Mac desktops forum: Mid 2000 Macbook Air boot from USB

This isn't that uncommon really, and the Apple support people should have known the reason. This very subject came up in a different thread, so I'll just link back to it rather than repost the same thing.

http://forums.cnet.com/7726-21565_102-5209078.html?tag=posts;msg5209078

Also, why is this in the desktop forum as opposed to laptop?

You'd think so, but you have to remember that despite their rather vainglorious title, Apple store techs are just as bad on average as Best Buy, Fry's, or anywhere else you go.

I've had no problem booting several Mid-2011 MBPs from an external drive. Granted I haven't tried booting Lion yet because we're still trying to work out various headaches Apple has caused us with their new distribution method. But if the 2011 model shipped with Lion, then it's going to be a bit of a special case. In this particular case, I think 10.7.1 was rushed out a bit earlier than they expected and didn't include the additional KEXTs for any newer hardware and dealing with updated firmwares. Which was the part I was assuming people would pick up on from the other post.

I don't see anything here that dissuades me from the idea that this is just a case of needing to wait for the OS to catch up. When 10.7.2 arrives, if you update your external drive to that revision, and it STILL doesn't work, THEN there might be some other problem.

I'm also assuming that the Apple store A) didn't have an EFI firmware password set, and B) if A is not true, that said store employees knew that password. Because if an EFI password is set, that will automatically disable booting from any kind of external media unless the password is entered.