Trouble booting off FW drive from PBook

I just got a LaCie Porsche Firewire/USB drive to use as a backup for my 1.5 GHz PowerBook G4 (running 10.4.8).
I used SuperDuper to clone the enitre PBook drive to the LaCie. Everything went well, but it won't startup from the LaCie. It shows up in the Startup Disk Pref Pane, but even if I pick it, it boots from the internal. Holding Option doesn't bring it up in the list of disks. Holding shift-command-option-delete gives the Question Mark for a second, then it proceeds to boot from the internal drive.
I know this clone works, because I booted successfully from the LaCie on my G4 iBook using the Pref Pane as well as the Option key method.
What could be going on with my PowerBook that's preventing it from booting from the Firewire LaCie?
I've repaired permissions on all drives several times now. I booted into safe mode and repaired permissions from that level.
PowerBook G4 Mac OS X (10.4.8)

Bjorn,
Thanks for the reply. I was just about to give CCC a try, but I wanted to use SuperDuper, due to the "sandboxing" and easier incrementals in the paid version. So I gave my setup one more scan and noticed that when I formatted the new LaCie drive, I only set the desktop volume to Extended-journaled, not the main drive itself (it was still set to MS-DOS or something.)
I reformatted the main drive and the desktop volume in Disk Utility, re-cloned with SuperDuper, and the PowerBook booted from the LaCie, first try.
Thanks so much for the suggestions. I saw a bunch of OF comments regarding firewire drives and was looking for how to do it.
So add "Make sure your new drive is actually formatted properly" to the troubleshhooting list for external drive/cloning/booting. Duh.

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http://support.apple.com/kb/HT1159
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Thanks. Makes sense. I'll try that. I had checked the drive firmware with the most recent LaCie updater. So I didn't think it was the drive.
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Learning a few new tidbits today. Thank you very much.

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Jason
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Boot off Other Drives Problem

Well I spent some time Playing with this today on my MacPro - and here are the observations I've come up with.
Macintosh HD
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- "Powers Up / Boots" - AND "Restarts" fine.
When System Preferences has this (above) drive selected, the computer Hard Powers, Boots, and restarts normally, and operates as it should.
Macintosh HD 2
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When this drive is selected in the System Preferences, and you attempt to "Hard Power" the computer (From being Shut down), the Screen is just solid Grey. No Apple, No Spinning sprocket, Just Grey. It will remain like this, for as long as 10 to 15 minutes, but it will eventually boot.
Hard powering, with this drive selected as the Startup volume, does NOT go into Verbose mode (At least for 4 minutes of holding Cmd+V - I'm NOT sitting here holding it for 15 minutes)
Hard Powering, with this drive selected as the Startup volume, while holding Option, WILL immediately present the Startup Volume Choices, you can select it, and start up off this volume right away.
Once booted into this Volume, everything operates as it should, the computer even WILL "Restart" with this volume continued to be selected, but if you ever "Shut down", you HAVE to hold Option, to get the Startup Selection, and select it, to startup, otherwise you're back to "Grey Matter"
Troubleshooting
- Both Drives are Same Manufacturer SATA drives in Bays 1 & 2
- No Master / Slave pins present in either (Both shipped with the Computer)
- Both Partition Schemes are GUID
- Macintosh HD 2 (Problem Drive) has been reFormatted, with a Fresh install of OS X 10.6 and Updated with the 10.6.3 COMBO Updater
- Macintosh HD 2 (Problem Drive) has been scanned, verified, permission repaired
Further Testing
- This occurs WITHOUT the presence of anything connected to the computer other then a display.
- Added 3rd Drive. Partitioned GUID, Installed 10.6 - and this drive "Macintosh HD3" behaves the SAME way as Macintosh HD2 - this Syetem will ONLY "Had Power from Off", from "Macintosh HD" - BOTH other system drives, will result in this Grey Screen for 10 minutes, before booting.
Further Troubleshooting
- Reset SMU / NVRAM
- Replaced RAM (16GB of replacement Ram with the original 4GB of Apple Ram that came with Machine)
- As noted, Added a 3rd drive to the system, yielding same results of 2nd drive.
I wish I COULD get this into Verbose mode, from a Hard Power Up, with one of these other drives selected, see what it's pausing on. Someone asked me if it's happening without the Digidesign Cards in the computer (The only outside Hardware), it doesn't "Seem related", and I really don't want to pull the HD3 out of it, until I've tried everything else.
I remember this exact "Grey Screen Problem" happening in about 2005 or 2006 on my G5 HD2 PCIx System. We had it Dual boot, and all the engineers knew that when you "Powered up" this unit, you had to hold Option if you didn't want to wait 15 minutes. And thats how we powered up that system for years (They still do, it's still in operation)
Summary
I can hook up ANY OS installed Drive, and "RESTART" the computer off it - but can't "Power the system up from it", without holding Option down, for All Internal, and External Bootable drives, EXCLUDING my original System Drive, "Macintosh HD" - which will "Power Up" and immediately Boot the system, when it is selected.
Any other ideas ?
System... Harpertown 8 Core 2.8Ghz Machine
Hardware Overview:
Model Name: Mac Pro
Model Identifier: MacPro3,1
Processor Name: Quad-Core Intel Xeon
Processor Speed: 2.8 GHz
Number Of Processors: 2
Total Number Of Cores: 8
L2 Cache (per processor): 12 MB
Memory: 14 GB
Bus Speed: 1.6 GHz
Boot ROM Version: MP31.006C.B05
SMC Version (system): 1.25f4
Serial Number (system):
Hardware UUID: 6EED8ADD-7044-5DF8-B577-9B4AC4F9E955
Message was edited by: *KingFish*

