the Firewire Disk working again. The USB Flash Drive requiring to be plugged in again.
    Removing the Firewire Disks power lead sometimes fixes it, sometimes an iMac restart does the trick.
    The problem with restarting the IMac is the length of time it takes in restarting. The USB drive's default appears to be to go AWOL every time the iMac restarts.
    Does anyone know of a fix to cure this issue of Disks going AWOL and the abnormal time it takes to restart the iMac?
    Regards to all,
    iPentax
    2.93 GHz Intel Core i7 16 GB 1333 MHz DDR3 Memory OS X 10.8.2

    Hi Mike,
    Tried all that, doesn't solve the issue.
    Incidentally, I have Arcana Startuo Sound installed, this mutes the AWFULL Apple Diagnostic Startup Sound that some Apple Idiot devised.
    Surely an on-screen message after startup, warning that something is amiss would be the sensible alternative?
    Apple have more than their fair share of the number of idiots they employ, witness the Wireless Keyboard, a Keyboard without Page up/down keys and Calculator keys? I admit the Wireless Keyboard does comes in useful for iPad!
    The problem with resetting the Pram is that it trashes Arcana, then I have to Restore OS X or reformat and install Snow Leopard>Mountain Lion etc.
    Arcana isn't available for Mountain Lion, my Arcana copy only works with Mountain Lion through a legacy process.
    Regards,
    iPentax

  • I tried to export photos from iMac to iPad using a USB flash drive.  The photos are on the drive but when I plug it into the iPad, the iPad says the device requires too much power.  Any ideas of what type of USB flash drive I should use?

    I tried to export photos from iMac to iPad using a USB flash drive.  The photos are on the drive but when I plug it into the iPad, the iPad says the device requires too much power.  Any ideas of what type of USB flash drive I should use?

    You can transfer photos outside of iTunes. I do it all the time. THat said, i have a 50/50 success rate with them. I'd avoid sandisk and kingston, their bundled software triggers the 'too much power' warning.
    I've had mixed luck with lexar, some work, some don't.
    I did have good luck with an older 4 gig geek squad one.
    Look for drives without software on them, without bright LED lights and I haven't gotten any larger than 4 gig to work, but that may just be me.
    For a less troublesome way? h onestly, I use a SD card that I've formatted with the DCIM folder. I've never had one of them trigger the 'too much power' warning. Just make sure they're not SDXC. those don't work.

  • USB Flash Drive Issue On iMac - 1.1 on iMac, 2.0 on any other Mac

    I have a Core i7 27" Late 2009 iMac.
    I just noticed this issue today.
    I have a couple of Patriot XPorter XT USB Flash drives that I use among my Macs to transfer big files around.
    Hooking one of the 8GB flash drives to my iMac, the one listed above, it shows the device operating at USB 1.1 speeds, whether it's in a powered hub, or one of the 4 USB ports in the back of the machine. This was odd, because this was the first time it had ever done this. I only noticed this due to the painfully slow transfer rate the Finder was reporting to me. Restarting the iMac, cold starting the iMac, resetting permissions, PRAM and SMC did nothing. I thought it was a bum drive.
    So I grabbed a 16GB flash drive (same brand and model family, different capacity) and it works perfectly fine on the iMac at USB 2.0 speeds. Hmm...
    So I boot the iMac into Win 7 Ultimate x64. Both drives are listed at USB 2.0 speeds. Something is definitely afoot here.
    To make sure I'm not losing my sanity, I grab my MacBook Pro and test the drives in there. Both drives are listed at USB 2.0 speeds.
    I then run to my Mac Pro. Both drives are listed at USB 2.0 speeds.
    Did something go wonky on my iMac?
    Machine specs (for comparison above)
    iMac 27" i7 2.8GHz - 16GB RAM
    MacBook Pro 15" Core 2 Duo 2.4GHz - 4GB RAM
    Mac Pro Xeon 2.66GHz - 12GB RAM

    I think that you are just running into a communication blip between the thumb drive and the controller for the USB ports on your iMac. It is obviously reading the 8 GB drive as older and slower and is assigning that lessor priority to the bus serving the drive.
    Have you tried attaching the drive directly to the iMac with no other device connected to a USB port? If it is the same, then I doubt there is anything that you can do, that is going to be the way the USB controller reads this thumb drive.

  • Hi, I loaded Windows 7 Pro w/XP mode and iMac USB show working properly in device manager, but i cannot see a USB flash drive, or my Mac Superdrive.  Does anyone have a suggestion?  Thanks!

    Hi, I loaded Windows 7 Pro w/XP mode and iMac USB show working properly in device manager, but i cannot see a USB flash drive, or my Mac Superdrive.  Does anyone have a suggestion?  Thanks!

    MacDrive to provide better HFS support.
    And to acces and write.

