I want to go back to Macintosh HD

[CopperHawk]

So I have OS El Capitan on a flash drive with 64 GB. I want to return to using Macintosh HD, the internal hard drive as my startup place. Can I restart using that instead of my flash drive? I'm really tired of El Capitan, so I don't care if I lose that. Everything is really slow off of this 64 GB flash drive, and Ive already had a lot of pain with El Capitan, can anyone help? :/

 

[honestone]

When you say "return to using Macintosh HD", what OS is on it?

Also, assuming that Macintosh HD is bootable, you should be able to "return" to it by doing the following:

1. Boot your Mac like you are now, off the flash drive.

2. Go to System Preferences, and select Startup Disk.

3. You should see two icons on the screen, one showing the icon for the Flash Drive, the other for Macintosh HD. Most likely, the one for Macintosh HD is "greyed out".

4. Click the Lock Icon on the lower left of that screen. You'll be prompted for your admin password. Enter it.

5. The icon for Macintosh HD should change from being greyed out. Click on it, and then click Restart. You'll be asked to verify that choice. Click Restart, and your machine will restart from the OS on Macintosh HD.

7. When the restart is complete, remove the flash drive.

 

[CopperHawk]

When you say "return to using Macintosh HD", what OS is on it?

Also, assuming that Macintosh HD is bootable, you should be able to "return" to it by doing the following:

1. Boot your Mac like you are now, off the flash drive.

2. Go to System Preferences, and select Startup Disk.

3. You should see two icons on the screen, one showing the icon for the Flash Drive, the other for Macintosh HD. Most likely, the one for Macintosh HD is "greyed out".

4. Click the Lock Icon on the lower left of that screen. You'll be prompted for your admin password. Enter it.

5. The icon for Macintosh HD should change from being greyed out. Click on it, and then click Restart. You'll be asked to verify that choice. Click Restart, and your machine will restart from the OS on Macintosh HD.

7. When the restart is complete, remove the flash drive.

Okay, ignoring my previous post, I can start up with Macintosh HD. However, it goes to the beginning of installing El Capitan, with OS X Utilities and what not. From here I'm unable to use startup disk with Macintosh HD as it says it's damaged. Is there any way to just flat out cancel the El Capitan installation? And thanks for your help so far I really appreciate it.

 

[honestone]

Okay, ignoring my previous post, I can start up with Macintosh HD. However, it goes to the beginning of installing El Capitan, with OS X Utilities and what not. From here I'm unable to use startup disk with Macintosh HD as it says it's damaged. Is there any way to just flat out cancel the El Capitan installation? And thanks for your help so far I really appreciate it.

OK, that of course is a "related" issue. So, let us know the following:

1. When was the last time you were able to successfully boot your Mac via the OS on Macintosh HD?

2. Are you making any backups at all to an external device? If so, what software are you using?

3. Why did you/are you using the Flash Drive to boot up your Mac?

Now, you can try and repair your internal hard drive after booting via the Flash Drive. There is the El Capitan version of Disk Utility on that drive, within the Applications folder. That is the way to run Disk Utility in an "isolated" environment, so you can perform repairs on your internal drive (the other way would be to boot to the hidden Recovery HD partition on your internal drive). If you have not been making backups to an external drive, there are risks involved in doing that. The other issue is that the El Capitan version of Disk Utility no longer has the Repair Permissions feature. There are two ways around that:

1. Boot to that Recovery HD partition. This link describes how to do that, and tasks you can perform via the software on that partition:

https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT201314

Note that to boot to that partition, you would press the Command and R keys simultaneously as your Mac starts up. Also, you might want to remove the flash drive before doing that. (I actually am unsure whether that will work or not, given that your Mac has been booting from the Flash Drive). Assuming the version of the OS on your (apparently ?damaged? internal drive) is 10.7.x, 10.8.x, 10.9.x, or 10.10.x, the version of Disk Utility that came with any of those prior operating systems contains the Repair Permissions task.

2. Download the excellent, venerable, and free software Onyx to the Flash Drive (assuming you have room). You can get Onyx from here:

http://www.titanium.free.fr/onyx.html

Make sure you get version 3.1.4. That software has the Repair Permissions task, along with other useful features which you should run.

