Why won't my 2011 MBP boot from my new SSD?

I had MicroCenter install the drive without issue using a OWC DataDoubler in the optical bay. I know the newer MBPs have a 6GBPS controller for the optical bay but my SSD--a 128GB Kingston V100+ (SNVP325S2128GB)--is 3 GBPS so it wouldn't make a difference. Besides, I wanted to keep the SMS for my 750GB WD HD.
The SSD is readable and writeable in Snow Leopard (10.6.7), booted from my standard HD. The only way I could install OS X on it was via Target Disk Mode using my wife's 2008 MBP, which completed without error.
I have tried holding the Option key on startup and selecting the SSD, as well as booting into the standard HD installation and setting the SSD as the Startup Disk in System Preferences. Neither works.
The SSD was formatted with one Mac OS Extended (Journaled) GUID partition.
I have tried resetting PRAM and NVRAM to no avail.
Any ideas?

Fair enough. I'll give that a try as a last resort.
I used my wife's MacBook Pro, Target Disk Mode and a Firewire 800 cable to install Snow Leopard on my MacBook Pro as I don't have an internal optical drive any more--just the standard HD and the SSD.
I did use the retail disc, and I'm wondering if the issue might be that since my machine is fairly new, I might have had to use the stock install disk--which I seem to have lost. I have the Applications DVD, but not the OS disc.
To that end, do you know of a way to get a replacement disc? I bought my machine at the store, I wonder if they'd be willing to copy one for me...

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Why won't my 2011 MBP boot from bus-powered USB devices?

In the past, I have often made use of OS X's ability to boot from an external USB device. Before installing major OS updates, or new productivity software, I usually clone my system drive onto an external USB drive using Superduper or CarbonCopyCloner. Once the clone is complete, I can then boot from the external drive (by holding Option at startup, and choosing the cloned image from the boot disk menu). This has been incedibly useful in the past when I've had hard disk problems, or when I've upgraded to a new Mac.
My issue is with my new 2011 model 17" MBP. I am only able to boot from an external USB drive if the drive isn't bus-powered. If I try to boot from an OS X image located on a bus-powered USB flash drive or pocket hard drive, the drive seems to power down upon choosing it from the boot menu and I'm greeted by a blank gray screen. I've also tested this technique using a bus-powered DVD drive containing the Snow Leopard retail DVD (and a Windows 7 install DVD for what it's worth) and the problem remains. The optical drive will spin up upon startup, but power down as soon as I choose to boot from the DVD.
This issue only seems to affect my 2011 MBP. I've had no issues getting the same technique to work on my old 2007 MBP or a 2008 model MacBook.
Any help would be much appreciated.

Fair enough. I'll give that a try as a last resort.
I used my wife's MacBook Pro, Target Disk Mode and a Firewire 800 cable to install Snow Leopard on my MacBook Pro as I don't have an internal optical drive any more--just the standard HD and the SSD.
I did use the retail disc, and I'm wondering if the issue might be that since my machine is fairly new, I might have had to use the stock install disk--which I seem to have lost. I have the Applications DVD, but not the OS disc.
To that end, do you know of a way to get a replacement disc? I bought my machine at the store, I wonder if they'd be willing to copy one for me...

Why won't my iMac 27" boot from external hard drive?

I have a new 27in Intel i5 dual core 3.6GHz iMac. It works wonderfully.
My question is this. I have a Pleides Ice Cube external hard drive with a USB 2.0/Firewire enclosure with a 500GB hard drive. I used diskutility to format the hard drive as a GUID Partition Table. I then used SuperDuper to clone the iMac OS 10.6.7 and Apps over to it.
I can select the external drive in System Preferences/Startup Disk to boot from, but when booting the iMac gets as far as the white screen then just stops loading.
I have tried both the USB connection and the Firewire connection (with a Firewire 800 to 400 cable).
I have run Disk Utility and repaired the disk and the preferences.
I have used Disk Warrior to rebuild the directory as well, but the iMac will not boot from the drive.
It does boot from the original DVD's and its own hard drive.
My old 24" iMac had no trouble booting from this hard drive or any of the others I have collected over the years, so I am reluctant to think it is the external drive. It is something to do with this particular processor Snow Leopard and external drives.

