Boot Options For Mac
- Most of the boot options below are designed to help you diagnose and fix problems with your Mac. CleanMyMac X can also do that, as well as many other things. Its Maintenance module has tools to repair your boot disk, repair permissions, free up memory, and free up RAM.
- Instead, you have to boot one operating system or the other — thus, the name Boot Camp. Restart your Mac, and hold down the Option key until icons for each operating system appear onscreen. Highlight Windows or Macintosh HD, and click the arrow to launch the operating system of choice for this session.
Ever since Boot Camp was unveiled last spring, schools and businesses have looked to it as a solution for deploying dual-boot solutions to replace two computers (a Mac and a PC) with one (a dual.
If you own Intel-based Macs, you can run OS X and Windows on one machine. In fact, it’s been possible to run Windows on a Mac for some time — with agonizing limitations. Near-extinct Mac models were loaded with Virtual PC emulation software could do Windows, too, but the program was painfully slow. Even if you find an old copy of the software, it won’t work with any current Macs.

Boot Camp software from Apple shook up the computing public upon its apocalyptic arrival in April 2006. Boot Camp graduated from beta, or near-finished, status with the arrival of Leopard. Boot Camp Assistant software is stored in the Utilities folder inside the Applications folder.
Boot Camp itself is free. You have to supply your own single-disc or downloadable full-install version of Windows; an upgrade disc won’t cut it.
It’s also important to note that you can use a 64-bit version of Windows, Windows 7 (Home Premium, Professional, or Ultimate), Windows 8, or Windows 8.1. Consult Apple support to see which Mac models are compatible with which versions of Windows. In its current incarnation, Boot Camp isn’t compatible with 32-bit versions of Windows.
Other requirements follow:
An Intel Mac with OS X version 10.6 or later
At least 2GB of RAM and 20GB of available space on the Mac’s storage drive that you want to donate to Windows
A blank CD or USB storage device that you’ll use for Windows software drivers
If you don’t run into snags, the entire installation should take about an hour.
Windows 8 and Windows 8.1 are optimized for a touchscreen environment, though you can use it with a standard mouse and keyboard. For now, Macs don’t support touchscreen computing.
To install Windows 8 via Boot Camp, you still must have a legitimate Windows 8 license from Microsoft and a Win8 installation disc, assuming that you have an optical drive. If you don’t have an optical drive, you may be able to create a Windows installer from an ISO file downloaded from Microsoft on a USB flash drive that’s 8GB or larger.
Because snags are possible, back up all your important information on the Mac’s startup disk.
Basic training
Following are the basic steps to get through Boot Camp:
Run Boot Camp Assistant (in the Utilities folder inside the Applications folder) to make sure that you have the latest firmware on your computer and to install any support software from Apple that you might need.
You’ll find any updates at Apple support. If you’re using a portable computer, make sure to connect the power adapter. You will also be given the option to create a Windows 7 (or later version) install disk for which you’ll need a USB flash drive and an ISO image downloaded from Apple.
Follow the prompts in Boot Camp Assistant to create a partition for Windows.
You’re essentially carving out an area of your hard drive for the Windows operating system,. This partition must be at least 30GB and can swell to the total free disk space on hand minus 30GB. If you don’t plan on doing much in Windows, keep the partition small.
Drag the divider to set the partitions for both OS X and Windows, or click Divide Equally to make equal partitions. You can’t resize a Windows partition after creating it, though you can replace it with a larger Windows partition.
If you have a Mac Pro with more than one internal hard drive, you can select which drive to partition. If any of this makes you nervous, know that you can remove the Windows partition later and go back to a single-partition Mac.
Insert the Windows CD or a USB flash drive with the Windows ISO file and then click Start Installation.
If you exited Boot Camp Assistant before installing Windows, open it again, choose Start the Windows Installer, and click Continue.
When you’re asked to choose the Windows partition, select the partition that says BOOTCAMP.
You may have to scroll down to see it.
Don’t erase any partitions that you see or create a new partition here. Failure to heed this warning could wipe out your entire Mac OS X startup disk.
(Optional) If you see a listing for Drive Options, click it; otherwise, proceed to Step 6.
Reformat the partition by using the Windows installer: Click Format.
You’re using the reliable and secure NTFS file system, but you won’t be able to save files to Windows from Mac OS X, at least not without a techie workaround.
Follow the onscreen instructions to finish installing Windows.
Boot Camp 5.1 includes several Mac drivers so that Windows will recognize your trackpad, Thunderbolt, USB 3.0, the iSight (or FaceTime) camera, the Eject key on the Mac keyboard, networking, audio, graphics, and so on.
A Boot Camp Control Panel for Windows and an Apple Boot Camp system-tray item will be added.
As with any new Windows computer, Microsoft requires that you activate your Windows software within 30 days.
Switching operating systems
You can go back and forth between OS X and Windows on your Mac, but you can’t run both operating systems simultaneously under Boot Camp. Instead, you have to boot one operating system or the other — thus, the name Boot Camp.
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Restart your Mac, and hold down the Option key until icons for each operating system appear onscreen. Highlight Windows or Macintosh HD, and click the arrow to launch the operating system of choice for this session.
If you want OS X or Windows to boot every time, choose app → System Preferences, click Startup Disk, and choose the OS you want to launch by default.
