Mac Mini :: Intel Won't Boot From USB Or DVD
Jul 31, 2010
I have a 2009 Mac Mini 2ghz that I was trying to install Leopard Server on. I have tried by booting from DVD, a second partition with the ISO burned to it, and even an external USB drive that has a full install of Leopard Server on it that successfully boots up a 2007 iMac. I have also tried to boot from 10.5 DVDs without any luck. The symptom is consistent - it attempts to boot and then reboots about 10 seconds later. This happens regardless of whether it is a physical DVD or an external USB drive. All DVD drives and USB drives are capable of booting the iMac.
I've reset PRAM, held down option keys to select boot drives, etc. I can't try target disk mode as I don't have a firewire cable handy. Booting into diagnostic mode detects no problems for both the short or long test. The machine is just out of warranty but did have a weird problem with network where it wouldn't recognize the network connected to a Netgear 716GS switch, no matter which port. 10 other computers connected to the switch without problem. I had brought it to the genius bar who couldn't determine any hardware problems and it worked with their network just fine.
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Jul 18, 2009
I have a Mac Mini that my sister gave me because she said it stopped working. She said she wanted me to get all her photos off of it. Its a Model A1176 1.66/2X512/80/COMBO/AP/BT I tried playing with it and it powers up, shows the Apple on a grey screen with a spinning little icon.. It does that for about 30 sec and then turns off. I opened it up, took the hard drive out, put it into an external USB case and hooked it up to my Windows PC and loaded MacDrive 8 software. Got the drive to be recognized on the PC and backed up all her photos.
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Dec 22, 2010
I have an Intel Mac mini (purchased in 2005 or 2006) with a fresh install of OS X Leopard on it. I recently changed the Startup Disk in the OS X system preferences to be the CD/DVD drive, and everything has gone downhill since there.
I inserted a CD and attempted to boot from it right after changing this setting. I noticed the CD drive spun up the disk, but after waiting several seconds a black screen appeared, saying "No bootable device — insert boot disk and press any key".
There were two problems here: first, the CD never ejected from the computer, and second, there was no response to any key press.
After restarting and shutting down a few times I got the Mac to spit out the CD somehow. I restarted, inserted the same OS X Leopard disk used to install the operating system earlier that day, and got the same "No bootable device" error.
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Feb 26, 2009
While uninstalling Safari 4 beta it freezed and after 15 minutes of waiting I made a forced restart. Now Mac mini shows the grey screen and won't boot.
What I've tried:
- Disk Utility from restore DVD
- fsck in Single-User Mode
- resetting PRAM
- resetting PMU
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Apr 8, 2012
My mid 2010 iMac i7 will not boot past the apple logo? I'm running 10.7.3. I have tried restoring from TM backup from recovery mode (worked the last time this happened) however upon completion it returns to the recovery screen? I made a disk of Lion when I downloaded the first time (followed same instructions sourced from numerous websites) which does not seem to work when i set to start up from this disk, just gets to the grey screen and flicks between the apple logo, a folder icon with a question mark and the circle with line through? Now I can't eject the disk either, a message appears that system can't eject and to make sure all applications are closed? Not sure how to go about closing these applications without being able to start the system? When I tried booting from the Macintosh HD I got a message that the boot cache partition was faulty? I have ran disk permissions etc all ok. Â
Info:
iMac, Mac OS X (10.7.3)
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May 25, 2012
Is there an adapter that connects a mini DVI to a mini Display port so I can use one computer as an external monitor?
Info:
iMac (20-inch Mid 2007), Mac OS X (10.6.8)
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Apr 2, 2012
I have an Intel core duo mini running Lion and I tried to install the OpdiTracker for the Imation Disc Stakka but it won't install because the software was made for PowerPC products. Where do I get the correct version? It looks like the Opditracker site hasn't been updated in years.
