MP 1,1-5,1 Can't select my exteranl USB 2.0 clonned drive 10.13.6 after upgrade to 144.0.0.0

[sebo2001]

I need slight help with my setup, I’m totally puzzled and stuck:

I recently upgraded my mac pro 5.1 12 core with radeon 4870 and osx 10.12.6 to

Radeon rx580 and osx 10.3.6

While on boot room MP51.0089.B00 I did clone my drive with 10.13.6 to external USB drive and was able to boot from it by holding option key, I did test that and it worked.

my main drive is ASPF, my backup drive is Mac OS extended.
I have run an upgrade of firmware to 144.0.0.0.0 did another clone to my USB drive and when I hold Option alt nothing shows up on the screen now.

How I can boot from my external USB 2.0 cloned backup? Why firware update would kill my ability to boot from USB drive? I was able to boot from that drive in RX580 just yesterday.

Any help would be greatly appreciated. I would like to have working backup before upgrading to mojavie, just in case to be able to rollback.

 

[bsbeamer]

How was your clone made?
No boot screens with standard RX580. You'll need to use OpenCore or change GPU for boot screens. Many threads on this on the forum.

 

[sebo2001]

I used Carbon Copy Cloner 5.0.9

I was able to boot from this MacPro on firmware MP51.0089.B00 before the firmware upgrade to 144. I run a clone with RX580 and tested it. It worked fine.
Then I run firmware upgrade to 144.0.0.0 and I’m unable to boot anymore.
I do not really look for dual boot with Windows etc. All I need is to have an external bootable USB backup of my HighSierra in case my SSD dies I want to be able to use my USB backup.

Is there any other way of booting my High Sierra from USB drive in case my main disk is gonzo?

 

[Macschrauber]

you just have no efi bootscreen with the rx580 no more.

a bootloader like refindPlus or OpenCore could help you filling the gap

 

[bsbeamer]

Your absolute easiest "blind" bootable clone option is to use a standard SATA SSD or SATA HDD that can go into one of the drive bays (or optical bay). Remove all other drives from the system (even temporarily) and you can test the clone without an EFI boot screen or OpenCore. USB drives do not always auto-select from cold boot when they are the only drive connected.

Carbon Copy Cloner is on version 5.1.25 (6155). I'm not 100% positive if anything relevant to your needs was addressed from the 5.0.9 update, but they have been improving APFS support over time and addressing issues as Apple changes file linkage. Generally speaking, the impact is likely minimal. Would suggest reviewing their release notes to see if anything in your situation was addressed.

 

[startergo]

I used Carbon Copy Cloner 5.0.9

I was able to boot from this MacPro on firmware MP51.0089.B00 before the firmware upgrade to 144. I run a clone with RX580 and tested it. It worked fine.
Then I run firmware upgrade to 144.0.0.0 and I’m unable to boot anymore.
I do not really look for dual boot with Windows etc. All I need is to have an external bootable USB backup of my HighSierra in case my SSD dies I want to be able to use my USB backup.

Is there any other way of booting my High Sierra from USB drive in case my main disk is gonzo?

Use the startup disk or manually bless the boot.efi (SIP has to be disabled for bless)

 

[sebo2001]

Your absolute easiest "blind" bootable clone option is to use a standard SATA SSD or SATA HDD that can go into one of the drive bays (or optical bay). Remove all other drives from the system (even temporarily) and you can test the clone without an EFI boot screen or OpenCore. USB drives do not always auto-select from cold boot when they are the only drive connected.

Carbon Copy Cloner is on version 5.1.25 (6155). I'm not 100% positive if anything relevant to your needs was addressed from the 5.0.9 update, but they have been improving APFS support over time and addressing issues as Apple changes file linkage. Generally speaking, the impact is likely minimal. Would suggest reviewing their release notes to see if anything in your situation was addressed.

I updated my CCC to 5.1.19
I have system SSD with OSX, and all other 3 bays plus one optical have drives I have two 2x2GB stripe sets built as scratch drives. Additionally, I also have optical DVD-R. No more space for the data disk.

Last question:
Is there any other USB backup strategy that would allow me to restore my system drive easily incase I would need to install a new SSD and restore it to the same look?

BTW I could swear I was able to boot to High Sierra on my USB with the new RX580 installed, I tried that before upgrading to Mojave, I have seen both drives my SSD and USB disk and was able to select USB. It all changed when after upgrade to Mojave I have updated my USB backup to Mojave,

 

[MarkC426]

First check as noted by startergo above, look in startup disk and restart with the usb disk to make sure it works.
If your main disk fails, not sure if your Mac will auto boot from external....have never tried since having non-efi gpu.
Keep your old gpu (efi I assume) then you can access boot picker if needed in emergency.
If your RX580 is flashed you will see boot picker.

 

[sebo2001]

After update CCC to 5.1.19 I was unable to back up my system to another APFS USB drive I was getting errors, I was able to back it up to HFS+ USB drive. After update CCC to 5.1.25 I was able to finally backup to APFS USB drive. I will remove the SATA disk from my USB enclosure and check if it boots at one point, I think it should.

I think backing up Mojave to HFS+ makes no sense as it would not boot anyway, even with old EFI video card

 

[MarkC426]

There is no need to remove it from the enclosure.
Just select it in startup disk and restart.

Also no need to have external drive as APFS, just clone it and let the software do it's thing.

 

[sebo2001]

For peace of mind, I decided to install OpenCore, all works fine, I was able to backup the system w CCC to my USB drive and select and successfully boot from the boot picker, I can sleep better now.

The older version of CCC Was not backing it up properly, now it all works fine.

During opencore install, I disabled SIP in recovery mode. I would like to enable it, do I just run csrutil enable from recovery mode or I need to modify OpenCore Config file value “dwgAAA” to “AAAAAA” ?