Can't boot with external firewire drive attached.

Could you try another device on that fire-wire port to see what happens?

Can you also reverse the cable?

The 'problem' is probably similar to the many problems reported with the new Lion Update. You might want to 'count your lucky starts,' that you can boot up at all.

There are major problems with Lion 10.7.3 update. Mine won't boot, just get a grey screen.

Starting in 'Safe Mode,' worked - Hold down the Shift key when starting up the computer.

Also can boot in Single User mode - Hold down Cmd(Apple) key & the letter 'S'

IF you have Lion Recovery, holding Cmd-R will give you options (mentioned above)

Not all machines have Lion Recovery automatically installed and those folks had to make a USB Flash Drive disk and if that was done, hold down the Option key when starting up.

Or, as John Galt also mentioned, you're going to have to download the Combo update from another computer and hope you can get it copy/installed on your main hard drive.

I'm going to try reinstalling the Combo Update now.

@s.mazzucato. Oh..

1. Try another forum for your question. You weren't necessarily 'wrong,' to put it here but it might be very worthwhile to copy & paste it and put it in the iMac section and in a Time Machine section, as well.

You're in the OS Lion 10.7 section, which is fair enough but current 'going crazy' with the latest update issues and your problem might be better to be in the section specific to your type of computer, not the OS --- since you're problem has been from Day One, as you mention, 'all previous versions of Lion,' -- from the day you first tried the external drive.

This problem is not unusual. My external drive has both USB and Firewire and where and how you plug these things in, and to what type of machine or hubs they are going through, can cause problems and less than perfect performance.

Less than perfect performance sometimes happen and sometimes you have to plug and unplug and try this and try that. Lots of times the issue is not the OS, or not even your computer but just something unique to how the user has set it all up or certain incampatibilities between different brands of equipment (or apps).

I think you may find a solution to your issue. It is certainly an unnecessarily annoyance and it would be nice -- and we all learn something -- when we try to iron out such difficulties, bit or small.

Good luck.

If the same drive works fine via USB, then it's either your Mac's FireWire port, the cable, the connection (a plug that works fine in one port may not make good contact in another), or the FireWire chip inside the drive.

Thus the suggestions to try another drive or cable, or swap cable ends.

Any idea why the drive doesn't have a Recovery HD? Time Machine should have copied the one from your internal HD to it on the first backup you made with 10.7.2, if the drive has the GUID (or GPT) Partition Map Scheme.

Some older computers don't get a Recovery HD made, so Apple has provided a 'Lion Recovery Disk Assistant,' that needs to be downloaded separately and put on a USB Flash drive. This is what I have; it works. See http://support.apple.com/kb/DL1433 -- which all users might find useful if your HD is trashed or inaccessable.

60wpm wrote:

Some older computers don't get a Recovery HD made, so Apple has provided a 'Lion Recovery Disk Assistant,' that needs to be downloaded separately and put on a USB Flash drive. This is what I have; it works. See http://support.apple.com/kb/DL1433 -- which all users might find useful if your HD is trashed or inaccessable.

The age of a Mac has nothing to do with whether a Recovery HD is made -- it's usually the partition layout. See http://support.apple.com/kb/HT4649?viewlocale=en_US.

And the Recovery Disk Assistant won't make a new Recovery HD; it only copies one that's already on the startup drive.

From the article: "Note: In order to create an external Lion Recovery using the Lion Recovery Assistant, the Mac must have an existing Recovery HD."

s.mazzucato wrote:

After inspection with diskutil, it seems that my external drive does not have a GPT but a Apple_partition_schme table, see below. Could that be related to the problem ?

That's the reason there's no Recovery HD on it. If you ever have to erase it, you might want to repartition it as GUID/GPT while you're at it.

But it shouldn't affect Time Machine or be the cause of this problem.

How old is this drive?

Without another FireWire cable or device to test, it's going to be rather hard to pin down the problem. You might want to try contacting WD to see if they have any way to tell.

Quote: "

The Do-It-Yourself Recovery Tool.

Not all Macs running OS X Lion are enabled for Internet Recovery. But Apple still has you covered with the Recovery Disk Assistant. You can create a bootable Lion Recovery drive using your own USB drive that does everything to recover your Mac"

http://www.apple.com/macosx/recovery/

One reason is age of computer. Mac mini (late 2009), like mine, for example.

60wpm wrote:

Quote: "

The Do-It-Yourself Recovery Tool.

Not all Macs running OS X Lion are enabled for Internet Recovery. But Apple still has you covered with the Recovery Disk Assistant. You can create a bootable Lion Recovery drive using your own USB drive that does everything to recover your Mac"

http://www.apple.com/macosx/recovery

Yes, and that links to the same article that says it won't create a new one, only copy an existing one.

Or are you saying you've done that on a Mac that doesn't already have a Recovery HD?

One reason is age of computer. Mac mini (late 2009), like mine, for example

No, the age of your Mac has nothing to do with it - it's the partition setup, per http://support.apple.com/kb/HT4649?viewlocale=en_US. I have one on my 2009 iMac.

Yes.

If you really used Recovery Disk Assistant to create a RecoveryHD when none existed, you need to tell Apple their article is wrong. Call AppleCare or file a Bug Report per Reporting a Problem to Apple.

No. You can do that if you want.

I think I'll get back to enjoying my computer.

If I misunderstood you or the article, sorry about that.

All I know, from 20+ years of Apple computer experience, is that I do not have any partition for Recovery. But I put what Apple suggested onto a 2GB Flash drive; am connected to the Internet by cable; it worked.