  • Copying files from iMac to USB flash drives

    I am having problems copying files from my iMac computer to USB flash drives. Sometimes, I get the error message: "Sorry the operation could not be completed because an unexpected error occurred (Error Code -50)."
    How can I solve this problem?
    This error message does not happen everytime but rather occasionally. Most of the files I am trying to copy to my USB flash drives are MS Word documents. I have tried using various brands of flash drive, but I still get this error message.
    I use my USB flash drives for both Mac and Windows OS computers. For my 2GB Kingston Data Traveller flash drive, I checked its product datasheet on the Kingston website, and it says that it is compatible with both Macintosh and Windows OS, and that I can use it for cross-platform PC/Mac file transfers.
    I also checked the Properties tab for this flash drive, and the File System for the drive is listed as "FAT."

    Hello Stedman:
    I am pretty sure that these files were not open in MS Word when I tried to copy them.
    I only get this error message/code for a handful of MS Word documents; the rest of my MS Word documents were copied successfully to my USB flash drive.

  • Possible to create system software disc on USB flash drive to start Apple Hardware Test on mid 2009 iMac running OS X 10.9

    Is it possible to create a system software disc on a USB flash drive to start Apple Hardware Test on mid 2009 iMac running OS X 10.9?

    Hopefully, those dvd's are the correct ones. If not, it's possible to download the AHT for many models from Apple, & either make a bootable drive, or replace the files in the hidden /System/Library/CoreServices/.diagnostics folder.
    see  Download and run Apple Hardware Test (AHT) from a USB drive.
    There are additional download details in the comments  for some later models.

  • IMac doesn't "see" USB Flash drive on initial insertion

    Hi,
    I have a new iMac running Mavericks with a powered SIIG external USB hub. (Rear USB port design on iMac is inconvenient).
    Problem: When I insert a NTFS-formatted USB Flash drive into the hub, the light blinks as expected, but the iMac doesn't "see" it and it doesn't show up in "Devices".
    When I remove and re-insert the USB drive, the iMac then "sees" it just fine and it shows up in "Devices"
    Seeing this consistently.
    Any ideas what might be happening here?
    I also have Paragon NTFS installed to enable read/write to external NTFS drives.
    Thanks.

    I've tried 2 Anker 10 port hubs with my brand new iMac 27" Retina.  No storage device is recognized when connected via the hub.  The same storage devices are recognized when I plug directly into my iMac.  So there seems to be an issue from the iMac to the hub.

  • How do I safely remove my sd card and usb flash drives from my iMac?

    iMac newbie here.  After years of PC messes and crashes I finally converted to iMac.  However it's not always easy to find what I am looking for.  The first time I disconnected a usb flash drive a warning appeared on the screen.  I neglected to jot down the instructions.  Now I want to remove the SD card for my phone, and I don't want to mess anything up.  Can someone point me in the right direction?  Thanks.

    You posted in the iMac forum; to properly dismount any external drive from a Mac, drag its' icon to the trash can. Then you can unplug it. I don't have an iphone, so I can't answer that. You'd get more knowledgeable answers for that question in an iPhone forum.

  • IMac USB flash drive problem

    My imac (os 10.6.8 2.5GHz i5) will not recognize my USB flash drive when I plug it into any port. Disk utility will not see it either. What do I do? I plug it into a friend's macbook  and it is readable and writable there with NO PROBLEM... what's up with

    Troubleshooting steps :
    - Turn iMac off (Leave Off)
    - Unplug Power Cord from Power Outlet or Back of iMac (Leave Unplugged)
    - Hold Power Button on Back of iMac for 10 Seconds (While Unplugged)
    - Let Go and Plug back in
    - Turn computer on and see if USB Stick now reads
    - If it doesnt read plug in other USB Port and restart iMac
    - Open Finder and see if its listed under devices as unknown or other name
    - If still unreadable (Try plugging in other USB Device)
    - If other USB Device reads fine then its something with USb Stick only
    Plan B:
    - Plug USB Stick onto other Macbook
    - Go to Disk Utility/Format USB Memory Stick as
    - Safely Remove and Plug into iMac (See If It Reads)
    - If still no read then your USB may not be readable with your Operating System or may be unreadable to the firmware specifically of that Operating system
    - Compare with other Macbook and see which Operating System version the other Macbook may be under ie. (Version 10.6.8 or 10.5.8) etc if its different then u may have to return item and try other brand
    - Try all the above and let me know

  • USB flash drive as startup

    How does one create a startup drive on a USB flash drive? I had read about doing this when I was still using 10.3, and now that I have been using 10.5 and an intel Mac, I thought it would be handy in the event of a hard drive failure.

    Leon Smith -
    I just did this, I needed a 16 GB Flash Drive and I had to do a custom install to reduce the size of the System. You have to format the drive first with either APM or GUID as all normal drives. Then install your system. In my case I had to reduce the System install as much as possible as I had 10.5.4 on my System discs. And the Combo Update for 10.5.8 requires at least 5 GB of remaining space to run. You will find that writing to the Flash Drive is at a crawls pace compared to a normal hard drive so leave plenty of time. The end result is a bootable drive however in an emergency, even if very slow. Good luck!