 

[CopperHawk]

OK, that of course is a "related" issue. So, let us know the following:

1. When was the last time you were able to successfully boot your Mac via the OS on Macintosh HD?

2. Are you making any backups at all to an external device? If so, what software are you using?

3. Why did you/are you using the Flash Drive to boot up your Mac?

Now, you can try and repair your internal hard drive after booting via the Flash Drive. There is the El Capitan version of Disk Utility on that drive, within the Applications folder. That is the way to run Disk Utility in an "isolated" environment, so you can perform repairs on your internal drive (the other way would be to boot to the hidden Recovery HD partition on your internal drive). If you have not been making backups to an external drive, there are risks involved in doing that. The other issue is that the El Capitan version of Disk Utility no longer has the Repair Permissions feature. There are two ways around that:

1. Boot to that Recovery HD partition. This link describes how to do that, and tasks you can perform via the software on that partition:

https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT201314

Note that to boot to that partition, you would press the Command and R keys simultaneously as your Mac starts up. Also, you might want to remove the flash drive before doing that. (I actually am unsure whether that will work or not, given that your Mac has been booting from the Flash Drive). Assuming the version of the OS on your (apparently ?damaged? internal drive) is 10.7.x, 10.8.x, 10.9.x, or 10.10.x, the version of Disk Utility that came with any of those prior operating systems contains the Repair Permissions task.

2. Download the excellent, venerable, and free software Onyx to the Flash Drive (assuming you have room). You can get Onyx from here:

http://www.titanium.free.fr/onyx.html

Make sure you get version 3.1.4. That software has the Repair Permissions task, along with other useful features which you should run.

1. The last time was right before I started El Capitan installation. (Unless you count the times I started it but immediately ended up at OS X Utilities/ El Capitan Installation)
So the last time I was able to boot Macintosh HD OS and actually use it was just before El Capitan. (Two or three days ago)

2. No, I currently have no backups of Macintosh HD. I tried to put it on my WD 2 Terabyte Hard drive but it wasn't the right format or something to put the files on.

3. I used a Flash Drive to start up my mac because El Capitan wouldn't install on Macintosh HD. There was a "damaged file" and it couldn't be repaired using Disk Utility.

I've tried repairing the disk again but was told "OS X can't repair Macintosh HD". The OS on Macintosh HD is 10.6.6, as I never got around to updating to Yosemite.

I will try Onyx as well as Recovery, if you have anymore advice I'd be grateful to hear it.

 

[honestone]

OS 10.6.6 was a version of Snow Leopard. In order to upgrade to Lion (OS 10.7), Mountain Lion (OS 10.8), Mavericks (OS 10.9) or Yosemite (OS 10.10), you must start from OS 10.6.8, which was the last version of Snow Leopard.

Did you purchase the Western Digital (WD) drive new? I suspect it was formatted for the Windows OS, and in order to use it with a Mac, the first thing you would need to do is run Disk Utility to Erase and Format the entire drive for use on a Mac. One other thing, though, is that WD drives are somewhat notorious for "not playing nicely" with Macs.

And, forget about the Recovery HD idea. The Recovery HD partition feature is for any OS from Lion (OS 10.7) and beyond. Snow Leopard OS 10.6.x) does not have that feature.

Given that Disk Utility could not repair your internal drive, Onyx might not help much, if at all. I therefore suspect you'll need to do one of two things. Both of them will require a more advanced disk maintenance program like TechTool Pro, or Disk Warrior (in fact, given that you can only boot your Mac from a flash drive, only Disk Warrior ships on a bootable flash drive).

First of all, what exact Mac model do you have?

Secondly, do you have access to another Mac? Maybe a friend has one. But, that scenario will require that other Mac to have either TechTool Pro or Disk Warrior on it.

Third, if you do not have access to another Mac (no matter which Mac model you have), then your only alternative will be to purchase the newest version of Disk Warrior, and boot your mac from the flash drive it comes on. Here are links that discusses both of these fine products (I have both, although the prior version of Disk Warrior):

TechTool Pro - https://www.micromat.com/products/techtool-pro

Disk Warrior - http://www.alsoft.com/DiskWarrior/

Disk Warrior is the premier one, but TechTool Pro does an excellent job also. But, as I stated, it looks like you'll need to boot from the flash drive that Disk Warrior comes on.

Finally, your other choice is to take to an Apple Store, and have them work on it. That could be somewhat expensive.

