Sounds like it -- but, once done, you'll be much happier! :)

Micromat partitioning
 

I just ordered the Micromat iDisk partition program. Rated 5 stars on Versiontracker. Plus they have a good record of tech support.

Let us know how that works out. (I usually recommend iPartition, which I've had good luck with.)

I think you meant DiskStudio.

Yes, DiskStudio
 

I was typing from memory. Just found another util at OWC:
Little more expensive

Yeah: Drive Genius looks like a repackaging of SubRosa Soft's various utilities into a "suite"...

DiskStudio
 

Disk Studio was very easy to use and partitions passed Disk First Aid checks after partitioning. I was now able to set up and use SuperDuper. I did a total backup clone first onto the new FW partition. I feel weird about using a Firewire drive as my boot drive. Hear it may be a problem. Anyway, I'm checking my backup internal again after switching bays the boot and secondary internals. Someone suggested my problems may be either a bad secondary drive [though it passes all hardware tests] or bad internal cables [on a 6 mo old Apple still under warranty].


Once I have confirmed that I either no longer have a problem, or it is either a bad drive or bad cables and get it fixed, i will set up a safety clone on an internal to use as my boot.

Thanks for the report.

One question: why would using a FireWire drive as your boot volume be a problem?

Tiger and external boot
 

I remember [perhaps it was in Panther, been a while] reading on Macfixit.com of a problem booting from an external firewire under certain conditions. Can't remember all the circumstances now.

Jeff

Hm. OK. I've done this for years, on many OS release, and haven't seen a problem.

If anyone remembers what this might be, please let me know.

Boot drive external problems
 

Here is one report:Tuesday, January 11 2005 @ 03:00 AM PST
Mac OS X 10.3.7: Secondary volume booting problems
Mac OS X 10.3.7 may not properly boot when it is installed on a drive that is secondary at the time of installation. In other words, for some users, when Mac OS X 10.3.7 is installed to a volume other than the current boot volume, the secondary drive will be non-bootable.

The most typical instances of this issue involve external FireWire drives that are used as backup or auxiliary boot volumes. When such drives receive an update to Mac OS X 10.3.7 while the user is booted from another volume -- such as the Mac's internal hard drive -- they may fail as boot volumes.

One intriguing theory on what might be causing the issue to occur is the presence of a script in MacOSXUpdateCombo10.3.7.pkg/Contents/Resources (also contained in the "delta" version of the Mac OS X 10.3.7 updater) called 'RunAtStartupm' which refers to a folder in /System called 'InstallAtStartup.'

Based on reports from MacFixIt reader Mike Barron and others, it appears that this script does as its name implies: installs additional items on the boot drive during that drive's startup process.

Thus it follows that the Mac OS X 10.3.7 updater fails when installed to a secondary drive, because the 'InstallAtStartup' items would be placed on the wrong drive and would never get installed.

Many users have had success working around this issue by first installing Mac OS X 10.3.7 on their currently active boot drive, then using a utility like Carbon Copy Cloner or SuperDuper to replicate the initial installation on the secondary drive.

http://www.macfixit.com/article.php?...50110174933755
SATA drive problems Last Wednesday we noted reports of an issue where volumes on internal, non-boot SATA drives will not mount from a cold boot under OS X 10.3.7 (and 10.3.6, according to some readers), but will mount after a restart. We continue to receive sporadic reports of issues with 2nd internal SATA drives. Daryl Klein writes:

"I recently added a Seagate 120GB SATA drive into my G5 dual-2Ghz three months ago. I had at that time OSX 10.3.6, and noticed that copying massive amounts of files was transfering a tad slower than usual. After installing OSX 10.3.7 through the Software Update...while trying to [copy] 1-5MB files off the drive, it started having a massive coronary trying to copy. The copying of about 200 files took 9 hours, after freezing and rebooting 45 times. The files would start to transfer, hesitate, transfer extremely slow again, then freeze. Hard rebooting each time allowed me to get most of it. I checked the disk with Disk Utility, and it said the drive was fine. But Apple Diagnostics [CD] stated there was some sort of I/O problem.
http://www.macfixit.com/article.php?...+firewire+boot

Hm. Interestingly enough, I apply this sort of thing to a Safety Clone all the time, which is -- in essence -- a secondary drive that you're booted from at the time of installation.

When you're booted from a secondary drive, it's mounted at /, and that's where the installer would put things -- it's much harder to try to figure out what the "non-secondary" drive is, and then locate its mount point, and then copy to it...

Best plan?
 

If I can fix the non-boot internal drive situation, which is now a complete backup clone of the boot, what would you recommend I do to create a working safety clone? I assume that if I create this clone, that disk 2 becomes the boot drive, but user files are still stored on the original boot? I guess, I am confused that if there is only one set of user files, how is recovery easier if you install a change of applications or whatever and it makes an incompatible extension in the user/system files??

Thanks
Jeff

You can put the Safety Clone on the external drive, in its own (smaller) partition -- typically only 10-12GB or so.

Recovery is easier because there's no way to install an extension in the user space that would cause the system to fail. All that stuff has to be in defined spaces, in the system area. So, if you install something, it's isolated to the Safety Clone (except for data files, but those are easy to deal with -- kernel extensions, on the other hand, are not).

Confusion Maximus.
 

I am sorry, but somehow the descriptions vs. functions of SuperDuper seem totally counterintuitive to me. What should be simple seems backwards. The description of Safety Clone says: There is no way my boot disk will fit in in a 12 meg partition. I am not sure it would fit even if I choose to share apps.

Just for clarification, if I use either safety clone to backkup 1, when I reboot, I set backup 1 as the boot drive, but that user files stay in place on boot 1 and all user file changes are written to boot 1, right? But system changes are made to backup 1, the new boot? I have heard that there are problems when updating apple apps like iTunes when the user files are not stored on the boot disk.
The other problem I've had is that most of my incompatibility problems are in User Files /Library/Application support, like when installing extensions to programs like Dreamweaver. So the safety clone wouldn't actually help in those situations.

Sorry to be such a dunce, but I almost want a safety backup of my user files to be a clone of my user folder than can be instantly restored if something screws up in my current user folder. That is the way I intuitively thought of a safety clone when I first read about SuperDuper.

Jeff