Startup clone disk will not boot the system

[harlanc]

I used SD to clone my system startup disk on a external SATA drive. The clone disk has a GUID partition scheme.

The Startup Disk utility in System Utilities sees both startup disks (the system and clone), but when I select the clone drive and press restart, it restarts from the system disk instead of the clone. I tried restarting and holding down the Option key; the only startup disk that shows up is the system disk.

I have a new Mac Pro running 10.6.

Any ideas appreciated.

[dnanian]

I'm guessing that your eSATA adapter doesn't support boot, actually.

[harlanc]

I'm running the Newer Technology Voyager quad interface docking station. I unhooked the esata connection and hooked it up using USB. Same result: the clone shows up in the Startup Disk utility but is ignored, and doesn't show up at all during option-restart.

[dnanian]

I don't think it's GUID, then -- or it's not a "Backup - all files" with "Erase, then copy" or "Smart Update"...

[harlanc]

Dave,

Your initial post on this thread was correct: my eSATA adapter can't create or recognize a startup clone. When my external drive is connected via USB then I can create startup clones that I can then boot from. (My first experiment was trying to boot using USB from a clone created with eSATA; this failed and was the basis for my response to your first post.)

Please briefly explain why making startup clones is a problem with an eSATA adapter.

And thanks for putting me on the right track to solving this infuriating problem.

Harlan

[dnanian]

Using eSATA to create the copy shouldn't have any effect, since the data on the disk is not specific to the adapter. I've certainly taken FireWire-created copies to Macs with only USB and started up, no problem (and vice versa - taking USB created copies on Power PC Macs and booting from FireWire).