Can't make external HD bootable

I bought a 300 GB Seagate ATA hard drive with a cheap Ultra brand Firewire/USB enclosure (with Prolific chipset, which may be where I went wrong).
I've partitioned it into three partitions and installed OS X 10.3.x on the first partition. The installations have seemed to have gone well. But the Firewire drive won't boot.
I've tried this both in Disk Utility (making it a Mac OS Extended-Journaled) and with SuperDuper, with no success. All I get is a grey screen with no icons of any type.
I've been unable to boot either from my cloned hard drive on the Firewire or from a clean install from my original disks.
Interestingly (to me), the System on the Firewire shows up on the Startup Disk system preference, and I've selected the Firewire drive as the startup disk, but it won't boot. Grey screen.
Research at Apple support site and other sites haven't turned up definitive info.
Thanks.
20-inch iMac Mac OS X (10.3.9)

Hi Jay and welcome to the discussions!
You say that everything seems to be installed correctly, but when you try to boot off the FireWire drive by holding down the option key on startup, you get nothing and that the drive is not recognized as a bootable drive?
I doubt that it is software related. I use SuperDuper and it has never failed me. You could try Carbon Copy Cloner or SilverKeeper and see if they do anything, but I dooubt it.
I advise people to avoid the Prolific chipset since it seems to be so hit or miss. It will work for one user at first, then stop, then not at all for a different user and flawlessly for a third. I have yet to hear of anyone having problems booting a Mac off of a drive with the Oxford 911 chipset, so that it was I bought and what I recommend.
If you have the option to return that Ultra enclosure and get a different one, I would look into it. I have a Mercury Elite Pro from OWC.

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How can I make a drive bootable without losing data on it?

Is there a way to make a second internal drive bootable without losing the data that is already on it?
The second drive was created under Panther 10.3.9. My main internal drive has had a clean install of Tiger 10.4.3. The second drive used to appear in the start up disk list when I was running 10.3.9 on the main drive. That is, it used to be bootable under 10.3.9. No kidding. After the main drive was given a clean install of Tiger, the second drive disappeared from the start up disk list. Please note: the second drive remains completely accessible when I am running off the main drive in 10.4.3. I can even use the few applications I had placed on the drive. It appears as separate drive under disk utility.
I assume the second drive was installed as slave. (Both it and the main drive were independently bootable under 10.3.9.) It is not locked. "Ignore ownership" is not checked. The system has read-write privileges. Admin has read-write all others are read only. I am the only person who has access to this machine. It is not networked.
I tried to ask this question a few days ago, but I think the way I phrased it confused the issue. My real question is NOT how did this get like this? It is can I make a drive bootable when it already has data on it?
Thanks
G4 Panther & Tiger Mac OS X (10.4.3)

Hi,
Thanks for your reply.
You replied:
the drive that you cannot
boot from is a separate physical hard drive from the
internal drive with 10.4.3. Is that correct?
Yes.
Have you used System Preferences > Startup Disk and
looked to see if the 10.3.9 system shows up there?
Yes, I have looked and it's not there.
I got the impression that you have backed up the 10.3.9
disk and that you do not really need the data there.
Yes, I backed up a drive that was bootable, but then it lost its "bootabilty" and what I got was two non-bootable drives--the original second internal drive that I'm asking about and the back-up of it. I want the data on the drive and I wan the drive to be bootable.
One thing that you might try when you are booted off
your 10.4.3 system is to use Disk Utility, select the
other disk and do a Repair Disk.
Done that and it says there is no problem. Nada. Zero. It just won't boot, no more, no how, no way. BUT it remains fully accessible--I can access all my info. It's just become a storage drive that cannot be booted. Go figure.
reformatting means
destroying the data on the disk.
Yup, which is why I asked my original question. Does anyone know if there is any way to make a drive bootable without destroying the data on it?
I suspect the answer is no (given these particulars), but I thought some wise super-techie out there might have a trick up their sleeve.

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I just got a 1TB Mini Stack External Hard Drive for my Aperture Library and another for my vault. I have not done a back-up of my system yet and would like to know if I should partition both and make each have a bootable section for emergencies.
I don't store anything on my internal hard drive other than the software I install and those serial numbers we have to keep track of.
If I do use a back up to either restore my current system or place my system on a new mac will I have to de-authorize Aperture like I do iTunes?
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I frankly wouldn't worry about partitioning it at all. I would just format it and install the OS on it.
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At the end of the trip, assuming no HD failure, I export my projects from Aperture on my laptop to a portable Firewire drive, then plug it into my desktop, and import those projects. I get all my pictures, edits, metadata, keywords, etc. It's quite slick.

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Note.
Try this.
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8:25 pm Tuesday; January 14, 2014
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starbux48 wrote:
I would like to upgrade finally to OS X Lion. Before I do that I would like to make an image backup using something like Super Duper to an external USB 2.0 disk drive. I would like this to be a bootable image. Can I do this?
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I do recommend to backup data off the machine, a fresh install of 10.6 then upgrade to 10.7, then install Lion programs and then return files method over the upgrade over 10.6 method.
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HT1364 I have moved my library to an external hard drive and changed the location of the iTunes media folder in Preferences, but every time I close and re-open iTunes, I have to do it all over again. How can I make the iTunes media folder change permanen

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Message was edited by: the fiend

Can anyone make a recommendation on the purchase of an external hard drive for my Macbook Pro? I am currently using OS 10.6.8 because I can't upgrade until I clean out my start up disc space. I have a ton of pictures to transfer. Thanks!

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Hitachi is the winner in hard drive reliability survey:
Hitachi manufacturers the safest and most reliable hard drives, according to the Storelab study. Of the hundreds of Hitachi hard drives received, not a single one had failed due to manufacturing or design errors. Adding the highest average lifespans and the best relationship between failures and market share, Hitachi can be regarded as the winner.

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