Boot Mac OSX 10.10 from an external USB harddisk that was prepared by another machine.

Short answer: yes, doable!  I can boot Mac OSX 10.10 from an external USB harddisk that was prepared by another machine.

I have a MacMini 2009 edition in the office and a MacMini 2012 Server at home, and I have a USB 3.0 portable hard disk.  My goal was trying to have portable OSX 10.10 environment that I can use both at home in the office.

So I spent sometime to set up the portable harddisk (which I explained everything in my last blog), and then I use my office MacMini 2009 to setup OSX 10.10 in the MacJournal Extended partition.  And then I install all sorts of software in it.  At night I plugged this harddisk to my home MacMini 2012 Server, boot up the MacMini 2012 with an Windows 8.1 on it (bootcamp), and tried to use the System Tray BootCamp applet change the bootup partition.  However it kept rebooting to Windows 8.1.

Eventually I hold the ALT key during bootup and force it to boot from the OSX on USB 3.0 portable harddisk.  It worked.  I then set the startup partition to the OSX 10.10 on the hard disk.  I didn't have time to try it out (by reboot) afterward, which I will probably do later today.  But at least I know there's a way to boot from an OSX partition that had been prepared by another machine.

BTW, I was NOT able to use SyncToy to sync a huge amount of file between a network location to a OSX drive directory on Windows 8.1.  I will try syncing to a exFAT partition and see if I get better result.

Get Android Studio running properly on Mac OSX 10.10

To set up Android Studio to running properly on Mac OSX 10.10, I went through the following steps:

• Download and execute android-studio-ide-1641136.dmg  (Andorid Studio installer).
• Download and execute Java for OSX 2014-001.
• Download and execute JDK 8.x.
• Update the Andorid Studio application.
• When prompted for JDK path, point to "/Library/Java/JavaVirtualMachines/jdk1.8.0_31.jdk/Contents/Home"
• Set theme to : Base.Theme.AppCompat.Light

And with that I hook up my Nexus 5, and got the hello world code compiled and deployed to my phone.

Prepare an external USB harddisk for use in both Windows and Mac environemnt

I have a 700Gb USB3 external harddisk, and I want to use it with both Windows 8.1 (on my home desktop PC) and MacOSX 10.10 (at home with MacMini 2012 Server and office with mac).  It tooks me a while this morning (almost 1.5 hour) but I finally got it working.  Here's some tidbit I found out.

Disk Partition structure

In order to flexily create, remove, shrink partition, I need to use Basic GPT instead of MDB.  Even with Basic GPT, there are still things that I can't do on certain tool in certain environment.  But after compared both, I still found Basic GPT gives me more advantage.

Tool(s) to create disk partition

• Do not use Disk Director 12 to create partition.  I used it to create Basic GPT to create the basic partition structure and it seems fine.  But no matter what partition I created on DD12 at Windows side, the Mac side can't seemed to properly recognize, or sometimes treated it as corrupted.  At first I thought I could use DD12 to shrink and enlarge partition, but since whatever it touches seemed to upset the Mac side, I think I may as well just stop using this software.
• Using Windows system Disk manager tool to create partition seemed to work but only to a point.  There were still partitions created that way and NOT properly recognized by Mac.
• The best way, after all these trial and error, is to use Mac Disk Utility to create and partitions that can be recognized by both Mac and Windows.  Sure it may create some little gap (like tens of Megabyte being wasted in partition gaps), but still better than things not working.

Partition Format

For Mac OS partition, I have no choice but choose MacOS Journal format.  The question is what Windows format I should use.  After trial and error, I found that the best way is to create the exFAT using Mac Disk Utility.  That allows both environment to see those partitions properly, and also allow me to put file in that same exFAT partition from both Mac and Windows world.

Setting up MacMini 2009 with OSX 10.10, and more

After receiving a new set of new memory module (benefit of lifetime warranty), I started setting up my MacMini 2009 with clean installation on the internal 160Gb harddisk.  The process was pretty straight forward, and at the the I have OSX 10.10 running properly.

But my main goal is to run bootcamp on it, so I shrinked the size of the OSX partition down to 50Gb, which should be enough to do basic stuffs.

Then I want to set up bootcamp, however, BootCamp detected that my MacMini 2009 can only run Windows 7, and I don't have the disc with me.  Windows 7 on thumb drive DID NOT seemed to work, so I have to wait until I get home before I can try that part of installation.

Next I wanted to set up OSX 10.10 on an external harddisk, so that can install as many apps as I want, as my internal 50Gb partition is just not enough to install all the applications that I care.  There was a previously installed OSX 10.10 partition on my external harddisk, so I thought I could just reuse it.  Well, bad idea, because that one ended up has some strange problem.  The biggest problem was that App Store on that partition failed to work at all.  Without that working, I can't download apps, and not even update the system.