It sounds like something in the SuperDuper clone might not have copied well. To get the full answer on that I would check with Apple or SuperDuper to see if they support each other.
As a quick test, if you restart and immediately press and hold "option" on your keyboard do you see your external HD as an option to boot from? If so, click it and see if the boot runs any differently, but if you don't see it at all that could show that the problem is more deep rooted.
Personally, if looking in to either of those didn't give me any other info to go on, I would reformat and start the clone again. BTW, do you know for sure GUID Partition is the format you'd want to do this on? Generally macs use "Mac OS Extended" and some external HDs can use "FAT32" (if you want them to work well with Windows)
Hope that gives a little direction
Alex

I can't boot from my new SSD...

Hello,
I have a Corsair Force GT. I copied my actual hard drive on the SSD with an external cable and Carbon Copy Cloner.
I restarted the macbook (pro mid-2012) and boot by pressing the option key and it worked !
So I installed it inside my macbook using the optical bay. And now, when I try to boot from the SSD it doesn't work... But when I boot from the original hard drive, I can use the SSD as a second hard drive.
(in system preferences I can't select the SSD as default boot disk. I only see the original hard drive)
Could someone help me, please ?

Shootist007 wrote:
And by the way your warranty is now void. Good Luck.
Since the OP 1 year warranty is now voided out, would they still be able to get Apple Care?

Why won't it let me boot from my external optical drive?

Alright here's what I'm working with.
Macbook Pro (late 2011)
16gb ram
128gb SDD
750gb HDD (both internal, took the optical drive out and did a data doubler)
2.2 intel core i7
I'm trying to install windows 7 on a partition of my second hard drive. When I run through bootcamp, all goes well, creates partition and then restarts. Now when it restarts, it comes up with a Windows looking screen with a black screen and white underscore flashing in the top left corner of the screen, as if we were in terminal. I know the disk is not the problem, as I have tested it and run it perfectly on another computer to make sure, and I previously used it to parition my original hard drive. Also, when I restart and hold the option key to determine which drive I want to boot off of, only my Mac OSX drive (SSD) and recovery drive shows up (built into OSX Lion).

mikeboyd941 wrote:
How could I put bootcamp/windows 7 on a paritition of the second hard drive?
You'll have to place the optical drive back into the machine.
Then create BootCamp partition on the primary OS X boot drive and install Windows 7 there.
Then return the other hard drive to the optical bay, run BootCamp and create the partition there (??)
Next use WinClone (MacUpdate.com), it runs in OS X, to clone the BootCamped Windows partiton to the other drive or partition on that drive.
Once Windows is there, you can go to Disk Utility and delete the BootCamp partition, absorb the space back into Macintosh HD partition.
You will have to create a GUID partition table on the other drive first (Disk Utility> Partition> Options, this will delete all data on the drive) as EFI of Mac's can only boot if there is a GPT, then you can have many partitions, one will be for Windows
(format NTFS somehow? or perhaps WinClone will do it for you? Mac's don't format NTFS that Windows requires)
the other partitions can be formatted for other uses. FAT, exFAT, OS X's HFS+ etc.
I do hear that Windows is picky about what partition it's installed in #1 or #2 should be fine , also you should do this before Windows validates with Lord Redmond or else when you Winclone, you'll have to revalidate and it takes a few days to enable it, then to get all the updates you need installed or your Windows could get pwned fast.
I haven't done this WinClone thing, I prefer virtual machines myself so I can update Windows from clean verisons,
Pointing the way is the best I can do.
Drives, partitions, formatting w/Mac's + PC's
Windows in BootCamp or Virtual Machine?

Why won't my Intel iMac boot up, either from the internal hard drive or the DVD drive? It just displays a light grey screen, without any other icons, etc. The fact that it won't boot from the original system DVD is what baffles me the most. Any ideas?

