Choosing default boot disk

[seafarm]

HELLO!

I recently bought a Samsung T5 SSD for my iMac to boot from - I cloned my internal drive using Carbon Copy Cloner, rebooted, hit the option key, chose the SSD, and it ran like butter. But, whenever I reboot or simply turn it on and off, it boots from the old internal drive by default. Whenever I go to startup disk to change it, the SSD won't show up, the only option is the HDD. How come that is? I can still choose the SSD if I hit the option key everytime I boot, but I'd prefer not to.

Any help is welcomed!

 

[Fishrrman]

I've heard of other folks having difficulty booting from Samsung t5 drives, as well.
Seems there has been mention over at macintouch.com of the same issue.

I find it odd that you have a bootable copy of the OS that won't show up in startup disk.

Does the t5 have any "proprietary software" that came from Samsung (not Apple) on it?
When you first go the t5, did you erase it in Disk Utility?
What format is it in? (HFS+ or APFS)?

 

[nambuccaheadsau]

And have you double checked the disk is highlighted as boot drive in System Preferences > Startup Disk?

Also iMac model would help. Reported Samsung's do not play nice with older Macs, i.e. pre 2010.

 

[Fishrrman]

nambu wrote:
"And have you double checked the disk is highlighted as boot drive in System Preferences > Startup Disk?"

Ah, yes.
OP... don't want to insult you, but...
... when you opened the startup disk pref pane, did you CLICK THE LOCK first, then enter your password, and then click on the icon for the t5...?

 

[mikehalloran]

nambu wrote:
"And have you double checked the disk is highlighted as boot drive in System Preferences > Startup Disk?"

Ah, yes.
OP... don't want to insult you, but...
... when you opened the startup disk pref pane, did you CLICK THE LOCK first, then enter your password, and then click on the icon for the t5...?

After you boot into the drive you want, you must do the above. This is by design and not a bug. For those of us who occasionally boot from test drives, this is a cool feature.

 

[seafarm]

I've heard of other folks having difficulty booting from Samsung t5 drives, as well.
Seems there has been mention over at macintouch.com of the same issue.

I find it odd that you have a bootable copy of the OS that won't show up in startup disk.

Does the t5 have any "proprietary software" that came from Samsung (not Apple) on it?
When you first go the t5, did you erase it in Disk Utility?
What format is it in? (HFS+ or APFS)?

I erased it when I got it, and it's in mac os extended (journaled) - is that a wrong format?

nambu wrote:
"And have you double checked the disk is highlighted as boot drive in System Preferences > Startup Disk?"

Ah, yes.
OP... don't want to insult you, but...
... when you opened the startup disk pref pane, did you CLICK THE LOCK first, then enter your password, and then click on the icon for the t5...?

No insult taken, just glad you want to help.
I clicked the lock, entered my password but still only see the "Macintosh HD ..." in startup disk - the T5 isn't being shown despite it being the disk that the iMac runs on. I'm certain of that, I did a test of the drive and it runs at SSD speed, not seven year old HDD speed.

Edit: it's a late 2012 iMac

 

[Fishrrman]

"I clicked the lock, entered my password but still only see the "Macintosh HD ..." in startup disk - the T5 isn't being shown despite it being the disk that the iMac runs on"

This is odd and interesting, because...
- You have the drive properly formatted
and
- Even though it doesn't "show" in startup disk, it STILL BOOTS

One more thing to check (again, don't want to insult you):
- go to the apple menu and choose "about this Mac"
- it should give you the ID of the boot drive. Is it in fact the SSD?

If yes, this would tend to suggest [again] what others are reporting:
That is... problems or glitches when trying to set up a t5 to be an external Mac boot drive.

Another thought:
Seems to me that I read that the t5 controller does some kind "on the fly" encryption of the data that goes onto the drive? (this is entirely independent of anything the Mac OS does)
Is this the case?
I'm wondering if THAT could have something to do with the drive refusing to be "detectable" to the startup disk pref pane?

I don't have a t5.
If you go to the Samsung support site, is there any "proprietary software" that is used to control the t5?

I'm wondering if:
- There is Samsung proprietary control software that can be used to turn encryption on & off?
- If this exists, could it "make the difference"?

 

[seafarm]

One more thing to check (again, don't want to insult you):
- go to the apple menu and choose "about this Mac"
- it should give you the ID of the boot drive. Is it in fact the SSD?

Yup, it's the T5 being shown there.

