Startup clone disk will not boot the system
 

I used SD to clone my system startup disk on a external SATA drive. The clone disk has a GUID partition scheme.

The Startup Disk utility in System Utilities sees both startup disks (the system and clone), but when I select the clone drive and press restart, it restarts from the system disk instead of the clone. I tried restarting and holding down the Option key; the only startup disk that shows up is the system disk.

I have a new Mac Pro running 10.6.

Any ideas appreciated.

I'm guessing that your eSATA adapter doesn't support boot, actually.

I'm running the Newer Technology Voyager quad interface docking station. I unhooked the esata connection and hooked it up using USB. Same result: the clone shows up in the Startup Disk utility but is ignored, and doesn't show up at all during option-restart.

I don't think it's GUID, then -- or it's not a "Backup - all files" with "Erase, then copy" or "Smart Update"...

Dave,

Your initial post on this thread was correct: my eSATA adapter can't create or recognize a startup clone. When my external drive is connected via USB then I can create startup clones that I can then boot from. (My first experiment was trying to boot using USB from a clone created with eSATA; this failed and was the basis for my response to your first post.)

Please briefly explain why making startup clones is a problem with an eSATA adapter.

And thanks for putting me on the right track to solving this infuriating problem.

Harlan

Using eSATA to create the copy shouldn't have any effect, since the data on the disk is not specific to the adapter. I've certainly taken FireWire-created copies to Macs with only USB and started up, no problem (and vice versa - taking USB created copies on Power PC Macs and booting from FireWire).