Can't install OSX on external drive...

Question

Hi ----------------------------
A couple of days ago I purchased a Seagate 300gig Firewire/USB drive. I partioned it with Disk Utility and proceeded to install OS 10.4 from the install DVD. No dice. It wouldn't let me get past the window where you indicated a disk/volume on which to install. Phoned Seagate support. They said I couldn't install a system on an external drive. That sounded strange to me as I have a ACOM 60gig external on which I had no problem installing OS 10.2.8.
Anyhow, I then turned to Carbon Copy Cloner and proceeded to try that. after clicking "Make Bootable" on the CCC preference page, I then proceeded to try to make a clone of my system. I failed twice, but the third time was a charm. When I fired up the Startup Disk in System Preferences, there was an icon for my new drive partition staring me right in the face. I choose it as the new startup disk, clicked on it, and my computer started it restart routine.
But, a flashing icon appeared on the screen, alternating between a question mark and a folder icon, and then the computer restarted up in its original disk/volume.
Hey, what gives? What am I doing wrong? I thought when I saw the new system icon in the Startup Disk window, that I was home free. If I'm unable to get a start up system on my new drive, it will become (just like the birdie in Monty Python) and "ex-new drive." It will go right back to Comp USA.
Can anyone help me out here? If so, TIA
Phil (Da Kid)
G4 867   Mac OS X (10.4.6)  

Answer 1

FWIW, the 'zero out' option is a waste of time for problems like this. Please understand that even a one volume partitioning scheme puts more than one partition on the drive. Partition number zero contains information about the scheme & the other partitions. (This is the partition Disk Utility's "Info" button reports info about when you select the drive rather than one of its volumes. That should say it is ApplePartitionScheme for a PPC Mac, or a GUID one for an Intel one; otherwise the drive won't boot the Mac in question no matter what else you do.)
This partition is not affected by an erase with zeros option, which only applies to a mountable volume & only overwrites data on that volume with zeros. Aside from the intended use as a security option, the only other value it has is to pre-mark bad blocks on the drive used for storing that volume's data. But since it doesn't affect the other partitions, since the drive already maps out bad blocks wherever it finds them at write time, & since a misread zero is as bad as a misread one wherever it might occur in the partition info, there is just no way the zeros option is going to correct a boot problem.
So, if you want to do something useful, forget this advice to 'zero the drive' & the "Erase" tab in Disk Utility as a means of formatting the drive. You can only format volumes with that tab. To reformat the entire drive, or to check that its partition scheme is the right one for booting your Mac, use the "Partition" tab & its "Options" button.
FWIW #2: the StartUp Disk system preference doesn't do extensive checks on a startup volume, so it sometimes displays startup volumes that won't actually boot your Mac. If you select one of these, you see exactly what you saw: the flashing icon, followed by a startup from a viable volume, if one is present.
Startup Manager, which is enabled by the Option key restart, does much more extensive checks (which is why it takes so long to complete its scan for startup candidates). If a drive doesn't show up in Startup Manager, you can be sure it won't boot the Mac. The same isn't true of the pref.