How do I grant my hard drive permission to boot up?

May 9, 2007 1:39 PM

Can I make my backup drive bootable without having to wipe it clean and start over from scratch?

I just backed up my Powerbook G4's entire internal hard drive to an external firewire hard drive using Prosoft Data Backup 3. The software claims to make bootable clones. However, when I try to boot from the external hard drive, the computer gets hung up and never comes out of it. If I boot the computer up normally, the external drive mounts without a problem, and all of the files that I've tested seem to work fine.

Is there a way to make the external hard drive bootable using Carbon Copy Cloner or Superduper! (or some other software that I don't know about), without completely reformatting the drive and starting over?

posted by umbú to computers & internet (5 comments total)

I would definitely go with starting fresh with Carbon Copy Cloner. Short of that.

1. Make sure you have no other connected peripherals.
2. What OS are you using? Tiger or Jaguar?
3. Do you have any third-party RAM or cards installed? Could cause a problem.
4. Did you try starting up with command-v pressed? This is for verbose mode, and may help you nail down the problem.
5. Try holding shift down and restart off the external volume? If the issue goes away during a Safe Boot, odds are it is related to a login item, or a bad kernel extension that an application installer tossed into your system folder.

As I hinted earlier, a casual review of Data Backup feedback indicates that CCC blows it away.
posted by phaedon at 2:31 PM on May 9, 2007

Also, I just noticed your inside title for this post. Did you catch this help document on setting volume permissions and authentication requirements?
posted by phaedon at 2:40 PM on May 9, 2007

When you click on "Preferences" within the main Carbon Copy Cloner window, can you tell me what preferences are selected (have a checkmark selected)?

Usually, the "Make bootable" option is sufficient — the rest of the options are for archiving, or for tech support staff who want to duplicate the image on other computers.
posted by Blazecock Pileon at 3:49 PM on May 9, 2007

phaedon and Blazecock: Thanks for your helpful comments!

I hadn't properly prepared the backup the first time around. I downloaded CCC and cloned it again with only the "Make bootable" option checked, and now it is fully bootable.
posted by umbú at 7:42 PM on May 9, 2007

CCC is the best . . . . How did I live before it came along!
posted by spitbull at 4:18 AM on May 10, 2007