 

[CopperHawk]

OS 10.6.6 was a version of Snow Leopard. In order to upgrade to Lion (OS 10.7), Mountain Lion (OS 10.8), Mavericks (OS 10.9) or Yosemite (OS 10.10), you must start from OS 10.6.8, which was the last version of Snow Leopard.

Did you purchase the Western Digital (WD) drive new? I suspect it was formatted for the Windows OS, and in order to use it with a Mac, the first thing you would need to do is run Disk Utility to Erase and Format the entire drive for use on a Mac. One other thing, though, is that WD drives are somewhat notorious for "not playing nicely" with Macs.

And, forget about the Recovery HD idea. The Recovery HD partition feature is for any OS from Lion (OS 10.7) and beyond. Snow Leopard OS 10.6.x) does not have that feature.

Given that Disk Utility could not repair your internal drive, Onyx might not help much, if at all. I therefore suspect you'll need to do one of two things. Both of them will require a more advanced disk maintenance program like TechTool Pro, or Disk Warrior (in fact, given that you can only boot your Mac from a flash drive, only Disk Warrior ships on a bootable flash drive).

First of all, what exact Mac model do you have?

Secondly, do you have access to another Mac? Maybe a friend has one. But, that scenario will require that other Mac to have either TechTool Pro or Disk Warrior on it.

Third, if you do not have access to another Mac (no matter which Mac model you have), then your only alternative will be to purchase the newest version of Disk Warrior, and boot your mac from the flash drive it comes on. Here are links that discusses both of these fine products (I have both, although the prior version of Disk Warrior):

TechTool Pro - https://www.micromat.com/products/techtool-pro

Disk Warrior - http://www.alsoft.com/DiskWarrior/

Disk Warrior is the premier one, but TechTool Pro does an excellent job also. But, as I stated, it looks like you'll need to boot from the flash drive that Disk Warrior comes on.

Finally, your other choice is to take to an Apple Store, and have them work on it. That could be somewhat expensive.

Whoops, it is 10.6.8, my bad.
Yes it was purchased new, and I already reformatted it, as it has several shows and movies stored on it.
I tried Onyx, but it automatically selects my external drive. Is there anyway to select my internal one?

As for my Mac Model here's a full overview:
iMac (21.5-inch, Late 2009)

Model Identifier: iMac10,1
Number: MB950XX/A

Model Identifier: iMac10,1
Number: MC413XX/A

I don't have access to another Mac. At least not a modern one. I have one sitting in my basement from ten or fifteen years ago. I think it has dinosaur eggs beside it.

I thought about transferring all important programs to my El Capitan Flash Drive, erasing "Macintosh HD" and putting all the stuff from El Capitan Flash Drive on the now empty Macintosh HD, then selecting "Macintosh HD" as the startup disk. Do you think that will solve the problem?
Yet again, thanks so much for your help, I was feeling pretty desperate.

 

[honestone]

The older Mac won't work for a possible solution.

Regarding your statement "Yes it was purchased new, and I already reformatted it, as it has several shows and movies stored on it.". seems strange that you could not use it for a backup. Maybe you needed to partition it, and one of the empty partitions is where you would/could make the backup to.

Regarding the last "step" you mention above, how do you have access to the internal drive, via the Flash Drive? Also, do you have enough room on the Flash Drive to "place" other files/folders, etc.?

Assuming you can do that, you will still need to Erase, Format, and if necessary, partition the internal drive on the iMac. There is the possibility that if the original drive is still in the iMac, it could be going bad, considering its age (6+ years) and what I suspect is that very little (if any) maintenance was performed on the drive. If you can Erase, Format, and if necessary, partition the drive, you could then install El Capitan on it, re-boot your Mac from that fresh. clean installation of El Capitan, and then "moe/re-install, etc." the stuff you previously copied to the Flash Drive. Regarding the applications, if you have any third party apps (like Office 2011, 1Password, etc.), they will need to be upgraded first before you can use them with El Capitan. The other thing is that the latest version of El Capitan is 10.11.3. If via your process the version of El Capitan you wind up with is 10.11, 10.11.1, or 10.11.2, you can easily upgrade to it without going to the App Store. Just download the OS 10.11.3 Combo Updater from here:

https://support.apple.com/kb/DL1859?locale=en_US

Just for your information, I needed to update 5 critical applications before I could upgrade from Yosemite (OS 10.10.5) to El Capitan (OS 10.11.1). They were:

1Password
SuperDuper!
Onyx
TechTool Pro
Office 2011

You might be wondering why I started with OS 10.11.1, versus OS 10.11. The primary, initial reason was that the first beta of OS 10.11.1 appeared at the beginning of August, a full 8 weeks before OS 10.11 came out at the end of September. So, I had already planned on waiting until OS 10.11.1 was released (at the end of October). The other important reason is that the update for TechTool Pro (to be compatible with El Capitan) was not released until the first part of October (can't exactly remember when that was).

