encryption and bootable backups?
 

I've been using Super Duper for many years on many machines. Just fantastic. But now I'm bolluxed. Tried to set up a SD clone (to a 1 TB USB disk) on a 10.5 MacBook Pro that happens to be (unlike all my other machines) encrypted. This is a work machine that I'm required to encrypt. The clone is made, and SD reports that the volume was made bootable, but it's not. When I do option-restart, the backup volume simply isn't displayed as a boot choice.

I suspect it's all in there, but unless I can boot to that volume, and log in, the encrypted stuff on the clone is completely unavailable to me (which is why the encryption makes it secure!) Also, not having a bootable volume makes it pretty inconvenient as a life-preserver in case of a system disk failure.

What's going on? I'm not sure if this is a SD issue, or a system issue. I'm not even totally convinced that the problem is because of the encryption.

Does it show up in the startup disk preference pane as a boot choice?

Yes, it does.

I should add that this machine is an Intel Core 2, and the USB drive is GUID partitioned.

Can you select it as the startup drive in the startup disk preference pane and do that? Repair it with Disk Utility (right-hand "repair disk" button first).

OK, I did a "Repair" on the USB backup disk with Disk Utility. No problems reported.

Then I selected the backup volume in that disk as the "Startup Disk" in System Preferences on my Mac. Then I rebooted.

Yes! It works. I'm booted on the clone and everything looks, well, like the original.

So what it comes down to is just that option-Restart doesn't want to show me that USB backup volume. Now, I need that to work, of course, because if my laptop disk craters, I need to be able to do option-Restart to boot on the clone. So what's going on? Why can't I do that?

Does it do so now, though? If not, power off, disconnect the drive, get to Option+power on, then attach the drive and see if it does.

I'd recommend making a thumbdrive with the OS installed on it (along with SD) in case you don't have boot media, if the drive is unreliable at Option+power on time.

OK, as noted, I can command the backup disk to be the "Startup Disk" (in System Preferences). When I do that, the machine reboots successfully to the backup disk.

But option-restart, which I gather is supposed to start something called the Startup Manager, STILL doesn't display the backup disk as a boot option. The only icon it displays to chose from is that of the internal disk.

So the SD clone seems to have been made, and I can boot to that clone, but not through the Startup Manager.

So I'm trying to understand. Is this a SD issue? Or a System issue? Or a backup disk issue?

BTW, this is one of two partitions on the backup disk. The other partition is for backup of another machine. I need to see if I can see that partition with the System Manager on the other machine. I think I once did that, but I'm not sure.

That's a nice idea of making a system backup on a thumb drive. But if I can't use the Startup Manager to boot to an external disk over USB, why should I expect to be able to boot to a thumb drive over USB with it? Are thumb drives treated differently, as volumes, than hard disks?

A simple installation of the OS to the thumbdrive should boot fine. They're regular volumes.

Why your drive doesn't show up, I don't know. We know it's OK, and we know you can boot from it. It should show up...

Yes, I think that SD is absolved of problems here. Thanks!

Having just run through creating a new encrypted backup in the last week or so, the repair disk thing didn't work for me.

I've only found two reliable ways to create a bootable encrypted backup, and both involve creating the Recovery HD partition:

* Install OS X to the backup drive
* Use Disk Center in a CCC trial to create the Recovery HD partition manually (apologies for linking to a competitor)

Once that's done:

* Run SD as normal
* Boot off the unencrypted backup
* Use FileVault to enable encryption of the backup

There are a number of programs out there that can create a recovery volume, if you feel you need one, of course. Regardless, I'd suggest creating a bootable thumbdrive with OS X and SD on it should be have an encrypted (or even image) backup.