By Graham K. Rogers

Many panels in System Preferences have seen changes with the update to OS X to 10.10, Yosemite. The Startup Disk preferences panel appears to have remained unchanged. Startup Disk is used to specify the disk or system to start a Mac. This may need to be changed when maintenance is needed, or when using the computer in Target Mode: as a slave to another Mac.

The Startup Disk preference panel allows users to change the disk that is used to start the computer, to ensure that the correct disk or partition is being used, or to restart the computer in Target Mode: as a slave disk. This is useful in analysis and repair.

Startup Disks

Startup Disk Preferences: 13" Retina display MacBook Pro Late 2013

If a disk has more than one partition, only those with operating systems installed will be shown. External, bootable disks will also appear in the panel when attached. In the screen shot taken from a 2013 MacBook Pro, I am using (below), two disks are shown: an OS X 10.9.2 installation on a 16 GB flash drive; and the normal disk installed in the Mac with the current version of OS X.

If any other external disks with viable versions of OS X are connected, these will appear in the disks panel right away and may be selected. This includes optical disks on computers that still have suitable drives. In a User account, the preferences lock (bottom left) must be opened before a different disk can be selected. This will require use of the Admin name and password.

The disk icons display data concerning the version of the operating system installed. When the disk is highlighted, more detail of the disk, disk name and the version of OS X are displayed. If the cursor is held over the disk icon, a small panel appears with similar information, but also the specific build number of OS X.

Highlighting the disk should be done when switching startup disks to ensure the correct disk is being used. It may be better for the disk to be highlighted in normal working to ensure that there are no delays on a restart. OS X is usually good at finding a bootable disk, but has been known to lose the plot.

In this top part of the panel - to the right - there is also a button marked restart. For those computers with an optical drive, if a disk is inserted in the drive (like Disk Warrior), this can be selected instead of the main disk. We can restart directly using the preference pane or, when such an optical disk is used, by using the C key at startup.

Any disk with a usable operating system can be selected in this panel and the computer will restart from that. If the computer cannot be started in order to make such a selection, it may also be possible to find a bootable disk by restarting with the Option key pressed. I have more information on Startup Keys in an earlier article available online.

Target Mode

Target disk mode can help in diagnostics and repair. As an example I can run Disk Warrior on my MacBookPro to check and repair the disk on my iMac. It is also a method to transfer large quantities of data quite quickly.

The computer will start in Target disk mode when the button (bottom right) is pressed. The target Mac should be connected to a (master) computer before using Target mode. Target mode may also be activated by starting a computer with the T key pressed. The screen on a Mac being used in Target mode will display a large icon while used in this way. With the older Macs this is a Firewire icon. The latest Macs show the Thunderbolt symbol when in Target mode.

At the bottom of the Startup Disk panel, is the lock icon which requires an Admin password to open. This makes it less easy for someone to start the computer using an external disk. If used in conjunction with the Firmware Password Utility, the computer is considerably more secure. Since Mountain Lion the Firmware Password Utility feature is found in the repair utilities accessed by starting the computer using the Command + R keys.

See Also:

• Accessibility
• App Store
• Bluetooth
• CDs & DVDs
• Date & Time
• Desktop & Screensaver
• Dictation & Speech
• Displays
• Displays
• Dock
• Energy Saver
• Extensions
• General
• iCloud
• Internet Accounts
• Keyboard
• Language & Region
• Mission Control
• Mouse
• Network
• Notifications
• Parental Controls
• Printer & Scanner
• Security & Privacy
• Sharing
• Sound
• Spotlight
• Trackpad

Graham K. Rogers teaches at the Faculty of Engineering, Mahidol University in Thailand where he is also Assistant Dean. He wrote in the Bangkok Post, Database supplement on IT subjects. For the last seven years of Database he wrote a column on Apple and Macs.