MP All Models Option key startup doesn't work/Missing hard drive.

[ItsTiki]

Okay... been searching for two days, and maybe my Google-Fu isn't what it should be, but I can't find anyone else on the planet with my specific issue.

I have a Mac Pro 2.8 Quad Core (mid 2010) 16 GB ram running 10.12.6 Sierra as my "main system".

I also have a second drive with 10.6.8 Snow Leopard, because I have a couple old programs that are vital to my business and I want to continue to use, but aren't supported/won't work on higher systems. And I also have another tiny drive that has 10.7.5 Lion that I never use, and is almost a virgin install 2-3 years later.

When I want to use Snow Leopard, I restart and hold down Option, and choose that drive, and do the same to return to Sierra when I'm done... but that doesn't work any more. When I hold Option, the screen goes white, the fan and the drive seem to crank at top speed, and the drives never show up on the screen. I have to hit the power button to shut it down, and it restarts into Sierra by default. Both drives and all their files are accessible from the desktop.

When in Sierra, I can change the Startup Disk via Preferences, and it displays both Snow Leopard and Lion. But when in Snow Leopard, it doesn't show the Sierra drive, but it does show Lion. I could boot into Lion and that drive does see Sierra... kind of a hassle, doing a "double restart", but I can live with it if I have to. But now Lion doesn't see Sierra in the startup preferences anymore. I screwed around for an hour and somehow got back into my "main system" Sierra, but I'm afraid to try going to Snow Leopard again for fear I won't be able to get back to Sierra again, but I need those few programs.

I have learned that aluminum keyboards sometimes cause similar issues, but I have the older all-white one, as well as the white-with-black-keys model. Neither pulls up the OS picker now.

Bootcamp can create similar issues, but I don't do Windows...

I have confirmed the Option keys both work once I get to the desktop. Changing USB ports makes no difference.

Like I said, this just started a week ago. No changes, no updates, no new software or hardware installed, it just stopped working. What worked for years... just doesn't work any more.

Ran Disk Utility on all drives, all fine. Zapped the PRAM repeatedly. No other system issues, everything works great, this Mac runs like a watch... except that Option key thing... just for the last week.

I'm just outta gas. Unless you guys and gals can bestow some genius on me, my best option is to buy an old Mac off Craigslist and putting my Snow Leopard drive in that, so I don't HAVE to change OS... just didn't want another box and screen in my office.

Thanx in advance,

Tiki

 

[tsialex]

Do a 4-times continuously NVRAM reset, only let go the CMD-Option-P-R after the 5th chime.

Check the health of your drives, download DriveDX and see the SMART. You probably have a failed drive.

DriveDx - the most advanced drive health diagnostics and monitoring utility

DriveDx - the most advanced drive health (S.M.A.R.T.) diagnostics and monitoring utility. Save yourself the data loss and downtime that is associated with unexpected SSD and HDD failures. Don't worry about losing your important data, music, and photographs.

binaryfruit.com

Btw, missing drives at BootPicker/bless not working from macOS is a known sign of a pre-brick.

 

[ItsTiki]

tsialex was correct... the 5 zaps didn't work, so I downloaded the trial of DriveDX. It shows that my Snow Leopard drive is damaged, even though I can access the files. I wouldn't have guessed that... I always thought hard drives were a "it works or it doesn't" sort of proposition...

I forgot that Lion wasn't a drive, it's a small partition on the Snow Leopard drive, that's how little I have used it. The other two bays I use as storage, and it appears they are both at around 60% of their predicted lifespan.

Might have to buy DriveDX... feels like 20 bucks well spent.

Thanx again, tsialex... I'm completely unaccustomed to getting the correct answer on the first try!

 

[ItsTiki]

I was confident that my problem was solved... I ordered up a 4 TB drive to replace my aging 640 GB drive, erased and formatted it, created two partitions, used Disk Utility's Restore function to replicate both Snow Leopard and Lion partitions, and voila'... there's my stuff.

All start-up disks show in Preferences, so I restarted and held down Option, and I still have the same problem. The screen goes white (not soft gray), the fan cranks, and the system picker doesn't appear.

Hit power button to shut down.

Restarted into Sierra, set my start-up disk to Snow Leopard, restarted, and everything works great... my programs work fine. Go to Start-up Disk, but it does not show the Sierra drive, only Lion.

Restart into Lion, it works great, but no Sierra in Start-up Preferences. Can't get back to the Sierra drive via Start-up Preferences or the Option key, so, as long as I have the door off the side, I just shut down and pulled the new HD out to get back to Sierra.

I don't get it... Did I copy flawed data to the new drive? Was my problem not mechanical?

Should I try to restore a copy from a month ago (before this happened) via Time Machine?

 

[ItsTiki]

Just thought I would close out this thread by reporting that my problem was the battery, even though I wasn't having any date/time issues. I would recommend that if you are having some mystery issue in the future, try changing out the battery. A two dollar battery fixed me right up.