Info:
Mac mini (Mid 2010), Mac OS X (10.7.3)
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Mar 18, 2012
I have an older intel Mini running Lion. This morning my son told me it was displaying the screen that says you need to reboot.I told him to reboot it and let me know how it went. He came back and said it just brings up the reboot screen again.I rebooted it again, and again got the reboot message screen.I didn't start writing down the error messages because I assumed I would be able to get it fixed eventually.I rebooted with the option key pressed and selected the recovery disk. Again, I got the reboot screen.I then used my wife's macbook to create a USB recovery disk, booted the mini again, and selected the USB disk.I got the gray screen with the apple and the spinning symbol....it stayed on that screen for over half an hour.At that point, I noted that the indicator light on the USB drive was showing no activity, so I shut the mini down and tried again to boot from the USB drive.This time I got the reboot screen again.At this point I wrote down the following error message: [code] At this point I wondered if I had corrupted something on the USB recovery disk by stopping it earlier.I rebooted with the option key pressed and selected the recovery partition on the HD, hoping to see if it provided the same error message.I got the gray screen with the spinning logo and it just hung there. After 20 minutes, I rebooted and just let it follow its normal boot procedure. Again, I got the gray screen with the spinning logo and it's been sitting there for the last half hour.
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Feb 14, 2012
I have a Mac Mini with Lion OS. When I power it on I can hear a chime and presented with a login screen. After login, it looks like it is trying to boot from the internal hard drive but it seems to stuck with a white screen and animated circle (hour glass in windows). Is there a way to boot into a safe mode or re-install OS from DVD. Note: I am using PC keyboard for my mac. My mini mac is 1.5 year old so it is out of warranty. Â
Info:
Mac mini, Mac OS X (10.7.3)
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Mar 5, 2012
Can I boot from a USB drive from a mac mini 2007 OSX 10.6 with a SATA drive? I want to install a Linux OS from a CD onto the USB then be able to select the bootable USB (linux) on startup. I understand that I can boot from the CD by holding down C when retarting the computer. I have also read I can use rEFIt as a boot loader to select whcih bootable drive I want at startup. Unfortuately, I have also read that there may be a problem actually booting from an external device in Mac. IS anyone actually booting form a USB on the mac mini?
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Mar 13, 2012
I have a new MacMini without the optiocal drive. This is a computer that someone tried to put Linux on and left it was a 100gb partition for the MacOS and the rest for the Linux installation. I want to get it back to one large partition.Â
I know that I need to get the computer to boot from something else because the Recovery partition is on the HDD. To that end I have tried to boot this from an external USB DVD-RW drive and when it starts to boot from the disk it reads the DVD and then goes to the 'circle/slash' screen. I then made a USB drive bootable and restored the dmg file for my Lion disk to it and tried to boot from that. It shows in the options and then immediately goes to the 'circle/slash' screen. I tried to flash the PRAM and got the same result. I tested both items on another MacMini and they work. The test computer was a previous model with the optical drive.Â
Info:
Mac OS X (10.7.1)
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May 21, 2012
I just recently bought 8gs of Corsair Mac RAM, links at the bottom.So they I changed the RAM sticks, not the first time I've upgraded RAM, just like I have every other time.But after switching the RAM the mac won't boot. Tried swapping back the old ones and still nothing.
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Apr 15, 2009
so i downloaded the new 3.0 beta 3 software the CD wouldn't eject from the drive so I pressed down both mouse buttons while rebooting... tried to boot back up again and all i get is this?
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Jul 31, 2009
i've been having some serious problem with my mac mini. Im trying to install a copy of leopard in my new hard drive and every time i try to boot the dvd holding the "c" key, the computer restart.
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Aug 16, 2009
I've set up bootable external hard drives at least 100 times or more. Recently I purchased a Mac Mini and a Alum Macbook Late 2008, I had a WD 500GB portable passport that had two interfaces (USB/Firewire 800).
The portable drive was set up with four partitions, Leopard Installer, Leopard Server Installer, Intel Leopard OS, and Back Up. The drive had a partition scheme GUID which works best with Intel macs. Now here's the hickup, I managed to use this drive to install and troubleshoot Leopard on tons of different models. The weird thing is that when I tried to re-image my new Mac Mini with the drive via USB cable it would see the partition but fail to boot from it, but I was able to boot from the Intel Leopard OS partition with no issues.
