Bless tool was unable to set the current boot disk

[@rsen186]

Hi All

a couple of week ago OS X on MacBook 13" suddenly crashed. At the very beginning I thought that reparing the disk and permission through Recovery would have worked but...nothing.
OS X was installed on a SSD HD. Since I am far from home I do not have my Mac HD with me but I have another SSD HD as external drive. Both SSD HD are Kingston Technology 240 GB Solid State Drive 2.5 inch V300 SATA 3.

Now, when trying through Recovery to fix the SSD HD and/or permission I received a warning telling that disk could not be disactivated. So I initialized the disk bring it outside as external SSD HD (and mounting the other SSD HD inside). Everything worked fine but when I mounted it as internal disk again and tryied to reboot from it I received another wardning: bless tool was unable to set the current boot disk! needless to say that I tryied to do the same stuff with the other SSD HD with the same result. Now I can only use my mac rebooting from external HD...
Obviously I am not an expert and I was just playing around to try to learn by mistake how to fix it.
can anyone help me on that?

 

[Cory Cooper]

Hello and welcome.

-Which version of OS X?
-Do both SSDs have OS X and the same data on them?
-If so, how did you clone them?
-Have you tried How to Reset NVRAM on your Mac?

C

 

[@rsen186]

Hello Cory and Thanks

-I initialized both SSDs with OS X Yosemite 10.10.5.
-basically just Yosemite 10.10.5 is on them now (no important data to backup)
-I unmounted the internal SSD plugged as external and initialized and I used the external SSD as interna
-yes I tried to do that but after NVRAM reset it takes as boot disk the internal SSD and it stops while loading on the apple screen

 

[Cory Cooper]

No problem...

-Were they both setup using Disk Utility and are they GUID Partition Map with OS X Extended (Journaled) partitions?
-Do they both startup normally as an external startup drive?

c

 

[@rsen186]

Yes as external drives they work perfectly (and yes GUID Partition Map with OS X Extended (Journaled) on both)

 

[Cory Cooper]

Sounds like the internal SATA drive cable may be loose or damaged then. Which exact model 13" MacBook?

C

 

[@rsen186]

It is a MacBook Pro 13", 2009

 

[Cory Cooper]

Since they work normally as external startup drives, there isn't any reason to use the bless command.

That particular model's SATA cable can be quite fragile due to its design. A faulty cable would be my diagnosis. They can be purchased for around $45 USD from iFixit.com.

I cannot guarantee that the cable is what is causing the issue, but it sounds like it from our discussion.

C

 

[@rsen186]

thanks Cory
I will try to change it

 

[Cory Cooper]

No worries.

Like I said, I can't guarantee that the cable is at fault, but it sounds like it might be. I hope it's not a waste of time/money.

-I know you performed a PRAM/NVRAM reset...did you also try a SMC reset?
-You don't happen to have BootCamp/Windows setup on these drives do you?

Good luck and let us know the outcome.

C

 

[@rsen186]

Hello Cooper
you were right! I changed the cable and now it works perfectly!
many thanks
@

 

[Cory Cooper]

Not a problem.

Glad to hear that it worked! Thanks for letting us know.

Be well,

C

 

[Valensia Sebastiani]

@Cory Cooper hi, i currently have the same problem and i have bootcamp/windows setup previously. i deleted them once the error started (keychain login not found, etc). is there any specific reason behind this?

 

[Cory Cooper]

Hello and welcome.

-Are you using the same model MacBook?
-Are you still getting the login Keychain not found error?
-Did you fully delete Boot Camp/Windows and its partition using the Boot Camp Assistant?

C

 

[Valensia Sebastiani]

- Mine is also Macbook Pro 13", but Mid 2012.
- Yes, all the problems are still showing up. keychains, "error -50" when moving files, and all that.
- I did, there's no Windows partition anywhere. but it seems that it's still there. If I turn the macbook back on, it goes into "No bootable device -- Insert boot disk and press any key"

Thanks!

 

[Waterdragon78]

Hello! I have a Macbook Pro Mid 2015 15" and i am trying to start up my mac from a windows Vista install disk and every time i try to start up from the disk i get the error You can’t change the startup disk to the selected disk. The bless tool was unable to set the current boot disk. Can anyone fix this?

 

[Cory Cooper]

Hello and welcome.

-Which version of OS X/macOS?
-Is there a specific need to run the older Windows Vista on your Mac?

You can't startup your Mac with a Windows install disc. You will need to use Boot Camp, but I am not sure it will support Vista still. Please read through the information here: Boot Camp Support

Or, you could purchase Parallels Desktop or VMware Fusion and install Windows Vista in a virtual machine.

Hope that helps,

C