So I looked around online, and found various people suggested various ways to solve the problem, but none of them worked for me:

• Reset PRAM: did not work.  I couldn't even get that reset PRAM thing working.  After several trial and still couldn't got the "second restart" step happening, I gave up.
• Killing certain processes in activity monitor: tried, and couldn't find both process that was mentioned in the forum message.  
• Restart : didn't work.
• Reinstall a clean OS: did NOT work.
• Set DNS to use Google DNS: doesn't work

However, at the end, I solved the problem in a very stupid way: I selected "Enter Full Screen" from the menu, and suddenly the AppStore page start showing up, and I was then able to download software form AppStore.

Setting up old musical gear with MacMini 2012 Server

Mac OSX makes it so easy to set up a simple music studio since it comes with GarageBand .  But how about connecting musical instruments to my Mac (MacMini 2012 Server) so that I can record music that I played on these musical instruments?

My goal is to connect the following devices to my MacMini, which at the back of my head, I know that they should all work fine since I connected them with my MacMini 2009 before:

• Yamaha DGX-630 digital piano 
• Roland TD-1 digital drumset with MidiMan Midisport 2x2 Interface
• M-Audio Firewire Solo with a dynamic mic connected to it from the front input

At the end I was ABLE to connect all of them to my MacMini 2012 Server with OSX Yosemite 10.10.1, but with various gottacha and caution that I need to be aware of.

Yamaha DGX-630 

Connecting DGX-360 to MacMini is pretty simple as long as you have the right drive and the commonly available USB cable.  For driver, I downloaded um132mx.zip, which is a USB MIDI driver.  Then I grabbed a regular USB cable with one Type A male head and a Type B male head at the other side.  I connected the B-Type head to the Yamaha piano while A-Type head connected to the Mac.  With that and the driver installed, Garbage Band recognize the key I pressed on my digital piano with pressure sensitivity.  Make sure, though, that you reboot the machine since the driver require that to work.

Roland TD-1 with MidiMan Midisport 2x2 Interface

This connection is also easy, which surprised with considered that my MidiMan Midisport 2x2 Interface is almost like 20 years old.  In fact, I brought it back when I was still using PowerMac Quadra 610.  So I was surprised that the driver is available (MIDI_USB_OSX_3.5.3.dmg), So I had the driver installed, rebooted the MacMini, and then connect all the standard MIDI and USB cables.  After Garbage Band spent half an hour or so to download 15Gb+ drum related fields (yep, should had been done it at work), I now am able to use my TD-1 as the MIDI drum control and record drum pattern to Garbage Band,  Notice that MidiMan 2x2 is now sold as so called "anniversary version", and still have new driver support.

M-Audio Firewire Solo 

This one is the trickest, because ever since Apple abandoned Firewire the interface format, support for Firewire devices were gradually fading away.  In fact, the latest driver I could get was FireWire_OSX_1_10_3.zip, And even this one has all kind of problem on OSX 10,10:

• Preference screen doesn't work
• Uninstaller DOES NOT work

A lot of people has the same problem as me, and there's no solution for these problem.  HOWEVER, the interface indeed works since I can adjust the recording level on Sound preference window.  So to me, I accepted the fact that at least this 15+ years old piece of hardware still works.  Also the Firewire port on the MacMini 2012 Server also works fine.  When I record audio, I don't need to turn on the phantom power.  Firewire port was able to provide power to drive the Firewire Solo device, which is pretty nice (unlike my experience with doing it on a Windows computer).  In fact, with the quietness of MacMini, this will be a much better audio recording device than my Dell XPS desktop, which constantly creating some low frequency humming noise.

Love my MacMini 2012 Server

I was pretty happy with my purchase with my MacMini 2012 Server when I just got it.  But once I ordered and then installed 16Gb memory in it, MacMini became super awesome.  Here's a list of stuff that I love about this compute, particularly comparing with the MacMini 2014.

• Speed: the speed of MacMini 2012 Server with 16Gb memory is amazing both both OSX 10.10 side and Windows 8.1 side (with bootcamp).  I used it in my daily life work compiling some heavy Visual Studio 2013 solutions and the system was just snappy.
  
• Light weight: with less than 3 pounds, I can bring it back and fore between home and work place, and use it in both places at ease.
  
• Standard cables: I hate devices that forces me to buy proprietary cables, because that means I have to pay extra to have duplicate sets of cable with one set at work and one set at home.  With this MacMini, power cable is just some common US$6 power cord, with common mini display port that can be easier found both online and at local store.  The rest of other ports are just USB 3.0.  