I still have not figured out how to get Onyx to perform its tasks on either of my external drives. I'll try and look into that some more, but I truly suspect that as long as the internal hard drive is not "bad", you will still need to use Disk Utility to Erase, Format, and if necessary Partition, the drive.

 

[CopperHawk]

The older Mac won't work for a possible solution.

Regarding your statement "Yes it was purchased new, and I already reformatted it, as it has several shows and movies stored on it.". seems strange that you could not use it for a backup. Maybe you needed to partition it, and one of the empty partitions is where you would/could make the backup to.

Regarding the last "step" you mention above, how do you have access to the internal drive, via the Flash Drive? Also, do you have enough room on the Flash Drive to "place" other files/folders, etc.?

Assuming you can do that, you will still need to Erase, Format, and if necessary, partition the internal drive on the iMac. There is the possibility that if the original drive is still in the iMac, it could be going bad, considering its age (6+ years) and what I suspect is that very little (if any) maintenance was performed on the drive. If you can Erase, Format, and if necessary, partition the drive, you could then install El Capitan on it, re-boot your Mac from that fresh. clean installation of El Capitan, and then "moe/re-install, etc." the stuff you previously copied to the Flash Drive. Regarding the applications, if you have any third party apps (like Office 2011, 1Password, etc.), they will need to be upgraded first before you can use them with El Capitan. The other thing is that the latest version of El Capitan is 10.11.3. If via your process the version of El Capitan you wind up with is 10.11, 10.11.1, or 10.11.2, you can easily upgrade to it without going to the App Store. Just download the OS 10.11.3 Combo Updater from here:

https://support.apple.com/kb/DL1859?locale=en_US

Just for your information, I needed to update 5 critical applications before I could upgrade from Yosemite (OS 10.10.5) to El Capitan (OS 10.11.1). They were:

1Password
SuperDuper!
Onyx
TechTool Pro
Office 2011

You might be wondering why I started with OS 10.11.1, versus OS 10.11. The primary, initial reason was that the first beta of OS 10.11.1 appeared at the beginning of August, a full 8 weeks before OS 10.11 came out at the end of September. So, I had already planned on waiting until OS 10.11.1 was released (at the end of October). The other important reason is that the update for TechTool Pro (to be compatible with El Capitan) was not released until the first part of October (can't exactly remember when that was).

I still have not figured out how to get Onyx to perform its tasks on either of my external drives. I'll try and look into that some more, but I truly suspect that as long as the internal hard drive is not "bad", you will still need to use Disk Utility to Erase, Format, and if necessary Partition, the drive.

I probably would need to partition it, haven't tried though.

I have no idea how I'm able to access it to be 100% honest. I know I'm using the external drive because it resets if it's disconnected, but somehow I can openly view all applications in my Macintosh HD drive. I have enough space for a lot of my apps, but I don't know what I won't be fitting. This is a 64 GB drive, so I have a decent amount of space. I'll have to check with my Office 2011 app stuff, but besides that I have very few third party apps. The few I do were outdated and I could care less if I lost them. i'm just working on transferring over music to iTunes, as I already have all my photos backed up, as well as essential apps. If I find out why I can access my internal hard drive, I'll let you know.

 

[honestone]

Not sure why you would need to partition the internal drive. How big is it, by the way? I actually have a 256 gig SSD in my Mac Mini, and a 251 gig SSD inside my Mac Book Air, and I am only using about 1/3 rd of the space on each (I have quite a lot of larger files/folders, etc. on two external drives). Actually, for both of my Macs, I dod have a couple of TV Show folders containing full season episodes that I could remove, but sometimes I watch them via my laptop, and thus am not connected to any of my external drives. For my Mac Mini, I could do the same.

Regarding Office 2011, in case you don't have it, here is a link where you can get the latest version:

https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/download/details.aspx?id=50720

By the way, the initial, El Capitan compatible version of Office 2011 that came out was 14.5.8, but you should get the one above.