Force Boot-Up option

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Hey Guys;
I have Leopard installed as well as Windows. I was wondering if there was a program I could install that would make it so that it asks me what partition I want to boot up into every time?

Thanks
 

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I don't know for sure, but I believe if you boot your system while holding down the option key. You will be offered a choice of which OS to choose from.
 

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There may be one around, but am not aware of a boot manager that works with OS X. But, like rman points out, holding the option key will do the trick.
 
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I don't know for sure, but I believe if you boot your system while holding down the option key. You will be offered a choice of which OS to choose from.

I aware of the OPTION key, I've been using Bootcamp for a year now. I'm looking for a program to do it. Example, I found a program that stops OS X from making that annoying beeping noise when it boots up (while at the white screen), So i was hoping for something like that.

Thanks for the note anyway tho =D
 
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I've posted in another thread, but haven't gotten much help yet. The option key thing no longer works on my MBP. When I start and hold down the option key, it goes to a black screen with a lock and a text box. If I enter my root password and hit enter, all it does is clear the text box. The only way to get out of that screen is to press the power button. I've reformatted and reinstalled my Windows partition but nothing seems to fix it. Can anyone give me any insight into why I am having this issue?
 

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Thunder, Have not found anything - didn't want to suggest re-installing yet, but since you have - when you re-installed windows, did you just erase and install windows, or did you use Bootcamp to go back to a single OS X partition first?

If you went back to a single OS X partition - is the result while holding the option key the same when booting prior to re-creating the windows partition?

Might try resetting pram and nvram also if you haven't already.
 
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I went back to a single partition first. I didn't try holding the option key when there was only one partition; didn't think of trying that. I'll try resetting the pram and nvram.
 
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Well, I tried that and I still get the lock. How should the partition be formatted? Should it be FAT32 or the other format? I used FAT32 because it can be accessed while in Mac OS X.
 
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Hey Guys;
I have Leopard installed as well as Windows. I was wondering if there was a program I could install that would make it so that it asks me what partition I want to boot up into every time?

Thanks

Here, Check this out. I used this when i had Ubuntu as a second OS, and it did just what the orijinal poster wants. here is the link, the program is called rEFIt
 
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I don't know if it's significant, but my Windows partition used to be displayed as WINDOWS HD, but since my troubles began, it has be NO NAME.
 
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I tried installing that program, but nothing happens when I restart. It just automatically starts Mac OS X.
 
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I tried installing that program, but nothing happens when I restart. It just automatically starts Mac OS X.

judging by your last 2 posts, I'd say you are having a deeper problem than just being able to select which partition to boot you want.

are you able to get into windows at all? If so, I would suggest wiping the windows system and giving back the space to OS X, and then re-do the bootcamp thing.

There might be a potential problem... I don't know if it true or involves your situation, but Apple did say that the public beta of bootcamp would no longer function after the release of 10.5 Leopard. Maybe that is the case here?
 
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I am able to get into Windows. The only way I can get there, however, is by going into osx and going into startup disk and telling it I want to restart in Windows. I have already done the whole partition removal thing and reinstall. I have no idea why it won't start.

Anyways, can I remove this folder, since that program didn't help me or is this a folder that comes pre-installed in Leopard that is needed for proper operation.? The folder is /efi
 
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Just though I would post this. It is the results that I get from using the partition analyzer that was included with that program.

*** Report for internal hard disk ***

Current GPT partition table:
# Start LBA End LBA Type
1 40 409639 EFI System (FAT)
2 409640 289554471 Mac OS X HFS+
3 289816616 312581767 Basic Data

Current MBR partition table:
# A Start LBA End LBA Type
1 1 409639 ee EFI Protective
2 409640 289554471 af Mac OS X HFS+
3 * 289816616 312581767 07 NTFS/HPFS

MBR contents:
Boot Code: Unknown, but bootable

Partition at LBA 40:
Boot Code: None (Non-system disk message)
File System: FAT32
Listed in GPT as partition 1, type EFI System (FAT)

Partition at LBA 409640:
Boot Code: None
File System: HFS Extended (HFS+)
Listed in GPT as partition 2, type Mac OS X HFS+
Listed in MBR as partition 2, type af Mac OS X HFS+

Partition at LBA 289816616:
Boot Code: Windows NTLDR
File System: NTFS
Listed in GPT as partition 3, type Basic Data
Listed in MBR as partition 3, type 07 NTFS/HPFS, active
 
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I solved my problem! Yay! Ok, so when I installed Leopard, I must have enabled the firmware lock. However, I did not choose a password for it. LOL. I discovered this by booting from the Leopard CD. A strange thing happened when I held down C at startup. Instead of booting from the CD, that rEFI thing started up. So, I chose the option of booting from the CD and that's when I discovered what that lock meant. Now that I have disabled that firmware lock, holding down the option key gives me the traditional startup option screen. So, can I delete that EFI folder? I really don't want to have to do that every time I start osx. Thanks!
 
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Just though I would post this. It is the results that I get from using the partition analyzer that was included with that program.

*** Report for internal hard disk ***

Current GPT partition table:
# Start LBA End LBA Type
1 40 409639 EFI System (FAT)
2 409640 289554471 Mac OS X HFS+
3 289816616 312581767 Basic Data

Current MBR partition table:
# A Start LBA End LBA Type
1 1 409639 ee EFI Protective
2 409640 289554471 af Mac OS X HFS+
3 * 289816616 312581767 07 NTFS/HPFS

MBR contents:
Boot Code: Unknown, but bootable

Partition at LBA 40:
Boot Code: None (Non-system disk message)
File System: FAT32
Listed in GPT as partition 1, type EFI System (FAT)

Partition at LBA 409640:
Boot Code: None
File System: HFS Extended (HFS+)
Listed in GPT as partition 2, type Mac OS X HFS+
Listed in MBR as partition 2, type af Mac OS X HFS+

Partition at LBA 289816616:
Boot Code: Windows NTLDR
File System: NTFS
Listed in GPT as partition 3, type Basic Data
Listed in MBR as partition 3, type 07 NTFS/HPFS, active


So you did get rid of windows and give all of the space back to os x? and then you repartitioned your HD with bootcamp, right?

You might wanna have a look here, it is on another forum. Hope it helps.

as for the /efi folder, i'm not sure. I can go home in a min and check for you, unless someone else beats me to it.
 
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Well, like I said, it all works fine for me now that I turned off that firmware lock feature. Now all I need to know is if I can, in fact, delete that /efi folder.

~Damien
 

bobtomay

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that's great thunder... had found some stuff about the firmware lock, but it was all pretty vague.

I do not have that file on my Leopard system. Should be safe to get rid of it.

Can we get one more verification from someone - no /efi folder on your 10.5 install?
 
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spotlight says no efi. All systems go :)
 

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