Why won't my Intel iMac boot up, either from the internal hard drive or the DVD drive? It just displays a light grey screen, without any other icons, etc. The fact that it won't boot from the original system DVD is what baffles me the most. Any ideas? It uses the latest version of Mavericks. Thanks!

If the C key for Install Disc or R Command for OS X Recovery startup commands are not working, try holding the Option key for the Startup Manager.
see > Startup Manager: How to select a startup volume
If that does not work and you using a wireless keyboard, it may have become unpaired and you need to dig up a USB keyboard to invoke the startup commands.
For more on gray screen, see > Mac OS X: Gray screen appears during startup

Why won't Apple Mail utilize addresses from Apple Contacts ?

Why won't Apple Mail utilize addresses from Apple Contacts ?
Some of the people in my contacts have multiple e-mail addresses. Using contacts from within Apple Mail I can see these e-mail addresses. I then select the e-mail address I need to use and it is highlighted in blue. However, when I drag that e-mail address into the e-mail it uses the first e-mail address on the list and does NOT use the one that is highlighted.
This worked perfectly with good old Snow Leopard. Why doesn't it work now? What is the procedure for selecting an e-mail address that is not the first one in contacts ?

To see if there's a recovery volume installed reboot with the Option key held down and see what volumes are shown that you can book from. If there is a recovery volume it will be displayed. The arrow keys can be used to moved to the desired volume and the Enter or Return key to start the boot.
Yes I did that. I don't no why, but I have no recovery volume.
However, I do have mavericks on a USB flash drive. I booted from the flash drive and followed your procedure. This did not fix my Mail problem.
I notice now that after I drag an e-mail address into the header there is a small down arrow next to the incorrect e-mail address, this allows me to choose from a small group including the correct e-mail. I'm just wondering, perhaps this Is the way Apple Mail works in Mavericks.

Why won't my macbook import photos from a cd?

why won't my macbook import photos from a CD?

There are different kinds of CD Formatting.
You probably have a CD formatted for Windows only.
Do you see the CD in Utility Disc ? there are the informations about the Cd.

Why won't my 2011 MacBook Pro restart after Yosemite installation?

Why won't my 2011 MacBook Pro restart after Yosemite installation?

What symptoms are you seeing?
At what point does it get stuck?
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My MBP is super fast with an SSD second drive.
in my Imac, can I get that same speed if I boot from an external SSD drive through thunderbolt port? or would the ssd have to be inside the imac? I guess I want to know if the thunderbolt connection is slower than if I had the SSD inside the Imac?

Don't know if the Thunderbolt port is bootable but its speed exceeds the 6Gbs negotiated speed of SATA III drives.

Always crashing and rebooting when booting from my new win7-disc. Lenovo 3000 n200 0769-erg

I have a fully working Vista system on my n200, trying to boot from my new win7-disc, even tried to boot from usb but it's the same:
"Loading windows files" followed by "Starting windows" with the new win7-logo.. After that comes a fat cursor(guess the resolution is lower, like in "Rescue and recovery").
This cursor and a black screen is all I see for ~5 secs before it crashes. Same thing every time.
It might be Rescue and recovery that starts there and crashes. If that's the case, how do I remove it/fix it in a safe way? Or can i try something else first?
I am able to boot Linux from CD fyi..
Thankful for any help.
Regards

hi perp,
If you have tried installing Windows 7 in both AHCI/Compatible mode and the Windows 7 installer still crashes, can you try to run a diagnostic on the RAM/HDD (to make sure there's no hardware fault).
To run the diagnostics:
1. Download the the UBCD ISO
2. Burn the ISO using imgburn
3. Boot from the diagnostic cd and use MemTest86+ for the memory test and use Data Lifeguard (if you have a Western Digital HDD).
To burn the diagnostic softwre on a flashdrive, follow this guide.
If you get any errors, you will need to contact lenovo for service or you can DIY and replace the defective components.
Hope this helps
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Why won't my 2011 MBP boot from my new SSD?

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