  • USB Flash Drive no longer shows on Desktop, it does appear in disk utility. I recently upgraded to 10.8 from 10.6 on both iMac and Macbook and the drive does the same on both.

    I updated my Snow Leopard to Mountain Lion and have had only minor issues with some software but I plugged in a USB flash drive and went to format it, it now appears only in disk utility and not on the desktop. I have tried restarting and reseting with the drive in and out, I tried it into my macbook and it does exactly the same there. I can't do anything in Disk Utility so can't access it in any way and it says errors if I try to eject it from DU. I'm not normally stumped but I can't figure this out at all. I'm hoping that someone here could give me an idea that I haven't thought of as it's a large Flash Drive and I really would like to keep using it.
    Thanks in advance for any help anyone can offer.

    If it has the same (bad) behavior on two different systems then there is a very good chance that the  drive is toast.
    BTW you'll get better response to your questions if the question actually reflects the problem you are having. In this case it would have been better to say you couldn't access the drive rather then that it doesn't show on the desktop.
    regards

  • Hi, I have a late 2008 iMac with a new hard drive. How do I install Mountain Lion from my bootable USB flash drive.

    How do I install Mountain Lion to a new hard drive without having the recovery partition on it.
    I have the USB flash drive with software on it but when I switch my Mac on all I have is a white screen & a flashing question mark.
    ATB,
    Steve.

    Did you use LionDiskMaker or DiskMaker X?
    Boot the machine with the option key down until you see your bootable USB stick.  Select the latter, and reboot.
    When the installer boots up, you will first need to choose Utilities and Disk Utility. Select the target HD device name and then the partition tab. Select 1 partition, name it Macintosh HD. Format is Mac OS Extended, and option is GUID. Apply. Exit Disk Utility and return to the installer, which will now show your newly partitioned HD as available for install.
    When OS X is installed and all updates applied, press shift+command+U and run disk utility again. Verify/repair permissions and verify the boot disk.

  • Macbook Pro won't book from USB flash drive

    I have a brand new Macbook Pro with the thunderbolt.  The internal hard drive works great and I can boot up from it just fine.  But we want to create an image on a USB flash drive that we can use when troubleshooting the other Macbook Pro's we have at the office.  So I got a 16 gb flash drive which should be big enough.  I ran the white Snow Leopard DVD and tried to put the OS on the USB flash drive.  When it tried to reboot on the Macbook Pro it got the error screen which some weird code and said that you computer needs to be restarted.  As long as the USB flash drive was connected it wouldn't boot.
    So I wanted to see if this was hardware specific so I tried it on an IMac.  I was able to create a OS X bootable USB Flash Drive and was able to boot the IMac with it with no trouble.  Having gotten ti to work on the IMac I tried it again on the Macbook Pro, still get the error screen when it tries to boot up.
    Is there anything special I need to do to get this to work?  It's crucial to our organization to get this to work.  Thanks.

    Hi R,
    You can always book it with you agent, don't you?
    Ok, sorry for that, getting on. Try to use Carbon Copy Cloner to create the copy.
    The issue can be related to USB devices and/or connectors, did you try other USB port? Do you have the same boot problem with other USB devices? The active USB connection preventing boot are frequently seen.
    Good luck, K.

  • How Can I Back Up My iTunes Library To A USB Flash Drive?

    I have around 5GB of files in my iTunes Library and I don't want to have to use multiple blank cds (dvds) to get my files onto my new iMac. On top of that I can't my cd-writer doesn't work. So I bought an 8GB USB Flash Drive and I just want to know how I can get my iTunes Library to back up to my USB Flash Drive.

    Is all your music, as well as your iTunes folder, in My Music? If so, copy your My Music folder to the drive. That will back up all the songs, and the iTunes library files, which happen to be located in iTunes/iTunesMusic.
    In case you are asking how to copy: Close iTunes. Insert the USB drive into the machine and open it like a folder. Then you can use drag and drop to put stuff in it.

Maybe you are looking for

  • Not Getting Even 2 Mbps from Netflix

    Hi all, I have been on FiOS since buying this new home in May. I really only have FiOS and Comcast as broadband options here and I despise Comcast more than Verizon, so here I am. I have to say, 50 Mbps downloads are REALLY nice most of the time, and

  • How to use encryption in Mail?

    How does one send an encrypted email in Leopard/Mail? The Mail "help" menu alludes to this, but I'm not finding clear instructions for the clueless (such as myself). For example, I don't understand where to get a "personal certificate" or how to atta

  • Use of field 'StartPoint' in work order operation's 'Dates' tab

    Hi, Can someone please explain me on the uase of field 'StartPoint' on work order operation's Dates tab. Regards.

  • New Field in AR03 t-code output.

    Hello Experts. I am working on AR03 T-Code, and i want to add a new customer field into the existing output. Could you help me out that by the help of which user exist i can put a new field. Thank you....

  • Table updation for J2IUN available balance

    Hi Experts !!   I have my "available balance" in J2IUN is wrong. So I want to correct this balance through table level. Please let me know the procedure & table names for updating this balance. Thanks & Regards,        Aruna.