How to identify which drive is the current boot drive?

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Level 1

15 points

How to identify which drive is the current boot drive?

I have a PowerBook running Leopard, and I prefer to boot from the external drive. It's bigger and has my working files. The current internal drive is for future use, for when I have a replacement machine. I know how to specify the boot drive in Preferences, but sometimes the machine reboots without me. I don't know how to verify which drive I'm booted from. I changed the desktop background, so that once I'm logged in I can tell, but surely there is a more direct way to determine this. Isn't there?

PowerBook

Posted on Dec 1, 2013 8:25 PM

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Answer 1

Kappy

Level 10

362,017 points

Dec 1, 2013 8:28 PM in response to Kentuckienne

If your external drive is selected in Startup Disk preferences, then that's the disk the computer will always boot from.

On the other hand it should never reboot on its own.

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Answer 2

Allan Jones

Level 9

78,866 points

Dec 2, 2013 8:22 AM in response to Kentuckienne

I understand that one Mac UI convention is the the current boot volume is always the closest to the top right corner of the screen. I have a G4 Tower with three boot volumes (Leopard, Tiger , and OS0) and that placement convention works on that Mac.

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Answer 3

dalstott

Level 4

2,639 points

Dec 2, 2013 9:49 AM in response to Kentuckienne

A simple option would be to select About this Mac from the Apple menu. 🙂

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Answer 4

Kappy

Level 10

362,017 points

Dec 2, 2013 9:58 AM in response to Allan Jones

Works well except when it decides not to work. Right now my boot volume is at the bottom of the list, while the previous boot volume is at the top of the list. Sometimes the OS decides to ignore its own rules. 😁

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Answer 5

Allan Jones

Level 9

78,866 points

Dec 2, 2013 11:08 PM in response to Kappy

They can be so fickle!

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Answer 6

Kentuckienne Author

Level 1

15 points

Dec 6, 2013 6:17 AM in response to Kentuckienne

Brilliant! I knew there had to be a simply way to verify this. I'm operating under duress, which means I have only a subset of applications on the internal drive, and don't want to get the backups or updates confused. Thanks!

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