MacIntel won't boot from usb 2.0 (clone) drive
 

Hello folks,

I have a Mac Mini (running 10.4.8) that I've cloned to an external USB 2.0 drive (APM partition table). I can select the clone in "Startup Disk", but when I reboot, it still uses the internal drive.

Looking at the log, the clone was blessed, though I do see a weird message about ignoring /mach.sym.

Apologies if this is FAQ (did a search, but didn't turn up anything). Any ideas? Thanks,

Dara

It should work, Dara. But let's try changing it to a GUID partition scheme instead of APM and see if that helps.

GPT did the trick
 

Good tip, thanks. Reformatted the disk using GPT partitioning and all is indeed well.

I'm a bit surprised that APM isn't bootable on Intel (I later tested it with the OS X install DVD, that also refused to install on the APM partition).

Thanks again for a great product.

Dara

Well, APM is bootable on Intel, but perhaps not with this drive under USB... that's why it was worth trying.

(The installer won't install to an APM partition, unfortunately, even though it would work.)