Contribute
Register

Guide to Installing Mavericks on HP Probook

Set an active partition. You can use fdisk to do it: http://www.insanelymac.com/forum/to...-your-partition-active-using-fdisk-in-macosx/

You can see the active partition with 'sudo fdisk /dev/disk0'. The active one is marked with '*'.

Note: In a dual-boot (Windows+OS X) legacy scenario, the Windows partition should be active.


Thanks. I put the probook drive on the mac again. The mac is disk0, the probook drive is disk1.

With the instructions you recommended in the post 1 here
http://www.insanelymac.com/forum/to...-your-partition-active-using-fdisk-in-macosx/

I can't get past point 4, after "fdisk -e /dev/rdisk1" and enter terminal reads permission denied

Anyway, I used "sudo fdisk /dev/diskx" as recommended and here's what I got. Can't see the "*"

Disk: /dev/disk0 geometry: 38913/255/63 [625142448 sectors]
Signature: 0xAA55
Starting Ending
#: id cyl hd sec - cyl hd sec [ start - size]
------------------------------------------------------------------------
1: EE 1023 254 63 - 1023 254 63 [ 1 - 625142447] <Unknown ID>
2: 00 0 0 0 - 0 0 0 [ 0 - 0] unused
3: 00 0 0 0 - 0 0 0 [ 0 - 0] unused
4: 00 0 0 0 - 0 0 0 [ 0 - 0] unused

Disk: /dev/disk1 geometry: 121601/255/63 [1953525164 sectors]
Signature: 0xAA55
Starting Ending
#: id cyl hd sec - cyl hd sec [ start - size]
------------------------------------------------------------------------
1: EE 1023 254 63 - 1023 254 63 [ 1 - 1953525163] <Unknown ID>
2: 00 0 0 0 - 0 0 0 [ 0 - 0] unused
3: 00 0 0 0 - 0 0 0 [ 0 - 0] unused
4: 00 0 0 0 - 0 0 0 [ 0 - 0] unused
 
Thanks. I put the probook drive on the mac again. The mac is disk0, the probook drive is disk1.

With the instructions you recommended in the post 1 here
http://www.insanelymac.com/forum/to...-your-partition-active-using-fdisk-in-macosx/

I can't get past point 4, after "fdisk -e /dev/rdisk1" and enter terminal reads permission denied

Anyway, I used "sudo fdisk /dev/disk0x" as recommended and here's what I got. Can't see the "*"

Disk: /dev/disk0 geometry: 38913/255/63 [625142448 sectors]
Signature: 0xAA55
Starting Ending
#: id cyl hd sec - cyl hd sec [ start - size]
------------------------------------------------------------------------
1: EE 1023 254 63 - 1023 254 63 [ 1 - 625142447] <Unknown ID>
2: 00 0 0 0 - 0 0 0 [ 0 - 0] unused
3: 00 0 0 0 - 0 0 0 [ 0 - 0] unused
4: 00 0 0 0 - 0 0 0 [ 0 - 0] unused

Disk: /dev/disk1 geometry: 121601/255/63 [1953525164 sectors]
Signature: 0xAA55
Starting Ending
#: id cyl hd sec - cyl hd sec [ start - size]
------------------------------------------------------------------------
1: EE 1023 254 63 - 1023 254 63 [ 1 - 1953525163] <Unknown ID>
2: 00 0 0 0 - 0 0 0 [ 0 - 0] unused
3: 00 0 0 0 - 0 0 0 [ 0 - 0] unused
4: 00 0 0 0 - 0 0 0 [ 0 - 0] unused

You have no active partition (nothing marked '*').

You have to use 'sudo' with fdisk.
 
You have no active partition (nothing marked '*').

You have to use 'sudo' with fdisk.

Could you tell me what to type in, please. All these terminal inputs are rocket science to me :) A novice question would be, how come the mac runs fine since it hasn't any active partitions? Mac is disk0 probook disk1

Thank you
 
Could you tell me what to type in, please. All these terminal inputs are rocket science to me :) A novice question would be, how come the mac runs fine since it hasn't any active partitions? Mac is disk0 probook disk1

Thank you

It is covered in the guide previously linked. All fdisk commands must use sudo, so they execute as root. It appears the guide author left that fact out probably assuming it is common knowledge.

You should make the first partition active (to satisfy BIOS).
 
It is covered in the guide previously linked. All fdisk commands must use sudo, so they execute as root. It appears the guide author left that fact out probably assuming it is common knowledge.

You should make the first partition active (to satisfy BIOS).


Thanks a lot RehabMan. It worked just fine. IOY.

Why doesn't the OS X installs make partitions active in the first place? The mac I used runs well without any active partition and am sure probook didn't have that either when it worked before. So it can do without as well is most of the cases

Many thanks
 
Thanks a lot RehabMan. It worked just fine. IOY.

Why doesn't the OS X installs make partitions active in the first place? The mac I used runs well without any active partition and am sure probook didn't have that either when it worked before. So it can do without as well is most of the cases

Many thanks

The OS X installer doesn't need to make anything active because Macs use EFI firmware to boot, not BIOS/MBR.

When you initially install the bootloader (with the ProBook Installer), the first partition is made active. But as you discovered, if you start messing with the partition table, you can lose that setting. To real Macs it doesn't make a difference (eg. not a bug), but with PCs it does.
 
The OS X installer doesn't need to make anything active because Macs use EFI firmware to boot, not BIOS/MBR.

When you initially install the bootloader (with the ProBook Installer), the first partition is made active. But as you discovered, if you start messing with the partition table, you can lose that setting. To real Macs it doesn't make a difference (eg. not a bug), but with PCs it does.


Thanks again for the useful technical answers and patience
 
Thanks again for the useful technical answers and patience

Keep in mind that UEFI booting gets rid of all such worries over "active partition"...

(but admittedly, brings other things to manage).
 
Keep in mind that UEFI booting gets rid of all such worries over "active partition"...

(but admittedly, brings other things to manage).


Thanks a lot. I would also like to keep the old install for comparison. How can I get boot option?

Thank you
 
Back
Top