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-   -   Booting from external disk drive (https://www.shirt-pocket.com/forums/showthread.php?t=1251)

davsch 04-25-2006 04:20 PM

Booting from external disk drive
 
Greetings.

I used SuperDuper! to copy my Mac Mini internal hard drive (PPC G4) onto my external fire wire drive (Lacie d2 Extreme 160 GB) and designated the external drive as my startup disk. OS X boots fine from the external drive, but I can't get past the log in screen. The system doesn't recognize my user name and/or password, so I have had to restart and boot from the Mini. I have the Mini configured to automoatically log in to my account upon restart, but apparently this setting didn't transfer to the external drive. Also, The log in screen that appears when I boot from the external drive is different from the one that appears when I boot from the Mini. The latter screen has user photos and requests only the user password, whereas the screen that appears when I boot from the external drive has no photos and requests both user name and password.

I don't whether this is relevant to the problem, but I didn't create a new partition on my external drive for the cloned disk; I just copied it onto the already formatted, single partition external drive.

Any ideas?

Many thanks.

David

dnanian 04-25-2006 04:39 PM

That's a bit weird, David. If you turn "Auto log in" off, and then use Smart Update to update the copy, does it work properly?

This almost sounds like a startup item (AntiVirus, Norton, etc) might be having some trouble starting properly...

davsch 04-25-2006 05:17 PM

According to the info SuperDuper! provides, Smart Update mimics an "Erase then Copy" command. I have files on the external drive that are not backed up on the Mini and that I don't want to lose. Will running Smart Update erase them? When I originally cloned the Mini's hard disk I chose the "Copy newer files . ." option of the Backup all files script.

BTW, before purchasing SuperDuper! I tried to clone the disk using Carbon Copy Cloner and encountered the same problem: The external drive booted OS X but I couldn;t get past the log in screen. I'm not running any anticirus applications automatically on startup.

Cheers,

David

dnanian 04-25-2006 05:25 PM

Yes, Smart Update will definitely erase files on the destination that aren't on the source... and you can't really guarantee bootability if you use "Copy Newer" (as mentioned in the User's Guide).

You really should partition the external into data and backup partitions. That way, you can dedicate one to your bootable backup, and one to your storage needs, and manage both appropriately...

davsch 04-26-2006 12:49 PM

I bit the bullet, backed everything up (sigh) and did it the right way. Everything works fine now.

Cheers,

David

dnanian 04-26-2006 12:51 PM

Good, David -- one time process: I think you'll be a happier camper now.

xairbusdriver 07-25-2006 10:46 AM

A little bit of detail...
 
Quote:

I bit the bullet, backed everything up (sigh) and did it the right way.
Does this mean a simple re-use of SD, without using the "Copy New..." feature?

OR

Does this mean backing up the important stuff ( do we ever back up unimportant stuff?! ) on the external and reformatting the partitions? :eek:

One is certainly much easier! :p And I have a 250 Gig, in 3 partitions external to back up. Of course, I could simply back up the documents...

Thanks!

dnanian 07-25-2006 10:59 AM

There are a few ways to do this, xairbusdriver. You can use a program like iPartition to partition the external "live", or you can copy things off, erase and partition, and copy things back...

I don't know exactly what David did, though -- perhaps he'll stop by and say.

xairbusdriver 07-26-2006 12:22 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by dnanian
There are a few ways to do this, xairbusdriver. You can use a program like iPartition to partition the external "live", or you can copy things off, erase and partition, and copy things back...

I know you mention iPartition and I've nor really heard anything negative about it, but I wonder about having enough contiguous free space to create another partition ( there are now 3 ) on that drive. Of course, it need'nt be larger than to hold the OS and some utility apps ( iDefrag, TTP, etc. ). That would be faster than backing up all the files and starting over. But it also would mean being able to install the OS from the Installers. I think I was unable to install the OS from the DVD's when I first got that drive. I simply don't remember. But it would appear to be bootable since I can at least get to the password dialog.

I guess what I'm trying to do is create a minimum System, with a few apps, rather than a basic copy of my main drive. A "minimum System" may not really be that much smaller than a regular install! :rolleyes:

Quote:

I don't know exactly what David did, though -- perhaps he'll stop by and say.
I've sent him a PM, hope he returns soon to the site/forums...

dnanian 07-26-2006 02:06 PM

There's a lot of copying involved if you use iPartition: in most cases, I'm not sure it would be faster to move things around than it would be to copy off/partition/back. But it's certainly more convenient!


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