How do I force Boot Camp to boot into Mac OS X?

I've gone ahead and installed Apple's Boot Camp product and Windows XP and I'm totally delighted with the results. Finally, I can pop into Windows as needed without having to drag along a PC on my sales calls. But how the heck do I get back to Mac OS X? It's now automatically booting into Windows each time.

Dave's Answer:

Glad to hear that you're having a good experience with Boot Camp. It's pretty cool, as I explain here: Running Windows XP on your Mac with Boot Camp.

I too noticed the same issue, however, and there's a bit of a trick to getting it to boot into Mac OS X each time, rather than Windows.

First, hold down the Option key while the system is booting, and it'll give you a list of all bootable operating systems found on the computer:

Choose an OS at boot time: Windows XP or Mac OS X

Pick Mac OS X and boot.

Now, once you're up and running, go to Apple --> System Preferences --> Startup Disk and you'll see the following:

System Preferences: Startup Disk: Windows XP or Mac OS X?

Select Mac OS X rather than Windows XP, and you should automatically boot into Mac OS X each time until you again use the "Option" at boot time to select Windows XP by hand.

Hope that helps you out. Don't forget to also check out Parallels too, if you want to try running that Windows app without having to reboot at all: Windows on the Mac with Parallels Virtualization.

Categorized: Mac OS X Help (Article 6680, Written by Dave Taylor)
Tagged: boot camp, dual boot mac, macintel, parallels, windows on mac
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Comments

Boot Camp also installs a Control Panel into Windows called (strangely enough) Startup Disk. It looks and works remarkably like the Startup Disk in OSX.

Posted by: Phil Ershler at July 14, 2006 7:18 PM

WOW, thank you!!--that was exactly the information I was looking for

Posted by: Matt S at August 19, 2007 8:13 AM

Amazing! This was my exact problem. Found you through Googling "os x force boot". Great stuff!

Posted by: Big John at November 9, 2007 7:44 PM

Hey!

I have had the exact same problem, and was really worried. Now i still have a problem..The macintosh/windows selection screen still comes up as i hold the option key while booting, but when i click on the mac symbol on screen, a 'no entry' sign comes up and signs into windows...!! Help? Would be much appreciated! Thankyou.

Posted by: Jess Malpas at August 26, 2008 11:32 AM

Donated my son's mac to my dad. It had boot camp, the Tiger OS (OSX?) and Windows XP installed. Son liked to eat near the keyboard so there might be some poor connections with some keys.

Dad wants to get rid of boot camp and Windows.

Now dad can't boot into mac, even pressing the Option key (has tried each option key--both sides--on separate attempts). Maybe the keyboard, but is there any way around this other than a new keyboard?

Posted by: David at May 10, 2009 9:21 PM

i held the option key when the computer started and it comes up with a picture of a lock and a bar to type something into, this means that i cant boot in to mac now!! HELP!!!

Posted by: Jonny at July 28, 2009 6:19 AM

Just bought today my 21"5 iMAC and the installation of Windows7 with BootCamp was smooth and great, but i simple just can't get to choose the option of which system i want to start when i boot the mac. OPTION KEY SIMPLE DOESN'T WORK, it always start with Windows7. I don't know if its because i'm using a wireless keyboard...i know that when i press X or Z after i hear the TaaTaa mac sound i go to GRUB4DOS with a red background but i don't know what to do here ....i'm able to start normally with Win7 but i really would like to have the dual boot options !!

Posted by: Pedro Bernardo at November 29, 2009 8:40 AM

Pedro, try booting with the ALT key held down. Sounds like you might have a non-standard Mac keyboard so the Option trick might not work. Hope that helps!

Posted by: Dave Taylor at November 29, 2009 6:24 PM

I am having the same issue as Jonny, I hold down option and it gives me a lock screen, I've tried all my passwords and none work, I also can't boot from disc. This was a refurb and didn't come with a restore or os disc.
Any ideas?

Posted by: Cassie at March 30, 2010 7:50 PM

every time i hold down option key, only windows option comes up.. im scared i dont know how to get onto my mac... btw i hav a macbook.. please help

Posted by: bill at May 17, 2010 2:11 AM

Were any of you guys that were experiencing "the problem with the lock symbol showing up when booting and holding down the OPTION key" able to find a fix for this??? I'm have the same problem with my Mac, which happens to be a 13" MacBook Pro. I know I'm holding down the correct key because my brother has the same machine and it works fine on his. Please help!!!

Posted by: John Nuxper at May 28, 2010 4:03 PM

This info was so helpful, I have be figuring this answer out on my own for number of times now. Thanks so much.

Posted by: Chris at July 6, 2010 4:54 AM

Have run Parallels successfully until now. I am having same trouble in that the mac auto boots into Windows7. The ALT and OPT key are the same. I cannot figure out how to go back to previous successful login operation. Any help is appreciated.

Posted by: diane at July 10, 2010 8:01 PM

Thinking about buying a Macbook. Can I both dual boot and use Parallels or VMWare? i.e. will Parallels and VMWare recognize that I've already installed Windows or Linux in another partition?

Posted by: Occ at December 1, 2010 12:54 PM

Do you have any suggestions for me to resolve a persistent wireless drop issue for my Macbook Pro running 10.6.5?

Posted by: Bill Covert at March 27, 2011 10:49 AM

I am having the same isse right now but I forgot you have to run the apple os cd in windows to download thebootcamp control panel.

Posted by: mike at July 12, 2011 2:14 PM

I have something to say, now that you mention it, but ...

I do have a lot to say, and questions of my own for that matter, but first I'd like to say thank you for all your efforts on this Web site by buying you a cup of coffee!

I do have a comment, now that you mention it!