Haswell MBP Won't Boot From Mavericks USB Install Drive

[ooans]

I'm unable to boot from a Mavericks install USB stick that works on all of my other macs. Anyone else have this problem?

After starting the laptop with OPTION button pressed down I select the "Install Mavericks" USB stick to boot from, but instead of showing the Apple logo on the screen it just shows a "forbidden sign" (see attached photo) instantly.

I've tried this with a USB stick and also on a USB hard drive. They work fine with my other macs (2013 MBA and a 2010 MBA) but not on this new rMBP.

I would need this to fix my EFI partition table, which cannot be fixed from the Recovery Partition since it is on the same drive. It refuses to fix a drive when it is in use.


Any hints for me? Maybe I need to finally buy a thunderbolt cable and then start the rMBP in target disk mode and then fix the partition from my 2013 MBA using Disk Utility?

Thanks!

 

[goMac]

I don't think retail Mavericks builds work with the new machines yet. They're probably running a special version of 10.9.0. Maybe try the web restore? Or use target disk mode to mount the drive elsewhere.

 

[KoSoVaR]

I don't think retail Mavericks builds work with the new machines yet. They're probably running a special version of 10.9.0. Maybe try the web restore? Or use target disk mode to mount the drive elsewhere.

Hmm - why would this be? When I have 10.8.2, I bought a Haswell based iMac and had to upgrade my hard drive (booting via a Thunderbolt adapter) to 10.8.5. Booted fine.

I recently purchased 2 MBP - both Haswell, 1 15" and 1 13". Don't boot 10.8.5. I thought maybe if I upgraded to Mavericks it would boot, but no go.

Does anyone have a workaround for this? Is there something I need to modify to support any of the new hardware? I for sure thought if the Haswell based iMac booted my Thunderbolt 10.8.5, the MBP would as well.


EDIT:

On the Haswell MBP:

System Version: OS X 10.9 (13A2093)
Kernel Version: Darwin 13.0.1

On an older MBP booting from my TB Mavericks drive

System Version: OS X 10.9 (13A603)
Kernel Version: Darwin 13.0.0