Option Key and Startup Disks

[barrystone]

Hi Everyone

 

Has anybody any idea on the following:-

 

I have an iMac running 10.6.6. When I press the option key to display the available startup disks for example when a firewire drive is attached nothing happens and the machine continues to boot to Mac 10.6.6 on the HDD.

The only way to change the startup disk is to log in and go to system settings.

 

Any ideas would be appreciated

 

Regards

 

Barry Stone

[FN-GM]

Hi Everyone

 

Has anybody any idea on the following:-

 

I have an iMac running 10.6.6. When I press the option key to display the available startup disks for example when a firewire drive is attached nothing happens and the machine continues to boot to Mac 10.6.6 on the HDD.

The only way to change the startup disk is to log in and go to system settings.

 

Any ideas would be appreciated

 

Regards

 

Barry Stone

 

Try pressing the ALT key when booting.

[barrystone]

I've tried pressing the alt key when starting,does not display the available startup disks

 

Regards

 

Barry Stone

[FN-GM]

What version of iMac is it?

[jwpercival]

Have you set a firmware password on the Mac? If a firmware password is set then it prevents booting from a different disk unless you boot into the open firmware and enter the password first.

 

Another possibility is, if it is an older Mac such as a white iMac, then it will not necessarily work with a new keyboard.

 

Hope that helps...

[jwpercival]

If you're using a Mac in a school environment then it is quite neat to use BootPicker which presents the user with a graphical option to choose their OS. Best of all, its free: Apple - Education - IT Professionals - BootPicker

[FN-GM]

If you're using a Mac in a school environment then it is quite neat to use BootPicker which presents the user with a graphical option to choose their OS. Best of all, its free: Apple - Education - IT Professionals - BootPicker

 

If not you can get free versions of this. But at the moment the name escapes me

[clareq]

I believe the free version of Bootpicker is rEFIt - we use it here - works well.

[jwpercival]

BootPicker is free too.

 

rEFIt is a good solution as well and provides a boot choice before Mac OS boots at all, whereas BootPicker pretty much boots Mac OS and then reboots if another OS is chosen. BootPicker's interface is a bit more elegant though and can be left on display whereas (I think) rEFIt has to have an OS choice within a certain timeframe.

[dayzd]

I have an iMac running 10.6.6. When I press the option key to display the available startup disks for example when a firewire drive is attached nothing happens and the machine continues to boot to Mac 10.6.6 on the HDD.

Does it do this for all external media (USB Drives/bootable CD's etc)? Has this mac ever booted from your FW drive?

 

I read somewhere that you may need to unplug then reconnect the drive while the Mac is switched on before some devices will be seen. The easiest way to do this would be to stop the boot process by plugging another bootable device in, then re-connect your FW drive while it waits for you to choose where to boot from.

 

Also got a niggling thought in the back of my mind that SL doesn't support FW booting, but that could be entirely fictitious!

[jsimpson]

I'm going to go with the Firmware password option. Here is the link to Apple's Kb page Setting up firmware password protection in Mac OS X

 

FYI, the alt key is the option key, and Bootpicker is an excellent choice. I currently use it in our mac lab and it has worked flawlessly since day one.

 

 

 

On an interesting side note, I have meet the man who built the program. He said he did it because he just didn't like anything else out there, and he just so happens to work with Apple.

[FN-GM]

Are you using a wireless keyboard?

[barrystone]

Many Thanks

 

I have an older iMac using one of the newer aliminium keyboards.

 

I attached one of the older white apple keyboards and the option/alt key now works fine and displays all available startup disks

 

Regards

 

Barry Stone

[FN-GM]

I didnt know that could happen, handy to know though!

[jwpercival]

Another really neat trick:

 

If you hold down the menu button on an Apple remote during boot (assuming the Mac has an IR receiver which most do) it will display all bootable volumes and let you choose the boot disk using the left and right buttons on the remote.

[FireSpit]

Yeah the keyboards, especially bluetooth ones, sometimes take too long to connect during boot, and therefore your ALT command only goes through ones you're on the login screen.