Panther -- Multiple Hard Drives -- Booting Problems

I'm running Panther version 10.3.3 and I typically run with two external hard
drives, booting off of one of them, and using the internal drive and the
other external drive for storage of documents. I boot by holding down the
option key until the "select boot disk" screen appears, and then from that I
select the boot disk. What frequently happens, but not all of the time, is
that the system hangs either after showing one of the three disks in the
"select boot disk" screen or hanging just after I make the selection. When
that happens a simple restart, again with the option key held down, usually
takes care of things but there are times when a complete disconnecting and
reconnecting of power seems to be needed. Another odditiy is that on occasion
both external disks appear in the "select boot disk" screen albeit with the
same name, one being correct and the other being the name of the other
external disk.

I'm curious as to whether anyone else has experienced the same behavior, and
if so, is there a way to eliminate this oddity.

Many thanks in advance for comments/suggestions/cures, etc.


-- James L. Ryan -- TaliesinSoft

On Sun, 9 May 2004 13:26:26 -0500, James L. Ryan wrote
(in article <0001HW.BCC3E20200016C63F03055B0.RemoveThis@news.prodigy.net>):

 > I'm running Panther version 10.3.3 and I typically run with two external
 > hard
 > drives, booting off of one of them, and using the internal drive and the
 > other external drive for storage of documents. I boot by holding down the
 > option key until the "select boot disk" screen appears, and then from that I
 > select the boot disk

Why not just set the boot volume in System Preferences?

 >. What frequently happens, but not all of the time, is
 > that the system hangs either after showing one of the three disks in the
 > "select boot disk" screen or hanging just after I make the selection. When
 > that happens a simple restart, again with the option key held down, usually
 > takes care of things but there are times when a complete disconnecting and
 > reconnecting of power seems to be needed.

something on the FireWire bus wasn't powered up all the way.

 > Another odditiy is that on
 > occasion
 > both external disks appear in the "select boot disk" screen albeit with the
 > same name, one being correct and the other being the name of the other
 > external disk.

see above.

 >
 > I'm curious as to whether anyone else has experienced the same behavior, and
 > if so, is there a way to eliminate this oddity.

1 set your boot volume using System Preferences. If you set it to an external
volume you can _always_ force the machine to boot on the internal volume by
the simple expedient of not turning on the external drive until after the
boot process has started.

2 run Disk Warrior on the volumes. You may have some directory corruption.

 >
 > Many thanks in advance for comments/suggestions/cures, etc.
 >
 >
 > -- James L. Ryan -- TaliesinSoft
 >



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