Java Duke Posted August 1, 2006 Share Posted August 1, 2006 I was able to boot off the OSX install CD, I created the MacOS partition on the external drive and installed the system. However, after install the system won't boot. My BIOS does support USB boot and I was able to boot linux from another external drive so I know the BIOS is not a problem. The Startup Disk utility doesn't see the drive (but Disk Utility does). I also tried to connect the drive to another machine - same problem, it just won't boot. Please help! Link to comment https://www.insanelymac.com/forum/topic/23190-cant-boot-from-usb-drive-wd-combo-250g/ Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rammjet Posted August 1, 2006 Share Posted August 1, 2006 What steps did you use to create the partition? Link to comment https://www.insanelymac.com/forum/topic/23190-cant-boot-from-usb-drive-wd-combo-250g/#findComment-153690 Share on other sites More sharing options...
Java Duke Posted August 1, 2006 Author Share Posted August 1, 2006 What steps did you use to create the partition? I booted off the install CD, selected "Disk Utility" and selected my external drive. It already had the dos partition, so I deleted it and created a new one with name MacOS and format Mac OS Extended. Link to comment https://www.insanelymac.com/forum/topic/23190-cant-boot-from-usb-drive-wd-combo-250g/#findComment-153705 Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rammjet Posted August 1, 2006 Share Posted August 1, 2006 First, you probably need to set the partition "active". You can use fdisk or any partition app to do that, or you can do it this way: http://forum.insanelymac.com/index.php?showtopic=22844 Do you get any errors like it is starting to boot but stops, or just no activity whatsoever? Link to comment https://www.insanelymac.com/forum/topic/23190-cant-boot-from-usb-drive-wd-combo-250g/#findComment-153708 Share on other sites More sharing options...
Java Duke Posted August 1, 2006 Author Share Posted August 1, 2006 First, you probably need to set the partition "active". You can use fdisk or any partition app to do that, or you can do it this way: http://forum.insanelymac.com/index.php?showtopic=22844 Do you get any errors like it is starting to boot but stops, or just no activity whatsoever? I don't get any errors, just blinking cursor after the first BIOS screen. On the second machine I got three or four non-ASCII character and after a few seconds Windows boot screen. I'll try to set the partition to active and let you know if it helps. Thank you very much! Link to comment https://www.insanelymac.com/forum/topic/23190-cant-boot-from-usb-drive-wd-combo-250g/#findComment-153710 Share on other sites More sharing options...
andy_bon Posted August 1, 2006 Share Posted August 1, 2006 I had the same problem booting from my WD usb hard drive. After a few attempts I managed to get it working formating the partition on the external drive using the install disk as unix format, not mac journaled. Don't know why but it seems to work. The only problem I am experiancing now is that the os runs a check disk on every boot, a three phase process which seems to take about 10 min? Link to comment https://www.insanelymac.com/forum/topic/23190-cant-boot-from-usb-drive-wd-combo-250g/#findComment-153713 Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rammjet Posted August 1, 2006 Share Posted August 1, 2006 Java Duke: Another thing to try is to rebuild the boot records. Boot the install DVD and go to the Utilities menu and select Terminal. type: diskutil list verify which disk (0 or 1 or 2, etc) is your USB disk then type: sudo fdisk -u /dev/rdiskx (where x is the number of your disk) Link to comment https://www.insanelymac.com/forum/topic/23190-cant-boot-from-usb-drive-wd-combo-250g/#findComment-153723 Share on other sites More sharing options...
Java Duke Posted August 1, 2006 Author Share Posted August 1, 2006 Seems like setting the active partition did the trick! Thanks a lot! (Now I'm getting kernel panic but I guess I need to install more patches Link to comment https://www.insanelymac.com/forum/topic/23190-cant-boot-from-usb-drive-wd-combo-250g/#findComment-153738 Share on other sites More sharing options...
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