Bootable backup not visible at power up

[thetcutkid]

Hi all,

Following the installation of a replacement G4, I've just completed a full system backup the way I've always created them, onto a Firewire 400 external drive.

The first thing I did after completion was to ensure I could boot from the backup.

Restarting the mac with the option key held down I was expecting to see two boot drive options, the internal and external drive - I only see one.

With the mac booted up and the firewire drive still on, if I go to system preferences, startup disk, both the OS9 and OSX installs on the external drive appear as options. If I select the OSX install on the external drive I can boot the system up as normal.

Obviously the backup I've created is bootable so why doesn't it show as a selectable drive when powering up with the option key held down?

 

[eyoungren]

With the mac booted up and the firewire drive still on, if I go to system preferences, startup disk, both the OS9 and OSX installs on the external drive appear as options. If I select the OSX install on the external drive I can boot the system up as normal.

Obviously the backup I've created is bootable so why doesn't it show as a selectable drive when powering up with the option key held down?

I don't know.

But until someone can suggest an answer I can offer a workaround.

If you need to boot from that drive because the internal drive isn't booting, it's a simple matter of booting from an OS9/10 install disk and then selecting that external drive as the Startup Disk.

An extra step, but until you have a solution for the problem this will work.

 

[thetcutkid]

That's a good call - I hadn't thought of that, thank you.