So I thought it's time to replace the internal hdd of my mac mini with an ssd.
But I messed up a few things up.
I was setting up the hdd connected by usb to a total of 4 partitions, first one a very small (30MB) hfs one with the boot.img on and the other partitions 2xsfs/1xpfs and copied over the old hdd content. Then I pulled out the old disk out and inserted the new hdd.
Power on and - nothing. There's this drawer symbol with a question mark on it and that#s it.

Ok I thought, let's boot from cd and look what's going on. But the mini refused to boot from cd. It spins up, but does not recognize the cd.
Then I booted into OS X via a firewire drive.
I see (and can access) the small boot partition of the new drive (so electricially it seems okay).
If I insert the MorphOS 3.9 CD under OS X, that OS tells me I just inserted a blank CD - strange. For comparision I put in a scartchy mp3 cdr - no prob, OX X eats it. I put if some other non MorphOS cd, OS swallows it. Then I put in an older MorphOS CD (2.6) - gets refused.
I checked the MorphOS 3.9 CDR on my powerbook, no issues at all.

Someone an idea what I should do (and preferable w/o rewsapping the hdds, as the screws don#t get better..)

I seem to remember that the HFS BOOT partition needs to be 60MB and that if you add the files manually then you have to 'BLESS' the partition for it to be recognised for MorphOS to boot from - have you done that?

AFAIK the MorphOS CD is a 'hybrid' disc, and so, like Mac data CD/DVDs are not viewable on MorphOS, then the same applies to Mac OS X, AFAIK with MorphOS boot CDs.

When you say you checked the MorphOS CD on your PowerBook - is that running MorphOS or Mac OS X?

"Blessing" is done with the HFSSetMacBoot command:
http://library.morph.zone/Shell_Commands/HFSSetMacBoot

MorphOS won't boot from the HD without that.


If having problems with the CD boot, you could try to burn MorphOS to DVD instead, or boot from USB (it should work fine with all minis):
http://www.morphos.de/guide/usb-boot

Once you've got booted MorphOS installation ISO/disc, use the HFSSetMacBoot command for your bootinfo.txt file.

And if it's still not booting, does the partition show up in the boot menu (alt-key)? And do you have bootable flag set for your System partition in HDConfig?

[ Edited by jPV 15.11.2017 - 07:14 ]

Thanks for your tips.

Unfortunately I was yet not able to resolve my issues.

1st: i wanted to use the hfssetmacboot command. Hooked up the mac mini with the new drive as firewire device to my Powerbook.
All partitions available, but not the hfs boot: I can mount it, but accessing it fails somehow.

Then I tried to boot off usb. But the boot process stops after the output DO-QUIESCE finished_

Both with boot device bi umsd0:morphos.iso and boot device bi ssd1:

Quote:

I sucessfully booted off that cd with my powerbook (pressing "C", but on the mini it silently fails....

Issue solved.

Booted the boot.img from usb and then further from ssd0: by pressing F1 to select boot device. Now I was able to bless the boot: partition.

Thanks guys for your help!

I have a feeling that the CD/DVD drive in the MacMini might either need the laser lens cleaning or, the whole unit might need replacing, though if the drive recognises an audio CD then it should logicallly also read the MorphOS Boot CD - as I believe jPV also indicated - did you try to see if the CD is recognised by pressing 'Alt / Option' when you initially try to boot?

This will bypass the auto option of booting from CD when you press 'C' at boot-up, and give you a wider overview of the bootable discs. I'm sure you probably know this already, but it maybe worth just checking out .

The boot menu did not show the cd.
And now with MorphOS running again the cd (as well as my othr MorphOS iso at hand) does not show up in Ambient, too. Other CDRs I tested show up though. Somewhat strange...
I mean the very same CD boots the Powrbook just fine and of course gets shown in Ambient there.
But the drive s old and probably it's rather some some strange coincidence with an aging drive.

[ Editiert durch Zylesea 15.11.2017 - 22:33 ]

Do you know what model of CD/DVD drive is in the MacMini - is it a SuperDrive or a Combo Drive - the exact model would be good, i.e. CW-8123 or such like.

The optic lens can be cleaned if you are very careful, but you'd need to know if the lens itself has been damaged first of all. For that you really need a good magnifying lens, something like 25x or 60x magnification, as the naked eye cannot see in close enough detail if the lens is damaged or just dirty, as sometimes just dust collected on the lens is sufficient to make it not work properly.

I've cleaned quite a few laser lenses in the past to get them to work as they should, that were thought to be faulty, but sometimes the damage to the lens makes them useless.

You can get quite cheap magnifying lenses on e8ay, ideally with a built-in LED light to see in greater detail/clarity.

You also can try clean lens with compressed air, but you must open drive case for more effective cleaning.

Quote:

I can confirm that. Once I had a Mini I cleaned the drive with compressed air (without opening the drive case, and without even opening that Mini case) and strangely enough it worked.

nice post such an amazing