Q: Booting El Capitan from a Partitioned Drive
I am currently operating on Snow Leopard, 10.6.8. I wanted to upgrade to a newer OS so that I can sync my desktop with my iPad. Someone was nice enough to help and suggested I partition my hard disk and download El Capitan on a new partition. This way, if I ran into a problem, I would always be able to revert back to Snow Leopard. The download went smoothly, but I am unable to boot from El Capitan.
I boot my computer by holding down the Option key. I am then presented with three choices - to boot from my original Hard Disk, boot from El Capitan (the name of my new partition) and a third choice which I am clueless about. I naturally choose El Capitan. (see photo #1).
After choosing to boot from El Capitan, I am asked to choose my network and enter my password (see photo #2). I choose my network from the drop down menu and have tried entering both my network password and my Apple password. I should also note that my Caps Lock key is disabled during this process and I am forced to use the Shift Key to enter my password. As the letters I am typing do not show, I cannot even be sure that capital letters are being entered as required for my password. Neither password I enter will get me past this screen. Apparently the information is not authenticating, although there is no message to that effect.
Does anyone have any suggestions as to how I can successfully boot from El Capitan?
Would a less advanced operating system (somewhere between Snow Leopard and El Capitan) allow me to sync my desktop with my iPad?
iMac (21.5-inch Mid 2010), Mac OS X (10.6.8), Western Digital Backup Drive
Posted on Mar 13, 2016 9:26 AM
You are not being asked to choose a network, you are being offered to choose a network from which you can NetBoot.
Just select the El Capitan drive and hit the return key.
Posted on Mar 13, 2016 9:22 AM