Snow Leopard onto USB flash drive boot problem

Hello,

I have a imac intel core 2 duo, usb 2.0, snow leopard currently running, sony micro vault 8G USB flash drive 2.0 and a install Snow Leopard DVD. I gone through all the tasks in disk utility from partitioning the flash drive to GUID and to restoring Snow leopard dmg image onto the flash drive.But my problem is when I restart my computer while holding down the option key there is only my Mac HD to be seen. My computer isn't recognizing the Snow leopard install that is on my usb flash drive. And when I restart my computer from the usb flash drive at startup disk in preferences my computer restarts but still my computer doesn't recognizes it.


If anybody has any solutions or a reason why am I having this problem?? Thanks!

Have you tried a different USB port?

You could also try booting up the computer, then plugging in the USB drive. After that go to Startup Disk Preferences and select it as the device to boot to.

todd51 said:

Have you tried a different USB port?

You could also try booting up the computer, then plugging in the USB drive. After that go to Startup Disk Preferences and select it as the device to boot to.

Click to expand...

Yes, I tried both solutions as you described but the usb still doesn't want to boot.

Do you have any other ideas what this problem could be?

I'd try Carbon Copy Cloner....... erasing USB with disk utility formatted as mac os extended (journaled), then using CCC to copy install disc (Install disc as source/USB as Destination) and then see if you have better luck!

kane fremder said:

I'd try Carbon Copy Cloner....... erasing USB with disk utility formatted as mac os extended (journaled), then using CCC to copy install disc (Install disc as source/USB as Destination) and then see if you have better luck!

Click to expand...

I did everything you have listed but after I push "clone" it gives me an error message "An error occurred while attempting to record the exclude rules" and underneath "Please restart the computer and try again."

Now what is causing this problem??

Thanks I appreciate your help

Ok.... I have experienced this once before for unknown reasons, and then winged it, and clicked "incremental backup of selected items" in cloning options and it worked for me!
Give it a try and report back

kane fremder said:

Ok.... I have experienced this once before for unknown reasons, and then winged it, and clicked "incremental backup of selected items" in cloning options and it worked for me!
Give it a try and report back

Click to expand...

Yes, it finally worked but again it doesn't boot :/

The USB flash drive shows up on startup disk in preferences and then I restart from the USB drive but my computer doesn't read it as bootable and skips to my login screen.

If you have anymore ideas about what could be causing this problem tell me ok.

Thanks!

I know you tried to restore, etc from disk utility, but just to be clear, give it a whirl again, following the steps below.

How to Create a Mac Snow Leopard USB Installer Disk – Make Tech Easier

Install OS X Snow Leopard from a USB flash drive

kane fremder said:

I know you tried to restore, etc from disk utility, but just to be clear, give it a whirl again, following the steps below.

How to Create a Mac Snow Leopard USB Installer Disk – Make Tech Easier

Install OS X Snow Leopard from a USB flash drive

Click to expand...

I have done that twice already and still no luck getting it to boot.

Anything else I should try??

Thanks!

I'm still a bit lost as to why it's not working.
When you go into the flash drive when booted from your iMac HD, is there anything on there?

kane fremder said:

I'm still a bit lost as to why it's not working.
When you go into the flash drive when booted from your iMac HD, is there anything on there?

Click to expand...

Yeah, it even gives me the chance to install from there. when it restarts it boots to a grey screen for 10 secs then goes straight to my login screen on my Mac HD.

It must be missing something in order to make the USB bootable. Other folks are also having this problem which I have notice.

Did you set the partition type to GUID? That's the critical step right there and is not entirely intuitive.

Also, why not just use the disc?

cwa107 said:

Did you set the partition type to GUID? That's the critical step right there and is not entirely intuitive.

Also, why not just use the disc?

Click to expand...

Yes, I have set it to GUID with same steps as before.

And yes I can use the disc but I like to make a digital copy of it incase I loose my disc or it becomes scratched soo badly it won't play anymore.