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Aug 20, 2009
Long story short, I wanted my Mini to dual boot Ubuntu 9.04 and OSX, and the guides I was finding said to use rEFIt. This worked fine until I allowed Ubuntu to install a bunch of updates, which must have done something to my partition table, as now I can no longer boot OSX or Ubuntu, and the CD I stuck in there won't eject either (so I can't get my OSX install disc to even load). Is there a rEFIt command from the shell I can run to eject the disc and try getting my OSX install disc in there?
Really stuck - When I cold boot, rEFIt gives me choices of OSX or Ubuntu, both just spin and die during boot. Tried holding space bar, c key, option key, left mouse, all on cold boot and upon selecting OSX option from rEFIt menu, no luck getting disc to eject. I followed the guide here: [URL] Did I do something wrong when I let Ubuntu 9.04 self-update? It REALLY seems to have screwed up my partition setup.
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Oct 31, 2009
I have boot camp installed, and when I hold the Option key down at startup, I see the Windows Vista drive (but can't select it). After about a minute, the Mac OSX drive shows up. I can select the Mac drive, but then I get stuck at the grey screen again.
I tried starting up in Single User mode and at the command prompt, ran /sbin/fsck -fy but got a couple "disk0s2: I/O errors" followed by "Invalid node structure" and "The volume Macintosh HD could not be repaired." (see attached photo of exact message).
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Nov 9, 2009
My Mini powers itself down before it finishes booting.
It's a 1.25Ghz G4 Mini, so it's a few years old. As of the last few days the computer turns itself off. So I push the power button and I get as far as the grey screen and I see the circle logo rotate and I can hear the disk heads seeking if I place my ear near the Mini. But before the OS boots, while the screen is still grey the Mini powers off. It does this with the recovery DVD in the drive too. Either way it never boots
Is there a way to diagnose this?
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Feb 26, 2012
I'm trying to install boot camp and I can't install until I update the BOOT ROM. I've downloaded the package macmini2011efiupdate.pkg and this corresponds with my 5.2 model identifier. I have already updated lion to 10.7.3 and I seem to think that maybe the boot rom update was intended for 10.7.2 and it won't let me install on 10.7.3 because it thinks it isn't compatible? The message I get when I try to install the Boot ROM update is this software is not supported by your system.
Info:
Mac mini, Mac OS X (10.7.3)
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Mar 22, 2012
I had to reinstall Snow Leopard Server on my Mac Mini Server. I did it via a firewire connection to my MBP. Everything runs fine when I boot in target disk mode from my MBP. Problem is when I disconnect the MBP and boot just mini it gives me an error message that says I need to restart the computer. I have the two 500gb drives on the mini configured in a raid array.
Info:
Mac mini, Mac OS X (10.6)
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Mar 25, 2012
I have a Mac Mini (mid 2010) with only Windows 7 installed on it. No OS X is installed. Is there a way to auto boot the Mini, like with a regular PC's BIOS?
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Apr 21, 2012
When some usb devices are connected on my mac mini, all boot option aren't work...for exemple, when i have connected my external Hard Disque or my usb key or a usb device on my mac mini, i want to selecte Windows partition for the boot, BUT the OPTION Key DONT WORK!!!!! And its only want to work if i Unplug all those usb devices, when my mac mini has no usb plugged in, option key work good !! What is the problem ? please help because at the moment the only way if i want to swich between OSX and Windows is to use the boot device selector in the system menu panel, but i want to be able to use Option key even if plugged.
Info:
Mac mini, Mac OS X (10.7.3)
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May 16, 2012
When booting my Mac Mini with OS Lion 10.7.3 it crashes everytime. The programs starts up then i get the screen that says i need to power off and power on.