You can perform the same function in Windows by clicking the Boot Camp system-tray icon and selecting the Boot Camp Control Panel. Click either the Macintosh HD or Windows icon, depending on your startup preference.
We all know that when you want to start up your Mac, you just press the power button and when you want to restart, you visit the Apple menu and choose Restart from there. But did you know there are several other Mac boot commands? These useful combinations help start up the Mac properly and fix system errors. We’ll explain more below.
Why are there different Mac boot options?
The simple answer is: to allow you to troubleshoot problems. If your Mac won’t start up in regular boot mode, or if it starts up but behaves erratically, you need to be able to diagnose the problem and fix it.
Different boot modes allow you to, for example, start your Mac with only the bare minimum of extensions loaded, so you can figure out if they are at the root of the problem. Or you can boot into Recovery Mode and run Disk Utilities to repair your disk, or, at worst, reinstall macOS.
Most of the boot options below are designed to help you diagnose and fix problems with your Mac. CleanMyMac X can also do that, as well as many other things. Its Maintenance module has tools to repair your boot disk, repair permissions, free up memory, and free up RAM. Here’s how to use it.
- Download the free version of CleanMyMac X.
- Install and launch the app.
- Choose Maintenance in the sidebar.
- Read the guidance and if you want to run the tool, check the box next to it and press Run.
And you’re done! CleanMyMac X really saves your time eliminating errors and problems you’d waste hours trying to fix manually.
What are the available Mac boot keys and options?
Here is a list of the different Mac startup keys and boot commands:
- macOS Recovery
- Startup Manager
- Reset NVRAM
- Safe Mode
- Apple Diagnostics
- Single-user Mode
- Target Disk Mode

How to access Mac boot modes and what they do:
macOS Recovery
macOS Recovery mode is used to install and reinstall macOS operating system.
- Hold down Command-R while starting your Mac to access the built-in recovery tools, including Disk Utility. This option allows you to reinstall the latest version of macOS that was installed on your Mac.
- To install the latest version of macOS that is compatible with your Mac, hold down Option-Command-R instead.
- If you want to reinstall the version of macOS that came with your Mac or the nearest one that’s still available, hold down Shift-Option-Command-R.
Startup Options For Macbook Pro
Startup Manager
The Startup Manager allows you to choose which bootable volume to start up from if you have more than one connected to your Mac. You can also use this method to startup up from a Time Machine backup if it’s connected to your Mac.
- Hold down the Option (Alt) key while you start up your Mac.
- Choose the volume you want to boot from by clicking on it when the options appear on screen.
- Press Return.
Reset NVRAM
If your Mac is having problems with sound volume, display resolution, or time zones, resetting the NVRAM can help.
- Shutdown your Mac then press the power button while holding Command-Option-P-R.
- Wait 20 seconds and release the keys or, if your Mac plays a startup chime, release the keys after the second chime. If your Mac has a T2 security chip, you can release the keys after the Apple logo appears and disappears on screen for the second time.
For more information, here is a video about SMC, PRAM & NVRAM reset.
Safe Mode
Safe Mode is a diagnostics tool that allows you to determine whether problems you’re having on your Mac are being caused by software that loads when it starts up.
When you start up in Safe Mode, login items, system extensions not needed by the OS, and third-party fonts are not loaded. System caches are deleted, and the macOS runs a check of your startup disk.
- Start or restart your Mac while holding the Shift key.
- Release Shift when you see the login window.
- You may have to log in twice, and should see “Safe Boot” in the top right corner of the login window.
Apple Diagnostics
When you’ve ruled out all possible software errors and come to the conclusion that you have a hardware fault, Apple Diagnostics can help determine which piece of hardware is causing the problem.
- Disconnect all external devices except the mouse, keyboard, display, power cable, and Ethernet cable if you use one.
- Shut down your Mac.
- Turn on your Mac and then press and hold the D key. Keep holding it until you see a window on the screen, asking you to choose a language.
- Apple Diagnostics will now check your Mac for problems.
- When it’s finished, it will report what it has found and give you options for what to do next.
Single-user Mode
Single-user Mode allows you to troubleshoot the startup process on your Mac. However, it boots your Mac into a command-line interface, so you should only use it if you know how to work with the command line.
- Start up or restart your Mac.
- Press Command-S on Mac startup.
- The screen will turn black and display white text. You can now run UNIX commands.
Target Disk Mode
If you want to make your Mac appear as an external volume on another Mac, you can use Target Disk Mode. You can connect the Macs using one of the following cables:
- Thunderbolt 3
- USB-C
- Thunderbolt 2
- FireWire
Boot Options Virtual Machine
- If your Mac has not been started up, press the power button and hold down the T key. When it’s finished booting, you’ll see a Thunderbolt, FireWire, or USB symbol on the screen.
- If it is already started up, go to System Preferences > Startup Disk and choose the boot disk, then click Target Disk Mode. When asked to confirm, press Restart.
Once the Mac has booted in Target Disk Mode, you can connect it to another Mac.
There are several different Mac boot options you can access by holding down different combinations of keys. Each has a different function, usually to help you fix problems with your Mac. Follow the instructions above to use the different modes. If you’re looking for a quick fix, download CleanMyMac X to help you resolve issues with your Mac.
