can't boot from underlying volume but can from Sandbox

[camner]

About a month ago I made a Sandbox, and since then have been booting from the Sandbox and have installed a variety of software updates, including the OS (10.5.3 on the Sandbox, 10.5.2 on the underlying volume).

I cannot boot from the underlying volume ("Macintosh HD"). The grey gear starts to spin, and the machine shuts down. This is, alas, reproducible. To boot off of Macintosh HD I am holding the option key down while booting, and then choosing Macintosh HD from the list of available drives.

I can boot from and work from the Sandbox just fine, which is odd to me, since I thought the "guts" were shared. The Sandbox is of the "shared users and applications" variety.

Is there any way to recover from this situation? I have a backup that is about a month and half old on an external drive, but I really would rather not rebuild everything I've done to my new system since then if I can avoid it!

[dnanian]

I'd make a backup of the original drive, if you don't already have one, to a fresh volume. I'd then follow the instructions in the User's Guide to clone back.

I have no idea what might have happened to the internal, since the OS is not touched, as you might know.

[camner]

Wow, that was a quick reply! Thank you.

Sorry, but I'm a bit confused. The original drive is the one that I can't boot from (but I CAN boot from the Sandbox made from the original drive).

Are you suggesting that I reclone the original (non booting) drive to a new volume somewhere, and then clone back? What am I misunderstanding?

FWIW, I have a clone I made from the original volume shortly after creating the sandbox. That won't boot either (same issue...machine shuts down).

Right now, the only volumes I can boot from are the Sandbox and a month old backup (clone) of the original drive.

What would be the effect, if any, of "copying back" from the Sandbox to the original drive that now won't boot? Is that worth trying? Or are things likely to be sufficiently FUBAR that I should go back to the month old working volume and just rebuild forward from that?

[dnanian]

Yes, I'm suggesting you back up your drive (since that's where all your data is). Then, clone back from the Sandbox to the regular drive, to replace the system that doesn't boot with one that does.

[camner]

OK. Just to be clear (I just reread this in the User's Guide):

To clone back from the Sandbox, I select "Backup - all files" and "Smart Update".

This will NOT overwrite any data files, right? (yes, I WILL make a backup first before doing this!)

[dnanian]

Right, but in case you make a mistake, or something unexpected happens, back up. :-)