Black screen when booting from backup
 

I backed up my HD (10.3.9) to an external firewire disk. On another computer running 10.4.7, I made my external HD the startup disk. But as the computer is loading my backup, after get the grey screen with an Apple, i get a black screen with my mouse arrow in the centre and nothing else. Does anyone know what's wrong? I'm suspecting i have a log-in that i may have not turned off but don't know why that would be a problem. Thanks for the help in advance.

Do you know if the other computer is supported by 10.3.9?

Thanks for helping =) I re-read what i wrote and maybe i wasn't so clear: Both computers are almost identical; iBook and slightly newer iBook both bought within the last 2 years.

I backed up my 10.3.9 computer on an external hard drive using SD! I asked SD to erase the external first and do a full backup. I took this backup over to my other computer running 10.4.7 and told the computer to use the external HD (the backup) as the startup disk. The computer restarts, i get the grey screen with the apple on it, then i get a black screen with the cursor in the middle of the screen and that's it. Thanks for your help =)

Let's try the following:

1. Put the 10.3.9 iBook into "FireWire Target Disk Mode" (hold down T during startup)
2. Connect it and the FireWire drive to the 10.4.7 iBook
3. Use SuperDuper! to Smart Update from the iBook (which is now a "drive") to the FireWire drive
4. Then, try to start the other iBook from the copy

Let me know if that helps.

Thanks for the suggestion =) I won't have access to both computers and the external HD together in one place for another few weeks or even longer =( i'll do what you suggested when i can. Thanks again =)

No problem - let me know what happens when you get the chance.