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.

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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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Reader Comments To Date: 19

Phil Ershler said, on July 14, 2006 7:18 PM:

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.

Matt S said, on August 19, 2007 8:13 AM:

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

Big John said, on November 9, 2007 7:44 PM:

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

Jess Malpas said, on August 26, 2008 11:32 AM:

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.

David said, on May 10, 2009 9:21 PM:

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?

Jonny said, on July 28, 2009 6:19 AM:

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!!!

Pedro Bernardo said, on November 29, 2009 8:40 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 !!

Dave Taylor said, on November 29, 2009 6:24 PM:

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!

Cassie said, on March 30, 2010 7:50 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?

bill said, on May 17, 2010 2:11 AM:

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

John Nuxper said, on May 28, 2010 4:03 PM:

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!!!

Chris said, on July 6, 2010 4:54 AM:

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

diane said, on July 10, 2010 8:01 PM:

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.

Occ said, on December 1, 2010 12:54 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?

Bill Covert said, on March 27, 2011 10:49 AM:

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

mike said, on July 12, 2011 2:14 PM:

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.

Tom said, on May 14, 2012 12:45 AM:

Hi, I just forget the options to do that. Earlier when I had windows on my Mac I used to keep a note of it. But after deleting the windows partition I forgot about this. But today when one of my friend asked me how to boot from a Mac rather than windows, I read your article and rebound the option again. Thank You Editor for writing this one.

mark wright said, on May 16, 2012 1:41 PM:

hi
I know about the option key but even if I choose mac it still boots in windows. Any ideas?

regards

Mark

Jones said, on January 22, 2013 1:05 PM:

Hi;
My MacBook Air was booting fine when I held the option key but now it only boots into Windows and that is only when I do not hold the option key. The screen does not turn on when I hold the option key. So I cannot access the Mac partition at all. Can you help Please?

I do have a lot to say, and questions of my own for that matter, but first I'd like to say thank you, Dave, for all your helpful information by buying you a cup of coffee!

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

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

Reader Comments To Date: 19

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

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