That darn reoccuring "unable to boot' question
 

I've looked at the other posts on 'unable to boot' and have no resolve to my problem. So,,

The external firewire HD is a Western Digital. The computer is running X 10.3.9. In the preferences panel on my powerbook it shows my older 9.2 that was transferred but not the 10.3.9. If I try to boot from the 9.2 on the Western Digital I get the dreaded X. If I startup holding the 'Option' key down there is no 10 operating system showing up. The 9.2 shows up but doesn't work. Wondering why it shows the older operating system but not the 10.3.9. Hmmm?

I understand that some external drives don't support booting on the Mac., but how is one to know (other than it not working) if the HD I have is incapable of booting?

Ultimate goal is to make an external mirror or clone that will boot if my internal HD goes belly up.

Any suggestions appreciated.

By the way, very nice program!!

OK -- I assume you did a full "Backup - all files" to the external, using either "Erase, then copy" or "Smart Update"?

If so, does your OSX show up in the Startup Disk preference pane?

Did 'Full Backup' with erase then copy.
 

The preference panel shows up the internal OSX, the internal 9.2, the external (on the Western Digital) 9.2 but not the copied OSX on the external.

It shows only internal OSX and the external 9.2 y when I hold down the 'Option' key when starting. In either case the 9.2 doesn't start the computer from the external drive.( the internal 9.2 does boot the computer). The OSX as a copy is not seen.

I would try booting the computer from an OSX disk but my disk drive is broken. (its an older black 500 firewire powerbook) was hoping to wait a few months before upgrading.

Is the Western Digital compatible with the Mac for booting or is there a possible other factor in the mix?

Did 'Full Backup' with erase then copy.
 

The preference panel shows up the internal OSX, the internal 9.2, the external (on the Western Digital) 9.2 but not the copied OSX on the external.

It shows only internal OSX and the external 9.2 y when I hold down the 'Option' key when starting. In either case the 9.2 doesn't start the computer from the external drive.( the internal 9.2 does boot the computer). The OSX as a copy is not seen.

I would try booting the computer from an OSX disk but my disk drive is broken. (its an older black 500 firewire powerbook) was hoping to wait a few months before upgrading.

Is the Western Digital compatible with the Mac for booting or is there a possible other factor in the mix?

I'd need to see the log from the run, Dan. There are a number of WD drives, so it's hard to know for sure. The easiest thing to do is to install OSX "straight" to the drive and see if that works. But, if your CD is broken you can't really do that.

If you've done a "Backup - all files", and there's a complete OSX installed on the machine, it really should show up.

I'm half way there and I'm not sure why
 

Tried clicking on, 'Before copy repair permissions' It did it's barber pole thing and continued for 15 minutes. I decided to stop the progress. Since it appeared to freeze before finishing I tested the permissions with 'Preferental Treatment' and all was fine with no problems.

I then re-copied to the 'Western Digital' hard drive and it finished the copy ( I have to admit that in the past it said there was a problem with a couple of files. It didn't do that this time).

I tried the option key startup and the copy showed up but when I tried to start from the copy it showed the circle/. I then tried to boot from the preference panel and it booted up fine. Half way there

Any insite on why the 'Before copy check permissions' never finished?

The ultimate goal would be to boot from the 'Option' startup. Any suggestions or potential problems making the copy boot that way?

Thanks

Given that you're running under 10.3.9, permission repair likely failed due to problems between repair permissions/disk utility and the latest iTunes.

If you got booted with Startup Disk, it should show up in the Option-boot... I really can't explain why it isn't doing so.

Sometimes it's best not to try to figure it out.
 

Everythings working fine.

I decided to try my other machine 'a mega mini'. Put the system on a different partition on the 'Western Digital' and it worked fine. Switched over to the powerbook. I booted it up from the 'option' command and it showed up on my powerbook. Next I booted up the icon for the powerbok in the 'option' startup and it also worked.

Don't know what caused the problem before but all is well at the moment. I'm not sure I want to know.

Sent in and received my registration code.

Thanks for the program and your support!!!

Great, Dan. Wacky, but great! :-)