iMac beeps when booting from USB

Hi everyone,

I'm currently trying to boot one of our new iMacs from an external USB hard drive, but whenever I do, I get the "three beeps" from the internal speakers. The iMac boots fine from its own hard drive, and the external hard drive boots fine on our older iMacs (the one with the issue is an A1311; the older ones are A1224s). I did try resetting the PRAM and made sure the RAM was seated properly, but that didn't seem to resolve the issue. Any thoughts from anyfolk here?

Hmmmmm. What version of OS X is installed on that drive? I'm wondering if it's a version lacking drivers required by the newer iMac. The most recent models come pre-installed with 10.6.6 and may not be bootable by anything earlier, including 10.6.5.

Looks like that could be it. The version of OSX on the USB drive is 10.6.2, and the version that came with the new iMacs is 10.7. I shall pursue the root of my question further in the software subforum. Thank you!

That's correct. My new iMac will not boot with anything less than 10.6.6. I have a retail SL DVD and it won't boot the iMac. No drivers for Thunderbolt and the newer CPU.

acidBurn said:

Looks like that could be it. The version of OSX on the USB drive is 10.6.2, and the version that came with the new iMacs is 10.7.

Click to expand...

You should probably let us know exactly what model iMac you have...so we can research this further...and give a more exact answer.

acidBurn said:

I shall pursue the root of my question further in the software subforum. Thank you!

Click to expand...

No need to cross-post. Your question will get answered just fine here.

- Nick

It was about capturing a Lion image from an existing install, but I have received word that we're getting one from elsewhere anyway. The new model iMacs we have are the A1311s (Model ID 10,1 apparently), and the old ones are A1224s (7,1, I believe).

acidBurn said:

It was about capturing a Lion image from an existing install, but I have received word that we're getting one from elsewhere anyway.

Click to expand...

If this is the "software" question you referred to in post #3...this is certainly a 2nd different question (I thought you were still focusing on the "Can't boot from USB" question).

acidBurn said:

The new model iMacs we have are the A1311s (Model ID 10,1 apparently), and the old ones are A1224s (7,1, I believe).

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So you're having "booting from USB" issues with both models of the iMacs you have (iMac 7,1 and iMac 10.1)? Both of these are older iMac models:

- The iMac 7,1's are from 2007-2008 (originally shipped with OS 10.4.10)
- The iMac 10,1's are from 2009-2010, (originally shipped with OS 10.6.1)

So basically...OS 10.6.2 on that USB stick should be compatible with both of those iMac models you have. Of course there could be a problem with the USB stick.

My question would be...why are you trying to boot these computers from a USB stick, when a SL install DVD only costs $29.00 dollars? Why mess around with a USB stick?

- Nick

pigoo3 said:

If this is the "software" question you referred to in post #3...this is certainly a 2nd different question (I thought you were still focusing on the "Can't boot from USB" question).

So you're having "booting from USB" issues with both models of the iMacs you have (iMac 7,1 and iMac 10.1)? Both of these are older iMac models:

- The iMac 7,1's are from 2007-2008 (originally shipped with OS 10.4.10)
- The iMac 10,1's are from 2009-2010, (originally shipped with OS 10.6.1)

Click to expand...

Nope, I'm only having trouble booting from USB on the 10,1s, not the 7,1s. The USB drive works fine with the 7,1s and has for awhile. We have a Snow Leopard image with updates and some other goodies on it, which we use for various tasks around the office.

So basically...OS 10.6.2 on that USB stick should be compatible with both of those iMac models you have. Of course there could be a problem with the USB stick.

My question would be...why are you trying to boot these computers from a USB stick, when a SL install DVD only costs $29.00 dollars? Why mess around with a USB stick?

- Nick

Click to expand...

The reason for booting from the USB drive was to test a capture of Lion from the newer iMacs (Lion is the OS that came installed on them), so that we have a fallback in case we need to restore to it later (for whatever reason) after imaging over the recovery partition. The way I see it, there should be some sort of install media available (previous Macs we've received have come with install disks; it seems Apple isn't shipping them anymore) and if there isn't, I should be able to create something from what I've already got. Paying an extra $30 for something that I've already paid for seems a bit silly. But, as I said, it turns out we'll be getting a Lion restore image from another source, so the root question is no longer relevant.