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Can't boot from USB
- Thread starter booty156
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1) Have you verified that it's bootable on another computer? The process for making a USB thumbdrive that is actually bootable is prone to failure.
2) Did you connect it directly (i.e. not through a hub)?
3) Did you wait a while? When the initial list of bootable partitions comes up, the Mac is actually still polling for additional bootable partitions which may appear later.
2) Did you connect it directly (i.e. not through a hub)?
3) Did you wait a while? When the initial list of bootable partitions comes up, the Mac is actually still polling for additional bootable partitions which may appear later.
Some other things to try:
Boot from the INTERNAL drive.
Connect the USB external.
Go to the Startup Disk preference pane.
Does the external drive show up?
If it doesn't, the Mac doesn't "recognize it" as being bootable.
If it DOES show up, select it and try "restart".
What happens next?
Also, try this:
Power down -- all the way off.
Disconnect the external drive but "keep it close by".
Reboot, hold down the option key to bring up the startup manager.
Once startup manager appears, NOW CONNECT the external drive.
Wait a little bit.
Does it now show up as a bootable option?
Final thought:
How did you CREATE the bootable external drive?
Did you install a "clean copy" of the OS?
Did you clone your internal drive to it (using CarbonCopyCloner)?
How?
Boot from the INTERNAL drive.
Connect the USB external.
Go to the Startup Disk preference pane.
Does the external drive show up?
If it doesn't, the Mac doesn't "recognize it" as being bootable.
If it DOES show up, select it and try "restart".
What happens next?
Also, try this:
Power down -- all the way off.
Disconnect the external drive but "keep it close by".
Reboot, hold down the option key to bring up the startup manager.
Once startup manager appears, NOW CONNECT the external drive.
Wait a little bit.
Does it now show up as a bootable option?
Final thought:
How did you CREATE the bootable external drive?
Did you install a "clean copy" of the OS?
Did you clone your internal drive to it (using CarbonCopyCloner)?
How?
I'm having a very similar problem. I have a Sonnet USB 3 card installed and an external drive with OS 10.8.5. This drive will boot from the native USB 2 ports but not from the Sonnet USB 3 card, so the problem seems to be with USB 3 or the Sonnet card, which does not need drivers. I noticed that the attached drive's led goes dark during boot and then comes on again, as if the card is performing a self test. Maybe this could be stopping it from booting the system? At any rate, I'd like to try another card if someone knows of one which a Mac can actually boot from.
Start Recovery OS then use Terminal to run the following command:
diskutil list
Then use Safari in Recovery OS to paste the output to this topic. Paste as code. Thanks.