Reboot issues with macmini 2014..

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Level 1

8 points

Reboot issues with macmini 2014..

I have a mac mini 2014 with 10.10.1 I am unable to do a reboot...I have 3 external hard disk on it, one partition with Guid partition, and two others with Master boot partition.

When all three usb connected, I am unable to do a reboot...It started up just fine, but after the gong sound, it hung on a blank screen forever. I did an experiment .. I put the usb disks with Master disk partioning, it reboot fine but if I have one disk with guid partitioning, it just hung there forever with a black screen...

This made me very curious, why does this happen?

Thanks,

YL Tan.

Mac mini (Mid 2011), Mac OS X (10.7.4)

Posted on Jan 1, 2015 10:51 PM

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Answer 1

lllaass

Level 10

210,411 points

Jan 2, 2015 12:54 AM in response to yatlong

Can you post a screen shot of what Disk Utility says about the "problem"guid disk?

Is that disk supposed to be bootable?

Was it from an older Mac?

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Answer 2

yatlong Author

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Jan 2, 2015 7:23 AM in response to lllaass

No, the disk is just a data disk from an older mac.

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Answer 3

lllaass

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Jan 2, 2015 7:55 AM in response to yatlong

What shows in DU with the base Passport selected?

The only thing strange is the no owners have been enabled.

Can you read and write to the disk OK?

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Answer 4

yatlong Author

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Jan 2, 2015 3:16 PM in response to lllaass

The disk reads/write just fine...

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Answer 5

lllaass

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Jan 2, 2015 3:23 PM in response to yatlong

I can't see anything abnormal.

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Answer 6

Jan 2, 2015 3:30 PM in response to yatlong

If the drive contains old Mac data, perhaps your machine is trying to boot from it. And, overwhelmed with choice, it's hanging ;-) To be fair, this has happened to me before on my mini. But I only have ExFAT drives plugged in. Just double check the startup disk is set to your Mac HD...

Choose Apple menu > System Preferences, then click Startup Disk.
If necessary, click the lock icon, then type the name and password for an administrator user.
Click the icon of the disk you want to use(Macintosh HD in our case) then click Restart.

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Answer 7

yatlong Author

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Jan 2, 2015 4:11 PM in response to ASCarlisle

That didn't work, it shows the MacIntosh HD as the disk to boot on as startup disk...When I choose restart, it went on the reboot and hangs on a dark screen after the restart sound..Waited a long time 5min for the reboot to continue, but it just hangs...

Thanks anyway for the suggestion.

YLTan

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Answer 8

Jan 2, 2015 4:30 PM in response to yatlong

Hmm... Still very peculiar. I'll sleep on it! Just a quick test though, could you boot into Safe Mode and then restart, that may purge the issue. Thanks!

OS X Mavericks: Start up in safe mode

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Answer 9

yatlong Author

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8 points

Jan 2, 2015 5:16 PM in response to ASCarlisle

How do I know it is safe mode? I did as the instruction says, hold down the shift key after the startup sound appears, it boot up per normal, without any indication that it is in safe mode...

YL Tan

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Answer 10

lllaass

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Jan 3, 2015 2:34 AM in response to yatlong

OS X: What is Safe Boot, Safe Mode?

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Answer 11

yatlong Author

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Jan 3, 2015 4:08 AM in response to lllaass

Thank you for your reply..I have done countless time doing this..Power up the mac, wait for startup gong then press and hold the shift key...The system just boot up in normal mode. Is there other trick that I can do to ensure it boot up in safe mode?

Appreciate your help. It always boot up in normal mode!

YL Tan

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Answer 12

yatlong Author

Level 1

8 points

Jan 3, 2015 4:31 AM in response to yatlong

Another issue is booting into diagnostic mode..The procedure os to power up the mac, then after the gong, press and hold on the D key until the apple logo appear. Then it is supposed to go into diagnostic mode..It never did..It just boot up to a normal mode...sad to say...is there a secret to get into diagnostic mode?

Thanks,

YL Tan

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Answer 13

lllaass

Level 10

210,411 points

Jan 3, 2015 4:35 AM in response to yatlong

Try

Using Apple Hardware Test

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Answer 14

Jan 3, 2015 5:23 AM in response to yatlong

The I know I'm in safe mode as it says it in red at the login screen, and my desktop background turns to grey. Hope this helps!

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Answer 15

yatlong Author

Level 1

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Jan 4, 2015 1:21 AM in response to ASCarlisle

Today I did an experiment regarding my booting issues...I pulled out an old disk 320Gb in size, and format it with guid format. then I connect alone to the mac to see what happen when I try to do a reboot. It worked fine, the reboot worked smoothly and it never hangs.

Then, I take my 1T disk and reformat it with guid partition (I could do it because I had a good backup thanks to my Time machine setup!) I find that it hangs when I do a reboot, which I don't understand why it happen! Looks like it's a disk problem...I try to do repair the disk but it doesn't work...What else I can do? I do repair disk but still no dice, it still doesn't work..Is there a low format method to solve the problem with the disk?

Thanks

YL Tan

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