Can't startup iBook G4 from Firewire

[tcheck]

I have searched and searched the internet, and have found similar issues, but I've yet to find a solution. So, hopefully you guys can help.

I have an iBook G4. Recently, I broke it (we won't get into that). I found another iBook G4 on eBay and bought it. Now, before I broke my first iBook, I cloned the drive to my Western Digital Passport Studio Edition via SuperDuper. When I got this new computer, I plugged in the Passport (via Firewire) and booted up. I pressed the option key and was asked what I'd like to boot from, but there was only one option: the internal hard drive. So, I let the computer boot as normal, then went to Startup Disk in System Preferences. The computer had recognized the Firewire drive when it was booted up, so I just selected that drive. I restarted the computer, and was greeted by a little Finder icon with a question mark over it. The computer proceeded to bootup normally.

What am I doing wrong? The external drive is formatted as Apple Partition Map, and the computer clearly recognizes it once it's fully booted up. I've tried doing this on my MacBook Pro, and it works fine. Tried it on a normal MacBook and it works fine, too. I'm thinking that the whole PowerPC thing is causing the issue.

Any suggestions?

[iBookG4user]

Why don't you swap the hard drives and then once it boots from the old hard drive clone the old hard drive onto the new one?

[tcheck]

I'd rather not open up this iBook; that's how the first one broke.

[tcheck]

Anything, guys? I'm at that pull-your-hair out phase in troubleshooting...

[iBookG4user]

If you have another Mac handy, you could boot the iBook into Target Disk Mode and have it show up as an external hard drive for the other Mac. The plug in your old hard drive as well and clone the old hard drive onto the new one.

[KoolStar]

What is the partition scheme, GUID, if so PowerPC does not like GUID much.

[tcheck]

@iBookG4user:
That's genius! I was mulling over the Target Disk idea in my mind, but couldn't figure out how it could be of use. That would work PERFECTLY!

@KoolStar:
The partition scheme is Apple Partition Map (I hear Power PCs are supposed to like that.

I'd still like to know what the hell went wrong, so if you guys have any other troubleshooting steps, I'm all ears. Oh, and I have an iPod that I use to store a copy of Leopard on (like a CD, but in a hard drive). When I connect it to my iBook via Firewire, it recognizes that just fine. The only difference I could see in their settings in Disk Utility was that the iPod didn't have owners enabled, and the Western Digital drive did. I turned them off, and it still didn't work.

[iBookG4user]

@iBookG4user:
That's genius! I was mulling over the Target Disk idea in my mind, but couldn't figure out how it could be of use. That would work PERFECTLY!

Glad I could help :)