You can make a difference in the Apple Support Community!

When you sign up with your Apple Account, you can provide valuable feedback to other community members by upvoting helpful replies and User Tips.

Looks like no one’s replied in a while. To start the conversation again, simply ask a new question.

mjohnson1234 Author

Level 1

4 points

Mac OS booting from wrong start up disk

I have a 2014 iMac whose internal SSD startup disk broke down. I installed a colostomy bag of a SSD to run the OS as a startup disk and everything has been peachy for months.

Well, yesterday I guess the original SSD has started to work, and now it won't NOT boot up from that original startup disk.

I've tried booting up in recovery mode and choosing the external as a startup disk, setting it as the default startup in system preferences- nothing seems to work. Nothing seems to be wrong with the external drive, it just won't choose it now that the original one has decided to work.

I have some stuff on my desktop from the more recent that I'd like to get, but it doesn't look like I can access it unless i'm logged in.

What to do?!

iMac 27″, macOS 10.15

Posted on Jan 15, 2021 10:08 AM

Top-ranking reply

tbirdvet

Level 6

14,465 points

Posted on Jan 15, 2021 4:34 PM

The way the system works is that if the drive you pick will not start for some reason the system looks for another. In your case it cannot start from your external even if set it that way so it sees the internal and starts from that drive. I would check the external drive for errors (use first aid) and also check the connection (cable).

View in context

Mac OS booting from wrong start up disk

Similar questions