Can't choose bootable partition at startup

Question

Apart from what I'm about to say, my system is working just fine. It boots up quickly, loads the desktop, and runs all apps snappily. It receives regular maintenance with both TechTool Pro 4 and Diskwarrior with no issues.
When I attempt to boot up from my new Maxtor bootable partition by holding down the option key on start up, it doesn't show up as a choice (firewire of course). I can only see the main HD as well as my Techtool pro edrive. However, the animated watch icon that appears while it loads whatever it needs to before a choice can be made now never stops and no choice can be made this way at all!
But if I boot up into the main HD as normal, choose 'startup disk' from system prefs, I can see the bootable partition just fine, and can choose to restart from it - which I've done successfully.
Running FSCK in single user mode reveals no problems, but, since installing the Maxtor files, before single user mode finishes installing, I get this:
USB optical mouse: family specific matching fails
USB drive: family specific matching fails
Each shows up 10 or 12 times as it tries to make the match. There are others in the list but they scroll too quickly to make a note of.
It also shows:
Com.Maxtor.IOPowSec.00 overriding init
So suspecting the Maxtor files had something to do with it I uninstalled them and restarted with/without the drive attached. The 'family specific' issues disappeared as well as the 'Com.Maxtor.IOPowSec.00 overriding init' . Instead I get these three:
Com.apple.driver.keylargoATA
Com.apple.driver.pioneersuperdrive
Com.apple.driver.itunesphonedriver
has no kernal dependency
Holding the option key on startup still doesn't show the maxtor, and I still can't choose from the drives that do appear.
When I boot into the main HD, the Maxtor shows up on the desktop as normal even though the driver files are gone (it's obviously plug & play anyway) and whatever this lack of kernal dependency is, nothing appears to be affected in the Mac's normal use.
Sorry for the lengthy explanation but I'm hoping somebody can shed some light on what might be happening.

Answer 1

Yes, I'm at a loss here. sudo wants /var/run/sudo to be owned by root and writable only by root, but yours is OK, so I really don't understand what the meaning of those error messages could be in your case.
The only thing I can suggest at this point is to enable the root user in NetInfo Manager (Security > Authenticate..., then Security > Enable Root User), log in as root, and issue the commands there (without the sudo prefix, which is not needed when logged in as root):
bless --info "/Volumes/<MaxtorVolumeName>/" --verboseWhat does the output of this command say?
bless --setBoot --folder "/Volumes/<MaxtorVolumeName>/System/Library/CoreServices"
Regardless of whether this helps you to fix the bootable Maxtor partition problem, there is something awry going on here and at this point I would start considering an Archive and Install, unless someone more knowledgeable than me knows how to fix it (it should be fixed). Just out of curiosity, after having enabled the root user in NetInfo Manager, try to run the following command in your administrator user account:
sudo -vDoes it still output those error messages?
iMac G5 17" (iSight)   Mac OS X (10.4.4)