Re: Question mark on boot

Rob wrote:
David Empson wrote:
Rob <patchoulianremovethis@xxxxxxxxx> wrote:

auctions@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx wrote:
On Mar 4, 7:21 pm, black.h...@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx (Jon B) wrote:
Rob <patchoulianremovet...@xxxxxxxxx> wrote:
I recently changed the HD on my Mac Mini to a 250GB Samsung. I used
Carbon Copy via USB to make a clone of the old Mini drive, and I'm
pretty certain I formatted the new drive using the disk utility to Mac
OS. When I screwed it all back together it worked fine.
The thing is, when the Mini boots, it hangs at an on-screen question
mark for about 5s, it seems to take longer to get started, and it
appears slightly less responsive than before.
Disk Utility lists the HD as a FAT disk at the root, and OS X Journalled
for the
Macintosh HD.
All very odd - any ideas please?
For some reason I'm not seeing NG replies in Thunderbird, and I've just
noticed two replies in google groups (many thanks). This is what I've got:

http://patchoulian.googlepages.com/mac

OK, so following up on the details in my earlier post, your hard drive
is partitioned using the "Master Boot Record" scheme, with a single
partition that is formatted as "Mac OS Extended (Journaled)".

Unfortunately, Master Boot Record as the partition scheme is likely to
be the primary source of the problems. I've never tried booting an Intel
Mac from a drive partitioned using MBR, but it would not surprise me in
the least if it has several major limitations. (See my earlier post for
some.)

To fix this, you are going to have to completely erase the hard drive
and repartition it using the "GUID Partition Table" scheme.

You probably aren't in a position where you can still use the original
drive as a source for another clone, since you are likely to have enough
new data on the Mac Mini's internal drive to not want to lose it.

Is your original drive still big enough to hold all the data on the
internal drive (or can you delete some of your files or copy them
elsewhere temporarily)?

If so, the procedure I'd recommend is:

1. Clone your 250GB drive back to the orignal Mac Mini drive, using an
external enclosure to hold the old drive, which I assume you already
used to do the first clone. (You might be able to get away with just
cloning your Users folder back to the original drive, if your system and
applications haven't changed in any significant way and are still on the
original drive.)

2. Start up the Mini from the external drive.

3. Run Disk Utility and select the internal drive (239.2 GB Samsung).

4. Click on the Partition tab.

5. Click on the menu for selecting the number of partitions. It will
probably say "Current". Change it to "1 partition".

6. Click on the Options button.

7. Choose "GUID Partition Table".

8. Click OK.

9. Name the parttion as you see fit (probably "Macintosh HD" rather than
Untitled).

10. Click on the Partition button.

11. This will ask for confirmation that you are about to erase the old
Macintosh HD partition. Confirm this.

12. Clone the original Mac Mini drive (external) back to the 250 GB
drive (internal).


Many thanks David - a job for this evening!

Rob

All done, thanks for your help. My original mistake was obviously in missing the GUID option when formatting the new HD.

In the end I reinstalled OS X. For some reason the restore option (from a USB drive) kept counting up, and I stopped it at 11 hours. Then the USB drive had a hissy fit, with the light going out, but still whirring away.

Even having used this Mac for about 18 months, and installed no end of software, and about 5GB of documents, the clean install has reclaimed hardly any disk space. From distant windows experience this kind of drastic action would release several GB. Still, seems a lot snappier now.

Rob
.

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