I don't have a t5.
If you go to the Samsung support site, is there any "proprietary software" that is used to control the t5?

https://www.samsung.com/semiconductor/minisite/ssd/download/portable/

I did find this. I tried disabling "security mode" - but that did not seem to make a difference to the matter either. And I tried rebooting and updating the software. Maybe I should just come to terms with it as it is - I mean, the iMac runs great. It's just the startup that's bugging...

Also: The T5 disk image still shows on the desktop, even when it's the one I've booted from. I don't know if that knowledge is of any use, but there it is.

 

[CoastalOR]

I recently bought a Samsung T5 SSD for my iMac to boot from - I cloned my internal drive using Carbon Copy Cloner, rebooted, hit the option key, chose the SSD, and it ran like butter. But, whenever I reboot or simply turn it on and off, it boots from the old internal drive by default. Whenever I go to startup disk to change it, the SSD won't show up, the only option is the HDD. How come that is? I can still choose the SSD if I hit the option key everytime I boot, but I'd prefer not to.
Any help is welcomed!

Op:
A couple of thoughts/tests.
Test 1: To try selecting the Startup disk Boot into Recovery mode (command+r) with the T5 attached. Check the >Startup Disk... while in Recovery.
Does the T5 show?

Test 2: It might be worthwhile to do a fresh, full OS install on a different external, even if it a HDD spinner. This is just a test and not a permanent use. Boot from the test HDD to verify that it is bootable. Now boot from the internal drive with the test external HDD attached to see if the test HDD shows in the Startup preference. If you see the HDD listed in the Startup preference then it points to a confirmation that your OS install is having issues with your T5. If the test HDD is not listed then it may be that your initial OS install on the internal drive may be the problem and a reinstall of macOS may be needed. Additionally, if there was an issue with the initial OS install on the internal then the problem could have been copied to the T5 clone.

BTW, the T5 shows fine in the Startup preference in Mojave on my internal drive in my Mac and a CCC clone of my internal 10.14.2. The T5 is also formatted HFS+.

 

[mikehalloran]

Back to the problem at hand. What OS?

If High Sierra or Mojave, the clone could easily be at fault. CCC does not actually "clone" a drive. Not ever—no matter who says it does—read the fine print.

The proper way to do this is to boot from the Mac, use Disk Utility to wipe and reformat the drive. Install the OS and, when you reboot, use Migration Assistant to pull everything over.

Do not install the security software as it doesn't appear to support APFS and will affect the way a T5 runs. Here is the manual.

https://www.samsung.com/semiconduct...ble_SSD_T5_User_Manual_v0.0_Rev01_English.pdf

 

[Fishrrman]

I've almost never had a problem booting from a CCC cloned drive. Or one from SuperDuper, for that matter.

There have been a few times when the underlying partition map wasn't right (going way back), but that wasn't the cloning app's fault. It was mine for not being careful about reformatting an old drive first...

 

[mikehalloran]

The OP has never told us the OS—until that happens all is guesswork.

There are problems with cloning and APFS. The CCC web site discusses some of them. The T5 security download doesn't support it.

 

[Karen353]

1. Start the computer and press ESC, F1, F2, F8 or F10 during the initial startup screen. Depending on the BIOS manufacturer, a menu may appear.
2. Choose to enter BIOS setup. The BIOS setup utility page appears.
3. Use the arrow keys to select the BOOT tab. System devices appear in order of priority.
4. To give a CD or DVD drive boot sequence priority over the hard drive, move it to the first position in the list myprepaidcenter.
5. To give a USB device boot sequence priority over the hard drive, do the following:
   • Move the hard drive device to the top of the boot sequence list.
   • Expand the hard drive device to display all hard drives.
   • Move the USB device to the top of the list of hard drives.
6. Save and exit the BIOS setup utility.
7. The computer will restart with the changed settings.

 

[mbosse]

1. Start the computer and press ESC, F1, F2, F8 or F10 during the initial startup screen. Depending on the BIOS manufacturer, a menu may appear.
2. Choose to enter BIOS setup. The BIOS setup utility page appears.
3. Use the arrow keys to select the BOOT tab. System devices appear in order of priority.
4. To give a CD or DVD drive boot sequence priority over the hard drive, move it to the first position in the list.
5. To give a USB device boot sequence priority over the hard drive, do the following:
   • Move the hard drive device to the top of the boot sequence list.
   • Expand the hard drive device to display all hard drives.
   • Move the USB device to the top of the list of hard drives.
6. Save and exit the BIOS setup utility.
7. The computer will restart with the changed settings.

On a Mac?

 

[seafarm]

The OP has never told us the OS—until that happens all is guesswork.

There are problems with cloning and APFS. The CCC web site discusses some of them. The T5 security download doesn't support it.

I'm on Mojave 10.14.2.