Q: Boot Problems with USB HD Drive

I bought a

*Samsung S1 1.8" 250 GB Drive*

for using as boodrive with my Macs.
*This drive will not be found during system boot*.

Yes, the disc ist formatted correct (GUID partitiontable)
Mac OSX 10.5, 10.6 could be installed without any problems.

*Yes, I tried:*
- different USB2 ports
- tried different drives on the ports, works fine
- copied system to the drive
- installed a clean system on the drive
- tried "alt" during boot, drive not shown
- from the installed system the drive is offered as bootdrive in systemconfiguration setup
- disc works fine as external disc after booting the mac. Even on the Keyboards plug.

*Yes, I asked at samsung support*, seems they are not really interested.
They told me they the did not verify - ask at apple-suport - apples fault.
It was obviously a text module.

What is my option using this drive? Trash?

several, iMac, Mac OS X (10.6.1)

Posted on Oct 3, 2009 6:37 AM

I have this question too

Q: Boot Problems with USB HD Drive

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by rkaufmann87,

rkaufmann87 Oct 3, 2009 9:06 AM in response to cwsBerlin
Level 9 (58,704 points)

Photos for Mac

Oct 3, 2009 9:06 AM in response to cwsBerlin

I would replace the drive with a Firewire 800 drive. My suggestions would be a Lacie Quadra or a OWC Mercury.

Regards,

Roger
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by cwsBerlin,

cwsBerlin Oct 3, 2009 9:14 AM in response to rkaufmann87
Level 1 (5 points)

Oct 3, 2009 9:14 AM in response to rkaufmann87

I bought it because it needs no additional power supply und because of its size.
It about the size of a creditcard.

An external firewire-drive ist not an option.
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by MacMan 71,

MacMan 71 Oct 6, 2009 2:00 AM in response to cwsBerlin
Level 2 (300 points)

Oct 6, 2009 2:00 AM in response to cwsBerlin

You can't boot from a USB drive.... sorry. That's the problem w/ USB

Oddly enough though, you CAN boot from a USB flash drive, but not hard drive
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by rkaufmann87,

rkaufmann87 Oct 6, 2009 5:54 AM in response to cwsBerlin
Level 9 (58,704 points)

Photos for Mac

Oct 6, 2009 5:54 AM in response to cwsBerlin

If an external FW Drive isn't an option then you will have to look for another solution because your USB drive is not bootable.

Regards,

Roger
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by cwsBerlin,

cwsBerlin Oct 6, 2009 7:02 AM in response to rkaufmann87
Level 1 (5 points)

Oct 6, 2009 7:02 AM in response to rkaufmann87

Of course I can boot from an USB-Drive. Just running my iMac booted from an external 2,5" USB-Drive.
I only cannot boot from this special Samsung USB-Drive.
The question ist what does Samsung wrong with the USB-Interface.
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by cwsBerlin,

cwsBerlin Oct 7, 2009 11:38 PM in response to cwsBerlin
Level 1 (5 points)

Oct 7, 2009 11:38 PM in response to cwsBerlin

The reason ist found.
The Samsung S1 Mini 250 GB HDD USB2.0 1,8" can not be used as a boot-disc, because ist is not a single disc. Internal it is a raid-system of two discs. This will not be shown as one disc before finishing the system-start.

Samsung should have known this and I do not understand why the deny the problem.

The smaller discs of 120/160 GB are able to boot. This is positively confirmed with the 120GB disc.
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Q: Boot Problems with USB HD Drive

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by rkaufmann87,

by cwsBerlin,

by MacMan 71,

by rkaufmann87,

by cwsBerlin,

by cwsBerlin,

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