Cannot boot from Firewire drive using Option + Restart

[Mumbo Jumbo]

I'm using a 900MHz G4 iBook running OS10.3.9. I have a LaCie 80GB Firewire Porsche Mobile hard drive that's been formatted HFS(journaled). I have done a complete backup and have been able to boot using the LaCie by selecting the LaCie as the start up volumn in System Preferences and restarting.
When I try to boot using the Option key plus Restart procedure, I never see the LaCie volume on the gray screen that comes up while I continue to hold the Option key. I get the curved arrow on the left, the Mac HD icon in the middle, and the right-pointing arrow on the right. If I click the right side arrow, the iBook boots properly from the Mac HD.

I'm stumped. When I go to Disk Utility and select the LaCie Firewire volumn, all the settings appear correct. I also have a 1.42 GHz IBook running OS 10.4.8 with a LaCie 80GB Firewire drive which boots properly using both startup protocols.

Does anyone have a suggestion?
Edit/Delete Message

[dnanian]

Sounds like the drive isn't responding right at startup. Try powering off and ejecting the drive. Get to the Option-boot screen. Then, plug in the drive and listen for it to spin up. Click the "refresh" circle-arrow button and see if the drive shows...

[Mumbo Jumbo]

Doesn't show. I did another complete backup, and a Smart Update.
Everything works fine but it will not boot (doesn't show Lacie Firewire drive icon) using the Option + restart or Option + start. It will boot from the Firewire drive using the select startup drive in System Preferences.

[dnanian]

Are you sure in the second case that it's actually booting from the FireWire drive? Sounds to me like it's not partitioned as "Apple Partition Map"...

[Mumbo Jumbo]

Actually booting using Firewire drive? Tell me how to check and I'll do it. When I go to the Starup Drive in System Preferences and select the Firewire drive and reboot, the next time I go to System Preferences it is still selected as the startup drive. Also, I've looked and cannot find a reference to "Apple Partition Map" in the system profiler or using disk utility. It is formatted HFSjournaled. I did not partition the LaCie Firewire drive when I formatted.

[dnanian]

To check the drive you're starting from, look in the "About This Mac..." panel.

If you open Disk Utility and select the external drive (not the volume, but the drive above it) in the sidebar, the Partition Scheme should be listed on the lower right side of the window.

[Mumbo Jumbo]

On the G4 iBook with 10.3.9:

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v3...ok-Panther.jpg

Here is the information on the Firewire drive:

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v3...cture8copy.jpg

The G4 iBook with Tiger shows this:

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v3...ra/G4Tiger.jpg

and this: http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v3...ra/G4Tiger.jpg

[dnanian]

Right. On Tiger, it's starting up from the internal drive ("Macintosh HD").

[Mumbo Jumbo]

But on the iBook running 10.3.9, no informations shows either way.

[dnanian]

That's right: it was added in 10.4. But the startup drive is also shown by looking at the top of the drive in question: the startup drive has special icons for Applications (for example)...

[Mumbo Jumbo]

If you can please enlighten me as to how I tell the difference in the icons perhaps that will solve the mystery.

[dnanian]

The non-startup drive has a plain folder. The startup drive has a special "Applications" folder. They're quite different...

[Mumbo Jumbo]

Are these the differences?:

Non-startup

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v3...nstartup-1.jpg

Startup0

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v3...AppStartup.jpg

[dnanian]

Yep. You're definitely started up from the external there. I don't know why, if it works that way, that it doesn't work in Option boot (and won't show up with the other workaround I gave at the start of the thread)... maybe LaCie has an idea?

[Mumbo Jumbo]

Dave- Thanks for all your help. I'm stumped but will look around further. I will probably install Tiger on the iBook that has Panther. That may do something.

Thanks again,

-Bill