I got a new Mini. Does anyone know how to put a Lion system on an external Firewire hard drive? I tried and it will not start up. I get the white screen with the grey Apple logo and the gears keep spinning. Apple is telling me it cannot be done, I have to buy a copy of Lion. I find that obscene. Buy it when it came with the computer?!!! HELP!
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Lion on Ext. Firewire HHD
- Thread starter ricardoflamingo
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Boot into recover mode and do a clean internet install to the external drive.
Image the drive with CCC if you need to do this agin down the road.
"Boot into recover mode and do a clean internet install to the external drive"
That is what I did. Why won't it work?
That is what I did. Why won't it work?
Not sure. I've done the same with no issue.
Try imaging your internal drive to the external just to see if it boots.
When you are booted to Recovery HD, use Disk Utility to image your internal to the external. Use the Restore tab, set the source and destination, and check "erase destination..." to enable block copy.
The external drive must be partitioned using GUID table, and formatted as Mac OS Extended (journaled). (This can also be done using Disk Utility's Partition tab. Click the Options... button to set the partition table type as GUID.)
I appreciate every one's help and ideas, but for the life of me I have been unable to get this thing restarted with a Firewire hard drive. Done the restore thing and done CCC thing. Also did the command-R thing, nothing. Is there something I am missing about Lion and Firewire? BTW, I am trying to do this with a WD 160gig HHD in an Igloo Firewire 400 dual bay box. This box works fine otherwise.
"Have you tried the opt key during startup? This allows you to select which volume you want to startup on."
Been there done that. I have owned Macs since '95 and this is the cake!
Been there done that. I have owned Macs since '95 and this is the cake!
Um... Ok. I knew that how?
That step wasn't in any of the posts so far. Mentioning cmd-R in your last post - which definitely wouldn't have booted to the external - led me to make the suggestion. I understand your frustration, but "biting the hand that feeds" won't help... Oh, My Mac experience goes back to 1984*
.Anyway, about the only thing I can think of is a possible problem with the partition map (assuming the Restore block-copy (with "erase destination... checked) completed normally).
Startup again on the Restore HD. Find Terminal from the tools/utilities menu (don't remember exact name). Use the following command to get a list of the device's partition map details, and post the results. That might give us hint of where to go next.
Code:
% [B]diskutil list[/B]*(in addition to being a s/w engineer since the pre-dawn of GUIs)
My apologies,I wasn't trying to be a smart a**. I just never encountered this kind of frustration using a Mac. I have usually kept a system on an ext firewire hhd. BTW, when I did the restore I made sure the partition map was GUID.
FWIW I was running Lion on an external USB drive for a while and that was fine. A bit slow, but passable. It could be that for some reason the FW drive isn't getting activated at boot time, rendering it not bootable. (I think that's what DewGuy1999 was insinuating).
Have you used this particular drive before on this Mac as a bootable device?
B
Have you used this particular drive before on this Mac as a bootable device?
B
No prob. It's always hard to tell what experience the OP has, based on just a couple of posts (and the reply-er, too, for that matter ).
Something balamw said gave me an idea of something else to try. Leave the drive disconnected (but powered up), then boot up using opt. Once the manager comes up, then connect the drive and wait - hopefully it'll show up.
Something else to look at to see if the system thinks it's bootable. Startup on Recovery HD (with the external HD connected and powered up), then select Startup Disk (should be in the tool menu). If it's bootable, it should show up in the list of bootable partitions.
).Something balamw said gave me an idea of something else to try. Leave the drive disconnected (but powered up), then boot up using opt. Once the manager comes up, then connect the drive and wait - hopefully it'll show up.
Something else to look at to see if the system thinks it's bootable. Startup on Recovery HD (with the external HD connected and powered up), then select Startup Disk (should be in the tool menu). If it's bootable, it should show up in the list of bootable partitions.
"Have you used this particular drive before on this Mac as a bootable device?"
No. I used it with Leopard 10.5.8 on a 1st gen Mini.I have installed Lion on it. It just will not boot, white screen, grey Apple logo, and never-ending spinning gears.
No. I used it with Leopard 10.5.8 on a 1st gen Mini.I have installed Lion on it. It just will not boot, white screen, grey Apple logo, and never-ending spinning gears.
You should be able to get the following info while booted to Mini's internal:
What version and build number of Lion is installed on the Mini?
What version does Startup Disk show for the external?
Forgetting all the restore/installs done to this point - the symptom you see when booting the external is something one might see if the build were earlier than the minimum for the machine.
The latest Mini and Air models take a special version of 10.7.1. Nothing that meaningful in itself, but it got me thinking.
The version on the external should be moot when the internal is imaged (Restore) to the external. But, I thought it might be worth noting those version/build numbers.
What version and build number of Lion is installed on the Mini?
What version does Startup Disk show for the external?
Forgetting all the restore/installs done to this point - the symptom you see when booting the external is something one might see if the build were earlier than the minimum for the machine.
The latest Mini and Air models take a special version of 10.7.1. Nothing that meaningful in itself, but it got me thinking.
The version on the external should be moot when the internal is imaged (Restore) to the external. But, I thought it might be worth noting those version/build numbers.