Section 142. Change the Startup Disk

142. Change the Startup Disk

SEE ALSO

140 Select the Boot Volume at Boot Time

141 Boot from Different Disks Using Keystrokes

The boot volume selection screen and the many different key combinations you can use to control how your Mac boots are useful indeed, but they're only one-time solutions (see 140 Select the Boot Volume at Boot Time and 141 Boot from Different Disks Using Keystrokes ). If you want to switch permanently to a different boot volume instead of selecting it from the selection screen every time you start up the computer, use the Startup Disk Preferences pane to change your default startup volume.

1.	Open the Startup Disk Preferences Open the System Preferences application (under the Apple menu); click Startup Disk to open the Startup Disk Preferences pane. 142. Change the Startup Disk
2.	Select the System to Boot From Wait a few moments for Mac OS X to detect all the available bootable volumes. All the volumes appear in the window, each one (except the Network Startup option or CD/DVD discs) represented as a system folder. Each folder is labeled with an operating system version. The icon representing the volume you normally boot from is selected. Click the icon representing the volume from which you want to boot. This can be a Mac OS X system, a Mac OS 9 system, or another kind of bootable volume.
3.	Save and Restart When you have selected the boot volume you want, click the Restart button. On the confirmation sheet that appears, click Save and Restart . When you do this, the Mac saves low-level information that tells it to boot from the new volume the next time it starts up pane. TIP If you select a Mac OS 9 system as your default boot volume, your computer will boot into Mac OS 9. However, if you then want to switch back to Mac OS X, you must use the Startup Disk Control Panel in Mac OS 9it's available from the Control Panels submenu of the Apple menu, and it works very similarly to Mac OS X's Startup Disk Preferences pane. Bootable volumes are shown in a hierarchical manner; click the icon of your Mac OS X installation, save, and restart back into Mac OS X. The Mac will restart and should boot into the system installation that you selected pane.