Macworld: Having trouble creating a bootable ...

Subscribe to magazine

Print

Up to Discussions in Mac OS X

13 Replies Last post: Apr 20, 2005 10:50 AM by d00d

lkalliance

1,332 posts since
May 5, 2002

Reply

Apr 15, 2005 8:48 PM

Having trouble creating a bootable volume

Hey, all, having some problems creating a bootable volume on a partition on an external FW drive.

Running 10.3.8 here, using CCC to clone the system, an operation I've done successfully in the past. The cloning operation completes successfully (complete clone, nothing left out). However, I've been unable to boot using the volume:

--When I restart and hold down the "option" key, the volume does not appear as an option.
--When I go to the Startup Disk preference pane, the volume does appear among the options, but when I select it and click "Restart", I get a "bongo" sound and the computer fails to restart.

I've repaired permissions on the volume (I had done so on the source system anyway prior to cloning). Might this be an issue of running out of disk space? There are only 3.9 GB of free space after the clone (I erased the volume before cloning). Perhaps my entire system is just that much larger since the last time I did this operation.

Any thoughts?

Reply

d00d

12,136 posts since
Apr 24, 2001

1. Apr 16, 2005 10:54 AM

in response to: lkalliance

Re: Having trouble creating a bootable volume

That's a tough one. Have you tried erasing the partition and cloning again?

Reply

lkalliance

1,332 posts since
May 5, 2002

2. Apr 16, 2005 11:14 AM

in response to: d00d

Re: Having trouble creating a bootable volume

I have, though just with the OS X Disk Utility:

--Used Disk Utility to erase
--Confirmed erasure (volume empty)
--CCC settings: Repair Permissions on source before cloning (did this the first time, but not the second); Delete directories before overwriting (redundant, it seemed, but checked anyway), Make Bootable.

Is there a minimum amount of free space on a hard disk required to boot off of it?

Reply

d00d

12,136 posts since
Apr 24, 2001

3. Apr 16, 2005 11:31 AM

in response to: lkalliance

Re: Having trouble creating a bootable volume

Not that I'm aware of. Though I've heard OS X whines if it's running and the partition it's on runs out of space. Maybe CCC is silently failing to copy an important file?

Reply

lkalliance

1,332 posts since
May 5, 2002

4. Apr 16, 2005 12:33 PM

in response to: d00d

Re: Having trouble creating a bootable volume

Hmmmmm. I think I'll try ONE MORE TIME, lol. I'll erase the volume, repair it, burn incense and make a sacrifice of the first sheave of the new year.

Now that I think about it, when the last attempt concluded, I got a pop-up from CCC that indicated that the "cloning had been successfully completed" but the main CCC window still showed the progress bar as barber-poled, though stationary.

For the moment, I'm going to assume that the amount of free space left over is a non-issue.

Reply

lkalliance

1,332 posts since
May 5, 2002

5. Apr 16, 2005 12:51 PM

in response to: d00d

Re: Having trouble creating a bootable volume

Question: When I make the clone, there are two portions that clearly take up a lot of time and space: Users and Applications. If I cloned without these two segments, then boot off the clone,

(a) would it work? Does the clone not need at least one user?
(b) Could I access the user accounts and applications on the internal drive?

I've got install disks for everything; I could manually back up anything that would be a pain in the neck to reinstall.

Reply

d00d

12,136 posts since
Apr 24, 2001

6. Apr 16, 2005 1:39 PM

in response to: lkalliance

Re: Having trouble creating a bootable volume

OS X will probably act VERY screwy without a user folder. The same goes for Applications. However, if you don't clone Applications and then manually make an Applications folder with the stock Apple applications (Finder, Disk Utility, NOT iLife), you can save a good amount of space.

Reply

boehmb

60 posts since
May 3, 2004

7. Apr 16, 2005 6:55 PM

in response to: d00d

Re: Having trouble creating a bootable volume

I used to be able to successfully create a bootable clone of my internal drive to an extenal Firewire drive using the restore feature in Disk Utility. Since the 10.3.8 system update, this no longer works for whatever reason. I confirmed this on my G4 desktop (older Sawtooth), my new iBook, and my wife's new Powerbook. I haven't tried it with 10.3.9 yet. What gives?

Reply

boehmb

60 posts since
May 3, 2004

8. Apr 17, 2005 10:34 AM

in response to: boehmb

Re: Having trouble creating a bootable volume

I found my problem: I did not have permissions enabled on the external Firewire drive, and they are not enabled by default. I unchecked "ignore ownership on this volume" in the "get info" window for the external drive and made a successful bootable clone of my internal startup disk with no problems.

Reply

lkalliance

1,332 posts since
May 5, 2002

9. Apr 17, 2005 12:37 PM

in response to: boehmb

Re: Having trouble creating a bootable volume

Ah, that was checked for me too! Going to make a fresh clone now; we'll see in a couple of hours!

Reply

lkalliance

1,332 posts since
May 5, 2002

10. Apr 20, 2005 12:21 AM

in response to: lkalliance

Update: success!

Or, rather, I got the clone working. I'm not quite sure it was a "success" because of what the nature of the problem turned out to be:

I'm a blooming idiot.

The drive is a combo Firewire/USB 2.0 drive. Though I prefer to use FW, over time I'd shifted things around and now it's plugged in to a USB port. Where it can't be used to boot. So any of the dozen or so clones I'd done since I started trying to figure this out probably would have worked. Shoot.

Reply

d00d

12,136 posts since
Apr 24, 2001

11. Apr 20, 2005 4:54 AM

in response to: lkalliance

Re: Update: success!

I guess I gave you too much credit, expecting that you wouldn't make such a newbie mistake, lk.

Reply

lkalliance

1,332 posts since
May 5, 2002

12. Apr 20, 2005 9:24 AM

in response to: d00d

Re: Update: success!

I know. I'm terribly disappointed in me. I guess I'm out of the club now. I'll have to trade in my "old hand" for a quivering new one.

Reply

d00d

12,136 posts since
Apr 24, 2001

13. Apr 20, 2005 10:50 AM

in response to: lkalliance

Re: Update: success!

Naw, you'll just be forever denied the title of Forum God.

Reply

Go to original post