Using SuperDuper to replace hard drive

[mwfitch]

I have used SuperDuper on an Intel Macbook to upgrade a hard drive by cloning the original drive to an external firewire drive, change the startup disk to the clone on the external and copying the origninal clone to a new drive.

I have now tried this same technique (same external drive) with an iMac G5, but the external image does not show up in the startup control panel. Does this technique not work with non Intel Macs? In not what technique do I use to make this swap work?
Thanks in advance
Mark

[chris_johnsen]

You probably need to repartition the disk with APM to use it as a startup disk on the G5.

Both PPC and Intel Macs can boot FireWire drives, but the drive is supposed to have a different partitioning scheme for each type of system. PPC systems can only boot from a volume on a disk that has "APM" partitioning. Intel systems only fully support booting from a volume on a disk that has "GUID" partitioning.

Some people argue that APM is supported by (most?) Intel Macs, but the problem is that a volume on an APM disk is only selectable in the Option-boot chooser, not the Startup Disk preference pane. Also, some releases of Mac OS X will refuse to install on a volume on an APM disk if the install is attempted on an Intel machine. So, it usually just better to use GUID for drives with boot volumes for Intel Macs.

To use a different partitioning scheme, goto the disk's Partition tab in Disk Utility and click the Options… button. Using Disk Utility to change partition schemes erases the contents of the disk.

[sjk]

Originally Posted by chris_johnsen

Some people argue that APM is supported by (most?) Intel Macs, but the problem is that a volume on an APM disk is only selectable in the Option-boot chooser, not the Startup Disk preference pane.

No argument necessary; I'm one of some people with a system configuration proving that's not always true.

Also, some releases of Mac OS X will refuse to install on a volume on an APM disk if the install is attempted on an Intel machine.

AFAIK it's all releases; do you know any that don't refuse?

So, it usually just better to use GUID for drives with boot volumes for Intel Macs.

True, if the drive will only contain bootable volumes for Intel Macs. I'm used APM on a 2.5" FW drive containing PPC- and Intel-bootable volumes.