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reboot with option key

rebooting with option key isn't working. The MacBook Air just starts normally. Using Monterey. I want to reboot using an alternate MacOS drive with Catalina.



MacBook Air 13″, macOS 12.6

Posted on Oct 8, 2022 7:51 AM

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Question marked as Top-ranking reply

Posted on Oct 8, 2022 8:20 AM

lowellfrombrookfield wrote:

rebooting with option key isn't working. The MacBook Air just starts normally. Using Monterey. I want to reboot using an alternate MacOS drive with Catalina.


When the option key boot does not present another drive as a boot option, that usually means that the alternate boot drive is not a legitimate boot drive for that computer. For example, if the Mac came with an operating system later than Catalina, it won't be able to boot from a Catalina boot drive and won't show you that option at all. Or if the Catalina MacOS was not installed into the other drive in a way that made it bootable, you will get the same result.


What year and model is your Mac, and what process did you follow to create the Catalina boot drive?

3 replies
Question marked as Top-ranking reply

Oct 8, 2022 8:20 AM in response to lowellfrombrookfield

lowellfrombrookfield wrote:

rebooting with option key isn't working. The MacBook Air just starts normally. Using Monterey. I want to reboot using an alternate MacOS drive with Catalina.


When the option key boot does not present another drive as a boot option, that usually means that the alternate boot drive is not a legitimate boot drive for that computer. For example, if the Mac came with an operating system later than Catalina, it won't be able to boot from a Catalina boot drive and won't show you that option at all. Or if the Catalina MacOS was not installed into the other drive in a way that made it bootable, you will get the same result.


What year and model is your Mac, and what process did you follow to create the Catalina boot drive?

Oct 8, 2022 9:20 AM in response to steve626

My MacBook Air is new, and came with Monterey, so this is why I cannot boot with Catalina or Big Sur. I created the boot drive using the terminal method on a flash drive, and, now, when I read the how to use a boot drive Apple Support, I see the disclaimer that the earliest compatible system to use as a boot drive is the one that came on the computer when it was new.


Thanks.

reboot with option key

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