System Does Not Reboot to Main Drive After "Restart"

[RonProchot]

My iMac (24" - Early 2008) upgraded with a 960 GB Mercury Electra SATA SSD running OSX 10.11.6 will not restart to the default drive when I use the RESTART command form the Desktop Menu, but will restart ONLY if I manually turn OFF the computer, and then ON again. I've tried resetting the PRAM, reinstalling the OS using Disc Repair in Disc Utility, and reformatting the drive. Disc Utility & TechTool Pro (v9.5.2) give the drive a clean bill of health. There is obviously a problem. Any suggestions would be appreciated.

 

[honestone]

So, after checking out the drive with Disk Utility and Tech Tool Pro, everything looked fine, correct? Then, you Erased and Formatted (and maybe partitioned) the 960 Gig SSD with Disk Utility. Finally, you did a fresh, clean, "virgin" installation of OS 10.11.6, correct? Assuming you did all that, your iMac will still not restart using the Restart Command from the Apple menu in the Finder, correct?

 

[RonProchot]

So, after checking out the drive with Disk Utility and Tech Tool Pro, everything looked fine, correct? Then, you Erased and Formatted (and maybe partitioned) the 960 Gig SSD with Disk Utility. Finally, you did a fresh, clean, "virgin" installation of OS 10.11.6, correct? Assuming you did all that, your iMac will still not restart using the Restart Command from the Apple menu in the Finder, correct?

Hi. Thanks for the response. CORRECT on all the above.

 

[Cory Cooper]

Just to rule it out:

Have you set the startup drive in  > System Preferences... > Startup Disk > click lock & authenticate > click on SSD icon to select, the click Restart... button?

C

 

[RonProchot]

Hello Cory.. Thanks for your reply. Yes, I've done that. At the moment SSD is the only drive connected to the computer; and come to think of it, I think it just rebooted from the RESTART command within the Start-up Disc Window. Mmm ... that's interesting. Let's try this again, but from the Desktop Menu without delay, and of course without any other drives attached.

 

[Cory Cooper]

Let us know how it goes.

C

 

[RonProchot]

Thanks Corey. All of a sudden, as of late last week, the system is booting as it should. I still have to work up the courage to connect the other two drives to run their diagnostics, and remove some of their files without damaging or corrupting my now miraculously working SSD. Thanks for you help every-one !