For today's TUAW
Tip, I thought I'd cover some of the basic essentials for starting up your Mac, especially for recent switchers who feel
naked and lost without their BIOS. I compiled the list I have here from
Magical Macintosh Key Sequences (which Dave
mentioned last September), Apple's own
keyboard shortcut
documentation and personal
experience:
- X during startup - Force Mac OS X startup
- option - (eventually) brings up a
screen with startup volume choices
- Option-Command-Shift-Delete - Bypass primary startup volume and
seek a different startup volume (such as a CD or external disk)
- C - Start up from a CD that has a system
folder
- N - Attempt to start up from a compatible network server (NetBoot)
- T - Start up
in FireWire Target Disk mode (very handy for plugging your Mac into another as an external hard drive)
- Shift - start up in Safe Boot mode and temporarily disable login items and non-essential kernel extension files
(Mac OS X 10.2 and later)
- Command-V - Start up in Verbose mode.
- Command-S - Start up in
Single-User mode
- cmd-opt-p-r - Zap PRAM. Hold down until second chime.
- cmd-opt-n-v - Clear NV
RAM. Similar to reset-all in Open Firmware.
- cmd-opt-o-f - Boot into open firmware
- hold mouse
click - force eject a CD/DVD
While this by no means is a definitive list (and I'm not sure if every one
transfers over to the new Intel Macs), it should get you started with what your Mac is capable of on startup. Feel free
to add your own in the comments. One word of caution, however: some of these shortcuts aren't meant to be used on a
daily basis. For example, Apple doesn't recommend (and neither do I) that you use the Zap PRAM or Clear NV RAM
shortcuts any old time your Mac starts acting funny; those are mainly for situation-specific troubleshooting
circumstances.
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
3-27-2006 @ 11:38AM
Ian! said...
The biggest thing worth mentioning (IMO) is that most of these won't work if you have a firmware password in place.
Ones that I know will work include:
Option-booting, but will prompt for password first
Open Firmware, obviously
CD eject - also works with Zip Discs if you have a Zip drive
I'm not sure bout Verbose boot or Singe-User Mode, or Safe Boot.
Reply
3-27-2006 @ 11:55AM
Christopher said...
Great stuff, thanks.
Reply
3-27-2006 @ 11:58AM
Lee said...
What is Verbose boot?
Reply
3-27-2006 @ 11:59AM
Mark said...
So I see that 'T' will force boot a firewire drive as a target disk. Does that mean that if I install OSX on that external disk, it will also be used for all other programs? I have a mini and would like to use a faster/larger HD and this is an option if it's true. Also, can the same be done with USB? Thanks all.
Reply
3-27-2006 @ 12:33PM
Mitchell said...
Nice to see.
Reply
3-27-2006 @ 1:17PM
Michael S. said...
"Option-Command-Shift-Delete - Bypass primary startup volume and seek a different startup volume (such as a CD or external disk)"
Just option works too though, right? (At least, option brings up a menu letting you choose what device you want to boot from.)
Reply
3-27-2006 @ 2:00PM
Sean D. said...
Mark-
Holding down "T" will boot your computer as a firewire target disk... so that you can, say, use your iBook as an external drive on your G5, or you can use your iMac as an external drive on your PowerBook... The funny thing about booting your computer in this manner, is that all of your file permissions are ignored and anyone can access any file anywhere on your hard drive from the host computer (what security?).
If anyone knows how to safeguard against this, I'd love to know...
Reply
3-27-2006 @ 5:36PM
armchairgeek said...
I guess the only 'safeguard' against that is to use file vault.
Or put gum in all your firewire ports.
Reply
3-27-2006 @ 9:16PM
Macsupport said...
There is also startup key commands for Intel based Macs.
http://macsupport.ca/2006/01/18/startup-key-combinations-for-intel-based-macs/
Reply
3-28-2006 @ 1:33AM
Takumi Murayama said...
Random Question: why is the A on the post image gone and the S half gone? Do you type A a lot more or something? AAAAAAAAAAA!
Reply
3-28-2006 @ 4:14AM
Benjamin Hubbard said...
Takumi,
I take it you dont' have kids? I know that is why my wifes PB has a } where the Y should be and a ? where the V should be...
Reply
3-28-2006 @ 4:28AM
Johan said...
A collegue of mine have the exact same wear on his keyboard. It seems like the A and S keys are subject to withstand less wear than say D, F, J and K, since these are resting keys... and it seems like the iBook is the problem child here... our powerBooks withstands more usage than the iBook keyboard.
Or is this just proof that my colleague (and you?) tend to write using acidic fluids rather than fingers whenever you both use the keys A and S? ;)
Reply
3-28-2006 @ 7:46PM
Fazal said...
@ Mark & Sean
The only way to safegaurd against someone else trying to boot your machine as a dumb drive is to place a firmware password on your Machine. There is a paper on the Apple support site on how to do this - http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=106482 - Although written for 10.1 - it works for any 10.x after too.
Reply
4-15-2006 @ 4:35AM
MOR said...
Talk about off-topic!
I've noticed that keyboards tend to lose whichever letter is typed the most, I've seen this before, but it's always a different letter. The user of that keyboard probably has a password or name that starts with an "a" that he/she types all the time.
Reply