FW800 WD Studio Turbo drive not working as start-up disk

[Nubben]

Hi all,

I have just purchased a WD Studio Turbo extarnal/portable 320GB drive to use as a back-up and spare start-up disk. (I normally run Disk Warrior from an external.)

I have backed up my Macintosh HD to this WD drive using Super Duper and Super Duper indicates that everything has been copied ok.

However, when I plug in the FW800 cable to my MacBook Pro (old version) and restart holding down the Option key it doesn't show up as an alternative start-up disk. There's no way for me to choose it.

My question is, does the start-up mode only work using FW400 and not FW800?

What can I do to check if there's something wrong with the hardware or software?

Many thanks!

Nubben

 

[BlueRevolution]

What does Disk Utility say the partition map on the drive is? It should be GUID Partition Table. Also, what computer are you backing up from? Or is that the MacBook Pro?

 

[Nubben]

What does Disk Utility say the partition map on the drive is? It should be GUID Partition Table. Also, what computer are you backing up from? Or is that the MacBook Pro?

@BlueRevolution: Thanks for your reply.

Will check the info in Disk Utility but didn't format the drive before backing up. It read on the packaging it was formatted for Mac OS X HFS+.

Am backing up from my MBP to this external HDD.

Thanks!

 

[wrldwzrd89]

@BlueRevolution: Thanks for your reply.

Will check the info in Disk Utility but didn't format the drive before backing up. It read on the packaging it was formatted for Mac OS X HFS+.

Am backing up from my MBP to this external HDD.

Thanks!

Odds are the partition scheme is set to Apple Partition Map (APM) instead of GUID. This is the most universal Mac format, but unfortunately it makes the drive not bootable to Intel Macs until you change it to GUID. Many Mac drive makers do this because of the significant installed base of PowerPC Mac users, particularly those with 10.3.9 or earlier - such Macs can't understand the GUID format.

 

[Nubben]

Odds are the partition scheme is set to Apple Partition Map (APM) instead of GUID. This is the most universal Mac format, but unfortunately it makes the drive not bootable to Intel Macs until you change it to GUID. Many Mac drive makers do this because of the significant installed base of PowerPC Mac users, particularly those with 10.3.9 or earlier - such Macs can't understand the GUID format.

Thanks wrldwzrd89! Will verify at home later. Btw, how do I check the table in Disk Utility?

Nubben

 

[wrldwzrd89]

Thanks wrldwzrd89! Will verify at home later. Btw, how do I check the table in Disk Utility?

Nubben

In Disk Utility:

Select the disk, click the Partition tab. There will be a button called Options... but it'll be unselectable until you choose something other than Current from the drop-down menu. Once that's done, click Options, and you'll see 3 choices: GUID, APM, and MBR. The one that's selected is the one active on the drive.

EDIT: If you don't see a Partition tab you selected the wrong thing.

 

[Nubben]

In Disk Utility:

Select the disk, click the Partition tab. There will be a button called Options... but it'll be unselectable until you choose something other than Current from the drop-down menu. Once that's done, click Options, and you'll see 3 choices: GUID, APM, and MBR. The one that's selected is the one active on the drive.

EDIT: If you don't see a Partition tab you selected the wrong thing.

Cheers buddy!

Nubben

 

[BlueRevolution]

Or, you can just click on the disk and look at the bottom of the window.

(Mine is Apple Partition Map because I'm using a PowerPC computer right now.)

 

[Nubben]

In Disk Utility:

Select the disk, click the Partition tab. There will be a button called Options... but it'll be unselectable until you choose something other than Current from the drop-down menu. Once that's done, click Options, and you'll see 3 choices: GUID, APM, and MBR. The one that's selected is the one active on the drive.

EDIT: If you don't see a Partition tab you selected the wrong thing.

I don't know what it is but I cannot make a bootable copy of my internal HD no matter if I change the partition table to GUID! Getting frustrating!

When I hold down the option key when starting up only my Windows partition comes up as an alternative start up disk. And, if I go in to System Prefs and choose the FW800 drive as a start up disk it reboots but doesn't seem to load the FW800 properly.

Please someone help!

Many thanks.

Nubben

 

[BlueRevolution]

What do you mean when you say that it "doesn't load the FW800 properly"? You are given an error, or the machine simply boots to your normal OS X partition?

 

[Nubben]

What do you mean when you say that it "doesn't load the FW800 properly"? You are given an error, or the machine simply boots to your normal OS X partition?

No error message at all. It tries (it seems) to load from the FW drive but nothing happens - it just boots in to the internal drive.

Also the FW drive does not come up as an alternative drive when I hold down the option key while rebooting.

Any ideas at all what this could be? Hardware problem?

Thanks!