Info:Mac mini, Mac OS X (10.7.3)
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Jun 13, 2012
I have a new Mac Mini connected to an older VGA monitor using the Apple brand VGA adapter. The mini is fully up to date and runs perfectly when booted. However, if I reboot the mini with the VGA monitor connected, it fails to boot. I just hear the faint chime sound every other second. There is no output to the monitor and the only way I can get it to boot is to disconnect the monitor and then power cycle the mini. I can reconnect the monitor just seconds after powering back on and it finishes booting properly.Â
I've also tested with an HDMI connected monitor (without the VGA adapter) and it boots just fine and the display works properly. Â
Info:
Mac mini, Mac OS X (10.7.4)
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Aug 31, 2010
I have a macmini late 09 and I upgraded the RAM and HDD 2 weeks ago. Suddenly today the mini froze coming out of sleep. O left it for a few minutes but still no luck. Held down the power button and it rebooted. It goes to the apple screen and stays there. I checked the hardware and there are no problems. I then booted in from the older HDD and had no problems. I checked the permissions and repaired them.
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Sep 2, 2010
I've had the new version of the Mac Mini ever since it came out, and just now, I've run into my first major problem with it.So the first thing I did, since I'm a huge gamer, was use Boot Camp to install Windows 7 on my mac mini. It has been working absolutely flawlessly until recently, and I only just noticed this major problem.I rarely use the Mac OS, but now, when I need to for a school project, I can't get into the Mac OS part of my partition.I've owned a Macbook Pro before and I had Windows Vista installed on there via boot camp, as well, and I used to use the method of holding down the alt button on my keyboard to switch between which partitions I wanted to use. Now my problem is that for some reason, whenever I restart, even when I hold down alt, the computer boots straight into whichever hard disk is loaded as my main hard disk. I believe this is because I'm using a Windows-based keyboard, and not a mac keyboard. Does anybody else run a mac with a windows based keyboard and know if there is a workaround for switching up boot disks?
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Sep 8, 2010
I just bought a Mac Mini and all technical help is closed right now. I am very frustrated as the one I bought yesterday had no display output. The system starts and gets to a screen that has what looks to be a switch that needs to be changed. I have looked at the entire box and can not see a switch that needs to be changed. I have taken a picture and have put it on here. I have googled it and can not find anything. My mouse and keyboard are both new wireless so I have nothing I can even use there. I am enclosing a picture of the screen. I also only have power and monitor plugged in.
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Mar 12, 2008
I came home for lunch today, and found my Mac Mini G4 with the fan running, and a blank screen. It was obviously locked up. System has 10.5.2 with all of the latest updates. This is not my primary system, I have an MBP for that.
Here is what I did:
Force a power off/on, and I get the normal gray screen with the Apple, and spinning gear, but it never stops spinning.
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Jan 8, 2010
I have Mac Mini 1.5 solo that work very well for me and my son untill we updated the EFI 1.1 a week ago and never booted back up. I call apple and was told bad hardware maybe caused by update they send me to a Apple store to get it checked but there they said it was the power button not the flash. I had it plug in to the wall the hole time at home but when i took it there it booted as soon as he plug it in so he shut down and it did not boot, he unplug it for a few seconds plug it back no good with button but did boot a few second by itself. I replaced the button my self for a few hunder less then what Apple Was asking for (160.00 less). Still not luck. I feel i got screwed by Apple on this. Has anyone seen this and how it fix.
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Nov 19, 2009
A few weeks ago I bought a slightly used Mac Mini on eBay. Everything was going well up until yesterday, when it froze up on me. I didn't think much of it, and tried starting it up again a few hours later, only to be greeted by the flashing question mark of death.
I did some reading online, and know that the flashing question mark basically means that there's either a problem with the OS installation or the hard drive itself. I borrowed a friend's Snow Leopard installation CD (mine didn't come with the CD) to try to boot from it, but it refuses to boot from the CD.
The only keyboard bootup control that does anything so far as I can tell is the alt key (using a windows keyboard), which results a long delay while booting, followed by a blank screen with a mouse cursor.
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