Intel-based Macs: Flashing question mark when trying to boot from RAID volume

• Last Modified: November 09, 2006
• Article: TA24104

• Old Article: 303692

Products Affected

Mac mini (Mid 2007), Mac mini (Late 2006), Mac mini (Early 2006), iMac (20-inch, Mid 2007), iMac (24-inch Mid 2007), iMac (Mid 2006 17-inch), iMac (Early 2006 20-inch), iMac (Early 2006 17-inch), iMac (24-inch, Late 2006), MacBook Pro, Mac mini, iMac (20-inch Late 2006), iMac (17-inch, Late 2006 CD), iMac (17-inch, Late 2006), iMac (24-inch, Early 2008), iMac (20-inch, Early 2008)

Some Intel-based Macs do not support booting from software RAID volumes. If you try to start these Intel-based Macs up from a software RAID volume, the computer may start up to a flashing question mark.

The following computers do not support booting from software RAID volumes:

• MacBook
• MacBook Pro (not including MacBook Pro (Core 2 Duo) models)
• iMac (Early 2006)
• Mac mini (Early 2006)

This document will be updated as more information becomes available.

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Oddly enough, the list of unsupported computers happens to be identical to the list of computers that don't include a spare SATA bay to install a second drive to create a RAID set with.

You could remove the optical drive, sure, but that's exactly the sort of thing that Apple isn't likely to condone within the context of a valid warranty.

As far as I can tell, software RAID works just fine on any Mac that has room for at least a pair of SATA drives. My G5 tower at home has been running from a mirrored pair of 1.5TB drives for months now without a problem.