New backup drive won't boot

[Pisces]

SuperDuper said it was bootable after I backed up. Disk Utility says it's bootable when I chose it as the startup. But I just get a circle with a line through it, and then my internal hard drive boots instead. I've tried three times.

I've used various versions of SD for years. This new drive is from OWC, the third 40 mb Firewire I've purchased from them. (The first one just went south after several years, and I need two: one for home and one for off site.) I have never had any trouble booting from them until today.

I have a late-2007 MacBook running 10.5.5, and I formatted the new backup drive for GUID.

I'd appreciate any suggestions about what the problem might be.

TIA.

Pisces

[Pisces]

Sorry. System Prefs says it's bootable when I choose it as the startup.

[dnanian]

Well... if System Preferences thinks it's bootable, and it's a "Backup - all files" made with "Smart Update" or "Erase, then copy", it should be bootable.

Try the "applications won't launch" fix posted at the top of this forum.

[Pisces]

Well... if System Preferences thinks it's bootable, and it's a "Backup - all files" made with "Smart Update" or "Erase, then copy", it should be bootable.

Try the "applications won't launch" fix posted at the top of this forum.

Thanks for the suggestion, but my applications launch just fine from the unbootable backup. Everything works like it's supposed to from the backup when it's mounted, but it just will not boot.

Since my original post, I've discovered that now my older external firewire also will not boot even though it too appears in System Preferences as a bootable Startup. I've done successful Smart Updates on this drive for over a year, about half of which I verified as bootable by booting from the external drive in question. Now it behaves just like the new drive (won't boot).

Also tried:

Power + Option key on both drives. 1) New external drive: both internal and external icons displayed with the internal selected (arrow), but the cursor will not move at all to select the external drive or boot from the internal. 2) Older drive: external icon not displayed; booted from internal drive.

Power + Shift key (Safe boot): behaved the same as regular boot on both drives -- Safe boot did not solve the problem on either external drive.

I am now without a bootable clone for the first time since I started using SD three years ago (2.5 years on a Pismo with Panther and Tiger, 7 months on the MacBook with Leopard).

If neither external drive will boot even though both show in System Prefs as bootable, does that mean that something is wrong with the MacBook itself?

[dnanian]

Your applications "launching fine from the backup" doesn't test what I'm talking about at all, because you're not *running* from the backup.

Very strange that the selection won't move to the external. That certainly implies the drive is incorrectly partitioned...

[Pisces]

Your applications "launching fine from the backup" doesn't test what I'm talking about at all, because you're not *running* from the backup.

Very strange that the selection won't move to the external. That certainly implies the drive is incorrectly partitioned...

The shell script did not fix the problem, and according to System Profiler, the Partition Map Type for the internal and both externals is GPT (GUID Partition Table).

The fix happened at the local Genius bar. I had of course verfied/repaired permissions on the MacBook several times since all this began, with nothing showing up that needed fixing. The Genius did it ONCE, got a list of repairs a mile long, and both externals then booted with no problem.

I don't understand what he did that I didn't do, and he didn't really seem to understand either, or even be curious about it. So I can't say what was wrong or exactly what fixed it. But whatever it was did the trick, and I just hope it lasts.

[dnanian]

I don't understand what happened there either.