Media Drive Bootflash Not Present

[Amatista Sheeley]

Ithink as far Data Ontap 8 onwards is concerned :The OS (ontap operation system) is stored on the CF/USB flash boot_media device in the controller (depending upon the Model). The root aggregate contains the root volume that stores OS related stuff like configuration and logs. However it boots from boot_media device. Thanks!

But it is started from the pre-boot-environment that's stored on the Boot Medium. I.e. there's kernel(s) and drivers and stuff, but all of ONTAP, let alone 2 versions ("images") of it, don't fit on it.

I'm new to storage systems hardware in general and really appreciate the information shared here! Coming from a purely software background, I'm trying to understand the hardware/software interplay involved in storage systems.

Regarding NetApp -- say you have a healthy FAS 2650 system running OnTAP 9.7. By "healthy", I mean it will allow you to do a "Normal Boot".

Then you get what someone tells you is a FAS 2750 controller that does not have a boot card in it. The same someone tells you there is an old FAS 2750 chassis laying around with some existing internal drives but who knows what version of OnTap that system was using before the controllers in it were removed.

Can you take the boot card from a controller in your healthy FAS 2650 system, put the boot card into the FAS 2750 controller, insert the FAS 2750 controller in the FAS 2750 chassis and get it to "work" -- ie, allow a "Normal Boot"?

After having what I believe are software issues with my 2015 iMac, I decided to boot it off of an Installer flash drive that I made with Monterey (12.6.5, the latest it can run), erase the hard drive, and reinstall the system software. However, the installer flash drive won't show up in the start up disk preference, nor does any start up procedure to bring up the bootable start up flash (such as holding the power button.) I think the problem is that, although the iMac runs 12.6.5, it first needs to install 12.0.1 and then do the upgrade to 12.6.5. But I cannot find an installer file anywhere on the internet (certainly not the App Store) for 12.0.1. Any ideas?

You do not need any specific version of the macOS installer here. Assuming you created the bootable macOS 12.6.5 USB installer correctly, it should work. However, maybe the USB stick used is bad or not compatible with booting a Mac. Macs can be very particular about the drives used for booting. Plus the quality of many USB sticks is extremely poor.

There is also a possibility the issues you are trying to fix with a clean install are the same issues preventing you from seeing a bootable installer on the Option Boot screen. I do know that some hard drive failures can be severe enough that they cause the Mac to hang trying to read the failing drive that the system times out looking for any other bootable media.

You may want to try running the Apple Diagnostics to see if any hardware issues are detected. Unfortunately the diagnostics do not detect most drive failures. If you can still boot the iMac normally (or in Safe Mode), then you can check the health of the drive(s) by using DriveDx...feel free to post the complete DriveDx text report for each drive. If the Mac cannot boot into macOS and the diagnostics don't report any problems, then I can provide instructions for creating & using a Linux boot disk to check the health of the drive(s).

For the DriveDx report issue you just need to Copy the contents from the DriveDx text report into the macOS clipboard, then with the "Additional Text" box open on the forums, Paste the contents of the clipboard into the bottom half of the "Additional Text" field. Also make sure to provide a title before Saving the "Additional Text".

If you don't see the Apple boot picker menu, then make sure to use a wired USB keyboard since wireless keyboards may not go ready soon enough to activate the special startup modes. You need to press & hold the Option key immediately after hearing the startup chime. Holding the key too soon may not allow the Mac to register the keypress....more than a second after the startup chime & the system may already be booting.

If no bootable volumes are seen on the Option Boot screen, then you should see a drop down box titled "Choose Network". This is the Apple boot picker menu with the Option Boot. If the WiFi credentials are stored the PRAM, then maybe it would try to automatically boot into Internet Recovery Mode if no other bootable volumes are present. Resetting the PRAM should prevent that and have the system sit at the Option Boot screen. It is also possible to connect a bootable USB drive after reaching the Option Boot screen and have it show up if the drive is actually bootable & working.

Try booting into Internet Recovery Mode (Command + Option + R) at some other physical location if using an Ethernet cable does not help. Trying on another network and with another ISP may be necessary. There may be something with your home network or router configuration, or even ISP which is incompatible with Internet Recovery Mode. Or maybe there is a hardware issue with the iMac which is causing all the problems including being able to boot a macOS installer or accessing the diagnostics.

"You may want to try running the Apple Diagnostics to see if any hardware issues are detected." Startup while holding the "D" key produces a spinning globe with an exclamation point in a triangle, with a request for my network that it can never seem to connect to (doesn't recognise the password, though it is correct.)

You can try booting a Knoppix Linux USB stick, or even a Linux USB installer such as one for Linux Mint. The point is to see whether you can see a bootable volume of any kind when Option Booting the Mac (I'm assuming you see the Apple boot picker menu even if no external bootable volumes are seen).

It will show up in your post ideally as a drop down box with whatever title you created, or it may just show up as a link (the behavior is sometimes hit or miss with the Apple forums for the Additional Text appearing as a drop down box). I don't see either one in your post. Try posting again to see if it shows up the second time.

Edit: Once the whole post is submitted, then you should see the drop down box yourself as you should see it in my post. However, some times it may not show as a drop down box, but instead just a link if you hover the pointer over it.

There are various key combos to get different installs, but the current links to those don't seem to work. Shift-Option-Command-R (I think) will install the OS that shipped on the Mac. Perhaps then you can upgrade to something you want using the Full Installers as noted by dialabrain.

"You don't need to start at 12.0.1." Perhaps, but when I updated it from a much older OS a few days ago, it updated in steps: first to 12.0.1 and then to 12.6.5. I still think there is a chance that a bootable installer with 12.0.1 could be successful. But it seems impossible to find 12.0.1 online.

Booting is different than just seeing data. Like I said, Macs can be very picky about the drives used for booting. Plus I have found many USB sticks to be of very poor quality even from name brands. Issues with USB sticks can be intermittent. You definitely need to try another USB stick...a different brand is also a good idea just to be safe.

Like @Barney-15E mentions, not all bootable drives will show up in the Startup Disk System Preferences. The Option Boot screen tends to be more reliable for seeing bootable volumes (I think macOS gets in the way of things sometimes).

The Option boot method just doesn't work for whatever reason (nor has any other 'key combo while starting' worked either, and I've tried Option, D, R, and maybe others.) So if the drive doesn't show up in Startup Disk Preferences I don't know what to do.

The results of the test are in the "Additional text" feature, as it puts this message length beyond acceptable limits, apparently. I don't know how to access that from your end, but there must be a way.

Do you think that it will make any difference? When I updated the OS after nearly three years of sitting mostly idle, it first updated the OS to 12.0.1, and then upgraded in a second stage to 12.6.5, so I was thinking that maybe the hardware can't handle 12.6.5 directly. But would 12.6.2 really be much of a difference?

Actually, no. It never gets to the boot picker menu regardless of what key combo I use during start up, including the option key while starting up. It either goes directly to the user selector screen, or else in some cases (it's not completely repeatable) I get the spinning globe (with or without a "!" in a triangle) and a request to select network, which never accepts my password even on the rare occasions that it can see my wifi network.

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