Hey Kappy, thanks so much for your reply and ideas. Sadly this goes beyond "Just the 2 Drives", this computer behaves this way, with ANY other device set to Startup Volume in System Preferences, including FW, USB drives with OS X installations, other Intel Mac's in Target Disk Mode, or Installation CD's - which will ALL boot, and run THIS mac, selecting them in "Option Boot" - but not "POWER UP BOOT", when selected in System Preferences, in OS X. All of these other Volumes, devices and CD's will power up / Boot several OTHER Mac's with no problem - this problem seems to be isolated to this computer.
As far as your ideas about these 2 drives exclusively go...
*Re: 1.* When I decided to try a 3rd drive *in the system* as noted above in my troubleshooting, I not only selected a different manufacturer (Seagate), but I "Double checked" my Partitioning work / Formatting, making ABSOLUTE certain, to partition the drive GUID and format it Journaled / Extended. All drives are reporting identical "Status" in all of these departments in Disk Utility.
*Re: 2.* The OS X Installer not only completed Successfully from the Retail OS X DVD, the COMBO 10.6.3 Update from Apple's Site ran successfully, the Disk with the installation Verifies, in Disk Utility, Permissions report "Repaired", the system "Restarts and Runs" flawlessly off this partition, simply will not "Start / Power Up" from this volume without the 10 minute "Grey Screen Wait" that I mention in the post.
*Re: 3.* This was not cloned, it is a fresh Partition, Format, Instal & Update
*Re: 4.* There are now 2 different drives, from 2 diff mfg's, one Brand new out of the box, exhibiting the same behavior as a completely different drive / installation of OS X - leading me to suspect that this is a "System ISsue"
*Re: 5.* One Drive is a new Seagate, other drive is the WD that shipped w/ the Mac, reporting, reading, testing and verifying fine. - Oddly enough, the only drive NOT displaying this behavior, when selected as the Startup Disk, is a Western Digital.
*Re: OP*
Perhaps a clue, is my mention that this machine will exhibit this "10 minute Grey Screen", attempting to "Power up" from ANY OTHER volume, including FW and USB drives with OS X Installations, OS X Installation DVD's - when Selected in the System Preferences, as the Startup Volume, the computer is "Shut Down" - then "Powered up from Cold"
All of these OS's will run, and operate, even "Restart" just fine, once they are selected by Holding Option, and selecting them.
To repeat... when ANY of these OTHER volumes are specified in the System Preferences as the startup Volume, I can NOT get into Verbose mode, only 2 options
1. Grey Screen for 10 minutes
2. Hold Option and get a list of bootable devices.
Message was edited by: *KingFish*

K8n won't boot off ATA drive

So with all this talk of unlocked SATA busses limiting o/c, and my frustration getting the bus over 240 with 5:6 (or even 2:3), or 225 with 1:1 I thought I'd give using an old ATA drive a shot.
But the board won't boot off it.
I've tried several installs of XP, formated clean for fat or ntfs, clean or quick, each time after windows copies over all the files and does it's first reboot, the board can't find the OS on the HD.
NTFS and FAT give slightly different error messages but the error is something like can't find operating system, or bad operating system.
Not your can't find ntldr or anything that would look software related.
I even moved the hd from the computer back to my main rig after one of these installs, and it went right into the install program where it shoulld have been.
!!

Quote
Originally posted by sotti
yeah I ain't no newb.
wasn't ment personally, it's just that you can never tell for certain on forums
Quote
Originally posted by sotti
I'm on primary master in this box, I rejumpered the drive for my main box as it's a secondary slave there.
2nd boot device is set to HD (after floppy #1) and in the HD boot order menu it shows only this drive and external card.
It's completely bizarre
well it seems more people have these problems. Since I haven't tried yet I wouldn't know what's the trick behind this. Will let ye know more in 2 weeks orso when my exams are past tense

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4. Starting the Disk Utility in OS X will trigger 1.
5. My fiancees account will not log in, it either freezes on the wallpaper or kicks me back to the login screen. Making the keyboard not work to type in my password on my account.
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Message was edited by: Jamsen

First, make sure your user data is backed up.
Instead of just unplugging it, use the reset SMC procedure
http://support.apple.com/kb/HT3964
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If not, the next thing you should try, since you have already done good troubleshooting, is probably to erase the hard drive and reinstall the software. There is a way to do this and give the hard drive a good test, so you can post back if you want more info.

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Paul Roese1 wrote:
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[List of Western Digital bootable and non bootable models|http://discussions.apple.com/message.jspa?messageID=9022456#9022456]
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Hi @Gilligan8
Welcome to the HP Support Forums!
I understand that your hard drive is stuck in a repair loop, and you are not able to boot off of an external device. I am happy to assist.
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How to Recover Data from the Hard Drive of a Dead Laptop - wikiHow.com
Performing an HP System Recovery (Windows 8)
Troubleshooting HP System Recovery Problems (Windows 8)
Do not do the recovery until you have tried to backup everything you can to another hard drive.
I hope this helps.
Malygris1
I work on behalf of HP
Please click Accept as Solution if you feel my post solved your issue, it will help others find the solution.
Click Kudos Thumbs Up on the right to say “Thanks” for helping!

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Too bad you're not near Chicago. I repair and donate Macs to schools in the inner city here.
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