External boot drive clone weirdness

[DeeEss]

OK, some weirdness is happening.

I cloned my Mac Pro boot drive onto a G-Raid Mini. Then I cloned it onto Macbook Pro's internal drive.

If I boot the Mac Pro with the clone on the G-Raid Mini it works flawlessly.
If I boot the Macbook Pro from the clone on the internal drive it works flawlessly.
However...If I try and boot the Macbook Pro from the clone on the G-Raid Mini it just doesn't work. BUt it's exactly the same as the clone that is installed AND working on the internal drive. AND this very same drive will boot the Mac Pro perfectly well.

If I hold down the option key at boot it just won't see the clone on the G-Raid Mini, it's not listed in the drives. BUT if I go into system prefs it shows up in Start-up Disk but then if I try to restart from it it just reverts back to the internal drive.

I've tried a few different options with partitions, no partitions. repairing, re cloning again and again, Not had any luck though.

Strangely enough I have another clone on a USB2 disk which boots fine on the same Macbook Pro. It tends to suggest it's something to do with the disk but the disk boots the Mac Pro perfectly well.

I want to use the G Raid Mini as a backup boot disk for location work. It leaves me very confused. Any ideas?

 

[philipma1957]

yes do a fresh install on the macbook pro. migrate the mac pro over to the macbook pro. make 2 partitions on the external one says macbook pro clone one says mac pro clone. clone the macbook pro to the macbook pro clone partition clone the mac pro to the mac pro clone partition. then boot with the correct clone to the correct machine

 

[DeeEss]

Yeah I tried this. You would think it should work, right? But it's just not playing ball. I'm wondering if it has something to do with the FW800 bus power or something - that the Macbook Pro just doesn't want to boot from that or something.

 

[DeeEss]

Figured it out....

For anyone interested (it took me two days of frustration trying loads of different things so I'm sure someone will appreciate this) the G-Raid Mini will not boot a Macbook Pro unless it's connected via usb2 AND is plugged into mains power with the AC Adapter. It will not boot with FW800 via bus power.

I cottoned onto the fact once I read that you can only use the G-Tech Raid configurator whilst plugged in with usb2 and the AC Adapter.

The drive works perfectly well when connected via FW800 and relying on bus power but it can not be used as a boot drive like this for the Macbook Pro.

It can be used to boot a 2010 Mac Pro with FW800 via bus power though.

 

[derbothaus]

Are you sure about the bus power thing? I have to hold down option key and then at boot loader, unplug and replug in the FW800 drive. It then feeds correct power and shows and you can boot from it. It had to do with bus power surge at boot/post. Your issue may be different but have you tried this method?

 

[DeeEss]

Oh man, I tried this so many times hoping it would work but no, it didn't. I spent 2 days working on it trying so many thing. Nothing works so far.

I really wish there was some work around like this though. Thanks for posting though!

 

[DeeEss]

Below is from Hitachi, while it's not advertised I think people should know this so they can plan their needs accordingly.


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Hello,

Thank you for contacting the Hitachi GST Technical Support Center.

The drives are actually not built or designed for bootability, so if it works it is a perk but it isn't a feature designed for unfortunately. Some computers and drive configurations just won't work with booting.

Regards,

Hitachi GST Technical Support Center

 

[derbothaus]

What a freakin waste. Maybe they should have put that on the package. Well then no one would buy the fukers.
"Hi, we are Hitachi, our HD's are severely limited". Not designed for booting, who does that?

 

[goMac]

Not designed for booting, who does that?

I've had LaCie drives that were "not designed for booting."

 

[DeeEss]

Can you believe it?

I'm dark about it that's for sure. I bought it for the purpose thinking that a RAID bus powered drive would be perfect for the task. Had I of known then I wouldn't have bothered. Oh well, it's a great drive otherwise. So not an entire loss.

I have a cheap as chips bus powered usb2 drive which boots perfectly well on the same computer. It actually doesn't run that badly off it.

 

[derbothaus]

I've had LaCie drives that were "not designed for booting."

I rest my case. I have 4 power bricks laying around to help dead cases thanks to this impostor company. The only thing they have to do is build the case and they really can't build cases that last. The HDD outlives the case, only from LaCie.