After many hours googling trying to find a solution to your problem, I only found one other thread in apple discussions, which was long and drawn out with no solution.
As much as I'd like to help, and hope that someone else on mac forums comes to the rescue, I think it could be a good idea to call apple tech support while you still have the 90days on snow leopard.

kane fremder said:

After many hours googling trying to find a solution to your problem, I only found one other thread in apple discussions, which was long and drawn out with no solution.
As much as I'd like to help, and hope that someone else on mac forums comes to the rescue, I think it could be a good idea to call apple tech support while you still have the 90days on snow leopard.

Click to expand...

Hey bro thanks a lot for your help I really appreciate it

It's really not that hard. All you have to do is copy all the files (even the hidden ones) from the DVD onto a partition formatted as HFS+, or some other filesystem that can do symlinks (symbolic links, which are shortcuts that look like the actual file rather than a shortcut).
The reason why it's so easy (just copy & paste) is because you don't have to install a bootloader to the disk in the traditional sense, which would have to be "raw-written" to certain sectors (or one sector). Here we have EFI which looks for a file containing a bootloader in /System/Library/CoreServices/boot.efi . That's right, the system firmware can actually load a bootloader out of a file!
When you hold down "option" it scans all partitions for /System/Library/CoreServices/boot.efi . Any partition that has that file shows up and you can chose to boot from it.

A Mac OS X install DVD, to my knowledge, doesn't even use the El Torito boot specification. It just has a file at /System/Libray/CoreServices/boot.efi which can be detected and listed as an option to boot into when you hold down "option" during startup and have the DVD inserted.

So EFI in this situation makes life very easy. Just copy and paste the files. No bootloader installing.
It doesn't matter whether the drive is structured as MBR structuring or if it is structured with the GPT structuring. It could even be an "MBR/GPT hybrid". The partition that the files are on can be either a primary partition or a secondary partition. Remember, EFI is just loading a bootloader out of a file so we aren't limited to only booting primary partitions. The partition does not have to be marked as active either because Mac's EFI simply scans ALL partitions and displays the ones that have /System/Library/CoreServices/boot.efi if you hold down "option" during startup.

I suggest that the OP simplify life and copy all the files off the DVD onto a clean partition on a thumb drive or external hard drive or whatever formatted as HFS+. You have to make sure that you get the hidden files and folders, too though.

Here's the full scoop: Bootable Thumb Drive on Mac - Pastebin.com

Cheers,
Jake

Soution?

Did you ever find a solution? I'm having the exact same problem.

jpasopa said:

Did you ever find a solution? I'm having the exact same problem.

Click to expand...

See post #16 (just one above yours).

No Luck

Yes, I saw it, but it didn't solve my problem, I've seen the boot.efi file on that same place (/System/Library/CoreServices/boot.efi)

I've also copied all the files from the DVD onto the USB flash drive (Including hidden ones). I can see it on the system preferences/startup disk, select it, restart the computer, but still it doesn't boot from it. Also when restarted and hold down option (alt), the only thing that appears is my mac hdd.

I've pretty much tried everything more than once, follow the instrucions for the disk utility way (Mac OS Extended (Journaled), GUID partition...) changed the usb port, tried with a different usb flash drive, external hdd... no luck. All I want to do is update from OS X 10.5.8 to OS X 10.6.8, any other solutions? Considering that I have a dvd drive or another mac around town (i live in a small town in the middle of the desert in mexico).

Thanks

No Luck

cwa107 said:

See post #16 (just one above yours).

Click to expand...

Yes, I saw it, but it didn't solve my problem, I've seen the boot.efi file on that same place (/System/Library/CoreServices/boot.efi)

I've also copied all the files from the DVD onto the USB flash drive (Including hidden ones). I can see it on the system preferences/startup disk, select it, restart the computer, but still it doesn't boot from it. Also when restarted and hold down option (alt), the only thing that appears is my mac hdd.

I've pretty much tried everything more than once, follow the instrucions for the disk utility way (Mac OS Extended (Journaled), GUID partition...) changed the usb port, tried with a different usb flash drive, external hdd... no luck. All I want to do is update from OS X 10.5.8 to OS X 10.6.8, any other solutions? Considering that I have a dvd drive or another mac around town (i live in a small town in the middle of the desert in mexico).

Thanks