[rolan]

I have made a clone of my MacBook Pro drive selecting "make bootable" from Carbon Copy Cloaner preferences.
Now I can select the system on my external drive in the startup disk preferences.
But at the startup I can see instantaneously a folder+? and suddenly the apple symbol and the result is starting from HDD OS X.
In the some way restarting the computer and hold down the Option key It appears only HD icon.

Anything is wrong making the bootable clone?
If is it true how can I clone only the Mac OS X (not overwriting user data already backuped) to get a bootable extra drive and choose it with option key?
My drive have USB 2 and Firewire cables. MacBook Pro can boot only from USB external drives?

Thank you for the help.

[rjt1000]

Assuming that your LaCie Drive is bootable (my D2 LaCies are):

• Use Firewire for the connection.

• First format the LaCie Drive using Disk Utilities from your MacBook Pro. (n.b. this will wipe out all the data on the LaCie so back it up first)

• Then use Carbon Copy Cloner to make the clone, checking "make bootable" in the preferences. Or you could use the restore tab in Disk utilities. Both should work but I have found that Disk utilites is not as good as CCC for such things as keeping hidden folders hidden

Hope that helps.

[rolan]

Thank you for your answer.

I have a LaCie D2 Big disk USB and Firewire.
I try with each connection and I can see the system in startup preferences.
I have a lot of data to backup from external drive.

1-Can I copy (with CCC) or install (with OS X DVD) only the OS X without overwriting my data already backup in my D2 LaCie?
2-Do I Need to reformat the external disk already HFS+ formatted?

Because I want to make an emergence bootable disk, because i have a "invalid node structure" message, please I have two more questions:

3-If Mac HD has a few bad blocks and volume structure error (other hardware tests passed) can it be repaired with reformating and reinstaling OS X?
4-Do I have to format Mac HD the disk with Disk Utility erase and "zero out data" security options and reinstal OS X from my OS X Installer Disc?

Thank you again for helping me.

[chris v]

I think the info you need is contained in this article:

TidBITS: Booting an Intel iMac from an External Drive

[rolan]

Thank you for the article.
I read it and conclued:

The problem is Intel startup requires GUID Partition Scheme and may be my drive is APM (for PowerPC Macs) and not GPT (for booting Intel Macs).
I have read all CCC information before cloning and I can't see any alert for Intel Macs.
Reformating the drive with DU and reinstalling everithing is the solution but it is a hard work to backup a lot of data.
It would be to by a new drive.

Chris I would like we could give me some information about my questions 3 and 4.

Thank you very much.

[rjt1000]

chris v, thanks for the useful link, which in summary says to get a bootable external disk for your intel mac you need use disk utility to format the LaCie using the partitions tab, then the options button in order to select the GPT partition scheme.

That said, if your primary goal is to repair your internal drive's errors, you can startup with the restore disk that came with your MBP, then run disk utility > first aid > repair disk from it. Repeat until it reports no errors. If that doesnt work there are other utilities that might. However, if there are physical problems with the disk (which the bad blocks would seem to imply), I would bring it to Apple for replacement under warranty.

[rolan]

Thanks. I do that but Disk Utility doesn't repair the disk.
I can read that bad blocks can be mapped if erase and "zero out data" the internal drive with Disk Utility. Did you solve your "invalid node structure" reformatting and reinstalling OS X?

I want to erase but before I will try to make an emergency booting.

Troubleshooting is worth in this cases and new processors will have more support to understand.

Thank you.

[chris v]

Long ago in the distant past, I used Tech Tool Pro to isolate bad blocks on a drive, (Yes, I think it requires zeroing the drive to do this) so I know it can be done, but have not seen such an option in Disk Utility.

[rolan]

Tech Tool Pro for intel Mac make surface scans to detect bad bloks but doesn't repair them. I read that Disk Warrior and TTP do that with PowerPC Macs. I read that re-zero and reinstall fixed the broblem.

Thank you again for your article. I use it to contact LaCie support about using my big drive with PowerPC an Intel Macs. I read this macosxhints.com - 10.4: Create a simpler PowerPC and Intel boot drive

Yes. In Disk Utility I can see in "partition tab" GPT partition scheme for Intel Mac and APM for PowerPC Macs.

My big drive works with my G3 and in Disk Utility I can see it is HFS+ and ATM formated. If I choose 1 or more partitions the format changes to HFS+ journaled and I can choose GPT in options button.

Is it the reason of my initial problem but I can't read it before in CCC help.

Thank you again for your contribute.

[artaxerxes]

If you 8 way zero the hard drive in Disk Utility using the Tiger Start Up disk that should map out all the bad sectors automatically.