While the MacMini 2014 gives me the last 2 benefit, it does NOT give me an option to get quad core processor.  That means this MacMini 2012 Server is the cheapest option to get quad core computer that runs MacOSX and Windows without hacking.

I better buy 16Gb for my new MacMini Server ... since the old memory doesn't work

I knew I really shouldn't be such a cheapscape all the time, but I really got enjoyment from reusing old computer components.  I call it upcycle :-P .

So my new MacMini Server has only 4Gb of memory.  I know that my replacement 8Gb for my older MacMini late 2009 model is coming, so I was wondering if I can use that 8Gb for my new MacMini Server (2012 model), and let the old MacMini to use the 4Gb (2 x 2Gb SIMM) that came with the MacMini Server.

Well, it turns out that my plan doesn't work.

My old 2009 MacMini use PC3-8500 1066 MHz modules, but the MacMini Server 2012 uses PC3-12800 1600 MHz modules.  In fact, I did tried put the PC3-12800 1600 MHz modules on MacMini late2009 model, and the machine didn't even boot up.  Instead it gave me some beep sounds.  So I swapped everything back to their own place, and both MacMini worked normally.

Setting up bootcamp with Windows 8.1 Pro on MacMini Server (2012)

After getting a refurbished MacMini Server (2012 model quard core) from Apple Store, my first action was installing Yosemite on the second 1Tb hard disk so that I could switch between older Mavericks and newer Yosemite.  The second thing to do was setting up BootCamp so that I can use the machine to do software development at work.  After all, that was kind of my main incentive of getting the quad core MacMini in the first place.  Here's my journey of getting that done.

After I got Yosemite set up completed, I launched boot camp assistant, which is right there in Yosemite (no need to do extra download).  The first thing it asked for was a thumb drive.  I had a 16Gb thumb drive ready, so that's no problem.  Second thing it asked for was the Windows 8.1 ISO.  That's also fine too since I had ISO downloaded from my company MSDN account.  With that the application started doing it's work.

And darn that it took ALMOST 2 HOURS to complete that whole preparation process, but eventually the machine rebooted into Windows 8.1 installation process.

Everything seemed to go smoothly as expected UNTIL the Windows 8.1 installer prompted me for choosing a disk partition, as NONE of the partition in the list ready to install!  I was puzzled for a short while, and then I saw the partition called Bootcamp, which is in the same 300Gb size that I assigned while running the Bootcamp Assistant application.  I clicked the "detail" on the message and it says that it couldn't install in that partition because it's not in NTFS.  So I clicked the "Format..." link and formatted that partition. With that the installation was continued.

Next was a long process of multiple reboots, and then Apple driver installation was prompted, and continue.  During that process the USB keyboard and mouse use lost connection a few times.  That problem was easily solved by unplugging and plugging the USB connector of the mouse and keyboard dongle.  Hopefully this is just something happening during installation process.

With the Windows 8.1 Pro was installed.  As usually, after that I needed to run Windows update, and that was a long long long process.

But with that, I have bootcamp set up properly.

Finally get Apple Hardware Test running

I read some blogs and found that there exist something called Apple Hardware Test.  Since I sort of figured out that a memory chip on my MacMini had problem, I was thinking that it maybe good to ultimately find out which memory has problem.  And this tool seemed like a prefect way to do so.

 So I held down keyboard button D before restart the Mac Mini.  I tried option D, still didn't work.  After a LOT of fustration, I eventually found out that option D doesn't work on my MacMini late 2009, while my model requires loading up the disc "Mac Mini, Application Install DVD" disc (NOT the MacMini Mac OSX Install DVD, nor a OSX Yosemite flash drive that I created)  That's a problem since my internal DVD drive failed.  Eventually I found out that the external USB DVD Drive worked, but I need to unplug all network cable and other USB harddisk conenction.  (I also REMOVED all partitions in my internal harddisk, which I would do it regardless since there seemed to be some drive access issue anyway.  Don't know if it's related to being able to boot up Apple Hardware Test eventually.)  With that, I only have power cable, monitor cable, and USB cable connecting to my USB external DVD drive.  

That worked.

(Someone also suggested downloading Apple Hardware Test dmg and burned it on a Flash drive.  My approach worked for me so I didn't try that one.)

So I ran a test on my current setting: 4Gb Ram Module at bottom slot, 1Gb RAM Module at upper slot.  And I found no memory error at all.  I got a SATA error, though.  But then I searched the web found out that it's probably a false alarm. So I kind of ignored it.

