Late 2014 Mini won't boot from external disk unless I manually select it in boot manager by holding down option key at startup

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AJ 2010 Author

Level 1

15 points

Late 2014 Mini won't boot from external disk unless I manually select it in boot manager by holding down option key at startup

I have a late 2014 Mac Mini running Catalina that always boots from the internal hard drive, even though the startup disk system preference correctly shows that the external usb drive is selected to boot from. I have to hold down the Option key at boot to bring up the startup manager which shows the external drive with an arrow below it which I think indicates that is the default boot drive and click on the arrow. The Mini then correctly boots from the external usb drive with no problems. If I reboot or shut down the computer it will boot from the internal drive again. This wouldn't be such a problem but this computer is headless and I don't have easy physical access to it. Any thoughts what else I could do short of disconnecting the internal drive?

Posted on Jun 9, 2022 1:11 PM

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Answer 1

Top-ranking reply

HWTech

Level 9

60,290 points

Jun 13, 2022 12:15 PM in response to AJ 2010

Try a PRAM Reset (hold for at least three chimes). Then re-select the default Startup Disk again.

Another option would be to use the rEFInd boot manager instead. I don't know whether this would still encounter the same issue if the PRAM Reset doesn't fix the issue.

It is possible the external drive is not going ready quick enough for the Mac to detect a bootable external drive, so the Mac is defaulting to the one drive it is detecting as bootable which in this case is the internal drive. If this is the case, then using rEFInd may work out for you especially if you invoke a boot delay using rEFInd to make sure the external drive is ready.

If you are going to run a headless computer, then booting from an external drive will probably just continue to cause you problems. If the internal drive is bad, then replacing it with a new SSD would give you a much more reliable system especially when running headless.

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Answer 2

AJ 2010 Author

Level 1

15 points

Jun 9, 2022 2:31 PM in response to den.thed

As I stated in my original post, the external drive is already selected in the startup disk system preference. I've also tried changing it and setting it back to the external drive but it won't boot from it unless I hold down the option key on boot and select it from the startup manager.

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