MacPro boots from wrong partition

Question

Level 1

13 points

MacPro boots from wrong partition

My co-worker has a MacPro with Tiger (10.4.11) and Leopard (10.5.8) partitions. Pretty much every morning it has booted from the Tiger partition, although Leopard is designated as the Startup Disk.

I can easily reboot to Leopard without altering anything (just rebooting) but why does it automatically ignore my startup disk choice in the morning? It worked flawlessly for a long time, but has been doing this for a few months, and frankly I'm stumped. I can't think of anything that may have changed. (Repairing permssions doesn't help.)

Mac Pro, Mac OS X (10.5.8)

Posted on Jan 10, 2014 4:24 AM

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Answer 1

a brody

Level 10

82,941 points

Jan 10, 2014 9:01 AM in response to Jakehotep

Boot with the Option key, and try selecting the 10.4 partition that way.

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Answer 2

Jakehotep Author

Level 1

13 points

Jan 10, 2014 9:26 AM in response to a brody

Thanks for the quick response. The problem is not that I can't boot out of the correct partition when I want to; the weirdness of this one is that the 10.5 partition is the one I'm trying to boot up from first thing in the morning...the 10.5 partition is the one chosen in the Startup Disk Pref panel. I never change that preference. But most mornings it boots up from the 10.4 partition, although that's not the chosen startup partition.

Like I said, weird...

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Answer 3

BDAqua

Level 10

239,213 points

Jan 10, 2014 9:31 AM in response to Jakehotep

Might be time to replace the PRAM Battery, 4 years is close to their lifespan, far less if ever without AC power, & can cause strange startup problems...

Have you done a PRAM reset, CMD+Option+p+r...

http://support.apple.com/kb/HT1379

In fact, do 3 in a row, takes a bit of time.

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Answer 4

Jakehotep Author

Level 1

13 points

Jan 10, 2014 9:41 AM in response to BDAqua

That one slipped my mind as a possible explanation. I will do it when I get in on Monday, and get back to you either way. Thanks for the help!

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Answer 5

BDAqua

Level 10

239,213 points

Jan 10, 2014 10:55 AM in response to Jakehotep

OK, good luck, fingers crossed! 🙂

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Answer 6

Jakehotep Author

Level 1

13 points

Jan 13, 2014 5:52 AM in response to BDAqua

OK. Reset PRAM 3 times....the Startup Disk Pref reverted to NO startup disk chosen at all. I reset THAT to the 10.5 side, and it's been working ever since. Tomorrow will see if it keeps that setting but I'm hopeful. Thanks again for the advice!

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