When I swapped in another 4Gb Ram Module and ran the test again, I got the following error:

Alert! Apple Hardware Test has detected an error,

4MEM/9/40000000:0xa89ae618

So now it's proven that there IS indeed error with the memory.  Since it supposed to come with lifetime warranty, I am going to send it in and got it replaced.

Make a bootable OS X 10.10 Yosemite

I just brought a MacMini Quadcore 2012 from Apple, and think that I should install Yosemite on it,  After the pain and huge among of bandwidth waste on trying to get Yosemite from Apple App Store, I decided that I should simply create a bootable flash drive and use it to install Yosemite.  I followed the instruction here using the first command line option ("Option 1: Use createinstallmedia").  It worked out great, but I need make sure that I formatted the drive in Mac Journal format first, and close Disk Utility before executing the command line.  It did take a while.  In fact, it took almost 20+ minutes to complete that process.  But it indeed work.

Fixing MacMini (Late 2009)

I was cleaning up my closet and found that my MacMini was there all packed.  I kind of remembered that there was some problem with it, something like I couldn't start it up.  But I forgot exactly what the problem was.  Since I was about to throw it away, I thought it would be fine to turn it on the final time, and maybe yanked out the hard disk and destroy it desperately since I was a bit worry that people would steal my data from it.

I was surprised that I could start up the machine, and I was able to use it to surf the web.  So I was like, maybe I could try install the latest MacOSX Yosemite on it.  And that how my nightmare started.

I experienced the following problem:

• I was never able to complete the download of Yosemite through App Store. Usually in middle, or worst of all, at the near end of the download process, it would RESTART the download again, or gave me "failed to download Yosemite".  After experienced that 7 to 8 times (and wasted TONS OF BANDWIDTH), I knew that something is seriously wrong.  The trick of changing DNS didn't work.  After try and try and try for almost 3 to 4 hours, I ended up decided to try downloading Yosemite on my OSX Yosemite VM, and that actually worked.  I was planned to following this procedure and create an install dmg file, but then I thought, maybe I could try simply copying the Yosemite install .app folder from VM to my home file server, and then copied it to my MacMini.  Ended up I found that approach working well, so I didn't have to use the .dmg I created using this procedure.  Notice that I should NOT copy the .app folder to Application folder.  Instead I should just put it in some folder on local harddisk.  I tried putting the .app folder in Application folder, and it ended up that the App Store download progress override that folder, which wasted all the time I spent on copy over the file.
  
• I found my track pad clicking not responsive.  I had this problem for quite a long while, but never serious deal with it.  Today I finally fixed it by doing it old school: I used force to twist the track pad.  That fixed the problem (although the left corner is still not as responsive as the right corner).  If later on the problem comes again, maybe I'll try to do some proper fix.
  
• Even with the Yosemite installation file, I still had problem installing Yosemite.  A few times I tried, and the installation would ended up failing in the middle, and sometimes even crashed the machine.  Eventually I tried out swapping the 8Gb in the MacMini with the original 2Gb that came with the MacMini originally.  That of course means I had to crack open the MacMini.  But then I did that before, and I had the tool to do the job.  It turned out that the switching out of memory really did the magic, and I was able to complete the installation.  But then, running Yosemite with only 2Gb of memory was just slow (plus there's some serious problem with the internal harddisk, which I will explain later).  So I was trying to figure out whether BOTH of the 4Gb memory chip has problem, or just one of them.  I tried having 1Gb at the bottom slot, and one 4Gb at the top, and tried out another  installation of Yosemite.  I didn't go well. So I tried another 4Gb chip stay at the top slot.  This time the installation CRASHED in the middle of installation.  So it seemed worst then before.  Before I gave up on both 4Gb chip, I gave it one more trial by using the 4Gb memory chip I tried the first time but insert it in the BOTTOM slot.  This time the system seemed stable and able to finish installation.  So I am going to settle with this setting.  If eventually this setting fail,  then it means it's time to throw away this MacMini.
  
• After I had 2 Yosemite installed, one on internal harddisk and one on external harddisk, I started using Yosemite with the one installed on internal harddisk, but found that the performance being pretty sluggish whenever I tried to open a folder.  And then I tried the OS installed on external harddisk and the performance was so much better.  That's when I realized that there's something wrong with the internal harddisk, and in fact also explained all the problem I had with Windows 8 dual boot (Boot Camp) on MacMini as I was forced to put Windows 8 on internal harddisk.  So I am going to totally ignore the internal harddisk and just use the external one.

With the Mac Mini got fixed up, I don't have a need to buy a new MacMini anymore.  Sure I spent almost a day on it, but I kind of got some sense of accomplishment, just like what I got after I fixed up my Lenovo X60T.  BTW, I wonder if I can use the memory chip in X60T on MacMini, but that would be another day of adventure.